Li Ward photographer of pets and weddings. Fat Orange Cat Studio is a fresh and candid boutique photography service in Boston, Massachusetts.

Here was Dasha the French Bulldog back in June:

Sleepy baby Dasha

Here is Dasha now, having just celebrated her 7-month birthday, looking happy, confident, and very roly poly!

Smiley teenaged Dasha

I loved seeing her again. She greeted us outside the front door gate when we pulled in, and nearly scraped my kneecaps off as she jumped for my attention. Burly Dasha, 4 months older and 20+ lbs heavier since I saw her last! I noticed new spots inside her ears and here underbelly, as well as this cute smudge off the corner of her right eye that makes it look as if she’s wearing eyelashes.

Her mom says the dark half of her face is her favorite side. The white side is mine because of that misplaced fake eyelash!

New underbelly spots….

…and new friends…

New friends with delicious stinky dog treats, that is. Those legs are Dan’s. I was wondering for a second there why she was so taken with him.

Dasha is participating in her first show next month. Here she demonstrates her show dog stance.

Later D!

Thank you Dasha for another fun-filled shoot!

But WAIT! there’s more…

There are PUPPIES! Dasha and French Bulldog puppies everywhere! So stay tuned. The squealing will never stop.

I have a small window in which to post these photos before I will bury it with other posts so that my sister-in-law Meg will not know that I have plastered her face all over my blog. She did say it was OK but I also know once she sees them she’ll get all embarrassed. Anyway she’s traipsing about in Italy right now, attending the wedding of a former co-worker whom she now rarely sees – this friend living in Italy and all -  so as a wedding gift Meg wanted to give a little portrait of herself. The premise was to have grab a few shots of her around Boston but with some Italian literature visible, ie she’s at home in Boston but thinking of faraway places where old friends are…Meg dreaming of Italy.

OK! So the premise might be a little cheesy! She’s holding travel books and chewing thoughtfully on pens, looking off into the distance…not exactly artfully or subtly done! But behind the scenes this was a really enlightening and fun exercise for the both of us. It took awhile for the shoot to get to “fun” because even though it was her idea, Meg was a NERVOUS WRECK the moment I pulled out the camera.  Finding nice spots with good lighting and/or backdrops, fiddling with the camera controls, pressing the shutter were the least of my worries. The subject NOT BREATHING out of nervousness was the biggest.

It is a very symbiotic relationship, this whole subject and photographer thing. I really need to work on ways to make people subjects comfortable. It really isn’t easy being in front of a camera when you’re trying to pretend that you’re not.

So here are some shots. We met at the Boston Public Garden after work and posed at the Swan Boat docks.

What IS she thinking about? France? Spain? The Grand Canyon?

Then we headed to the Boston Common.

Since it might not be clear to the recipient where we are, we took some shots in next to a t-shirt cart. But look, she still has her Italy books! Our “Meg Dreaming of Italy Whilst in Boston” theme remains intact!!

Some shots near Frog Pond in the Common. I was ALL OVER the fading sunlight. Mmm yummy yummy delicious sunlight.

But I showed Meg the photos, and she said, “My head is glowing” in such a way that indicated she did not like that her head was glowing. I was like, WHAT?! That is on PURPOSE. It is sun flare! How can you not like sun flare? Do you know how proficient one has to be in order to shoot sun flare?

So lesson learned is that thoughts like the last one I had isn’t something the subject will give two craps about, if it makes their hair look like “straw.” Or their nose look “honking.” Or their forehead look “in need of Botox.” Or their hips look “terrible.” Hey. I just remembered why I enjoy shooting animals so much! Heh.

But OK, no more back-lit shots. We moved to the bench on the other side, so that Meg was facing the sun. I normally don’t like shooting from this vantage point because everything is just too evenly warm and golden. But the sun was really fading by then, lessening the degree of golden-ness, and I post-processed the image to black and white which I thought looked really great.

I think she looks posed but relaxed and natural.

This is the shot she chose to give her friend. I thought she looked great in all the shots, but this was my fave.

Now that I’ve posted photos I guess it’s only fair now to post some photos of myself that Meg took. I look extremely silly in these. And stoned in one. It really is difficult being in front of the camera, especially without direction!

Makes me appreciate even more just how much a photographer needs to do in order to get great pictures – and lot of it has nothing to do with a camera.

Ooooo. Where did this box come from? Tiffany? Hermes?

No, better! Fat Orange Cat Studio!

Last week I packaged up an order for Anya the English pointer, whose session took place at her summer home on Cape Cod. She actually lives not far from us here in the South End, so I was able to hand-deliver the prints myself. Usually when I am able to hand-deliver, I will write up a little thank you note, package up the prints in a nice envelope like this, add a biz card and call it a day. But since Anya’s order was so large – because her parents are so rad – I decided that her packaging needed to be a little more special. I couldn’t just hand them a bulging envelope. I needed to hand them a box. So I headed to Paper Source to see what I could use, and found these great portfolio folders wrapped in book cloth. I snagged a few in blue, got a spool of orange ribbon, glued a strand once around the cover for some extra spice, tucked all the envelopes and CD and whatnot into the slot, and voila.

Here are the contents deconstructed:

I had: thank you note written on my letterpress cards (yay!), biz cards, an envelope of 8×10s, a smaller envelope of 5×7s, package of magnets, CD of the photo session, and two mini accordions.

The mini accordions are a new addition to the FOCStudio product line, and they are so cool:

Mini accordions are 3×3 with 6 images on the front, 4 on the back. The front and back are covered in book cloth in the FOCStudio colors of navy blue, light blue and orange.
As a promotion, I am offering 2 mini accordions for $18.00 to all clients who book between now and the end of the year. They make great gifts!

I’ve been offering magnets for awhile, after receiving some samples from the printer’s. I really loved them. They are so fun and come in 4×5 with beveled edges.

Magnets come in sets of 4 (can all be unique) for $35.00

Now we come to my favorite product – Mounted Prints! They are prints adhered directly to a thick fiber board with black beveled edge and are ready to hang. I have had 6 hanging in The Buttery Cafe & Bistro since May, and am really happy that clients have been noticing them and ordering them.

Anya has two of herself as Mounted Prints, both in sizes 24×30. Art for your walls!

Here is another Mounted Print with Bunny for scale, and displayed on my walls. You can see the keyhole in the back. This one of Balki the Boston is 20×30.

I had a promotion running in July and August, with all Mounted Prints having a 3/8″ beveled edge. All the ones above are 3/8″ thick.

Starting now they will now have a 3/4″ edge. See below:

It’s Kitty’s magnificent rump as Mounted Print, sized 11×14 with the 3/4″ beveled edge.

Mounted Prints are my absolute favorite way to display prints – eye-catching but minimalist. Sizes are available from 11×14 to 30×40, and prices start at $110.00

To see more info, visit my Products & Pricing page!

Julie M. and her Olde English Bulldog!

AND

Caroyln C. and her Bernese Mountain Dog!

Since I had so many entries from the SOWA “It’s a Dog’s Life” raffle on Sunday, and Bunny & Veebs were fighting each other to draw the winning entry, I decided to let them pick one each and have two winners. More fun for everyone!

Julie and Carolyn, I will be in touch with you soon to set up a photo session! Thanks again to everyone who stopped by the counter on Sunday and said hello. The photo gallery is still up, so if you haven’t yet, be sure to check it out and see if you spot your dog!

There were many first during this dog shoot over the weekend. It was the first time I met a Shar Pei in person. It was the first time I used my new Nikon D700 on a gig. It was the first time in a looong time I came away with less than 900 photos in one session (I go overboard), and that was due to this being the first time active shooting lasted around 30 minutes. That’s it! Just 30 minutes! Usually I average about 1.5 hours, and if you have a puppy, make it at least 2. But despite being a ribbon-winning show dog, Fergie is shy around strangers, so her mom wanted to keep the shooting time at a minimum. She told me upfront that she was going to be happy with whatever I come up with so not to worry – she plans to have me out again to do more anyway, she said. I love you, I said!

I’ll admit though that I was a bit thrown off by all this at first, and wished I had brought my hip flask with me. But the hyperventilating really picked up when I saw on the walls photos of Max the chocolate Shar Pei, Fergie’s predecessor, shot by none other than Amanda Jones. Amanda Jones, who is not so much a pet photographer as she is THE pet photographer. Her work of Max was all over the house. I was like OMG what! Am I doing! Here! Fergie’s mom only recently acquired her, but decided pretty soon afterwards that Fergie needed to be photographed like Max. So she called. (me!!) Max by Amanda Jones, Fergie by Fat Orange Cat Studio. !!! The woman is like a Patron of the Animal Arts. I lurve her. So much.

The building up of confidence is going to be an on-going thing, but I will say that I was really happy with the shots I was able to get in such a short period of time. So here is Fergie in her first photo shoot. She did beautifully (as did my new camera. Love love love)!

I was debating whether or not to post the below photo.

Fergie’s mom made a mention of Fergie’s unmentionables, and namely how…pronounced…they are…I mean there’s no denying it so let’s just all acknowledge it right now, her hooha says HELLO HOW ARE YOU FINE WEATHER WE’RE HAVING! and as a kind of joke I suggested capturing her backside up close in the way of Georgia O’Keefe…I didn’t get quite so macro afterall, but I really like how in this shot she’s standing at the intersection of two spotlights, backside taking center stage. And I think it’s a little artful and was captured tastefully. Maybe.

Lots of treats to keep the model happy.

And that’s a wrap.

Thank you Fergie! Looking forward to shoot #2!