The Dogs of the Baldwin Park Shelter

Hi everyone!

I know it seems like I've been gone for a while, unless you follow me on Facebook...

I never went anywhere, I have just had a major change in focus, both personally, and with my photography. Shortly after leaving Tri, I noticed that Sonia Tapia (a fellow Tri Alum and amazing photographer) was doing a lot of work with homeless animals at the Baldwin Park Shelter through a group she works with called United Hope for Animals. Those of you that know my family understand that both through my wife's work at Adopt A Pet and our own rescued dogs both big and small, this is something very important to us. I asked Sonia if she would let me tag a long, and the rest is history. I found passion in my photography again. Feeling, importance, responsibility, emotion, happiness, and yes, much sadness. But it's all there. Thank you for allowing me to become part of the team Sonia, it means the world to me.



Through United Hope and the Baldwin Park Shelter, we put together a photo shoot every 2 weeks and we photograph the dogs and cats at the shelter in an effort to get them adopted ASAP. The shelter does euthanize animals, it is not a "No-Kill" place, and the word "Shelter" sometimes paints a safe or nice picture. It becomes important to present these animals in the best possible way, to make them more adoptable. We photograph them, post a video of them interacting with a volunteer, and post a bio on each and every dog we photograph. You can find all that info at the Baldwin Park Shelter Facebook page.  If you are ever looking for a dog or cat, I urge you to look at your local shelter or rescue and adopt your next pet. You will be saving 2 lives, the animal you adopt, and the animal that we just made room for at the shelter. And please, please, please have your pet spayed or neutered.

Since working there, our family has started to foster dogs, so, along with our 3, we will maintain a rotating door policy of fostering another dog that may not be doing so well in the shelter, but with a little love and affection can really come out of their shell and make an amazing pet for someone. And below is the face that started all of that, our first foster Chauncy. I'm happy to say that he's been adopted, and has a huge Golden Retriever to call his very own ;-)

I have added a whole gallery of animals over at my website that will be a "work in progress" called "The Dogs of the Baldwin Park Shelter". The first image is of an emaciated dog that was dumped at the shelter named Lancelot. The image of Lancelot started a drive to raise money and awareness, and a Facebook page with over 7500 likes was formed amazingly quickly. Sadly, Lancelot couldn't recover from the damage that was done, but he did finish off his life in a caring and loving environment.

 If you are ever looking to volunteer your time and effort to a very worthy cause, please go to United Hope's website and the volunteer tab. We are always looking for dog handlers, photographer's, videographers, etc. You could wind up like this guy here:

So please remember, don't shop, adopt! There are some AMAZING animals at your local shelters or rescues. You could even search for an animal from the comfort of your own home by going to Adopt A Pet!