Photo Tips For Shelter Animals

PHOTO TIPS FOR SHELTER ANIMALS

(Taking photos of shelter pets is typically limited to trained volunteers at OCAS. But we also encourage foster pet parents and Dog Day Out adventure buddies to submit cute photos or videos to help pets get adopted.)

Thank you for helping to get photos of adoptable animals! We hope these photos will help them find good homes. If possible, please try to get a horizontal photo by holding your phone like the picture shown below:

Horizontal photos (specifically 4:3 ratio) are preferred by our database software at the shelter. But, if you happen to get a good vertical photo, please feel free to send it our way and we can crop/resize to make it work!

Tips for good photos:

• Make sure you have good light.
• Try to get a photo where you can really see the pet's eyes. It doesn’t matter if he/she is looking right at the camera. As long as the eyes are in focus and people can see them. Hopefully you’ll catch a nice twinkle! 
• Crinkling a bit of paper, shaking any little toy that can make some noise, or even using a squeaky toy with one hand while snapping a photo with the other hand is a great technique. You can capture the pet giving you his/her full attention!
• Indoor photos are great, but dogs are often really happy to be outside getting some fresh air - and it shows! Some of our best canine photos come from play time or walks on the trail.
• Try to get a decent portion of the pet's body in the photo. This gives potential adopters a better idea of what a cat or dog really looks like. Head shots can be very cool but it's really hard to know what a pet looks like if you can only see a photo of a head.
• Ears up if possible! Try to get a photo where the pet's ears are standing up or at least standing out from the head a bit. When ears are back or twisted down (as is often the case with fearful animals), it can be difficult to see how a pet really looks.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Q: "What if my photo is great but there's poo or something unsightly in the background?"
  • A: Please send the photo anyway, we can likely use some photo editing tools make it work!
• Q: “What if I have a cute picture but it’s not completely in focus? It looks just a little blurry.”
  • A: Welcome to our world! We take a lot of these because animals will not sit still. A cute photo is a cute photo, even if it’s not exactly what you were going for. So, please send it to us anyway and we'll see if we can use it.
• Q: “I’m having trouble getting photos. I feel like they are just not good. What should I do?”
  • A: Do not worry! Every single day, we take photos that are not very good. Animals can be incredibly difficult to photograph. So, we just keep trying. Please know that we greatly appreciate your efforts and all of the support you are giving these animals! Send us any photos you have and we’ll go from there. And, just in case we haven’t said it enough, thank you thank you thank you!

Will OCAS Use All of My Photos?

Please understand that we may not always be able to use the items submitted, and that could be for a variety of reasons (having nothing to do with how great they are). But we VERY MUCH appreciate anything that you are willing to send to us and you may see it up on social media, online pet listings, or featured in other ways.

Where To Send Photos:

More information and submission form here: PET REPORT CARD

Here are some examples of good photos we love: