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

After generally being behind the camera all of the time, and seeing more and more photos of couples being captured by fabulous photographers, I thought, I’d like to be photographed like that please! It would make up for the totally blah photos our own wedding photographer took almost 8 years ago. So blah, and so much regret that we hired him. So a couple of months ago I asked Lisa to officially photograph me and Dan, and used my birthday as the reason. Aside from the birthday, and the wedding photo make-up, there were business-ish reasons too for the shoot. I wanted to see how I was in front of the camera. I wanted to see if I was able to do what I’d like my own subjects to do, and that is to relax, be natural, be comfortable and pretend I’m not here!

Well here are a few things I learned. It might require a few shots of whiskey before and during the shoot to relax. That is ok.  It takes some explicit direction to look natural. Ironically. It takes complete trust in your photographer to be comfortable. Complete. But be careful, if you’re so comfortable that you’re able to pretend your photographer is not there, you will inevitably be caught making a face that you don’t want to be caught making. Heh.

So here are some more photos from last month’s bday shoot. This is a corollary too to my Things I Like post on cemeteries. I love colonial cemeteries so much that I based my first outfit around it. We started in the heart of Boston at Granary Burial Ground, final resting place of Paul Revere and other revolutionaries. I found this sweater jacket with a Minuteman-looking capelet. I wanted one more accessory to seal the deal, but a horse was harder to come by.

The best part about being friends with a photographer is that they’re willing to give you their RAW files! Actually I might have demanded it, heh heh.
So these photos are all taken by Lisa Rigby, and post-processed by me!

By the way, I just want to mention that in the above photos, while I am trying to channel an Asian Paul Revere in Anthropologie look, Dan is actually representing the home country by wearing all-Taiwanese garb – from his necklace to shirt to jacket all the way to his shoes. And you can count the scarf too, which was knit by his little Taiwanese wife. :)

{ Now insert a quick stop here at Beantown Pub for an outfit change and a shot of whiskey }

Boston Public Garden

It was interesting to see too the photos I were drawn to as a client rather than a photographer. I know that when I go through photos I take for others – and photos taken by other photographers! – I can’t help but gravitate to non-subject elements first, such as how the sun hits, how the trees frame, how the bokeh of lights blur in the background. I’m looking at the parts rather than the whole sum. As a customer though, I’m obviously looking more at…myself! The Other Stuff that I get hung up on as a photographer aren’t quite as important. Or maybe they are, but more as subconscious enhancements rather than the focal point. It’s more important if we’re smiling or looking happy. This is what I must remember!

Below are some outtakes. We ended the shoot with drinks at Bouchee on Newbury St, and our server really screwed it up. He poured Dan’s sidecar into my martini glass that already had olives in it, poured my vodka martini in Lisa’s espresso martini glass that already had chocolate-covered espresso beans in it, so I was fishing out olives from Dan’s drink and espresso beans from mine. And making a lot of faces.

I will end by saying how much fun it was to be photographed. It’s a nice side effect of being comfortable in front of the camera, which itself is a nice side effect of knowing that you’re in the hands of a photographer you really like. :) Oh and thanks and lots of xoxoxo’s to Dan too for bringing his A-game and playing along. I know some of this frou frou stuff (”What do you mean I have to wear different outfits?!”) must be hard for the mens sometimes!

Floy-Floy-Floyd!

That’s how we called to Floyd during his second photo romp last weekend in the snow. You may remember our first session last summer in the Boston Public Garden and Beacon Hill when he was 13 weeks old. He’s a little bigger now but just as impish and floppy-eared as ever. We met again at the Public Garden, now covered in snow. There were a ton of other dogs out – snow makes dogs PRANCE!! – so we all made new friends that day. Later we warmed up at the Taj Boston hotel (formerly the Ritz-Carlton and which I still call the Ritz, as if I had some personal tie to it when I do not; I’d never set foot in it until now) where Floyd replenished himself with water from the ladies’ room faucet. Later he revealed his naughty side by making a run for the tea room’s kitchen. I don’t know how he knew exactly where to go where he was least allowed – he pretty much dashed down a flight of stairs, turned left, bore right and went straight into the kitchen without a moment’s pause. However dog-friendly the hotel was, they weren’t too crazy about a Floyd in the food prep area! We left right soon after. And headed to The Four Seasons hotel :)

Thanks Floyd for another fun and wonderful shoot!

Here are some behind the scenes shots at the Four Seasons and Taj Boston.

Bunny and Veebs rang in the new year with a little change of sleeping venue. I moved their cat bed from the office upstairs and placed it on top of the radiator cover in the living room. An extra cozy room with a view! Dan joked that by morning we would have a savory cat pie all cooked up. It started snowing and I caught Veebs taking a break from his pre-nap bath to admire the falling flakes (and then later that night, the New Year Eve’s fireworks. Although he wasn’t really too thrilled with that). Later Dan and I ventured outdoors for a little winter walk and mini photo shoot. Eee! I love shooting in the snow! So crisp, clean and bright. Boston looked like a large-scale gingerbread town dusted in confectioner’s sugar and white frosting. I feel like this is really the first time I’m understanding my camera well enough to appreciate the beautiful lighting given off by the snow.

I’m looking forward to more snowy shoots in 2010!

The tennis ball was a fabulous assistant on this photo shoot.

Here is the final pet shoot at the Boston Public Garden. This is Gus, or Gus Gus, or Gussy, or He Who Would Not Be Photographed Without His Tennis Ball. He was not interested in treats, or squirrels or sticks or anything you had to say unless it was “GusGusdoyouwanttoplaywiththeball??” Just about every shot I took involved the tennis ball. Even if it’s not in frame, someone is holding it just outside. We used it to get him to sit on the grass, to sit on the docks, to stand up and prop himself against the railing of the docks, everything short of ending world hunger.

His human sisters came with a tennis racket which they used to lob the ball across the park. We started the session with what his sisters thought would be a 5, 10 minutes of rigorous fetch, and then he would tire enough to sit for poses. But lob after lob after lob passed…Gus zipped back and forth like he had a rocket ship tucked under his bottom…nothing was going to slow him down.

The funniest thing about Gus was that even though he was absolutely obsessed with his tennis ball, he still took a moment to graciously look my way as he went running by. Every single time. His sister dubbed it his “glamour glance.” We like the Glamour Glance by Gus!

Photo of owl by nature photographer Jim Gray + Nikkor 500mm beast lens

Here is Pogie, a spirited little Bichon mix who met me at the Boston Public Garden on a warm November’s afternoon. I’ve been shooting there quite a bit lately. Our reward for the soggy rainy summer has been trees with brilliant leaves in the fall that have stayed on longer than usual. Every week I think, OK. Next week all the leaves are going to fall for sure, so better get the shoot in right now! And before I know it, 5 straight sessions at the Garden have passed, it’s December and there are still leaves in the park!

So this was probably the most action-packed shoot I’ve ever done. When I arrived early to scope out areas, there was a small group of nature photographers crowded underneath the giant ginkgo tree (so pretty that tree), gawking and photographing a huge barred owl sleeping high up in the branches. Very cool to see wildlife other than rats, squirrels and baby strollers in the middle of the city.

Pogie arrived shortly thereafter and underneath this tree and the magnificent gold carpet of leaves it created, we posed some, chased squeaky toys and said hello to other small dogs within reasonable running distance. Pogie became tangled in a mesh of leashes, and we followed the trail to see that they were hooked to a tall (so tall!), striking blonde in the form of CameronDiaz, who was just by herself strolling through the Garden with her two dogs.

We all took our eyes off of Pogie for a little bit while trying to make casual small talk with CD, like whatevs, nice day in Boston isn’t it, there’s an owl up there, yeah I’m on a dog shoot, I see you have dogs, wanna be friends? etc. etc.  When we finally focused our attention back on Pogie, he had given himself a really good facial and the left side of his little white face was absolutely caked in mud. And we had just barely gotten started! Luckily their parents understood that this was about fresh and candid pet photography, and if fresh and candid meant mud-caked yet exuberant, then more power to Pogie!

(It was determined later in the shoot that Pogie was really caked not in mud but in poo. Pogie’s dad learned the hard way after a fragrant kiss on the nose.)

After our shoot was finished, I went back to the ginkgo tree to look at the owl some more and see if I could run into another celebrity. Instead, a red-tailed hawk swooped in and landed in a small tree next to me, with his dinner swinging from his talons. He was barely 6 feet off the ground and sat there resting for quite some time, treating a large crowd to a portrait session, before he took for higher branches to enjoy his meal. But he wasn’t so high that I couldn’t see or hear him tearing through the gristle.

So an owl, a hawk, a movie star, and a Pogie under one tree. Not bad for a afternoon’s shoot!