Kitty’s ‘Good Side’ | Seattle Cat Photography

April 12, 2012January 14, 20164 Comments

It has been one of those weeks!! So today’s photos are kind of inspired by some of the feelings that we all have when we’re tired and weary, and certainly don’t want a camera in our face. Many people ask how I get the cats that I photograph to pose for me and how I capture their many pretty sides; it usually takes shooting off quite a few photos of my feline friends to give me the ‘money shot’, especially since cats are generally not as inclined to cooperate compared to dogs and people.

Well, like us self-conscious humans, animals appear to have their ‘not-so-pretty’ moments that they might not appreciate me sharing with you, but I happen to think they’re still adorable. I always see a lot of character behind these funny, perturbed and ‘why are you flashing that camera thing in my face’ looks.

And of course I do know that it’s only us silly homo-sapiens that care about what we look like to the world around us. I take the photos at the cat rescue so that I show off the cats’ best ‘side’ so that a potential adopting home may be drawn to the animal by their profile picture online (match-making at its finest and most useful, I’d say). Sometimes it’s the quirks and imperfections that make us/them more appealing anyway.

I also need to get beyond my own need to look half-way good in every photo of me, and let (aghast!) more be taken especially of me and Roman; I take so many of everyone else around me, that from my photo albums you’d think I didn’t really exist. But until then, everyone may sometimes see some of these looks appearing on my face in photos. I will post smiles and pretty things soon, but I hope these at least give you a chuckle.

xo ~ K

PS. Feel free to comment with your own captions for these photos!! I’d love to see what you’ve got.

This much is certain: when a man is happy, happy to the core and root of beatitude, he is no longer conscious of himself or anything else. ~ Meister Eckhart

Some Spring Thoughts | Seattle Animal Photography

March 31, 2012January 14, 20162 Comments

My boy and I had a lovely day together at the zoo recently, and I’m looking forward to more sunny spring days here where I can get out and about taking photos. Once I figure out what my naughty stomach is doing to me, and once I’ve shaken this cold and got some energy back, maybe that will be possible. And this is assuming we have some more nice days…we have had some wacky weather lately.

The giraffe shot was taken with my brother in mind, since he understands the ‘skill involved’ within that shot. Although, since the funny-looking fellow seemed to be looking right at me, I’m not sure what to make of his ‘gesture’ personally. Catching the bear basking in the spring sun made for an adorable sight, but take a peek at the long claws on his paw in that photo…

When I go to the zoo, I always have mixed feelings come up. I am happy to take my little boy so that he may see all these rare, many almost extinct, fascinating animals; I want him to learn about the different amazing creatures in the animal kingdom, and hopefully learn to appreciate that zoos are there to help with conservation, education, and breeding programs.

He’s excited to see the animals that fill the pages of children’s story books, and see that they really do exist. But I’m constantly reminded of the sad truth behind keeping these animals in their enclosures, in zoos, in wildlife preserves…we need them because all kinds of animals, birds and marine life are losing their right to live wild and free, safe from poachers, hunters, polluters and land developers. I read an article in TIME Magazine recently entitled ‘Nature Is Over’ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2108014-1,00.html and the whole concept made my heart sink. I don’t want nature to disappear. How could that be??! I don’t want my child to know a future where humans have obliterated all that is natural around us. I think that will be a sad, sad day. I also think it will be a very grave day; we are already seeing the impact we have had on the world around us and it’s not looking pretty. And by the way, did you go and see ‘The Lorax’ movie yet? If not why not?!!

*I love this link to The Lorax Project, so check it out… http://www.seussville.com/loraxproject/

Spring brings us that feeling that growth and new beginnings are possible; we see the flowers blooming, buds opening on trees, the grass is greener, and people get busy in their gardens (I seriously need my energy back to do something with ours – it’s looking shameful!). It’s the change in the trees, the sky, the light, the life that is in nature around us that brings those feelings and inspiration. I feel grateful to live in a city that embraces the natural world within and around it; we have so many parks and green spaces, we are surrounded by mountains and water. I doubt I can ever get my little family to the depths of the Amazon or the plains of Africa to see all the wildlife and natural wonders that I’d like us to see, but I can appreciate the nature that I see around me all the time, and hope that Roman always sees the wonder in it too.

xo ~ K

“In Nature there are no rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

Francisco | Seattle Cat Photography

March 23, 2012January 14, 2016Leave a comment

I am up way too late to write a real post but because I love the photos I got today of the handsome and very regal Francisco, I thought I’d share them. He has been at the shelter animaltalkrescue.org for a while now, with his more-shy brother Anconia, and in the past he has played a little hard to get. But today I got his soft side and all his attention. More beautiful cats from this session to come very soon!

xo ~ K

A cat may look at a king. – English Proverb

Catching rays, my muse | Seattle Cat Photography

March 16, 2012January 14, 20162 Comments

Today I was happily out and about to a couple of foster cat homes to take some photos; both kitties (Bee and Velvet) I had met before at the rescue but now are in great foster homes, and so have a less stressful, more comfortable slice of life. It’s great to see rescue cats blossom once they are in ‘foster care’ and in their new forever homes; the individual attention they receive away from the stress of the many cats and hustle and bustle of a busy rescue, allows the shy, submissive, previously sick or neglected cats, to come out of their proverbial shells. They find their voices, they discover that there are humans out there that provide love, shelter, compassion and a warm bed, and they don’t have to be scared anymore.

I haven’t had the chance to go through Bee and Velvet’s photos from today yet, and I will likely have to go back for some more from Velvet (very shy but strikingly beautiful), so I am posting some of my cat Jeffers catching some rays on our dining table. He could easily be used as a reflector, his white fur just gleams in the sun. I adopted Jeffers from animaltalkrescue.org (where I do the volunteer photography for); he never was shy though, and he is so at home here.These sunny shots taken during some of the brief Seattle sun we have had lately, warm me up for just a moment…

So today I hear that a friend found some of my images in use on some random sites in a search she did online, and of course, they are uncredited to me. I know that in this Internet age there are just so many photos flying around in cyberspace but as far as copyrighting goes, the moment you take that photo, it’s yours…it’s copyrighted. My hope is that anyone reading and following my blog will be a good ‘web neighbor’ and not take my photos without permission, and give credit where it is due. Photographers share their photos within this crazy medium, in order to share their art and to communicate a message or story (and by all means share if it’s going to get a cat adopted!), but stealing is stealing. Everyone appreciates getting credit for their work and a simple link back or a simple request to use a photo, would be a much-appreciated act. I was discussing with a friend the other day how my mum always tried to drum it into me that ‘imitation is the highest form of flattery’. Maybe so, but not when you don’t give credit to the person you are imitating, and with this stuff, it’s considered outright theft! I don’t claim my photos as being anywhere near perfect but they’re mine, that’s all. If anyone sees my images being used elsewhere without them being linked back to me or without due credit, please let me know. Thank you! Lots of kitty karma your way!

I’m off to finish watching some Kubrick genius (‘The Shining’) and hoping there are more glimpses of Spring to be seen this weekend. I am also hoping for a less migraine-filled couple of days.

xo ~ K

“Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.” ~ Ansel Adams

Perfect Imperfection | Seattle Film Photography

March 13, 2012January 14, 2016Leave a comment

Hooray for analog! I finally got around to the long (although not quite arduous) process of getting my medium format film prints into their new square photo album this afternoon. Having the prints in a square format (some 5 inch square, some 4) makes them automatically special, but it’s the getting them there and into a real live, not-on-the-computer, album that makes it all so extra special.

Taking photos on film, in any format, involves you in such a different process from that of digital photography, and until I got my Diana F+ a few Christmases ago, I’d mostly left film photography behind for some time. Back when I was working on feature films, I had basically become a film snob, and would abhor anything that would be shot on anything but 35mm celluloid, for the process and production values at the time when working with film, just magnified a project to further greatness. Everyone has now gone digital in the lands of both professional photography and film-making but there are signs everywhere of nostalgia for those mediums; there has been a resurgence in what is called the ‘analog lifestyle’; go see http://www.lomography.com/ if you want to see how the Lomo movement has taken off with and grab every cool camera to do so with. And funnily enough, every camera app on your iPhone wants to replicate film, to get the look and feel of its simplicity, its unsuspecting colors and its element of surprise. I love using the phone apps but they don’t truly represent the process of taking photos on film, getting them developed and into your hot little hands, where they were highly anticipated for so long (usually the next day, actually). You had to make sure every shot counted and there were always some good, and disappointing surprises with the returned prints.Then finally getting those beautifully imperfect prints into an album – not even into separate plastic dividers inside, just with actually photo mounts straight onto the page – feels like the most wonderful thing. For if photos aren’t meant to be gazed over (other than on a phone display or on you laptop), what are they for? There’s a major satisfaction of holding that imperfect surprise of a print in your hot little hands…and there you go, that is your art.

As photographers now, with all the new technology and post-processing available, you find yourself expecting nothing less than perfection. Perfect composition, lighting, exposure, posing, editing, all of it; some aspects of the medium have allowed us to get close to perfect, particularly with the new ability to take countless shots without worrying about wasting frames/money. But we may spend too much time trying to get that ‘perfect shot’ these days…

I think I will set myself a personal cat project with film because I think this would be a lot harder challenge against digital. I would expect most pet photographers to agree that they can take a lot of shots of cats and dogs at a session but most will be throw-aways, due to the activity and often non-compliance (or if you’d like to say, they had a different agenda that day). I don’t think I’d be able to do the same pet portraits on film, but I’d go in with hope that the less-than-perfect shots held their character as I imagined but still showed me some great surprises. I will have to research some pet photographers of the past who shot on film…

On to a week of organizing photos, possibly a cat session and a model session, as well as prepping for school portraits! It’s keeping me busy but it also keeps me sane; it all serves as therapy!