Make time for Black and White

from the Photo Lab
Over the last two weeks, we had the pleasure of working with The Sonoma Humane Society (where Willow and RT came from) to create a library of images for their new website.
In the span of a few days, we photographed many adoptable, and recently adopted dogs, puppies, cats, kittens, bunnies as well as staff and volunteers that make up the heartbeat of this wonderful place.
They approached us because they wanted our lighthearted, slightly documentary, lifestyle, yet fine-artsy style, and we did our best to give them just that. We love shooting in color, it tells a wonderful story and when used in conjunction with the honorable work of saving animals and finding them loving homes, all the better.
A great photograph is capable of saving countless lives at animal shelters, and this is the mission behind a great organization of photographers and artists (us included) such as HeARTs Speak, to get animals adopted through great photography. If you are involved with a rescue or shelter and could use some HeARTs Speak help, please visit their website to find a photographer near you. We are all here to help.
When photographing adoptable animals, it is important to shoot in color, to be able to show an animals distinguishing features and one could say, to keep the tone and emotion of it happy, and hopeful. Color can be very dramatic too, but few can argue the sheer power the lack of color in a photograph can have.
Black and White photography has been a powerful, and expressive art form for years. Remove the color, and you are left with the subject. During our photoshoot for Sonoma Humane, we took time amidst a busy shooting schedule to create some black and white images. These will likely not be used to promote that animal’s adoption, but they carry a more powerful message, and at the very least, they are quite beautiful.

There is no great lesson here, for myself, I think I might be making more time for black and white when photographing shelter/rescue animals. If you happen to be a photographer yourself, I suggest you try it sometime. Simplicity is often capable of great things.