Holiday cards - which photo to use?

I recently photographed the boys for this year's holiday cards, but am having trouble deciding which one to use! Obviously they're very cute in both photos. I like the differing heights in the first one, but Veeb's sultry, relaxed look and pose in the second.

Photo A

Photo B

They're just so cute and accommodating, I can barely stand it. I just might have to order two sets!

In case you're wondering, the paper flowers taped to the wall are from Paper Source's poinsettia wreath kit. It took me much longer than I'd like to admit putting each flower together but they're so pretty. I cut some lacy ribbon strands, also from Paper Source. The "table top" tree is live, from Whole Foods. I LOVE it. And I decorated it with paper snowflakes from Paper Source, and letterpress gift tags I bought a couple years ago.

And their pompom scarves are knit from Sundara Yarn Aran Silky Merino in Charcoal over Blue Lagoon and Ruby Port.

ETA: I ordered a pack of each! Hee hee.

Comments [20]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

First Engagement Shoot

Hi everyone! Just a little cross-posting to say that I did my first engagement shoot last weekend! Sarah, whom I spoke about here first, and her fiance came up from Providence for the shoot around Boston's Back Bay. I guess we are getting our reward for making through the endless rain this summer, because the leaves were (are) still intact even now, which made for a very lovely, autumnal shoot. I never did appreciate just how beautiful Commonwealth Avenue is, with its trees all aglow from leaves and Christmas lights alike. And Sarah & Rich, they were such a great couple. I still need a lot of work in posing people, but they sure helped me out by being relaxed, playful and comfortable in front of the camera. Not to mention gorgeous.

I can't wait for their wedding next year. Really can't wait.

To see more photos of the shoot, visit here.

Oh and this post has to do tangentially with knitting because I wouldn't have gotten this gig if Cirilia hadn't hooked us up. I feel like I owe her a bit of commission!

It's December. Wow. Time to get cracking on my goals and wishes for 2010. The list is going to be long.

Comments [2]
Filed Under: Life | Pet Photography

I've been up to stuff

So what have I been up to? Well, in the last couple of months I did manage to finish up Wanida, which I gave to my SIL for her birthday.

Pattern: Wanida by Cookie A's Sock Innovation
Yarn: Sundara Yarn in Candied Chrome

I've also been doing a lot of pet photography, which has been so surprising and so great. And fun! There have been a lot of puppies - YAY - and Labs and English and German pointers, strangely. I say strangely because I don't think I've ever met one before this year, and now I see them everywhere. I have some more appointments coming up, including a couple of horses and a Shar Pei which I am SO excited for because I've never ever met one. Their folds should be interesting to photograph. The one thing my portfolio is seriously lacking however, are kittens. Where are the kittens?!

Anyway, here is a little collage of some of the new friends I made the last two months, in no particular order. But the puppies do get to go first!

I've also been doing some people photography - weddings. I did my first wedding back in March and had to be practically strong-armed into it. When I hear things like, "If you can make cats look good, then you should be able to make people look like supermodels," I want to run screaming for the hills. Nothing could be more dangerous than comparing yourself to a cat. For one, I tend to find cats to be infinitely cuter than most humans. And for two, cats are SO MUCH EASIER to photograph. But maybe that's just me. In any case, these potential wedding clients force-fed three rounds of martinis in me before I said yes.

And wouldn't you know it, I had a blast. Subjects who sat when you said Sit! and stayed when you said Stay! How refreshing.

Since then I've done several more as a second shooter, plus one rehearsal dinner on my own, to see if wedding photog is something I indeed wanted to get into seriously (forgive me if you've heard all this before on the other blog!). The world needs another wedding photographer like it needs a hole in the head, right? Can I possibly bring anything new to the table?

I don't have the clout at this point to dictate the kind of wedding I'd like to shoot, but I definitely definitely very definitely have a kind of wedding that I'd love to shoot, and be my niche. My ideal wedding would be intimate backyard, barnyard, in a forest, under a tree, beachside affairs, with a lots of DIY details and flair, tons of flowers, candles and booze. And somewhere around 50-100 people...

...I'm pretty much describing our own wedding 7 years ago, which we had on a tiny island off Puerto Rico. It was perfect - a super fun, 3-day affair with close friends and family, wonderful in every single way. Except for one thing.

What it comes down to now is me redeeming my poor choice of a photographer by shooting my own wedding. Because oh man if I could do ONE thing over again, it would have been to sink 90% of our budget into hiring the perfect photographer. I didn't because it wasn't worth the expense. And this coming from someone who has always loved and appreciated good photography. I am seriously the worst consumer - I would hate to get myself as a client!

So if anyone is planning a small wedding this year or the next, give me a shout!
Email me at
fatorangecatstudio *at* gmail *dot* com

Last but not least, I'm still doing Bunny&Veebs photography. The latest craze are action shots - not easy to do in indoor lighting I might add. But I have the greatest subjects ever and oodles of patience. You have no idea the hours I've spent amusing myself in this way. Those guys, they'll do just about anything for a single morsel of kitty treats. Love them!

So that's it! Thanks to any readers who are still visiting this site! xoxo

Comments [18]
Filed Under: Cats | Life | Pet Photography

Just when I was about to pull the plug on this blog...

The most unexpected thing happened last week. I received an email from a contributing digital photography blogger on the NYTimes.com - the NEW YORK TIMES!!!!! - asking if he could interview me for an article about taking good pet photos. I was like, Um. OKAY. OH-EFFING-KAY.

But I was very curious how he found me. I've been marketing all over the place, both online and in the real physical world, and wanted to get an idea of how any of my endeavors were working, or not working.

Here was his reply:

BEHOLD. The power of the knit blog. Why does that continue to surprise me?! Why do I keep taking it for granted?

So here nytimes.com blog post. It's a Q&A and I talk a little about how I shoot and what I shoot with. I think what I wanted to get across more than anything is that good photography is not lazy photography. It's not all about what camera body you use (and thanks to the writer for not asking!), it's not at all about standing around waiting for the moment to happen. Everything is deliberate, everything is work, even - and especially? - the candid ones! I'm constantly learning.

P.S. I managed to finish a pair of socks. Very exciting. A show-and-tell soon.

Comments [18]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Everywhere but here

This blog, biz blog, twitter, fb, flickr, raverly...I need to join another social network like I need a hole in the head.

But after a lot of hemming I've just put up a facebook page for the photog business. So far I have just 4 fans, and that includes me and Duck, heh. Become a FOCStudio fan, won't you?

Honestly I have no idea how a biz FB page will differ from my personal profile...or why I should ALSO have a biz twitter account and do I say things there that I wouldn't on FB or do I say the same thing? Blergh. The whole thing makes me want to throw up into the huge time sinkhole that I've created.

Where do you guys find yourself most often? Twitter? FB? Rav? Flickr? Your own blog? All of the above?

In knitting news, I have none.

Oh, I finally met Ms. Berroco (very briefly) last weekend in Providence. She put in a good word for me to her housemate who owns a Lab mix, and we did the shoot a week ago. She was hilarious, you can see the photos here. And the best part - and I got a set of custom letterpress cards in exchange! Swoon.

And a public service announcement to anyone in the Boston area who may be thinking of adopting a cat, or knows of someone who is thinking about it. There are more than several adult cats who have been there for longer than is comfortable. It's kitten season, and during this time the older set tends to get overlooked. There are a few very sweet boys and girls who are still looking for a warm and loving home. If you're in the area, stop by the shelter and ask to visit!

Ms. Marmalade

Figaro (my favorite! he's been at the shelter for so long!)

Stash

I hope next time I blog here I'll have some knitting to share. All these online...PLACES I live in is kicking my ass.

Comments [7]
Filed Under: Life | Pet Photography

State of the Knitting Address

State of the Knitting Address

In November I started Camden from Knitty Fall 2008. I had three skeins of Sundara Yarn in Arabian Nights (delectable combo of rich browns, purples, blacks). Rather than knit it flat, I knit it in the round and got as far as the armpits.

It's been sitting in my knitting basket since December, and is now covered in cat hair.

Rather than figure out the yoke situation for Camden - which isn't going to be hard, really, I just didn't feel like thinking about it - I decided that if I didn't finally knit with Aran Silky Merino once and for all, I was going to die. So I winded up one skein of ASM in Charcoal over Blue Lagoon and started the Just Enough Ruffle scarf.

2.5 rows and one bind-off away from being completely finished, I used up the one skein and didn't feel like unwinding another. And then I didn't feel like knitting altogether.

A couple of weeks, maybe a month passed before my fingers started to itch, itch specifically for US 1 needles and some sock yarn. Out came Sundara Yarn in Bronzed Forest which I have been stashing for awhile. It's now or never.

What is this pattern, you ask? It's a Wackadoodle sock, a strange mix of Child's First sock, some random ribbing, and slipped stitches on the foot. I didn't have any intention of knitting it other than a full-blown Child's First sock. My wandering brain had other ideas. I decided I wanted to only knit the first 6 rows to see how that would look (spirals!), but then after a few repeats of that I decided to break up the pattern and do some ribbing in between. And then as I was doing the heel I decided it might be cool to use the same slipped stitch pattern on the foot.

I would start the second sock, except the first looks so schizophrenic that I am slightly afraid of what might happen with the second...and also because recently at the bookstore, I spied Cookie A's new book Sock Innovation and snagged it without so much as opening it.

I had to start right away. Out came Sundara Yarn in Candied Chrome, also cooking in my stash for god knows how long.

This is Wanida. It is freaking brilliant. I can tell it's going to knit quickly.

But I'm not going to know for sure just yet because I just got my hands on another Cookie A pattern that I've been pining for - PINING FOR I tell you! - and I have to set Wanida aside (for which I set aside Wackadoodle, for which I set aside Just Enough Ruffles, for which I set aside Camden) in order to knit Marlene.

So that's the State of the Knitting. No. It's not pretty.

My head is very elsewhere these days.

I'm going to be hanging some of my prints at a local and popular bakery-by-day and restaurant-by-night. The foot traffic - both bi and quadrupedals - is huge here, so I'm really excited about this marketing opp. The owner doesn't care WHAT I put up, just as long as it's "big." He even wants prints in the bathroom. EEEE!

Duck and I went over one evening just before closing to do some measuring of the wall space. This is the bakery/coffee area, with my mockup of what prints will go where. Not a ton of wall space here, but that's good actually. If I have to spend another minute trying to decide which photo I should use and where and in what size, I will go absolutely mad!

The little wall space next to the sugar and cream station I think will display a framed 5x7 of Logan, the puppy I just photographed.

No it's not a big size, but I figure I HAVE to squeeze something in there. While people stir sugar in their coffees, they'll glance up and see that Logan with his baby eyes and oversized paws, and walk away with a big smile on their face. It's inevitable.

The column in between the large windows will have a 30x24 canvas of the owner's three dogs.

You can see more photos of them here. :) With their own cupcake incarnations, they truly live the sweet life.

Comments [7]
Filed Under: General Knitting | Pet Photography

Puppy time

I just did a post over at FOC about Logan, who is a very special puppy with two very special parents, J and R, who met on Ravelry!! How cool is that?! He even moved to Boston all the way from Seattle to be with her. Now that is love.

And so is this...

For more about Logan, click here.

Comments [3]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Crafty Pets

I am spending most of my blogging time on my biz site now, but thought I'd drop by before to do a little cross-posting. I just finished designing a sample coffee table book for my photog biz, and wanted to share a few key pages.

I know you've seen these before here, but not in published form, right? Favorite crafty pets from our favorite crafty bloggers!

Grumperina's Kitty:

Frecklegirl's Bob:

Maritza's Malachi (her cat LG is also in the book):

And of course, Bunny and Veebs:

I love the way the book came out, and loved best of all the thrilling experience of flipping through your own coffee table book.

There is however one more print vendor I want to try. I hear their finished book product is a tad better, for about the same printing price. In the end, these books are not going to be cheap. It's all in the labor: all the time sorting through each photo, processing them, determining page layout, deciding which photo gets which layout, DOING the layout. It doesn't get much more custom than this. But if I can give potential clients a little more bang for their many buck, everyone wins.

Alas. I have no knitting to show :-( But if anyone out there is still interested in Sundara Yarn prints like the ones shown here, THEY ARE COMING. I have just come out of the R&D haze. Blergh. I wanted to offer postcards but have changed my mind. The papers used for items such as cards simply did no justice to the yarn color. I wouldn't feel comfortable charging what I would have to charge, so I'm abandoning that idea for now and just sticking with prints. Beautiful, vibrant, matte prints. 5x7s will be available soon. It's been a matter of packaging them right, and finding the time! Always a battle with the time!

Still working through your Q&As from last month! I haven't forgotten about them

Comments [6]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

FOC in the house!

I've gotten my hosting issues resolved and now FatOrangeCat Studio is officially rearing to go! The FOCStudio portfolio is up, the FOCStudio BLOG is up, and business cards have been distributed to neighbors. We had a fun neighborhood association get-to-know-each-other-better dinner the other night and I did bust out the cards. No one had ever seen Moo cards before, so to my delight it was a little like picking and trading Garbage Pail Kids cards as they tried to decide which card they'd like to keep, based on the image on the back. Love the Moo cards!

I'm still not 100% done with everything. There are some photos I need to add and tweak in the portfolio, some details I need to flesh out, and copy I need to write. The one area I'm having the most trouble with is the "About" section for my blog. I know I always go straight to the About section when I come across a new blog, so it's important I set the right tone. And since this is a business I must be more open and honest about what and who I am, without using any cutesy pseudonym. We're talking full names here.

But I have trouble talking about myself when not prompted. I have no idea what to say that would be interesting...and incredibly witty...and insightful...and serious. And yes it needs to be all those things at once.

So, it would be great if you could help. This is what I propose: Leave a message on any post on the biz blog and ask me a question, whether it be about photography, my favorite drink, how much VanBuren weighs, what Bunny's other nicknames are (he has a lot!), what the weather's like today, whatever. It will give me something to write about!

No matter if you don't have a specific question, just drop by and say hello!
OH and if you could make no mention of this knitting blog, I'd really appreciate it. Not that you WOULD. But in case. I'm trying to keep them separate. It's a slight neurosis of mine.

********
ETA: OH MY GOD! So many FANTASTIC questions already! I'm going to be answering them all! Keep 'em coming! - Feb 13
*******

In return, I'll be giving away 5x7 prints of Sundara Yarn. As mentioned in an earlier post, these were taken back in the summer/early fall '08 when I had the privilege of being her product photographer.

1. Sundara Yarn Stock Pile, (2) 5x7 prints and (1) 5x7 print mounted on foam core.

What does a print mounted on foam look like? This:

The board is about a quarter of an inch thick, and is extremely sturdy. Totally unbendable. It can be framed as usual, depending on the depth of the frame you use, or hung unframed using plastic or metal formboard hangers. I haven't actually tried this myself. I'm testing this out to see if I'd offer it as a product.

2. Sundara Yarn Pretty in Pink, (2) 5x7 prints

3. Sundara Yarn Fresh Greens Trio, (2) 5x7 prints

4. Sundara Yarn Violet Trio, (1) 5x7 prints and (1) 5x7 mounted on foam core

5. Asiatic Lily, (1) 5x7 print mounted on foam core

OK so this isn't yarn, but it's a SNEAK PEAK of a series of florals that I'll be working on for the spring. Next to orange cats and knitting while watching baseball, I love flowers best. At one time in my life I even wanted to be a florist. Haha!

That's (10) prints total that I'm giving away. I'm not sure yet how I'll draw winners yet, but it probably won't be randomly. Maybe the 5 questions I decide to answer get the prize, plus 5 comments...Something like that.

So stop by the FOCStudio blog anytime between now and Tuesday Feb 17 (or so), and really, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your encouragement and support!

Comments [5]
Filed Under: Contest | Pet Photography

Moo is awesome, Godaddy is not

I said to myself that I would consider my photog business officially launched once I got my portfolio up, my blog up, and my business cards in. All three. I've been working the last month on the site, and finally my cards have come in.

They're MOO business cards and they're fantastic. I ordered just a set of 50 first, to see how they look. I picked 45 of my favorite photos, and interestingly some of them did not translate well at all onto a little card. Anyway that's fine, because I plan to order 200 next using just 20 photos so that I can have duplicates. With these 50 I'm going to have a hard time giving ANY of them away since they're all one-of-a-kind, for now.

The group of cards on the left made the cut.

Ha, I just realized I didn't take a photo of the other side. I'll do that later. Very happy with these cards. They're the recycled "Green" versions, by the way, but still sturdy.

Anyway, I'm going to rant now. The cards are in, but I am still NOT officially launched. I've been having major headaches with my site. I ignored my own favorite piece of advice - You Get What You Pay For - and went with a cheapo hosting plan from Godaddy. Beware people. Running your site on their shared server is UN.belIEVE.ably slow. As soon as I installed Wordpress for the blog, the whole thing ground to a sticky, ugly halt. It was ridiculous. I did my due diligence and added caching and compression and tweaked some configurations, to no avail. Do a quick search on "godaddy wordpress slow" and you'll get back a hefty set of results. GOD I wish I had researched this better, what's the matter with me.

When I contacted customer service they told me to upgrade to a virtual private server and then closed the ticket. I'm like, Uh I am the ONLY PERSON LOOKING AT THIS SITE RIGHT NOW. So you're telling me this plan you offer is actually unable to handle A SINGLE VISITOR? Their online admin is unacceptably slow too. They suck. Hard. And I suck for picking them. I can't wait to move and get this show on the road already.

I had a whole giveaway contest all ready too to celebrate the launch. I'll have to postpone that until next week at least. I hope you guys can contain yourselves. Harrumph.

Comments [17]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Authority compromised

Coming back out to scarf model part-time has proved detrimental to Bunny's full-time job as House Sheriff.

Here we see him having some words with his brother, for some unknown infraction (Veebs probably deserved it, whatever it was). Any more lip out of you and the sheriff is going straight for the jugular.

However, we can plainly see that Veebs is no longer intimated. For Bunny let Mommy wrap him in silky mohair.

Perhaps the neighborhood squirrel will show respect to authority more appropriately.

Dare he so brazenly steal AND consume a nut while looking straight into the eyes of the merciless sheriff?!?

Why yes. Yes he dares.

Sorry I did this to you Bunny.

Comments [10]
Filed Under: Cats | Pet Photography

It all started with yarn

Starting out on a new career path is an extremely scary thing. You're not sure if it's all folly, a lapse in rational thinking because you're having an especially bad day at work. You're not sure if you'll have the time, the finances, the energy and courage to follow through. It's too much of a risk. You're already afraid of failing before you've even begun. But before you get mired in having all the right answers to questions that don't yet exist, take the first step and Say it out loud. Your dream, your fantasy, your wish. It's the biggest step. And say it like you mean it. I want! I want I want I want! For sure, just saying it out loud has been the best first step I could have made. You just never know who's out there listening...

A month after I announced out loud to myself and Duck that I wanted to be a photographer, I got my first paying gig.

At this point I still had no clue what kind of photographer I wanted to be. I daydreamed, nightdreamed constantly. Sundara and I had been emailing back and forth during this time, and in the middle of a particularly bad week at work, I blurted out, "I don't want to be a web developer anymore. It's not my true calling. I want to be a photographer." But how, right? How? I heaved a million forlorn sighs.

And who knew what would happen next? Even though I meant it, the remark at that moment was offhand, same as saying, "I need to win the lottery." But I did say it, the right thing at the right time to the right person. To my shock and almost horror, she took me up on it immediately, hired me on the spot to take product photography of her yarns for her new site. The whole arrangement was hammered out in a series of emails that were typed in all caps because I was literally screaming with excitement. By the next week, a box full of glorious yarn arrived at my doorstep, and I was officially a photographer! Paid! With money! To photograph YARN. Which many times I do FOR FUN. To Duck I said, "Pinch me!" To Sundara I said, "Marry me."

Every week for the next several months, a shipment of yarn came to the door. Every week I photographed a dozen or so skeins in the traditional, "full-length" pose with a stark white background, post-processed them, optimized them to 3 sizes, and uploaded them to the site.

I also photographed them in additional poses, and those were included in the site as well. We called these "Glamour Shots." So fun. So so so so so unbelievably fun. A job that doesn't feel like one. Can it always be this way, please?

Sundara had given me "creative license" to photograph the skeins in whatever manner I saw fit. One thing I tried was to give the skeins some personality, if such a thing were possible in a skein. So the skeins below are actually swimsuit models. They're wearing skimpy bikinis, laying belly down on the beach and propped up by the elbows, cleavage spilling out and mouth half opened as they stare into the camera.

These initially made the cut, and then when they were on the site, Sundara was spooked. She was "scared" of them. Ha ha! Too aggressively suggestive for yarn I guess. Rar!! Hahahaha.

When I wasn't busy making p*rn, I let the beautiful colors speak for themselves.

Then came that sad day, that very sad awful day when All Good Things Must End. Sundara's new shopping cart site was crashing left and right at every update, and she had to change the way she sold her yarns. Instead stocking x number of skeins each week, she went to a monthly subscription process. It came down to a set handful of colors and base yarns each month, and with that it no longer made sense logistically to have me photograph her yarns. Sob.

The last shoot I did was for the Sock Collection.

Even sadder still is that I had to ship all the yarns back. No I did not get to keep them! (Although I did swipe a few on the way out, heh.) By now I had I think almost 100 skeins of her yarn, mostly in Sock. With a tear-stained face I gathered them together for one last hurrah.

Just recently I printed some of these group photos, as a way to test out a few printing vendors.

Sundara Yarns are worthy as "fine art" prints, no?

You never know how your first break might come about, who might turn out to be your biggest supporter. Put yourself out there, and someone just might take you up on it. When I told family of this gig, they were very confused. They were like, Yarn? All this so people can buy yarn? What? Who is she? Sun-dar-a? What kind of name is that? Dyes yarn full-time, really? How did you meet? And they get more fascinated still when I say that we have never met (yet!).

Being given a chance by a stranger could only be possible with the crazy phenomenom that is blogging. Specifically KNIT blogging. The knitting community amazes me.

So that's how I got started on photography. It was the best gig ever. Thank you, Sundara. Thank you very, very much. :)

Comments [27]
Filed Under: Life | Pet Photography

Right in front of me

The exact moment I decided I wanted to get really serious with photography was back in Apri/May 2008 while at my parent's house in Atl. I was helping them prepare their move to Beijing. At one point I was strolling through the internet and stumbled upon this wedding photographer's blog. Her photos just blew me away. I had kind of been stalking her blog a long time ago when it was in another incarnation, before all this. It seems her whole foray into photography was fairly recent, and the fact that someone had the ability to recognize that natural talent within them and turn it into a new career path was just, wow. Wow kapow! I was both inspired and envious at the same time. And even a little...sad? Is that the word? Sad for me and my lack of foresight/ambition/courage that I never saw it in myself to do the same. It never occurred to me that photography could be more than a hobby. I loved to do it, but never thought to push myself to take it to the next level.

Right after reading every single post and drooling over every single photo, I called up Duck and said, I want to be serious. I want to become a photographer. I had to say it out loud so that the universe would take note and keep me to my word. Because sometimes, I'm really flakey. But this made sense. I wasn't afraid.

I was however, puzzled. Now what? How does one start? What kind of photographer do I want to be? How do I set myself apart? I knew I did NOT want to do weddings. We could cross that off the list. So what then? I needed a niche. But I had no clue.

I was going to think really hard about it though. I was going to read books, play with my camera more, gain more technical knowledge, all the while thinking about what my niche could be so that when the time came, I'd be that much more prepared.

But in the meantime, I'm going outside to take portraits of my dog Mocha...

I love these photos. They make me laugh. The answer was in right in front of me but my again, my mind and my eyes were closed.

They make me a little misty-eyed too. Here she is, enjoying what would be her last spring under the southern sun. Don't worry, Mocha is doing well, but poor girl. She's had a rough 6 months. She's too old for this.

Here is the very overdue update:

My parents left for China in May. Most airlines do not allow pets in cargo from May until September, so there was no way she could go with them then. A family friend had agreed to take Mocha in until September, and they had a trial run with her when my parents went away for a weekend. They left her in the backyard, and frantic as she was to get home, she dug a hole under their fence and escaped. Somehow Mocha ended up at her vet's - probably a neighbor found her and used her collar tags to drop her off - but at the end of a single day my parents friends decided they could not host Mocha.

Having no other alternative, my mom boarded her at petsmart, confined to a little room and taken out only once a day. So sad! I cried. I wanted to take her in Boston but the cats, however sweet they may be with humans, would have eaten her for breakfast, then pooped her out and covered her in litter. I called every weekend to make sure she hadn't died of a broken heart. She was there for over a month until another friend of a friend (very complicated) heard of Mocha's sad little orphaned story and took pity. She had 2 dogs of her own and was willing to host Mocha for a much smaller monthly stipend than petsmart. Mocha was signed out and was able to live in a comfortable home again. So that worked out great...

...until Mocha, after 6 weeks, turned on the other dogs. I am 100% sure this stemmed out of jealousy for the human. Obviously she got comfortable, became attached, and another animal competing for the beloved human's attention had to leave. Except Mocha forgot that she was the guest! This woman tried her best to control the situation, but when it became clear that Mocha had become the house bully, she had no choice. OH MOCHA.

So back to boarding school she went, there for another three whole months before my parents finally were able to come back and fly her out to Beijing. And she survived the flight, from Atl to DC to Beijing, without a drop of water or a bite of food. When my mom went to find her at the airport, the containers of water and food remained unopened in the crate, bowls empty. OoooooOOoooo I get so mad thinking about it.

The reunion with my mom was probably absolute heaven. City-dwelling dog, living high on the 26th floor, finally by mom's side. Except that it only lasted only about a month! My parents had to come back unexpectedly to the States for more visa BS (long story) which will keep them here for another 2 months. That's where we are right now. Moch taken to another dog hotel, this one for pets of ex-pats specifically. Apparently they're very good, she gets free reign of the office, the owner of the boutique takes Mocha home with her at nights, and she even has a photo album on facebook. They called her a "young lady." I don't like looking at it though because it makes me want to cry some more. The last time I saw her she was in my mother's garden, eyes squinting in the warm sun, sniffing roses. Now she's in suffocating, smoggy Beijing, where pantless toddlers run amok, bouncing from one foster home to the next. POOR OLD GIRL.

But when my parents go back next month, they'll be moving into a big house with a nice yard, so things can only look up for our brave little poodle.

Really though, she wants nothing more than your foot to rest her chin on. Oh I miss her!

Comments [18]
Filed Under: Life | Pet Photography

Kitty got her groove on

Today, I need no champagne to feel bubbly. I am so fizzy and filled with giddy goodness that I don't know what to do with myself. I am so tee hee hee and a hoo hoo hoo!

And as an added bonus to an already great day, I improved my photo retouching workflow by a factor of a million. Celebraaaaation. So now instead of spending literally ALL DAY to process a couple hundred photos, I've got it down to about an hour or so. Let's say two. I'd like to get it down to one hour at most, which would include the post-processing of selected raw files, optimizing them for the 1. blog (including watermark) 2. the client proofing section and 3. the portfolio site, all of which need to be re-cropped to different aspect ratios, and resized to different dimensions. This is what's kind of making things clunky for me right now, having to re-crop and resize the same photo 3 different ways.

Today's featured pet is Ms. Kitty, the proud owner of Grumperina and Husband.

One thing that I've found a little challenging when shooting cats is their natural inclination to do absolutely nothing. Veebs is especially great at doing nothing, especially when you want him doing something. One of my favorite poses well-known to all cats is the "loaf" pose, where they tuck all their limbs underneath their bodies, front legs and paws curled over the chest so they look like they're sitting on their own flotation devices, tail wrapped closely around the side. Push them out into open water and they're ready to set sail!

But however much I like it, there is really only so long one can continue taking photos of the loaf pose. All angles can quickly be covered when the cat's not moving. Thus, the cat must be engaged, whether she likes it or not. Usually they don't, but the cat must move. The cat. Must. Play.

Or not.

Pretty please? Pretty please with a mouse on top?

Yessss....yessss! You know what to do, Kitty, you know what to do!

Such a very very VERY BAD MOUSE!

So on any other day it might have been nap time, but today for a little while we were able to make it play time...

And the shoot ended with a pretty pose.

I had a ton of fun on this shoot; there were some bust-out laughing moments as we tried to get a sometimes apathetic Kitty to participate. So thank you Kitty!

Comments [18]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Sunbursts

Dudes. Thank you so much for all the input on the logo. I do love the first, original logo too. I think it's so great that just about everyone picked that one. Not only does it affirm what I already know I like, it also confirms that you CAN tell what's been done by a pro vs one done by a me, even though the logo is so, so simple. It's obvious yet indescribable.

I know I was totally over thinking it. I do a lot of that these days. I don't know up from down, black from white. Everything just rolls under the general category of: Is It Good?! Dunno! The brain is all fog. I got my first paycheck a few months ago, and after the excitement of seeing "FOC Studio" on the check passed, I wanted to tear it to shreds because I was sure the customer actually hated my prints and wished she had never hired me. All of these junior high school emotional theatrics is exhausting and highly annoying, especially to Duck who has to talk me down from a ledge over other day. A very small ledge though, maybe only about yea-high, but a scary ledge nonetheless.

For now I'll cut myself some slack since this is all brand-new to me, and soon enough I'll be able to navigate my way through it. I know I will. Although there are many unseen roadblocks coming, nothing was ever a bigger roadblock than not knowing my true passion in life. So really, I'm already a million steps ahead. It feels SO. GOOD.

Anyway. Here are some photos I took today of Veebs as I was waiting for lunch to heat up. Veebs was hanging out on the butcher block (which I hate but what can you do, cats always get their way), I bent down to scratch my ankle and when I looked up, the sun was in my eyes. I slowly stood up until Veeb's head blocked the sun, and his ears became pointy little silhouettes, outlined in gold. And then I knew what time it was. It was lens flare time!

I call this "VanBuren Cat, Superstar"

This one is "Sunrise Over Ayers Rock"

If God were a cat, this is what we would see if we tried to look Him in the face (apologies for the sacrilege).

Now my eyes really hurt.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Comments [7]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Indecision 2009

In my real job, I'm a web developer/programmer (though very lite on the programming these days. Thank god). When it comes to getting my portfolio site up and running, people assume that I would want - and would like - to build it on my own. And the truth is, Ugh. It takes a lot of time, and time is money which am I more than willing to spend in order to have more time. Also, I kind of dislike my real job. Why would I do it without getting paid?

As it is, I spent months just researching what and which to buy. There is vast array of "website boutiques" that specialize in supplying online galleries for photographers - whether as ready-made templates, customizable templates, or from scratch. The kicker for me is that most of these sites are rendered in Flash. Flash and me go way back. We are arch enemies, for many reasons. Reason #1 is that they usually interfere with usability, because they're too busy being hypersexualized. I don't have a second to waste waiting for your stupid animation to load. Time is money, remember? And why must there always be a jukebox? Why?

Alas, I cannot avoid the flash. But I do find a template that has an html version along with the flash version, so I am appeased. Luckily the flash part is not obnoxious or difficult to navigate. In any case I'm glad there's a choice. Now that that small drama has been settled, I'm coming up against the next point of indecision.

I'm using a version of the logos my graphic artist friend designed for me several months ago. There is no horizontal room to have the cat image and text on one line, given the layout of the site, so I rearranged it some. Here it is as it appears on the temporary About page.

I like having the background of the site all white, and I really like that the cat is in negative space. But is it silly to have a logo that says "fat orange cat" while you have a fat white cat? I really don't want to reverse the colors - have an orange background, orange, cat, white text - as I think it would be too much.

So here's another option:

There's the orange cat.

Or this option maybe. It's more of a call-out, extra emphasis on the orange cat.

I do like the white font.

Opinions?

Decisions, decisions. If I've learned anything so far, it's that this path to business success is totally riddled with potholes of indecisions.

Comments [52]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

MeeYOW!

I present to you the Anders0n Co0per of the Kittycat Kingdom:

Your blue eyes kitty, they pierce my soul. It hurts, kitty, it hurts. She's giving Bunny and Veebs a serious run for their photogenic money. Don't tell them I said that. Thanks.

Comments [7]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Finding his inner kitten

VanBuren's New Year resolution was to play more. Get active, move around some, rediscover his inner kitten. I took him up on it and volunteered to help him train. We started light with a toy his grandmother gave him for Christmas - an uncontroversial plastic ball with a little bell inside.

Veebs stood at the bottom of the stairs while I rolled the ball down. The idea was for him to extend his arm and catch it. Work on his reflexes/hand-eye coordination.

The only part of his body that moved were his eyeballs.

We tried another tactic to see if it would be more enticing - me rolling the ball up to him. Again the idea was for him to catch it.

He did not catch it. He did not catch on.

Perhaps it was just too much stimuli, or he was shy, or he wanted to play on his own terms. So I left the ball in front of him and crept upstairs, leaving him to his own devices.

A few seconds later...

Score!

Comments [6]
Filed Under: Cats | Pet Photography

The bad shots

Hope everyone had or is having a restful, peaceful holiday. We spent the last several days binge eating and drinking, and then when we got home we spent 7 hours or so binge TV-watching. 8 episodes of Dexter Season 2, back to back to back to back. To back. I feel utterly gross.

I'm spending some time now trying to cross out items from my mile-long to-do list. There are so many details to take care of that I'm pretty much overwhelmed. I don't know where to start, I can't make up my mind, I want to push off final decisions for another day. I've learned that I'm really good at putting things off. So here I am, painfully oozing towards the finish line like some obese snail that's run out of slime, but I'll get there. It's gonna be ugly, but I'll get there.

So I'm going through all my photos for ones that will go into the portfolio (which will be ready as soon as I decide on a template...), and thought I'd share just some of the many, oh so many photos that don't make the cut. While there are plenty - due to bad lighting, bad composition, blurriness, whatever - these are a few that particularly pain me because I feel the potential for really good photo was there, and I either couldn't get my camera to work for me in time, or my eyes didn't see what was directly in front of me.

Exhibit 1: Energetic dog doing what she loves
I crouched to the ground, threw a stick, Sadie ran for it, and before I could bring the camera up to my face, she was already back. That dog is lightening covered in fur. I couldn't focus in time. You can see the stick is falling out of her mouth and she's ready for more. I probably should have just thrown the stick while holding the camera to my face with the other arm (camera+lens is HEAVY though). Or, I could have thrown the stick farther. Or, I could have gotten her owner to stand behind me and throw the stick. I should have. Whatever method, this blurry shot was the only one I took. I wish I had tried again, but for some reason, I didn't.
Lesson learned: Enlist owner's assistance; See the shot you take.

Exhibit 2: Energetic dog is funny
Bob was chewing his squishy toy, and snorting, looking at me with those eyes. He was clearly very happy with his toy, and I couldn't stop laughing, which is a surefire way to get blurry photos.
Lesson learned: Keep up and don't laugh. Not too hard anyway.

Exhibit 3: Cross-eyed cat cocks head
Looking at this photo I weep at what could've been. This is one of the very first shots I took of Tilly. I was still adjusting my camera and whatnot, and set the little shiny toy just there in preparation. Too soon, too soon! She immediately jumped onto the chair and performed a wonderful impersonation of her own bobblehead doll. All the cute exploded everywhere. And I wasn't ready for it.
Lesson learned: Only entice pet with favorite toy after you're prepared to shoot.

Exhibit 4: Black lab with sailboat
I look at this photo and I'm like, What. Did. I do. I've made a dead bush the main focus of the shot. Unlike the Sadie photo that I didn't retake, I did retake this, 5 times, 5 slightly different angles. And the ridiculous bush was there each time. I was so excited to have a black lab, the water, and a little sailboat in the same frame that my mind just selectively cropped out the bush. That's the only reason I can give. I also wish I had posed the dog some - have her sit on the sand and looking out towards that sailboat in the nearby distance, and shoot from the back.What a serene picture that would have made.
Lesson learned: You want to be a pet photographer, not a dead bush photographer.

Comments [7]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

One Bob to rule them all

Thank you everyone for your comments about the cat calendar. I was actually thinking about offering them for sale as I was rushing to get them ready over the weekend. I'll have to see how they turn out first. The calendars would probably cost around $25-$30 a pop - the only markup I'd put them is the shipping cost, so I'd be breaking even, at best. But a full of year of Bunny and Veebs, I dare anyone to resist! So, anyone, if you're interested in a calendar, let me know, and I'll get a full preview up (although I might want to swap out some photos).

Til then, more photos of other people's pets. Today I present to you...

Bobby Bobushka, a Boston terrier.

I mean, THE Boston terrier.

Bob!

Bob greeted me with little grunts and excited nips of the fingers. I had met Bob's parents for dinner the night before, and stopped by at Ravelry headquarters while out for meetings in the area. It was one of those super productive days where I accomplished more in 4 hours than I usually do in 4 weeks, and it will probably never happen again. Since everyone was hard at work over at Rav HQ, I spent maybe just 10 minutes shooting.

I apparently took only a minute to bore him.

Then oops, I got a little too close to his toy.

More. I need more. So much doggy goodness packed into that little body of his, he's practically bursting at the seams!

Comments [19]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

The Triplets of Catville

There is just not enough time in the day!!! That's pretty much the summary of the last 2+ weeks.

I recently did a shoot of 3 cats who live in my neighborhood. I freaking love cats. So much. Could have photographed them all day long until the break of dawn. These guys were so sweet. Everytime I got low to shoot one, another would come along and butt heads with the lens. There were a lot of blurry shots.

I haven't gone through all the photos but here are some faves:

The lazy-eyed one. You're not sure if she's looking at you or near you...

The playful one.

The thoughtful one.

Do we like this last photo? It's a little grainy, flarey, imperfect. But I think that's why I like it. Maybe. Hmm.

Comments [15]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Back to work

Hi. I'm way behind. No one is surprised. I got back from China last week, voted, caught a cold from the guy sitting next to me on the plane who had the most digustingly phlegmy cough, and have spent most of the week trying to catch up on sleep, getting over cold (not quite yet) and catching up on work (ugh definitely not quite yet). Daylight savings is not helping. My productivity level plummets when it starts getting dark. So I start getting unproductive at around 3:30-4:00pm these days. Horrible.

I have so many more photos and stories from China to share, but I should get back to the routine I was trying to establish before I left. If I stop talking about pet photography I will lose any inertia I may have had, and I don't want that to happen. Because I haven't made much progress elsewhere on the biz side. I haven't gotten cards made, haven't set up site, coming with an actual biz plan, etc. OH what a pain in the ass, if only my fairy godmother was around to do it all for me. I know the vendor I want to use for the cards, I know what I want the site to look like, it's all a matter of implementation. And knitty gritty details. My brain sputters at the mention of nailing down the knitty gritty details.

Anyway, I gotta just shut up and get on with it.

SO. During a beautiful, warm Saturday afternoon sometime in late September, my sister-in-law hooked me up with her co-worker's black lab named Maggie. We met at a beach near the Rhode Island border. Oddly there was no one around, we had the entire beach to ourselves. Great weather + docile dog + beach + new camera lens = Everything's going to come out perfect without much effort. Right?

Well. Very nearly. But not quite.

First, the sun. OH GOD the sun. There was not a cloud in the sky. I purposely scheduled it for a late afternoon shoot, but still the sun was everywhere, bouncing off the white sand, the water, the dog's fur. I got nothing but glare. Here she's almost a yellow labrador. Lesson #1: get polarizer for lens.

Second, the owner would not let Maggie off the leash, not for a second, even though she was as well-mannered as a lady could be, and not another soul was around. The owner was all, She's going to run after the squirrels! Right. Beach squirrels. Then he was all, Labs are so cool, they have webbed feet to aid in swimming!! And yet there we were, at the beach, and her webbed feet remained dry.

I am sure I will get paying clients who insist their dogs remain leashed. I will just have to be sure to mention that a leash might "compromise" the photographs, do my best under the circumstances, then go home and curse when I have to spend 5 extra hours in front of the computer Photoshopping the leashes out of every picture.

I'm not great at it yet, but getter better I think.

Not terrible right? I can still see where the leash was, as my editings skillz weren't quite so clean, but I showed the above to the owner and he wants to buy an 8x10, so hah. Fooled him. Man that sun is harsh though.

Here's another shot where the leash was everywhere, but thought if it could be removed, the photo would be pretty decent.

The leash extends out from her back and out of frame to the left. I did use the clone stamp to clone parts of that yellow bushy plant over there and stamp out the leash. I didn't attempt to remove any more leash from above the dog's back because it sucked. My eyes were dying. But again, the owner did not seem to notice or mind the disappearing leash since he ordered two of these in 5x7, heh heh heh.

Well the light wasn't getting any softer even as the afternoon went on, so I decided to try something different, and that was to shoot directly into the sun, with Maggie all backlit and beautiful. I was seeing white spots for awhile, but the results came out exactly as I hoped it would, all warm and golden and soft. Also, I heart lens flare.

    

It was easy to Photoshop out the leash on that one.

When it's not so easy to Photoshop out the leash, and you don't feel like doing it, employ some creative cropping instead...

Ta-da!

Out of the 200-some photos I took, there were only about 10-15 that I really liked. That's not much return at all. At this stage I can't tell if the small number is due to me starting to get really picky about what shots are actually "good," or if it's because most of them actually suck. Maybe it's perfectly OK if most of them suck, as long as I can tell they suck. I'm working on my eye!

So even with the other challenges which prevented me from getting shots of a black lab frolicking along the beach, kicking up sand, or splashing in the ocean, I still thought this was a great shoot in terms of the experience gained and the lessons learned.

And because the owner bought a lot of prints.

Comments [15]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Pets!

I'm sorry about the last post. Let me try to make it up to you.

 

It's Fat Orange Cat Studios gone global! Wang wang! (That's what Chinese dogs say)

Comments [9]
Filed Under: Pet Photography | Travel

FOC logos

I have potential logos! My graphic designer friend sent half a dozen versions, and I've narrowed it down to these:

Love the non-cutesy yet bulbous take on the cat. Very clean. Duck likes the last one with the cat forming the g, and I like the first one. I'll change some minor things like the color but this is great start. Very exciting.

Comments [35]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Working hard for the money

I just spent over 4 hours on a conference call and the only thing that will make me feel better besides a gallon of martinis is to process some photos of pets. YAY for pets! I'm smiling already.

I had the privilege recently of photographing Maritza's furry loved ones. A dog and three cats, swoon. One cat was snuggled deep inside a kitchen cabinet and she looked so comfy and cozy (and in the shadows) that I did not want to disturb her. So I harrassed the rest of them.

Once I get more proficient in Photoshop I'll try to edit out the broom stick thing behind his head. I did try to move them out of the frame before taking the photo, but as you can see I severely disturbed his cat nap as I attempted to reach over so I decided to keep the pre-shoot clattering at a minimum.

Poor Malachi. I was really making him work hard for the money.

It was clear after this shoot some of things I need to work on if I want to become a decent pet photographer. But I'll share those thoughts in another post. For the rest of the night it's martinis and baseball!

Comments [14]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

Lola

Thank you to everyone for your extremely kind words of encouragement about the start of F@t Or@nge C@t Studi0. I sort of can't believe I really named it that. To give props where props are due, Duck came up with that name, after he shot down a whole variety of options, including yes "Bunny&Veebs." Much as we love our B&V, he thought as a biz it sounded too esoteric.

I have emailed those who got in touch about volunteering their time and pets for a quick photoshoot, as mentioned in the end of the previous post. But if there are more of you out there, don't hesitate to contact!

I was able to shoot another springer spaniel recently. Her name is Lola and she lives right downstairs. Her pelt is so baby soft. I want to turn her into a blanket. She is much stockier than Sadie (apparently the runt of her litter, I get it now) and has a docked tail.

It's really cute.

And check out her soft, serious eyes...

The day is never complete without a serious close-up of a doggy snout. Lola's more of a bayer than a barker. Whenever she's excited, she says, Ah-woooOOoooOOOoooOOOoo!

Comments [12]
Filed Under: Pet Photography

I has a dream

I have something to share! A little project that's been brewing for awhile now. Soft bubbles are popping at the surface. I wasn't going to share until it was little more stable, more off the ground, more official. But then I thought boo! Why be so careful? That's no fun. If I talk about it from the get-go, I will
1) write more. I have not been writing, not for lack of topics but for lack of discipline, and it gets harder and harder to write the less I do
2) be held accountable to follow through with my own plans which I fully admit I am very bad at doing
3) document each step of the journey for prosterity. It could be very interesting. Or not. We will see. But only if I write all this down.

And if I say it out loud to the internet, then there is just no going back right? Because I am counting on you guys to make me look foolish if I renege on my goal and don't give it my all.

So, today, right now, I am officially announcing to the world that I, me. Want to be. A.

 

PET PHOTOGRAPHER!

YAY! It feels so right it can't be wrong!

I spent the last several months just coming up with a name. Hardest thing ever. I didn't want to use my name. I didn't want the word "photography" in it. I wanted something a little fun, a little quirky, but not too cutesy. Most of all, I wanted to name it after this dude...

 

...who for the last ten years has been my muse and my inspiration. Sniff sniff I owe it all to you, VanBuren J. Meowcat. You may know him as Veebs, but to others he's also known as that F@t Or@nge C@t.

So Veebs is officially the mascot of F@t Or@nge C@t Studi0! Yay for Veebs, I just knew you didn't have a set of oversized cat hips for nothing!

Right now my BFF Kitty's graphic designer husband is designing a couple of logos for me. I came up with something rudimentary myself but he's going to punch it up. They should be ready soon and I can't wait to see what he's delivered.

In the meantime, I have a portfolio that needs filling with photos of pets OTHER than Bunny & Veebs, even if they are the most photogenic critters in all of critterdom. I started off by using my friends' dogs to shoot. They happily obliged. My first client was this lovely springer spaniel who lives across the river in Somerville. I spent maybe 30 minutes to an hour shooting, and wow it was a lot harder than I anticipated! I didn't foresee myself getting so self-conscious and nervous. It was an instant switch, from Hey cute dog let me take your picture! to, Oh shit I have to know what I'm doing now but wait what does this button here do?

Practice makes perfect though and that's what I plan to do.

Here are a couple of photos from that shoot:

She is an extremely energetic dog but unfortunately I was not able to capture too much of her acrobatics since she had a hurt front leg . It didn't stop her from trying to run and jump though we tried not to encourage it. When she's healthy again I'm going to reshoot her at the park. I would love to get a shot of her airborne as she plays fetch, and have some ideas about how I want that shot to look. Can't wait to try it out!

MEANWHILE....

I have a couple more dogs to shoot, but I need more! Would you like to help me? If you live in the Boston area, have a dog or a cat and about an hour or so to spare, I would love to photograph your pet! It would be totally free, no money down, and as a token of my appreciation, I'll send you a complimentary 8x10 photo of your pet. If you're interested, send an email or leave a comment, if you have a dog tell me what breed it is - if you know - and I'll get in touch!

What do you say?

Comments [34]
Filed Under: Pet Photography