New idea - ' A day in the life of a dog shelter'

After considering the Dog's Trust and the RSPCA both who would require me to register as a 'volunteer' and attend an induction before I could take any photo's, I contacted a local dog rescue centre and went along to see what it was like. After a look round at the possibilities for a variety of images I arranged with the owner to return the following weekend, they are having a fund raising day and were very happy to have me take photo's for them to use on their website helping promote their rescue centre and to focus on particular dogs that had been there a while, a 'win win' situation for all. There's potential for a good variety of images, some that I have in mind are:

• bath time for the dogs (need to work out how not to have the lens steam up)
• visitors looking at potential pets
• fund raising of the staff
• daily tasks carried out by the staff
• a sad story or two
• a dog being collected to go to a new home
• a new arrival

I took a few test shots....

This reminds me of a 'missing person' wall, the sort seen in a disaster area only this time its the dogs advertising themselves for their 'missing person', they are all so keen for you to approach the fence and fight each other for the attention of visitors

With this image I'm thinking of the home comfort but behind 'bars'? Pretending? 

I think this image could be quite powerful, the notice can be read by the view with the last line saying the dog was from 'death row', I positioned the notice in the top right corner to allow the viewer to see the rest of the pen, but the pen looks empty which should make the viewer wonder what has happened to 'Abigail'

This image demonstrates the fence as a barrier to love and affection, the lady standing looking at the dog looks a little tense in her posture, reading about the dog that stands before her, the dog looks downward, like its expecting her to walk away, its quite a sad picture really, the fence creating the barrier and a dis-connect between them, had the dog looked up at the woman as I pressed the shutter the image may look quite different, hopeful and optimistic as there would be a visible connection between to two subjects. I'm not sure which I prefer and intend to take both when on the shoot to consider which to choose. I am reminded of Charlotte Cotton's chapter 'once upon a time' where she says 'others (photo's in the chapter) offer a much more oblique and open ended description of something that we know is significant because of the way it is set up in the photograph, but where meaning is relevant on our investing the image with our own trains of narrative and psychological thought - Charlotte Cotton 'The Photograph as Contemporary Art'