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

I had a great shoot recently with a goofy boxer named Kendall. Her owners are opening up a new pet food shop in the Back Bay, and wanted some photos of their motley crew of one dog and two cats to adorn the store walls. They were hoping to capture the essence of their pets – and of Boston too. Yay! I love shooting in the Back Bay, and especially now when spring is in full bloom. After what feels like endless winters, there is nothing better than Boston in the spring. We have cherry trees and tulips, lilacs and wisteria. We have sailboats on the Charles River. And of course, we have baseball. I had a hard time ending the shoot with so many great elements in place. It was only until people started chattering – the downfall of spring in Boston is that it does still get chilly, especially along the water – that I realized it was probably time to stop.

We started along lovely Beacon Street and headed to the river. It will soon be obvious that Kendall l.o.v.e.s her baseball, to the point of distraction! Since it was instrumental in helping me to get 99.9% of all shots, I think I will dedicate this post to Kendall’s baseball.

This post is dedicated to:

Kendall’s Baseball

Thank you to Kendall and your baseball for a WONDERFUL shoot! Kendall’s feline sibling Yogi will be coming up soon. Yogi is the very definition of a “fat orange cat.”

BEHIND THE SCENES

Mom, Dad, photog, husband/assistant, and baseball. Pretty much all hands on deck here.

Since we know Kendall has eyes only for her baseball, to get her to look at the camera I had my lovely assistant Dan hold the baseball right next to the lens.

If the baseball wasn’t in Kendall’s mouth or in someone’s hands, then it was in the water. We lost count how many times Kendall dropped the ball, and in her panic to retrieve it, her legs would flail about wildly, which only resulted in kicking the ball away. And away it goes rolling, into the water. Over and over and over. Ha ha!

It is now time to meet a very handsome, regal pair of beagles. They are Louie and Marley of Brookline, MA. I met up with them, their mom and 2 year-old sister on a late afternoon day that couldn’t decide whether or not it was going to rain cats and dogs. There were emails and phone calls back and forth before we finally decided to postpone…then at the last minute the clouds parted and the sun shone and we decided to go for it. Then it got cloudy again. Then it didn’t. In any case this is positively the last time I take any meteorologists’ word for it. Barring an erupting volcano, we are going ahead with the shoot! Rain or shine, it always, always seems to work out.

Marley with her lookalike doll.

Little M is having her dinner of pasta and milk, and Marley and Louie take up position for any goodies that may fall.

They are patient, but earnest.

Marley and Louie, we loves you!

I am wayhayhay behind on photo sharing, so before another week goes by without content, I thought I’d post some quick photos of the one thing that can be understood in all languages: MEW MEW MEW.

Our neighbor Marna and friend of the Animal Rescue League of Boston invited us over for the first in what I hope will be an on-going series called “Kittens and Wine Friday.” In a safe and welcoming environment, we drink wine, nibble on cheese, and discuss the current state of kitten affairs. The kittens in question this week (and probably the next) were Freddy and Trip, a pair of 5 week-old orphans that Marna is currently fostering. She took over for another foster whose responsibility was to bottle-feed these little gremlins, since their mother had died shortly after giving birth. They are but weeeeee weeeee things.

This is Trip:

This is Freddy:

And this is Figaro, aka The Big Fig!

He was the first cat I photographed at the shelter many moons ago. After months and months at the shelter, Marna ended up adopting him. Figaro is the most awesomest cat ever, don’t tell Veebs or Bunny. He is a full-figured boy with garlic bulb markings on his face and is just such a character. He so far has helped foster 6 kittens or so, showing them how to properly stalk and chase string.

Here he is with Freddy – the little black blob at the end of the string – for scale.

A big thanks to Marna and Figaro for hosting Kitten and Wine Friday! We’re hoping to reciprocate the gesture soon…Again, don’t tell Veebs or Bunny.

At the beginning of March Dan and I traveled to Seattle, WA for a couple of days to meet my friend S., after many false attempts to meet before. As the person to give me my first paid photography gig, I call her my Patroness of the Arts. It all started one afternoon I was having a particularly un-fun day at work, and I randomly said to her, Girl. Sigh. I want to be a photographer. This was summer 2008, a few months after I had declared to myself that I wanted to Become a Photographer, but still had no idea what kind, much less how to go about becoming one. She was the first person aside from my husband who I had said this outloud to. And her response to what was really an offhand remark was to mail me boxes upon boxes of yarn…not for me to knit, but for me to photograph. For the last several years S. has been running her own business as a purveyor of fine hand-dyed yarns – yarn she dyes herself, full-time (there is a market for everything!!) – and her business was growing so rapidly that doing things like photographing your own wares was becoming a pain. And, she didn’t feel she was doing it well anyway, so she asked if I would do it, and to charge her for it. I had my little Nikon D50 then, used a tripod, taped a large sheet of white paper against the wall and over a small table, and snapped away!

Boxes of yarn were dropped at the door each week, with sparkling new colors and yarn types to photograph, process, and post to the web. She gave me license to come up with skein “poses.” I wuz in heaven.

Then one day S. emailed me and said, “I’m getting my puppy Augustus professionally photographed today!” I pictured her poor dog being coerced into a wicker basket in front of some garish studio backdrop, and I might have laughed and mocked her. But she was not shamed. She knew what she was getting. A week later she sent me previews from the shoot. My pupils dilated. I went bananas. Lost my mind. Ran around in circles and puked in a corner, my reaction was so severe. I had no idea that “pet photography” could be this way, and it was an instant eureka moment of I WANT TO DO THAT/CAN DO THAT/MUST DO THAT. I was on year 6? 7? of our annual Bunny & Veebs cat calendar, done for my own amusement, and though the photos were deemed by family members as “artsy,” I simply took that as, “You photograph them from funny angles.” I never thought others would want their pets photographed in this way – candidly, at home, in their element, beautifully – but as soon as I saw Erin Vey’s photos it seemed so freaking obvious.

A few months prior I had declared to myself I wanted to become a photographer, but didn’t know What or How. Three months later, thanks to my Patroness of the Arts and Augustus, I knew the what, and could begin the process of the how.

After all that it was so great to finally meet her and Augustus in person. We sat around her house in lovely Seattle eating and discussing ideas for my business, her business. And of course there was a lot of photographing of critters – 4 cats and 2 dogs, one of which was a new CKC puppy for Augustus to play with. They will all make an appearance soon, but first up is Augustus, now at 2 years old. He is such a handsome dog with such a handsome personality. I think this might officially be my favorite breed. It was spring time already in early March, sakura blossoms and camellias were out in full force. It was almost too much!

BEHIND THE SCENES. Sort of.
We took Augustus out for a couple of walks while his mom made some business calls. Dan has never owned a dog. I think he looks really, really good walking a dog, which means we must get one.

More critters from Seattle to come!

Jen is a wedding photographer and a professional stayer-behind-the-camera-er. Even if you manage a snapshot of her, she’s still behind the camera. But for a few hours one afternoon, she gamely quelled the butterflies in her stomach and stepped in front. Just because she was afraid. Afraid of what, we will never know, because as soon as she stepped in front the camera was like GIRL RUN AWAY WITH ME TO MEXICO.

We started in the Boston Common, weaved our way through Beacon Hill, chasing the light, stopped at the docks on the Esplanade and ended at the Commonwealth Ave Mall just in time for twinkling tree lighting. Afterwards I discovered about 99.9% of all the photos were shot into the sun. The only reason it isn’t 100% is because the clouds rolled in towards the end. I was about to apologize for all the backlighting, but you know what, screw you! I love backlighting okay? Especially these days when the sun has been few and far between. Luckily Jen likes backlighting too, so as long as we’re on the same page, it’s all good.

The first image here was the very first shot I took, as I was taking out the camera out of the bag. I could see the whites of Jen’s eyes. So to ease ourselves into the shoot, I fired a sneaky peeky without looking into the view finder. They don’t always turn out, but it’s fun when they do.

Jen should get in front of the camera more…