Throughout my newspaper career, I photographed many different types of portraits.

Among those who have come before my newspaper issued camera: local school board candidates, famous celebrities doing some promotion on a project, high profile hires like police chief, retiring officials and of course the person on the street.

Most of these portraits always accompany a short line of two about why these folks are appearing in the paper.

One thing I know for sure is this: if I don’t do a good job, many readers won’t even bother reading what the captions says.

Yes, that’s the kind of influence my picture had.

The more media savvy folks understood that.

But of all the portraits I’ve done in my career, none seem as ‘life and death’ as the POW —Pet of the Week.

Pet of the Week

I always felt terrible after I left the animal shelter because I always wondered what became of the cat or dog.

Thank goodness, I didn’t have to be one to pick the dog or cat.

Twenty years later, I’ve decided to pick up where I left off.

This time, I’m going to Riverside County Dept of Animals Services once-a-week to systematically photograph their dogs and cats.

It will take me a while but eventually I hope to get them done.

You see, the pictures of the dogs and cats up for adoption that are on their website doesn’t really show them in their best.

It may seem like a lot of trouble to drag out my lights just for these teeny little mugs.

I’m hoping the effort will pay off.

If you live in the Riverside area and are looking for a dog, go to my Facebook page where I’ve posted some of these pictures. Underneath each picture is an ID# for each dog.

I think you know what to do next.

By the way, currently the shelter doesn’t have any cats at all for adoption, that’s why I don’t  have any picture of cats.
Peter Phun Photography

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