Will Work for Food…

An interesting idea…Will Work for Food; portraits for pet food.

I got the idea last year reading an article about a fellow photographer in Tennessee that was doing something similar. We talked it over, added our own personal touch and worked out some details with the SPCA of Winchester, Frederick and Clarke Counties. We settled on them because they do not have a dedicated funding source. Their only funding comes from adoption fees and donations; this made them ideal partners to us, because we felt they were trying to do the most with the least and really needed the help.

With the downturn in the economy, especially during 2010, they were stretched to capacity by people who had to give up their pets because they couldn’t afford them any longer. This is a very sad thought for me. I can’t imagine having to give up our 2 furry children.

Here’s how the program works; we offer our clients a 30 minute portrait session and a complimentary 5×7 print for the donation of a bag of dry pet food. For our last round of sessions we required a minimum 25lb bag of dry pet food. Not a bad deal if we do say so ourselves.

Our first round of sessions was in September 2010 and we managed to raise about 300 pounds of pet food. A good effort for the first time out, but we wanted more…much more. We did more marketing this time around and had a much larger response and booked about 50% more sessions than the first time.

We had some repeat clients from the first group of sessions including Kimberlee and her gorgeous German Shepard, Zar (pictured above). Our good friends Rick & Michele came out with their kids and their Pug, Mollie Pearl. This session was very special for all of us, not only are they very close friends, but this was the first portrait they had done as a family after adopting their beautiful baby boy, Evan. Samantha and Adam came out with little 7 month old Cheyanne. We were absolutely captivated by Cheyanne’s big blue eyes and beautiful smile. The portrait of her sitting in the leather chair is one of my new favorite images ever. We photographed several other old friends and made some new friends as well. We hope we have the opportunity to photograph all of them again many times in the years ahead.

All of that amounted to 600 pounds of pet food during this last round of sessions. Now, most people would be thinking that doubling the amount of food is great…and it is. We are deeply grateful to our clients for helping us make this happen, but…you knew it was coming…we want more.

For the next round of sessions we are working on a partnership with a local retailer in an effort to get our food total even higher and see if we can stretch the capacity of the SPCA’s storage area instead of their shelter.

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