Lola The Himalayan Cat (Click to enlarge)

Look at her.  Can’t you hear her telling you her desires?  Perched upon the apple crate for a better view of the studio, she’s making her demands.  In reality, Lola was one of the easiest cats ever to photograph.  She arrived with her Greyhound house mate and milled about until it was her turn.

If you don’t get a cat this easy to photograph, notice Tags in the right sidebar.  Look for Cat and select it.  Those will be the posts with our tried and true cat photography methods.  I’d love to see a photo of your cat.  Post one here.

Time to play Where In The World Is Sisters Pet Pics.  Check last week’s posts to get caught up on the clues.  Today’s hint:  Don’t expect the sign to tell you where we are yet.  There you go.  Come on, people.  You have through October 1st to play.  I’ll be making the announcement on the 2nd.

Micky The Tuxedo DSH Cat (Click to enlarge)

Don’t stop me now!  Meet Micky — he came in with his mom and dad a couple of weeks ago to pose with them and his two house cat siblings.  Though his feline house mates did not embrace the idea of family portraiture, Micky couldn’t help but be photogenic.

Always a tip for photographing cats:  give them something to perch on and lean against so they feel safer.  This scene provided the just-right touch for sweet Micky.

Okay, we’re on day three of our Where In The World Is Sisters Pet Pics Contest.  Guess where our new studio is and you’ll get 10% off your next visit.  We have one guesser.  Check yesterday’s post to see the guess and the answer.  What?  You thought I was going to make it easy?  Nah uh.

Today’s clue:  It’s 3 minutes to a bridge to somewhere.

There you go.  Come on.  Guess early.  No penalties for guessing wrong, and if you get it right before the photo clues start coming you’ll get an extra ‘Atta Baby’ in addition to your 10% discount from us for being such good sports, and of course for being so smart.

Samantha, The Grey DSH Cat (Click to enlarge)

Isn’t it about time to look at a lovely cat?  Although dogs are the number one species in our studio, cats have visited as well.  In just a couple of weeks our new studio will accommodate cats very well, with a closed off area and plenty of privacy.  Don’t forget the contest to get 10% at your next visit.  Just guess where our new studio we’ll be.  Check yesterday’s post for a couple of clues.  Today’s clue is:  it’s on a major thoroughfare and off a major thoroughfare.  You’re welcomed to cheat.  Just find our van and follow us.  If you stop in for some cool water and a visit you win!

This is Samantha.  She’s a near-adolescent kitten in this shot.  She’s grown now, and still as gorgeous.  She lives with two wonderful friends who have big, big hearts and have adopted 4 cats and one of our favorite Chihuahuas.

I’ve written much about photographing cats and short cuts to getting good shots.  Read about it by sorting tags in the right sidebar.  Select Cat to see how.  The most important thing to remember is to be patient.  Cats require more time because they need to be comfortable in strange surroundings.  It’s possible to get them comfortable by using boxes and apple crates.

As always, please post your photos or comments.  I’d love a critique of mine.  Give it a try, you’ll learn from it, believe me.

Tabby The Golden Persian Cat (Click to enlarge)

Meet Tabitha Scout, known to those who love her as Tabby.  You’ve already met her house-brother, Addy, another gorgeous Persian cat.  See the Atticus Finch post.  They are a couple of showy heavy-weights, for sure.

I post Tabby today to inspire discussion about photographing cats.  Most pet photographers will tell you – I won’t disagree – that getting an animated shot of your pet will almost guarantee the capture of their personality as well.  However, shooting in the studio is a different animal altogether.  Many times an older animal will not feel quite comfortable engaging in raucous play, but can be interested in what may be happening in front of them.  Getting their attention is imperative.

If they feel safe from their apple crate vantage point, you will capture more breed specific poses.  For instance, Persians are known to be quiet and dignified.  Tabby is nothing if she is not dignified.

For more about apple crates, photographing cats, or just to look at more cat portraits, select ‘Cat‘ from the ‘Sort by Tags‘ section in the right sidebar.

Thelma & Louise In Black and White (Click to enlarge)

I’m sure many of you are aware that in digital photography you can make any image black and white in a number of ways.  The best way to do it in Photoshop is to use Image>Adjustments>Black & White…  From this menu you can make selective adjustments for ultimate control.  While post processing, I often take a look at an image as a B&W rendering to see which I like better.  This one of Thelma and Louise seems improved.  The cats are black and white so there will be nothing missing from the capture if we view it sans color.  I thnk it is enhanced.  What do you think?

Thelma & Louise The DSH Cats (Click to enlarge)

Without looking at the chart in the article Is Coat Colour Linked To Temperament, I knew that these two fellas were laid back, placid, even tempered and friendly.  Yep, you heard me right.  Fellas.  Their mom has a sense of humor, for sure.  She adopted them as adults and didn’t know their gender until she had them and loved them in her home for a while.  So Thelma and Louise it is.

Today I’d like to talk about composition.  In past posts about photographing cats, I’ve talked about using apple crates or boxes as a means to comfort your subjects.  They usually settle quite nicely when you give them something to relax against.  For more about methods of shooting cats, in the right side bar click on “Cat Photos”.  Pay particular attention to “…Fence Me In“.

Look at these handsome buddies.  They just sprawled against the boxes and kind of held hands.  If I had books as a prop (I should have.  Dang!) I’d have placed the books above them between bookends.  The problem with the shot is in the standard photographic print sizes.  Most photographers sell standard sizes.  They will print custom sizes, but then the customer has to have them professionally framed.  The shot would look better and be composed properly, but would have cost more.  The aspect of the photo at right is 6×2½ (or about 7×16½), which is not standard, but this loooong look at two adult cats should be cropped like this.

What to do?  You could accept it in one of the standard sizes.  You could make these kitties act right and get themselves posed better.  Or you can give my framing buddies a little bit of biz and have it done right.  Remember, cats are challenging.  When they settle, one up and one down, both on top, or both on the table, you take advantage of what they give you.  Forcing cats to do something they are not comfortable with will not give you a better shot.  Unhappy animals do not make nice portraits.

I try to create affordable art for my customers’ wall, desk or mantle, but when you are photographing pets you may have to consider other options in order to get that perfect wall piece.  As always, please comment on this post or photo or post a photo of your own.

Three Cats & Chihuahua (Click to enlarge)

Easy to see who is it here, isn’t it?  This isn’t one of the proofs my customer chose, but it’s one of my favorites.  I happen to know the Chihuahua (so do you-see The Mothering Kind).  Yep, it’s Phoebe.  She is looking at her mom and dad, not at the jumping, noise-making, toy-waving photographer, as her cat sisters are.  But that’s Phoebe as I know her.  Although the predominant species in our studio is dog, we do get a number of cats as well.  It’s always a challenge, but I’m never disappointed.  This composition was quadruple the challenge!  Nope, no Photoshop technique to report, just patience.

Yesterday I spoke of one of the four elements to better pet photography (see Eye Contact), Planning.  Today it’s Patience.  I can hear you now, “Come on, tell me something I don‘t know“.  Well, I can’t.  This is not magic.  It’s not mysterious.  If you want to make better pet captures, you just have to work at it, and if you follow the advice I’ve employed in and out of my studio since 2005, you will have portraits you can be proud of too.  Patience is an integral element, without which nothing noteworthy will happen.

You can do what I’m doing.  You can hang out a shingle, and charge for what seems like fun, but the captures better please your customers, because most of the fun in our studio is watching the faces of the human companions as they are surprised that their little Phoebe, or Samantha, or Priscilla, or Presley (pictured here) could behave so wonderfully, and look so photogenic.  They know they have a beautiful family.  They just didn’t know they would look so nice on a wall, or a mantle, or a table.

Occasionally I will hear of an event where someone with a camera and skills will announce they are taking pet photos, only to find out they’re sitting on the side of a highway, in an unfenced cement parking lot, when it’s 95° in the shade.  You could do much better.  You know your pet.  You have the ideal location.  You just need to learn about your camera and employ four elements and practice.

As always, please comment on this post or photo.  Don’t forget to post your pics of your hard working dog at work for Take Your Dog To Work Day.  You have until Friday, July 3rd to get them posted to get a free dog toy.  See Happy Take Your Dog To Work Day for details.

Christian The Tabby Cat (Click to enlarge)

This is Christian the cat.  I’m going to call him a brown tabby, as the light coloring hints at a gold or brown.  According to Is Color Linked To Temperament?, Christian’s personality is “quiet, courteous, docile and faithful, but at the same time hardy and courageous”.  His human parents think he is very special, as he found them at a very fortuitous time when they were missing another cat.  The way he looked at the camera in this sweet way just made me want to go over and pet his extra soft coat…and he loved it.

Photographing cats has its own set of challenges.  Begin by understanding the nature of the feline.  Wary and usually independent, they are not used to such things as visiting places miles from their home.  They trust themselves to know danger.  They are not always right, but let’s face it, felines are a successful species, so something they’re doing is right.  Arriving at a studio where many other animals, both canines and felines, have left their scent, feels to them like an African watering hole where a predator may be lurking.  A calm and confident guy like Christian is still wary, but willing to look the predator in the eye and stake his claim.  A more timid cat won’t sit tall like this.  At best they will make themselves comfortable close to the apple crates in a lower position, from which they believe they can keep watch.  For more about setting up for a cat shoot see …Fence Me In.

I happend across a web site recently about pet photography critique.  I thought we could all engage in the topic close to my heart.  Alas, no one has commented there since 2007, and the last comment was more about how difficult it is.  That’ll really curb discussion.  It is my opinion that you can do whatever you want to do; you need only to have a vision, then you must pursue it.  Yesterday I spoke about demystifying the process.  I intend to do just that.  I’d like to be your comrade in action.  Okay, not all of you want to be pros, but if you’re reading this you want to capture better images of your own, family’s or friend’s pets.  As most of my work occurs in the studio, I will be talking about that, but I do foray into the field and would love to discuss your experiences out there in the world of pet photography.

Raindrop The Tortoise Shell Cat (Click to enlarge)

Here’s a consideration for feline-loving readers: do different cats have personality traits specific to color?  Meet Raindrop, the Domestic Short Hair Tortoise Shell cat.  She is one of three well loved and cared for rescue cats living with a big hearted, cat loving woman.  We have many clients with “torties”, and the cats seem to share a sort of capable, aloof but loving trait different from those of other colorings.

This is what we know.  The tortoise shell coloring is “almost exclusive” to females.  I have lived with and loved dearly two torties in my life.  Both female, both spayed by 16 weeks.  They were quite different from others in the household in their temperamental way.  I have also noted a certain intelligence in each of them that seems to set them apart.  My first tortie, Sage, was rescued in the mid eighties out of a Schwegmann’s parking lot in Chalmette, Louisiana and had a totally different body type, narrow face, small head, more Siamese-typed.  She couldn’t have been more than 5 weeks old and sought refuge from the cold in the engine of a car.  It appeared as though she dropped to the pavement after having sustained a head injury, perhaps caused by a fan blade.  She grew to be exceedingly intelligent, but fiercely independent.  She lived a long life but never had sight in one eye.  She was truly the dominant cat in our pride.

Our second tortie, Grace Beatrix, is four years old and though her body type resembles Raindrop, wide face, husky body, she shares that temperamental spirit that we quite enjoy.  She likes to be cuddled, but only when she chooses.  She will boldly hop to the counter right in front of us, knowing she’s broken the rules, but hey, she’s a tortie after all.  There is a very interesting article, Is Coat Color Linked To Temperament?, where it is confirmed by the vets in a cat shelter where the article’s author, Sarah Hartwell works, that the “Naughty Torties” have a certain way about them.  They go on to say that if the coat has any other color (i.e., Raindrop’s white bib), it has a calming effect on temperament.  Neither of our torties, Sage or Grace, have any other color, but they sure are showy and that seems to be what they are aware of.

Of particular interest is the dominant personality traits of the black cat.  In Louisiana, during kitten season (right now, when all shelters are being over-run with kittens and puppies), black felines are the most difficult to place.  No particular data shows any reason for this, yet they wait the longest for placement, if placed at all.  The best information says that black cats are loyal, good natured, friendly and sociable.  Black and whites, Tuxedos, are placid and even-tempered.  What’s not to love here?  It would would seem to me that black cats are the best to be placed in homes with children.  If you have room in your home and heart, I know of two male black kittens who have been bottle-fed since they were two weeks old.  They are being fostered by our friends and are availble for adoption through the St. Tammany Humane Society.  Currently the brothers’ names are George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld.  There is a discounted adoption fee for black cats right now.  These guys are incredibly well socialized, loving, adorable and just waiting for their forever homes.  Their coloring predicts they will be wonderful companions to anyone with a little space and a lot of heart.

Leo The Bengal Kitten (Click to enlarge)

Leo The Bengal Cat Age-1 year (Click to enlarge)

This is the gorgeous Leo, a Bengal Cat.  Looks wild doesn’t he.  Well, he is…sort of.  Bengals are a new (since the ’80s) designer breed of domestic cat which they created (are we getting uncomfortable yet?) by breeding a wild Asian Leopard Cat to a domestic cat such as the Abyssinian, American shorthair, Burmese or Egyptian Mau.  There are some rules about a certain number of generations of breeding  to domestic cats to remove them from the wildness of the Leopard in order to be shown.  It makes me wonder what they do with the generations of cats that are too close to wild.  Research will explain that they are mostly assigned to professional breeders (read: cages) as they are too wild to be socialized by humans.

Leo has a rather long and storied past with no certain future.  He first came to our studio, in December of 2005, with a young man and his two well loved dogs.  At the time, Leo was a very large and still manageable kitten who got along quite well with the canines and people in the household.  If memory serves, this young man came upon this kitten due to the necessity of the breeder to get rid of him after Hurricane Katrina.  The young man was very proud of this acquisition.  Leo was dazzling.  He romped about the studio in a playful and loving way but was easily engaged as most kittens are and could be photographed by using the same toys-on-a-stick tricks I use on all other cats.

Jump ahead to December of 2006.  Young man gains a wife.  Wife becomes pregnant.  Prenatal litter box dis-ease concerns force this young family to give up this precious life.  They do not sell Leo; they make the responsible choice to place him with a big hearted woman who has other rescued animals.  As this photographer’s luck would have it, Leo ends up back in my studio and I am unbelievably excited to see this guy again.  Leo’s new mom is loving and caring.  He is a lucky guy, right?  But Leo really is not a domestic animal.  So he does not act as if he is.  Within a year after his yearling portrait his new mom begins to have behavior problems with him.  He’s huge, by the way, so he destroys all furniture and any hanging fabric in the house.  Well, this doesn’t dissuade her from her love.  But he begins to mark.  This would be a deal-breaker for most families.  Although Leo might like the scent, most humans will be repulsed, then repelled by the pervasive odor of cat markings in the house.  We’re family until the toilet spreads into the kitchen.  Then we need to talk.  But such is the life of the wild in Leo. Leo’s new mom tried for about a year to help Leo assimilate.  He becomes horribly unhappy.  She does something she did not want to do; she opens the door.

I tell this story not to pass judgment on either of Leo’s first humans.  The fuzzy, third party update is that he lives between a couple of households wandering about the neighborhood.  The report continues; he is happy.  But loose in a neighborhood, his future will always be uncertain.  Between the dangers of our roads, and even human cruelties, Leo probably will not live a long life.  That does not only apply to Leo, the semi-wild animal, it applies to any pet with free-roam abilities.  We cannot protect them if we do not confine them.  Good intentions all around.  Young man wants to add a beautiful animal to his family.  Kind hearted woman wants to rescue this beautiful animal.  Outcome, unclear.

When we know better we do better.  Let’s go back to the beginning of this story.  Do we not have enough pet felines available for homes wanting such?  No.  We have more than we could ever find homes for.  See I’m Wild About Anything for statistics about the availability of domestic felines and canines from the American Humane Society.  Do we think we have the right to breed half wild animals for assimilation in families?  Apparently.  But do we?  For what purpose?  These Bengals are designer cats, after all.  We are preserving nothing here.  We are producing, creating, a new breed needing adoption.  What is the human quality which drives us to want to do this?  Do we feel as if we’ve produced art?  Life?

I do not want to hurt or judge; I want to discuss.  I have accrued opinions in my years of roaming the planet, but that does not make me right.  Tell me what your beliefs are about this.  Post your photos or comments about photography, pets or life with them.  Above all, thanks for thinking and reading.

By the way I’ve been asked many times which lens I use for pet photos.  These images were captured using a Nikon D50 with an AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm lens.  However, this set up is not my recommendation.  Although I would really like to add a D3x body to my equipment bag, my current bread and butter set up is a D200 with an AF-S NIKKOR 17-55mm lens, which I added soon after Leo’s yearling portrait was made.  The lens is awesome.  Period.