Like so much else these days, pet adoptions are increasingly initiated online. Sites like Petfinder.com or Adopt-a-Pet.com allow prospective pet guardians to click their way through photos of hundreds of adoptable shelter animals, searching for just the right match. And just like online dating, the right picture can make all the difference!
 

Luckily, many shelter animals have just the right person in their corner: a professional pet photographer. More and more shutterbugs are lending their time and talent to showcase the individual personalities of these animals, and get those images out to potential adopters.
 

Sheri Berliner of Chicago has run Petraits, a pet photography business, since 1995. While she's commissioned to photograph many pets already in loving homes, her commitment to animal rescue has her photographing an ever-increasing number of shelter pets.

"The animals keep pouring in, and this is where my heart is," she says. "I really want to find these guys homes."
 

Berliner herself shares her home with a pack of much-adored rescues and fosters. "One of the reasons I do this is because I can't take any more home!"

"I know that when I photograph the animals, they get adopted faster," she said. "If an animal looks like a middle-of-the-road, average mixed breed, they might get overlooked. So I go into the shelters and see who they are, and capture it on film."
 

One such dog is Cindy Lou-Who, a 3-year-old brindle mix who was in a back-room cage at a Chicago shelter. Berliner felt for this sad-seeming, gentle girl, brought her home as a foster, took portraits that captured her sweet spirit, and got those photos posted online. She also sent it out to her own e-mail list of close to 5,000 pet lovers (she serves as a one-woman adoption network, writing bios to accompany the photos).

Soon Cindy Lou-Who was in her forever home with two adoring moms and the smile to prove it.
 

Nanette Martin of Boulder, Colorado, has been focusing her lens on homeless pets ever since she traveled to New Orleans to document the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. On assignment for People magazine, she also photographed many of the animals left homeless by the disaster. Those soulful photos helped the local shelters dramatically increase their visibility and desperately-needed foot traffic.
 

Once home, Martin set out to photograph animals in Colorado shelters. Now, together with her partner, Sonja Andreasson, she has founded Shelter Me Photography, a nonprofit organization to train photographers in every state. Their goal is to increase adoptions by offering free professional photography services to shelters, rescue groups and foster networks.

"Basically, we're an advertising agency for homeless pets," she said. "And everywhere we do this, adoption rates increase." 
 

When happy endings roll around, photographers like Marshall Boprey are on hand to document them. At the recent Best Friends Tri-State Pet Super Adoption event in Livingston, New Jersey, Boprey took free portraits of every single adoption — over 300 in two hot summer days.

"The thing I picked up most on at the event was how people of all different ages — there were plenty of little kids and also plenty of seniors — all have a similar look in the photos," Boprey said. That look is pure joy.
 

Boprey studied photography at FIT in New York City and worked in commercial and fashion photography after graduation, though he struggled to find inspiration. He adopted a Great Dane puppy, Liberty, who provided him with hours of entertainment. Soon he was photographing Liberty constantly, documenting her growth and feeling his creative muscles get stronger with every click.

"She's everything behind this," Boprey said.
 

He started working as a doggie day care attendant and eventually started managing the business. Now he has a pet photography studio on the premises and, since his experience at the Tri-State Pet Super Adoption, plans to go into local shelters, as Berliner and Martin do, to photograph adoptable pets.

"I loved seeing the excited people who had just adopted a pet, and the dogs and cats getting a fresh start," he said.
 

Berliner, Martin, and Boprey have different backgrounds and styles, and live in different parts of the country. But they all have two things in common — a compassionate eye and a vast repertoire of squeaks, squeals, whistles, barks, yips, yaps, and yelps that get animals' attention during photo shoots. Because when an animal looks into the camera, a gifted photographer can capture the animals' personalities, and sometimes, it seems, their very souls. Those noises may sound silly, but they're saving lives.

How you can help:

• Donate to Shelter Me Photography: It takes $5 for Nanette Martin (and the photographers she trains) to create each life-saving image.

• If you have photography skills, please contact your local animal shelter or rescue organization to see if you can help create images to assist in finding home for pets and/or document important occasions.

Photos (top to bottom) by Sheri Berliner, Nanette Martin, and Marshall Boprey.