Defining Moments

Andrea Kilkenny is a friend and local pit bull advocate who works at the Iowa City Animal Shelter, and helped to save our dog Artie. She contacted me recently about doing photos for a pit bull poster that will hang in the animal shelter. The idea is to increase awareness of what a great breed this is, because they are more difficult to find homes for, due to their undeserved reputation. This project was a lot of work, but fun, too, and well worth it. I spent two days photographing pit bulls and their owners, then Andrea and I worked on the design of the poster together. The final piece should be displayed soon at the Iowa City animal shelter, and duplicate posters may eventually be available for purchase to benefit the shelter. Below is a picture of Artie with our kids, plus a few outtakes from the photo sessions. That’s Andrea and her dog Mojo in the second image.

I just edited the post to include a small version of what the final poster looks like (clickable thumbnails). It won’t be possible to read the text at this size, but the poster consists of individual vignettes about dogs and their owners.  I’ve included the one of Artie and Jake as an example.  The poster was designed to be printed at 20″ x 30″.  If/when I get word from Andrea that it will be produced for sale, I will post the info on my blog.

Sometimes I get a little nervous before photographing children, because I’m worried they won’t like me (hey, I’m a fun guy, nothing not to like, but kids can be quirky, right?).  So when Cassidy’s mom, while scheduling the session, warned me that she had “guy issues,” I was a little concerned.

Turns out I didn’t need to be, because Cassidy was the perfect subject.  She liked me right away (mighta been the Where the Wild Things Are tattoo on my arm…hehe), and was generally thrilled to be having her picture taken. She even grabbed my hat and wanted to have some shots wearing it.  I liked her images so much I used one on the main page of this blog!

HERE is the link to Cassidy’s full gallery, and below is one of our (mine and her mom’s) faves from the day, a little grunged up for fun: