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

Thank you to Kathi of Bark Place and Washington Gateway for having me participate in the “It’s a Dog’s Life” event at SOWA Open Studios this past Sunday! It was a lot of fun and a pleasure meeting fellow dog-lovers and residents of the South End. I love living here! (Sick of hearing me say that, are you?)

VanBuren, the fat orange cat himself, will draw the an entry from the raffle bowl tomorrow and the winner of a photo session with Fat Orange Cat Studio will be announced on Thursday!

In the meantime, here are some scenes from Sunday. See the full gallery of dogs here.

I have so much to talk about, including some of the products displayed on the counter. I don’t think I’ve ever described them much on this blog. So in addition to the usual framed and matted 8x10s and 5x7s, I displayed 11×14 examples of Mounted Prints – prints adhered to thick fiber board and ready to hang – and cool mini accordions. The Mounted Prints I have been offering for some time now, and am pleased that clients have been going for them. If you’ve ever been to the South End Buttery, all the large prints you see there are Mounted Prints. I’ll be showing more examples of those and some other products in an up-coming post. It’s been on my to-do list for some time!

And as an aside for fellow camera-lovers out there, will someone tell me how I ever manged to shoot for so long without a full frame digital camera?! I’ve been using the Nikon D700 exclusively since I got it just several days ago — for this event, for a dog client shoot and a human being shoot (gah!). The 50mm has not come off the camera and I am flabbergobstunned by the vibrance and sharpness of the images. And I like the way it CLICKS when I press the shutter. Such a satisfying, crisp little click.

See below Before & Afters. I shot in JPEG and Vibrance mode, manual settings and manual WB. The images on the left are SOOC. The photos of the right have had blacks and fill light increased a TEENY TINY bit. The second B&A had a little bit of color correction as well to remove the greenish tinge. Overall, in the right light or no, shots have been afreakinmazing straight out of the camera.

Nuts, right?! Can’t wait to share more!

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS FROM SOWA OPEN STUDIOS DOG EVENT!

Happy weekend! Just a quick note to say that I will be participating in Boston’s annual South End Open Studios, which is happening this Saturday Sept 19 and Sunday Sept 20, 2009. In addition to the huge collection of artists, indie designers and crafts people who sell their wares outdoors – swoon! – this weekend’s SOWA Open Market will also feature additional 250 private artist studios, galleries and stores that will open their doors to the public.

On Sunday (only) from 12 to 4, I’ll be partnering up with Bark Place Dog Spa and Boutique for an indoor dog event/celebration at 1313 Washington St. There will be fun agility demos and trials for your pups to participate in. I will be there photographing in general, as well as shooting informal portraits for holiday cards (yes we have to start thinking about the holidays already!!).

See more info here.

Photos will made available soon after the event on my online gallery. I’ll also have a small booth displaying some of my prints, as well as a raffle to win a photo session with Fat Orange Cat Studio. Yay!

So if you’re in the Boston area, stop by with your pooch for a visit. The weather is supposed to be beeYOOtiful this weekend. A browse through SOWA Open Market/Studios would be the perfect way to spend it — and your money!

(Aside: I go every Sunday and last weekend I scored an original 1871 hand-colored map of Boston. My current street is on there, but there are surrounding streets that are drawn out but not yet named, as South End was just being filled in at the time. On the map, parts of Back Bay were still tidal marsh, as well as the area where Fenway Park now sits. Very very cool.)

Floyd is one lucky and cherished puppy. His parents have been searching high and low for a someone like him, and when the opportunity suddenly presented itself, they were on a plane to Ohio lickidity split to bring him home. They weren’t looking just for any Cavalier King Charles Spaniel you see. They were looking for the PERFECT Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. A rescue.

Floyd was saved from a puppy mill that was going to, you know, let him go, because he didn’t have the right coloring. Ugh! Who cares about coloring when such character is to be had! This little guy is just full of personality and confidence. I called him the Mayor of Boston because he had to stop for everyone and say hello, especially for his fellow four-legged citizens. The two-legged animals were quite eager to make his acquaintance as well. It might have been a little foolish on my part to have Floyd and his mom meet me at the Make Way for Ducklings statues in the Public Garden. All the children! All the squealing! You would have thought Paul McCartney had just showed up. Floyd spent the first ten minutes signing autographs before we had to pry him away for his photo shoot.

OK so I don’t want to interject the photos (lots of them! so hard to narrow down!) with too much text so I’ll just say upfront what fun this shoot was. So, so fun. There was his mom, his mom’s friend, me and Dan, all working hard for the money (one of these shoots I swear I will hire a photog of my own to take behind-the-scenes shots. We must have looked INSANE).
There was much laughing. And near wipe-outs in the mud.
There was an actress with her German shepherd who Floyd befriended in Beacon Hill.
There was an enormous Chocolate Lab with whom itty bitty Floyd fearlessly engaged in a Showcase Showdown for the return of his stuffed toy.
There were shots in a flower pot in front of Senator Kerry’s townhouse.
There was a huge group of German tourists walking up Acorn St. who made such a commotion over Floyd that I got in some trouble with a resident.  I think I’m officially banned from shooting there again. Oops!

But it was all totally worth it! So without further ado…

A perfect way to spend a Sunday evening. Thank you for being so charming Floyd, and see you again soon!

I’m playing a little bit of hooky to upload some test photos. These are brought to you by my new Nikon D700 that arrived this evening, just as the light was beginning to disappear. Perfect for testing out the ISO performance right out of the gate!

I signed for package, ripped it open, put in a freshly charged battery, attached my 50mm f/1.4 lens, applied the menu settings to my usual liking. Love how the controls are pretty much the same as the D300! No need to flip through manuals. Not that I did that anyway with the D300 when I first got it, heh. With that done, all that was left was to snatch myself a Bunny Rabbikins to be my first subject.

50mm, f/1.4, 1/250 sec, ISO 3200

Oops. Forgot to turn off the AF assist light. It made Bunny all squinty, and you can see it reflecting off his left eye. Dan says he looks like he just crash landed on this planet, and I caught him as he’s crawling out of his smoldering space craft. Ha ha!

50mm, f/1.4, 1/250 sec, ISO 3200

I’ve had the 50mm for 3 years now, the first lens I ever purchased, and on a full-frame camera it’s like I bought whole new lens! For free! I’ve always felt it was a little too long for indoor shots, but on the D700 I was able to get these shots of Bunny comfortably. No having to crush myself against a wall.

After a couple indoor shots with Bunny, I went up on the roof deck to do some dusky city shots. As luck would have it, our neighbor’s cat Bella emerged from her rooftop hatch just as I was ready to shoot. She comes and goes as she pleases, and glimpses of her are few and far between. She usually scurries off when she sees me. If I could chase her and make her be my friend, believe me I would. But I’m too scared I’d like, plummet to my death in the process. Luckily today, she decided to grace me with her fluffy presence for longer than usual, and sat close enough for me to get some really pretty photos of her enjoying the sights and sounds of Boston at dusk. I feel really lucky to have gotten these!

Also taken at f/1.4, 1/250 sec, ISO 3200. Noise? What noise?
PS I kind of wish we could let our boys hang outdoors like this. But they don’t have Bella’s rooftop smarts.

I’m so looking forward to shooting with the D300+17-55mm and D700+50mm at a wedding in October! Hopefully I won’t be telling myself afterwards that I need another lens. The credit card needs a major breather.  I do think I can make these pairings work, so woot woot! I’m a full-framed gal!

Meet Clive, the sweetest Springer Spaniel in the South End. He’s 10 months old and still has floppy puppy ears and big puppy paws. He received a grooming just before the shoot (hee hee, don’t you just love dog parents), so he was so soft and so pretty that my pronoun usage lapsed once again and all day I was referring to Clive as a “she.” Sorry Clive! But on this shoot Clive ate a lot of treats, and did it while on the forbidden leather couch, gasp. So I hope that makes up for my gender slip-ups.

It wasn’t until I was cycling through some of the first shots that I noticed Clive’s extremely exotic eye color, which pierced through the camera’s LCD screen like a shard of ice. One eye is brown, while the other is brown and blue. AND white. A little crescent without pigment.

Oooo…Aaaah…

His multi-colored eyes were beautiful and so great to photograph, but they were just a few of the many reasons why shooting Clive was so fun and so rewarding. Not only was he gorgeous, he had the most wonderful personality and was game for anything, like playing ball and wandering all around South End in search of pretty light and interesting textures for him to sit next to. :)

Here we are playing fetch at Blackstone Park, an unofficial dog park in the South End.

Then we got in some pretty sun shots in front of the community garden (no dogs allowed, too bad) in Rutland Square.

And against some very cool textures on nearby walls.

I am ENAMOURED with the way his ice-blue eye just pops. So striking against his black fur.

And finally, some shots inside the courtyard between the SOWA galleries before we headed home.

I absolutely love urban shoots, especially when they occur in my neighborhood. I’m getting more familiarized with the area, and not just what parks and what stores are where, but what the light is doing off of/through/around what wall/group of trees/building at what time, heh. I’m becoming a light and wall nerd, or something, and happily so.

Also happily, the more I shoot around here, the more connected I feel to the community. So I’m very glad to have met new friends who I can wave hello to when we see each other at the corner coffee shop. Thank you Clive, Shannon, Mike and for the fun-filled shoot! See you around the neighborhood!