We have long meant to post about our friend Kira of Nuena Photography. While a longer post is still in order, I (Kyle) will share just a bit about her before I talk about her most recent project that we are SO excited about and thrilled to share with you all.
In the past few years, I have met many extraordinarily talented, smart people. 99% of them use their talents 9am-5pm and call it a day. 1% of them will work tirelessly to use their skillset and general giftedness for good. Kira is that person. One look at her portfolio and you can see how talented of a photographer she is. What you do not see is that Kira then also visits shelters all over the Bay Area to photograph animals looking for homes, particularly longtime shelter residents. The updated and stunning photos often lead to these pets being adopted. In fact, she took these pictures of my beloved Oreo which led to me hearing of him and adopting him from the fantastic Berkeley Humane.
Needless to say, I was a fan of Kira before I saw her photos of Oreo. After I learned more about her, I was in love with what she did, her dedication to service, and her tireless work ethic. And after I met her? She quickly transitioned into a position as basically my hero. She is amazing. (Example: see these recent photos she took for the Muttville Rescue, which finds homes for senior pets to live out their last years in life. These photos melt me, as I can feel Kira’s heart of gold coming through from behind the lense.)
Anyway, Kira will soon release her first book, Project Dog.
Project Dog started with the mission of finding the 170 AKC recognized breeds as purebreds and then finding a rescue/adopted counterpart in the same breed. Kira called for submissions and the result was incredible! If you check out the website, you will find tons and tons of submissions from all over the country. You could seriously spend hours reading them.
Kira eventually further challenged herself to find all of the breeds in just the San Francisco Bay Area.
(this is the recently released cover of the book!)
I recently had a chance to see a sneak peek of the book and, as a resident of the Bay Area, was gushing on every single page. Not only were there adorably photographed dogs in gorgeous color and size, but they were all in incredible iconic places in the Bay Area.
Oh wait, and whats even cooler is that the owners of the dogs told their dog’s bio and story on their page as well. So after looking at the pictures, you can read about the dogs’ stories and lives.
I truly could not stop squealing as she went through the pages with me.
As a child, I loved the books that had pictures of different breeds of dogs, horses, etc. and would have just been ecstatic to get such a cool, big book with all the breeds, but in real life and with their stories!
I am so excited about Project Dog that I pre-ordered one for nearly every dog-lover I know. (:
And of course I bought an extra one (or two or three depending on how many entries we get) to give away to the barley & birch blog readers! Kira has kindly agreed to sign the copies for the winners as well!
Contest Details:
- Enter by commenting with your dogs name/breed or your favorite dog breed.
- Extra entries:
- (1 entry) tweet about the project, book, or contest using @barleyandbirch and @projectdog (and tell us you did below in the comments)
- (1 entry) like Project Dog on Facebook (and tell us you did below in the comments)
- (10 entries) spend an hour volunteering at a local animal shelter or donate $10 (and tell us you did below in the comments)
- Ends Friday, November 11th at Midnight EST.
Good luck! Happy Friday!
Kyle
P.S. I am honored and thrilled to tell you that my beloved rescue dog Oreo is featured in the book. See his page layout below. (:
