You can light
You own or can borrow strobes or continuous lights and a backdrop, and you know how to use them. Everything else we can teach. This one we can't.
Photographers & volunteers
Point your camera at
the ones nobody's shooting.
We can only be in one city at a time. If you can light a subject and stay calm around a nervous animal, there is a rescue near you that needs exactly that — and we'll back you with the system, the sponsors and the workflow.
Photographers
What we're looking for.
Not a portfolio full of dogs. Plenty of the best people at this came from weddings, portraits or product work and had never shot an animal in their life.
You're calm
Shelter animals read the room faster than people do. Patience matters more than gear, and knowing when to stop matters more than getting the shot.
You'll turn it around
Edited gallery back to the rescue the next day at noon. That deadline is the whole promise — it's when the animals get seen.
What you get
This isn't just
free labour.
- Paid work where sponsorship covers it. When we've funded a region, photographers shooting it get paid. We'd rather build something sustainable than burn out volunteers.
- The full system. Lighting setups, handling approach, posing, editing recipes and the delivery workflow — everything that makes a session repeatable.
- Credit and a profile on this site, and on every gallery you shoot.
- Portfolio work that stands up commercially, plus the licensing rights to your own frames.
- A reason to pick the camera up that isn't a client brief.
Everyone else
You don't need a camera
to be useful.
A session runs on more than the person behind the lens. These roles are genuinely the difference between twenty good portraits and forty rushed ones.
Handlers & wranglers
- Bring animals in and out, keep the queue moving
- Squeak toys, treats, and getting an ear up at the right moment
- Experience around shelter animals matters more than anything else
Assistants
- Help set up and strike the studio
- Hold lights, sweep the backdrop, log which animal is which
- The single best way to learn this if you want to shoot later
Editors & social
- Culling and retouching to hit the next-day-noon deadline
- Cutting vertical video for the rescue's channels
- Remote, and genuinely the bottleneck most weeks
Straight answers
Before you apply.
Do I need my own gear? For shooting, yes — lights and a backdrop at minimum. For every other role, no.
How often would I shoot? It depends entirely on sponsorship in your region. Could be monthly, could be twice a year. We'll be honest with you rather than sign you up and go quiet.
I've never photographed animals. Good. Say so. We'll pair you with a session before you run one.
Where are you active? Canada and the United States. We open regions as sponsors fund them, so applying from a city we're not in yet is genuinely useful — it tells us where to look.
I run a rescue and want to learn this myself. Also welcome. Tell us and we'll point you at the setup.
Apply
Tell us where you are
and what you shoot.
A link to your work is enough to start. If you're applying for a non-shooting role, just tell us what you're good at and roughly how much time you've got.