shine pet photos | modern pet photography

Those of you who read the blog regularly and follow me on facebook probably remember that I started fostering my first foster dog Harry back in January. The poor guy came to us so abused and broken - when I looked at him I literally felt like I was staring at a vacant shell of a dog. The passion and joy that you always see in the eyes of happy dogs was completely extinguished, and he just looked so very sad all the time. After weeks of working with him, I finally started to see small glimmers of happiness in his eyes.

We fostered Harry for 3 months, without any applications coming in for the sweet guy. I finally decided to tweet Denise Richards to see if she might be able to help - she’s a huge supporter of dog rescue and Best Friends Los Angeles, who I was fostering Harry for. To my utter surprise and happiness she retweeted my message to her millions of followers!

Literally within an hour, we had several promising emails, with one that really stood out from the pack! Harry had found his forever home - one with a dad that would stay home with him all day long, and a mom that would spoil him to pieces with new matching leashes, collars, and bowls.

By April, Harry was ready to go to his new home. These photos were taken in our last hours together.

(^ He’s smiling! I swear I didn’t photoshop this!)

I won’t lie - I was a complete and utter wreck that morning. When Robin from Best Friends came to get him, I was bawling so hysterically that she actually said “Grace! He doesn’t have to go! He can stay here with you!” But I knew he had found his perfect family, and I tearfully said bye to Harry that morning.

A good friend told me that the pain of parting with a foster dog goes away as soon as you get your first update, and she was right. Harry’s new mom and dad have done such an amazing job with Harry since April and I’m so excited to share their update:

Thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday for our “Portraits for Puppies” fundraiser! Thanks to everyone’s generosity, the Dawg Squad has another $875 to help with their medical bills.

I met so many beautiful dogs and their owners on Saturday and I’m just sorry I couldn’t fit you all on the blog.

You are all amazing and thank you so much for the support. I know the puppies thank you too!

I had a really wonderful photoshoot back in April with Scott and Max. Scott adopted Max almost 14 years ago through Best Friends Animal Society (you can read more about the two at the Best Friends website) and we met on this gorgeous April day to get a shot for a new Best Friends print ad promoting their “No More Homeless Pets” campaign. You can see the finished ad at the end of this blog post, but here are some outtakes that I particularly loved. When I get the opportunity to photograph such an amazing pair and chronicle their bond, I feel so at home, and know I have the best job in the world.

The ad made it’s debut in Frontiers magazine and can now be seen larger than life at the Grove!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this shoot possible (you know who you are!!!), to Eric at Best Friends for creating a beautiful layout, to Claudia for keeping me in the loop on this project, and of course to Scott and Max for being such beautiful photography subjects.

I’ll be doing fun dog headshots on Saturday June 19th at the Centinela Pet and Feed in Westchester. 100% of proceeds will be donated to The Dawg Squad to help them treat a litter of very sick puppies that were recently saved from the streets of Compton! The Dawg Squad has racked up almost $10,000 in debt to help treat these little babies and now need our help.

Portraits will be taken on a first come, first serve basis, so just show up with your dogs! My personal goal is to raise at least $1,000 for the puppies so please help us by sharing the flier with friends on your twitter, facebook, and blogs if you can.

Puppies should NOT be in the world as skinny and malnourished as these babies were, but thanks to the wonderful people at Dawg Squad who are well-known for taking in sick dogs and rehabilitating them, these babies will get a second chance at life. Remember Jeffrey? He’s completely healed and well loved now, thanks to this wonderful rescue group!

Thanks in advance to all for your help and support, and hope to see you on Saturday June 19th! And if you’re not in LA but still want to help, you can always make a much appreciated donation.

Click on flier to enlarge. Or download.

PS: If you plan on stopping by, please RSVP so we can start to get a headcount. Thank you!

It’s time for another Shine Pet Photos casting call - this time in Las Vegas! All the deets are on the flier below. Please email us if you’re interested. The shoot date is coming fast! If you’re from Vegas or have ties to rescue groups could you please help us spread the word?

We will also be holding additional casting calls for San Francisco (late June), Houston and New Orleans (sometime in July) so if you have a rescue dog in these cities please feel free to send us an email. Exact dates TBD.

Thank you in advance and look forward to hearing all your stories!

(Click the flier for a higher-res version)