With electric blue hair and wing-tipped eye-liner, she stepped into the diffused light holding a teeny tiny, wire-haired pup named Teddy and looked into my camera. Tami squeaked a toy behind me and little Teddy perked up his velvety, triangle ears. I snapped the picture.
This BARCS @barcsanimalshelter staff member is one of 22 shelter employees and their favorite pups I photographed last month for a staff appreciation campaign BARCS will launch very soon.
On the shoot day, I showed up with my lighting equipment, an assortment of lenses, a flash, and a black backdrop I understood would never be black again after growing a layer of dog hair during the shoot :) With big energy, I got to work.
And when I say "work" I mean joy because...are you seeing how adorable this dog is? I photographed 22 staff members and their favorite current pups in the shelter.
That's 22 dogs including puppies. PUPPIES.
At once point I *had* to pause and scritchy-scritch a puppy's exposed belly. But other than that I stayed focused (mostly) and photo'd the pups and their humans in all their mutual glory. Thank you BARCS @barcsanimalshelter!
Backstory: Sometimes you get lucky when you're doing what you love. I got a gig a few months ago from @kimcorealty in Baltimore. They gave a huge donation to @barcsanimalshelter and wanted a photographer to capture the team touring the new facility and walking some dogs on the property.
I loved the shoot and so did KIMCO and the BARCS team. At the shoot, I chatted with Tami Gosheff, a high-energy, kind, and dog-passionate Assistant Director of Community Engagement at BARCS.
Tami asked if, in a few weeks, I'd come back and photo some staff members and their favorite shelter dogs for a staff promo feature pro-bono. While of course I like to get paid for my work, an organization like BARCS deserves all kind of perks because they do so much to care for and re-home precious pets in Baltimore. And a shoot was born. Here is one of many photo babies. I'll share more soon AND you can check them out on @barcsanimalshelter IG and start following this iconic Baltimore nonprofit.
