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A picture is worth 1,000 purrs. Or wags. And photographer Sara Cozolino knows that one of the ways to get a cat, a dog or any pet adopted is to make sure that he or she makes a good first impression.<\/p>\n
Cozolino is a professional photographer who volunteers at Long Beach Animal Care Services<\/a> (ACS) taking photos of the shelter pets at their absolute best\u2014being themselves. Because her heart has a direct line to all animals, she\u2019s awfully good at what she does. And she does it all without special lighting or airbrushing wrinkles, even on the occasional shar-pei.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s not a \u2018pet photographer,\u2019\u201d said Kelly Miott, ACS\u2019s outreach coordinator. \u201cShe photographs pets, and gets it. A lot of people just photograph animals lying in the grass\u2014Sara gets them to do something quirky.\u201d<\/p>\n Cozolino has an arts degree in photography from Santa Monica College and has been in business professionally for several years, shooting weddings, travel locations, celebrities and everything else a photographer photographs. She\u2019s also involved in rescue, often photographing the cats and dogs there, and said that she\u2019d always wanted to snap shelter pets as well. Miott reached out to Cozolino after seeing an online photograph she\u2019d taken of a dog in the bull terrier rescue where she volunteered; Miott was impressed with the way in which the little guy\u2019s personality was captured, so in 2012, Cozolino agreed to schlep all the way from her home in Glendale once a week to donate her services as a photographer. She says that doesn\u2019t mind the trip at all because she gets to do something wonderful for animals in a more-than-receptive location.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the team here, and the volunteers. Without them, we\u2019re nothing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the team here that keeps me going.\u201d<\/p>\n Cozolino speaks out of her calling as an animal advocate, and she\u2019s unarguably knowledgeable about her subjects. \u201cI do a lot of rescue in general, so I\u2019m not clueless about shelter animals,\u201d she said. At first, she tried the studio setup but quickly noticed that the pets became nervous or downright disobedient in such a setting in the way some kids do and that it was also not an honest depiction of the animal. So Cozolino lets all of them do what they do, dogs in particular.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s chaotic!\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a list [of pets] we work from, and our volunteers come out with them. With dogs, we let them run around a little bit, smell the smells. Some calm down right away, some need treats, some we get shots of as they\u2019re running past. I don\u2019t force it\u2014I see what they want to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI like to show them interacting with people. Somebody told me that when they see photos of dogs with people, they can see them in a home, and rescues like this. I take about 100 photos a day.\u201d<\/p>\n On the afternoon when I visited the shelter, Cozolino was taking photos of a 7-year-old lab named Doris. Doris was having an absolute ball scarfing up treats tossed by volunteer Kristen Malkemus, romping with a toy and generally soliciting attention. She actually high-fived me when I walked up. Cozolino watched Doris doing her doggy thing and occasionally snapping one., Sometimes, she\u2019d make a series of bizarre noises that began with a trill, segued to a modified howl and ended with an insane yodel. She sounded like Heidi the Goat Girl on helium.<\/p>\n Doris and volunteer Kristen Malkemus smile for Cozolino’s camera.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThey just happen. I never know what\u2019s going to come out of my mouth,\u201d Cozolino said when I asked if she had a written score for the sounds. \u201cI watch their faces to see if it makes them anxious\u2014if not, I do it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s probably not news that cats are a different story. Some enjoy attention, and some would rather stay retired in their little cubicles, Miott says, because they don\u2019t like being held or they\u2019ve been in there so long that they\u2019re acclimated to it. So, Cozolino puts the kibosh on the audio and gently gets their attention.<\/p>\n \u201cThey actually can be more difficult because they don\u2019t respond the way dogs do,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we can read them. Sometimes, I take the picture in the cage if they get freaked out outside. But some want to cuddle. Sometimes, I jingle my keys, and the cats look at them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, they all look up like the Brady Bunch when she does that,\u201d Miott said.<\/p>\n Shiloh’s one of the cuddlers (his ID is A512986–go get him!)<\/i><\/p>\n Because Cozolino volunteers her time for one day a week, she can\u2019t get any pets who come in after she leaves for the day until the following week. Although Miott can squeeze in a couple of her own photos during her workday, the shelter generally has to use the intake photos, which show the pets when they have just arrived, often frightened and confused until Cozolino\u2019s next photoshoot.<\/p>\n Cozolino\u2019s snapshots seems to have made a huge difference in the adoption rate. ACS manager Ted Stevens said that since Cozolino began taking photos in 2012, the rates have gone up 56 percent and surrenders to rescue organizations have risen 27 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rescues also get a nice professional-quality photo they can take with them,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n The correlation of the stats to the photography is notable and impressive, and Miott said that the impact was immediate. The quality of the photograph, moreover, is apparent in the comparison to the intake photo (see Virtually Pets) and shows how useful it is as a tool for adoption. Cozolino said that she\u2019d been in conversation with a couple in a restaurant, and they told her about a dog that they\u2019d adopted from ACS.<\/p>\n \u201cShe brought up my photo\u2014the dog had looked like a rock star to me\u2014on her Facebook page!\u201d Cozolino said. \u201cShe said, \u2018If it hadn\u2019t been for your photo, I wouldn\u2019t have come to adopt the dog\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n But Cozolino says that she views success as an ongoing process from the time she connects with an animal during a photo session. \u201cI took out a stray pit bull\u2014emaciated, very scared\u2014and then suddenly she goes belly-up for a rub,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen an animal flowers like that in a few frames\u2014that means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n The shelter staff and volunteers are struck by Cozolino\u2019s empathy as much as by her photography talent. When a white cat, Noel, was adopted in December, Miott pointed Cozolino out to the adoptive mom. \u201cI know how much Sara cares about the pets,\u201d she said. \u201cI made the lady go tell her, and Sara burst into tears.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t understand how someone can look at their faces and can\u2019t see what they\u2019re feeling,\u201d Cozolino told me when she was ready to leave for the day. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine how an animal can sit in a house and not understand where they\u2019re going. I want to show that about them\u2014that they need love and they deserve another chance with a home that really loves them forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Then she headed for home, passing by the outdoor section of the dog kennels. \u201c\u2019Bye, Doris. \u2019Bye, Rocky. \u2019Bye, Bruno,\u201d she said as she stopped at each kennel. And I could swear that each dog smiled, and not just for the camera.<\/p>\n Sara Cozolino\u2019s work can be viewed on Facebook and on her website<\/a><\/i>. Be sure to check out the Gimme Shelter section of her page, and pull out the Kleenex.<\/i> <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.\u201d Today\u2019s adoption section will feature the most striking before-and-after photos you\u2019ve ever seen. All are available on the shelter side of the Pitchford Animal Village, 7700 Spring Street in El Dorado Park. Because it\u2019s confusing to figure out which is the correct entrance, here\u2019s a photo of where to go:<\/p>\n And here are the superstars and their IDs:<\/p>\n Doris, age 7, ID<\/i>A512623<\/i><\/p>\n Zelda, age 1, ID512854<\/i><\/p>\n Addison, age 1, ID511155<\/i><\/p>\n Izabel, age 11, ID511508. Adopt this senior surrender! She deserves better than being cast aside.<\/i><\/p>\n Trina, age 3, ID512001. Found as a stray bearing a \u201cmicrochip to nowhere.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Yes, our shelter has cats, dogs, rabbits and the occasional reptile or bird available for adoption. Make it your first stop.<\/p>\n Long Beach Animal Care Services Low-Cost Pet Clinics, Saturday, Jan. 11, Rose Park, Orizaba Avenue and 8th<\/sup> Street, 9:30\u201310:30AM; Stearns Champion Park, 4520 E. 23rd<\/sup> St., 12:30\u20132PM.<\/strong><\/p>\n Long Beach Animal Care Services will vaccinate and microchip all animals, regardless of where they live. Licenses are issued ONLY to Long Beach, Cerritos, Los Alamitos, Signal Hill, and Seal Beach residents. No reservations are required; the following services are available:<\/p>\n Dog Rabies – $7![\"Smiling](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Smiling-Doris.JPG\")
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<\/i>~Ansel Adams<\/i><\/p>\nVirtually Pets<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nPet Projects<\/h3>\n
Cat Rabies $7 (or if preferred, Purevax Rabies, $20)
DAP\/DHPP $19 (dogs)
Bordetella – $14 (dogs)
Lyme $22 (dogs)
FVRCP (3-in-1) $18 (cats)
FELV $21 (cats)
AVID Microchips – $28 (cats and dogs)
Altered Dog License $20 (half-price for senior owners)
Unaltered Dog License $95
Altered Cat License $10 (half-price for senior owners)
All vaccination and microchip services are CASH ONLY.\u00b7Licenses can be purchased using MasterCard or Visa. For more information, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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