The inspiration to become a pet photographer came from my love of shelter dogs. It was at our local, open-intake shelter that I honed my skills on the battlefield of young, high-energy, shy, and usually, mannerless pups. From the very beginning, I understood the impact of a single image and how it can save a life.

So, when I made the decision to start Five Freedoms Photography as a for-profit entity, the mission was simple: take photos, help dogs. From my time in rescue, I’ve also seen the struggles that rescuers face. One of which being fundraising. How then could I combine my photography skills and a rescue organization to raise money?

Enter Perfectly Imperfect Pups, a Wake-County based special-needs and high-risk dog rescue that specializes in giving the pups who need it most a chance where other rescues and shelters won’t. Given they pull a ton of dogs from the center where I volunteer at, it was a no-brainer they would be who I wanted to partner with for this particular calendar contest.

But, the contest wasn’t without its challenges. As a solopreneur, I was in charge of the development, design, and implementation of the entire contest from social media graphics, to tech, to photographing and editing the sessions. It was a huge undertaking in both time and energy, but the effort paid off with us raising almost $15K in just four weeks. I would gladly do it again!

As I’m sure most people are interested in how these dogs were selected as the top thirteen for the 2024 Triangle Of The Year Calendar, that process is by majority vote. The fundraising portion of the contest is the contest itself. Users submit their pup to the contest and through $1 votes, majority opinion gets to choose who ends up in the calendar. The top thirteen at the end of the four weeks are the ones that receive a complimentary session from me to be photographed for the calendar.

There are so many amazing stories from rescue pups in this calendar that I could share, but I think what is most heartwarming for me in rescue is the sheer number of people that care for an animal until they find their forever home. For instance, when one of our long-time dogs gets adopted, the family may think that the animal is lonely, sad, or unloved because they’ve been in the system for so long.

In reality, there are dozens upon dozens of volunteers, shelter staff, fosters, animal care and control individuals, and more that celebrate (and sob happily) each time an animal gets adopted. Often, people don’t see the myriad of people behind the scenes caring for and loving those animals until they find their people. We say it takes a village and it truly does.