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

If Jane Eyre were to hire me to be her calligrapher for her wedding invitation…

This of course would be letterpressed. And it also pretends that the great chestnut tree did not get spliced in half by lightning, and that Thornfield Hall was not burned to the ground by a crazy person. Among other things.

If I were able to draw a tree, I would. I can’t draw trees for the life of me.

As far as the photographs go, I’m sure a little wedding like this would be a feast for the camera. (Is there a real Jane Eyre out there who wants me to photograph their wedding out in the foggy, overgrown wilds of England? Hee?)

Phil the playful beagle lives with his parents in Boston’s Seaport District. Boston is actually a tiny little city and I feel like by now I know all its kooky nooks and crannies. But dump me somewhere beyond the Financial District and it’s all pin the tail on the donkey for me. I don’t know what’s left or right, even with OCEAN staring me in the face. And despite being on the waterfront, the area to me has been confusingly…blank. There’s nothing to see, nothing to eat.  But things in the Seaport District seem to be changing. The high-end retailer Louis Boston moved from their landmark location smack in the middle of Boston to this area. There is a bar called Drink that I’ve been dying to go to. And the Institute for Contemporary Arts museum is also here. I think every wedding photographer I know has shot at the ICA, so I was curious to do it myself. And it’s always great to shoot somewhere new and with a fresh perspective.

Hm I just learned that this is area is officially called the South Boston Waterfront. Anyway…onto Phil! We met at the ICA (where we competed for space with an engagement shoot, heh), then made our way to the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The photos are a birthday gift for Phil’s dad.

Phil likes to run, likes to jump, loves bicycles and America too! He also likes to be anti-establishment.

Here at last are some of my favorite photos from Sarah and Rich’s homegrown wedding, which took place on a beautiful last-of-summer’s day in southern Maine. The venue was Pineland Farms. As you may or may not know, I pretty much got into wedding photography so I could do weddings like this specifically, and since I’ve had over a year to gush about the fact that Sarah DID hire me (which you can read all about here), I won’t go any further with the babbling now that I have actual photos to show. At last!

But first…

Ingredients for a Homegrown Wedding

• Guests received beautiful invitations letterpressed by Sarah herself (of course). These invitations were delivered via vintage stamps carefully collected and curated by our bride. The stamps selected by Sarah to go on my invitation included a red rooster, the state bird for Rhode Island, because I went to college there.
• The bride collected vintage handkerchiefs for each of her bridesmaids that had their initials embroidered on them.
• The bridesmaids wore clear-beaded necklaces made by groom’s sister Debra, who was also a bridesmaid. Elva Fields pieces were the inspiration for the necklaces.  An artist, Debra also drew some of the illustrations of critters that went on the invites.
• Guests enjoyed a vast spread of dessert goodies, ranging from cakes to cookies to whoopie pies, all baked by the bride’s sister Jessica. Doggie bags (boxes actually) were provided so that guests could take some of the sweets home.
• The bride’s mother made her “famous toffees” which were used as favors.
• The bride and groom were married under a cedar arbor built by Jessica’s husband, Jay.
• Jay also built the photo booth, which made its debut at the wedding as Parrott’s Photo Booth Company. It is owned and operated by the bride’s parents. It was a huuuuge hit at the wedding!
• The vinyl record covers used as table “labels” all belong to the groom, who also mixed the dance music.
• The bride and her mother collected vintage ceramic plates upon which their guests dined.
• The bride’s maternal grandparents were in attendance (they just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. O_o) “Pepere” as he is called wore the same suit he wears for all his grandchildren’s weddings.

There was just so much thoughfulness through and through. Now here are some/a lot of photos!

^ Taking an irreverent spin on the dance floor…in Memere’s walker!

Congratulations Sarah & Rich!!!

I have lots of weddings and puppy shoots to share but it’s going to take me some time to curate them, so in the meantime I thought I’d share some new things I’ve been trying out lately. I’m trying to perfect turning a blob of light into a pretty star.

First and foremost, the smaller the camera’s aperture, the starburst-y the light source becomes. However I’ve found it’s not enough to just decrease your aperture (at least f/7) to turn a blob of light into a star. Where, how bright and how large the light source is takes into account, as is its distance from the camera. Constrasts between the light source and its surroundings also makes a difference. A candle flame in the middle of a brightly lit room, for example, won’t work.

I’m still figuring the perfect conditions for a starburst and taking notes! But here’s what I got so far…

The two photos below are from a wedding at the Colonial Theatre in the Berkshires, western Massachusetts. For comparison between blob and star, the first shot of the stage was taken (by Dan, give him a huge round of applause!) at f/3.2, 1/15 sec and ISO 280. At these settings, the bride and groom and picture as a whole are nicely exposed. It’s fine…but a little ho-hum.

^ f/3.2 | 1/15 sec |  ISO 280

Below is the stage again, shot from the same location as above. Instead of shooting at f/3.2, I shot at f/8.0 to get the starburst. Under “normal” situations it’s kind of suicidal to be shooting at that aperture in such a dark room, but that starburst was gonna be mine. So to compensate the decrease in light getting to the camera, I slowed the shutter to 1/5 sec and upped ISO 1600, grabbing more ambient lighting. No tripod was used. To steady the camera I leaned it on the back of a seat and held my breath.

STARZ!

^ f/8.0 | 1/5 sec |  ISO 1600

In the shot above, you can see the star on the left is even STARRIER (cleaner rays) than its counterpart because the spotlight is slightly obscured by the balcony. Less light, more distinct star.

The below are from the Red Lion Inn in Cohasset, MA at pitch dark.

Shot at 1/6 sec, f/8.0 and ISO 5000. These were all hand-held:

f/8.0 | 1/6 sec | ISO 5000

We use the camera to see what we see, but what I love about this kind of photography is that with a little camera know-how we can also use the it to see what we don’t. We can squint as much as we can, but with our bare eyes we won’t ever be able to turn a light flare into a starburst!

So if the light source is appropriate, I try doing these shots at each wedding. One day I’d love to encounter a string of lightbulbs at night and turn them into a string of stars!

Sarah and Rich had a pre-wedding clambake which they graciously invited Dan and me to join. It wasn’t something they asked me to photograph, but of course I did a little of that anyway. By the time we got to the house (a rental property of Pineland Farms) the clams, mussels, lobsters and corn were all ready. Four hours of old-fashioned cooking in a hole in the ground! This was my first clambake…wish I could have seen the process.

There was a cow stable nearby. One of our favorite Boston restaurants sources their burger meats from Pineland Farms – at least they did when we were there last – and I have um, eaten one. So it was a little disconcerting to come face to face with…it…the burger…and the reality of my own deadly, carnivorous needs…

Cow is telling me to eat more lobsters. Okay!

I’m still working on getting the rest of their wedding photos ready!