Friday, October 31, 2008
I've been in Beijing for 2 weeks now and if there's one thing I must name - and I can name plenty - that I will never become accustomed to even after having been here for 200 years, it's the concept of the kaidangku.
What is that you ask?
 
When I look at this I feel like I'm going to spontaneously come down with cholera.
I might be overreacting. I might not be.
Who knew exposed bottoms could cause so much internal confusion.
That's right! Toddler pants! That are unsealed! On purpose! So your potty-untrained child does not have to encumber you nor himself when nature calls! How bad can living under Communism be when you're free to wee when you please?! Which can happen at ANY SECOND without warning - like when you're walking along from behind, or maybe while you're unfortunately standing next to the same tree.
Here is another more graphic shot of the kaidangku and what it can do to your dignity and self-respect. Especially if they have been crocheted.
I was hoping that if I waited two weeks before I posted about this phenomenom that I would have somewhat positive thing to say about wearing kaidangku's:
China is greener without disposal diapers in landfills.
Chinese household saves hundreds of RMPs per month and uses money to buy LV bag (real one) for only child.
Baby's bottom in China is 300% drier than that of Western counterparts.
Has never known the horrors of diaper rash.
But one day there were children running around just outside a restaurant we were about to patronize. Each of their undersides were exposed for all to see. Baby bottoms are supposed to be cute so shoot me because I saw them and completely lost my appetite.
I was hoping too that they're not actually allowed to go in public, and if they're too young to speak, they have some secret code with their guardian so that they could be quickly taken to a facility. A real one. That has a door. Not a bush or a tree or some corner in the train station.
OH IF ONLY!
A few days ago I turned the corner and came face to face with a toddler and his seamless pants in action, doing a #2 on a grassy knoll separating the street and the busy sidewalk, while his grandmother held him aloft from behind, knees hooked over her arms.
The reaction I had was like a rocket boost and I ran and ran and ran and could have kept running home to Boston if the sidewalk wasn't so clogged with people.
The thing is, my cats don't wear pants, and yet...
Also I believe dog owners pay a hefty fine here if refuse is not picked up...so how come...?
"Having face" is something that's important to the Chinese, so this sort of practice confuses me all the more, particularly in a cosmo city like Beijing.
They say the practice is much diminished here in the city. I would think that if you invent something like the compass, and construct something like the Bird's Nest, you could patch up that hole in your pants, no sweat.
Filed Under: Travel | WTF
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
I suck at bargaining! I walked into the Silk Market today, a very popular shopping area where haggling is required, knowing full well to never pay for more than 20%-30% of the asking price, and yet I ended up paying US$60 for two pairs of "True Religion" jeans when really I wanted to pay no more than US$30 for both. Either my math crumbled under all the pressure, or I fell for the "I'm not going to be able to eat tonight" fake sob story. I stink! Bargaining is not for me.
Filed Under: Travel
Monday, October 27, 2008
Everyday I'm walking and sightseeing and eating and feeling completely wiped out by 3pm, and today was no exception...except all we did was visit a yarn shop. That's it. How does that happen? This city is exhausting.
That's right, I'm cheesy and wore my Rambling Rose cardigan to a yarn shop so I could walk in and be all BOOYA look at me and my Western-made knitwear! Let's go USA! I forget the name of this shop but it's a short bus ride away from the Dongdan subway station on Line 2/Line 5, in case you're ever in town and are in immediate need of um, waxy yarn of er, vague origins and questionable fiber content. But at unbeatable prices! My mom bought 12 skeins of dk-weight wool which totaled less than US$30. I looked down at my cardigan and was all Dude, my buttons alone cost nearly that much. I was talked into a skein of cotton boucle in this rather iffy shade of magenta. The clerk said the grey-blue version that I actually wanted made me look old, hmph. But it was around US$3.00 so I shrugged my shoulders and agreed it would make a fabulous scarf. Right now though I'm looking at it, touching it, feeling it, frankly a little repulsed by it. Cotton? Really? What is up with the WAX FEEL?
Oh well, so I wasn't really on board with any of their yarns, but my main goal was to buy needles anyway. 4 circulars each at RMB 10 which at press time is around US$1.50. Works for me.
Filed Under: Postcards from Dottie | Travel
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Yesterday my parents and I headed to the Great Wall again, this time at a pass called Mutianyu which the tourist books said would be overrun with people, but in actuality it was not. It was soooo much nicer than the first pass we visited, called Juyongguan. That one was completely overcrowded, and the walkway so narrow and so steep that I spent more time looking down at my shoes than the scenery around me. Which I couldn't make out anyway because it was so foggy. A shame.
So anyway if you're ever in Beijing and wanting to visit the Great Wall, Mutianyu is the place.
We arrived just in time for sunset. We were going on day 2 of smog-free skies (today makes day 3! Although the mountains in the distance are becoming increasingly less distinct). The air was sweet and fresh. Everyone was happy.
Filed Under: Postcards from Dottie | Travel
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Coraline by Ysolda
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Manos Silk Blend, 5 skeins. Inadvertently made the body shorter than intended, so I came in way under with 2 whole skeins leftover.
Needle: US 5
I started Coraline sometime in June, July? Can't remember. Anyway I've been working on it off and on for the last several months. I lerve it. My first time with i-cords (GENIUS) and smocking (PRETTY). I made the body too short but I think it works pretty well regardless. It's actually not entirely finished as I have not added buttons for the front. But I decided I'd give it to my mom for her birthday which is coming up in a couple of weeks - yes the idea of gifting Coraline was a total afterthought, but the afterthought still counts right? - and she'll add the buttons herself.
Here is my mom modeling from high atop her apartment overlooking Beijing. I'm totally into shooting straight into the sun these days, though my eyes aren't too happy about it. But I love lens flare! Anyway I've been here in Beijing for almost a week now, visiting my parents who moved here from Atl. in May. The city is quite...something. Not sure what that something is. I know how I feel about the air quality though. It's quite shitty. At the risk of TMI, my snot is black. I wiped my runny nose yesterday and the result was like wiping running mascara crud off your eyes. UGH.
It rained though last night, and this morning for the first time I saw sky! Adjacent buildings! Even mountains in the distance!
The view on a normal, lung-choking day.
This is not a cloudy day. It's all smog. Nice isn't it.
The view on an abnormal, clear-sky day, after the evening's rain.
I can hear my own lungs singing, just looking at that.
Dottie is lucky she has no lungs. Here she is on site at one of the tombs for the Ming Dynasty emperors.
Yesterday we hit the Great Wall. We should have gone today because yesterday was one of those days where visibility was completely nil, not just with the smog, but with a drizzly fog as well. I'll have to go back again for a better view. Though the misty one below is kind of romantic...
More to come!
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Postcards from Dottie | Travel
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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.
Filed Under: Pet Photography
Friday, October 10, 2008
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!
Filed Under: Pet Photography
Monday, October 06, 2008
I know it's getting cold out there when the boys start squeezing themselves into tight spaces. The less comfortable they look, the more comfortable they are. I walked into the office this morning and found the following pile-up:
Bunny is comfy, really. He was purring as I took this photo. Or maybe what I heard was his last breath getting slowly pushed out by VanBuren's weight.
They really bug me sometimes. I spent all summer long shooing them off my office chair which is a cat fur magnet that no amount of vacuuming can dislodge, off the pile of papers on the desk, off the couch where they don't belong. I try to make their beds as enticing as possible but you'd think I had lined them with tin foil instead of yummy, plushy pillows.
Now suddenly they can't get enough of it. Now they're nesting. Happens every year. Cats are so weird.
Filed Under: Cats
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Thank you to everyone for your extremely kind words of encouragement about the start of Fat Orange Cat Studio! Ha! 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!
Filed Under: Pet Photography
Friday, October 03, 2008
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 Fat Orange Cat.
So Veebs is officially the mascot of Fat Orange Cat Studio! 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?
Filed Under: Pet Photography
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