Photo campaign helps pets find families

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Serenity wasn't ready for her close-up. And she certainly wasn't serene.

As the shelter dog squirmed about on a table draped with a greenish-brown backdrop, you couldn't blame her for being a little nervous. After all, it was her first professional photo shoot.

Her photographer, Skip Baumhower of Tuscaloosa, is on a mission to help find homes for shelter pets by taking studio-quality portraits of them and featuring them online. Monday, he visited the Montgomery Humane Society to photograph 30 dogs and 10 cats, just a fraction of the animals now living there.

Today, those homeless pets just might become Internet stars after Baumhower puts them on his Web site.

"I try to get their emotion, their personalities, to really show through in the photograph," Baumhower said of the dogs and cats. "When I get home, we will edit these photos and then we'll place the name of the pet on the photo, throw it through a slideshow software and then upload it on a space."

And that is just the beginning. After local volunteers and shelter staff — and local animal lovers — get the link to the slideshow, it's up to them to "blast it" to as many people as they can.

Linda Morrow of the Montgomery Humane Shelter, who got the ball rolling for this project locally, said she has no doubt that will happen.

Baumhower, who has had his own professional studio in Tuscaloosa for 20 years, isn't in it for money, or for the glory.

"I'm a Christian, so this is my ministry, a way of serving," he said.

On his site, he has featured homeless pets from shelters in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Fairhope and New York's Bidawee, one of the oldest humane organizations in the U.S. Up next is a photo shoot in Jackson, Miss.

One of the humane society's rooms morphed into a makeshift studio, equipped not only with a backdrop and lighting equipment but also with puppy and cat treats, squeaky toys, a tennis ball, feathers attached to a long stick and Baumhower's uncanny gift for connecting with animals.

He's a master animal impersonator — of dog growls and barks, cat meows and a particularly convincing "moo." He also is adept at sounds like raspberries, clicks and kisses to captivate the pets.

In a little more than an hour, he photographed 40 animals from the shelter. The assembly line pace — dog in, dog out; cat in, cat out — just doesn't show up in his photos.

Yes, a few dogs and cats responded as if on cue, with the classic ears-up, head-tilted expression.

But there were shy ones, like Barney, a big yellow dog who was so skittish he tried to scamper off the table. A few pats from the handler, Montgomery Humane Society Managing Director Steven Tears, helped calm him. Still, his discomfort in this unfamiliar setting meant only a few good frames.

But that's OK, Baumhower said. Sometimes, that's all it takes. On the site, each pet gets plenty of screen time and anywhere from three to six different featured shots.

Because some shelter pets feel awkward in front of the camera, their bodies tend to lean into the handler, or they tuck their tails between their legs. That's why Baumhower's photos all focus on the animal's face, highlighting unique expressions and the light in their eyes.

In some photos, he gets handlers to interact with the animals — he photographed one dog with its paws on Tears' shoulders — just to show interaction.

Baumhower hopes this is only the start of a much bigger project, with an ultimate goal of encouraging other photographers to use their talents to serve homeless pets in their communities.

Professional photographer Denise Makris of Montgomery, on hand to learn about Baumhower's techniques, is already on board.

"It's mainly about helping the animals and seeing if we can't help bring these stories to people," said Makris, who has adopted two dogs from the shelter.

These up-close and personal portraits of some of Montgomery's homeless pets might just result in them finding forever homes.

Baumhower said one of his biggest rewards is getting calls from shelters he's visited.

Usually, it's along these lines, he said: "Hey, we need you to come back because all of those pets have homes, and we didn't have to put any healthy animals down."