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

Found, while going through some old-ish photos of the boys. Only a more million to go.

1. His and His

2. Fresh Produce

3. Shopping Bag, Two Ways

I’ve been slowly updating and rearranging photos in my portfolio. I’ve grouped the Dogs and Cats galleries into categories of Portraits, Play, Relax and Artsy, rather than categories based on individual clients. The Dogs gallery has an additional Puppy category. No Kitten category yet for Cats – I hope that will change soon! My cat section is still rather thin overall, I’ll be beefing those sections up.

P.S. Something funky is going on with the images on the sections pages of the site (about, pricing). They don’t seem to be loading completely, although this isn’t happening on the “contact” page. I am annoyed. I hate Flash.

Here is a follow-up from this post where I made Veebs jump a lot. I wanted to practice action shots, shutter speeds, ISO settings some more so out came the roast beef and treats, and up, up and away went Veebs.

17mm, f/2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 1600

What a good little frogger. My best jumper ever.

Why is Veebs so good at what he does?

1) He keys up right before he takes off!

2) He has great form!

3) He sticks the landing!

(How is it that they always land JUST at the edge?)

4) He’s inexhaustable!

17mm, f/2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 1600

5) He’s orange!

Bunny has disdain for jumping, but I managed to coax a few out of him. It turns out he makes the oddest little expression before he jumps. Very un-catlike. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want you to see it.

30mm, f/3.2, 1/640 sec, ISO 1600

30 mm, f/2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 560

Deliberately backlit, fyi :)

Getting better with the focus, but I think I might have to practice some more…

We were arranging some stuff on the walls and had the mirror propped in the hallway for a bit. I caught Veebs catching his handsome self in the mirror, so I had to drop everything and run for the camera. I cannot resist reflection shots.

A usual evening after work, where human tries to relax on couch, and cats try to relax on human.

After I took that shot Bunny successfully overthrew Veebs from the throne, and I caught him – and his reflection against the glass coffee table – making himself more comfortable.

I had never paid attention to the reflection made against that glass. It was pretty! A mini photo-session ensued. I was also experimenting with the picture control settings on my camera. I usually shoot in “Standard” mode (equivalent of “Faithful” mode in Canons, I think) because I find “Vivid” to be way too much so for portraits, pets and people alike. The Vivid mode seems to be highly touted by other Nikon D300 users however. I think at the end of the day it’s a matter of taste. 

But I decided I’d experiment more to confirm that I didn’t like it, or find situations where Vivid mode might be more suitable to my eyes.

The below shot SOOC (straight out of the camera, no post-processing applied) in Standard mode (what I usually shoot in):

I see your true colors…

The next shot is SOOC in Vivid mode:

…screaming through

The colors coming out of Standard mode is pretty as-is in real life. But honestly, if you’re striving for creativity, “as-is” and “true to life” are not necessarily qualities what you want to convey. At times both can be really flat and BLAH. Tweaking with colors, tones, hues, among other things, can do a lot to enhance the mood of your work. I just don’t know if super-tweaking the vibrancy of the colors in these kinds of images apply, know what I mean? Maybe in landscapes. In portraits it just looks too garish.

I probably post-process my Standard shots to a level with more saturation, but not at all to the level of Vivid. It’s somewhere in the middle. Usually. Depends on the lighting situation too. And the White Balance. Damnit so many variables to consider (I’ve had this camera for 10 months now, and still there is MUCH to learn). In any case, I find it impossible to fine-tune these settings in the camera. I want to have vibrant colored portraits, but setting the Saturation just one level up produces unnaturally blood-shot skin tones. I’m going to download some additional controls here, experiment with those and see if I can’t find a happy medium. The more I do in-camera, the less I have to do off-camera.

So what do you think of the Standard vs Vivid photos above? Just curious…

Bunny thinks he doesn’t give a flip what picture mode I shoot him in, as long as I get that camera out of his face. He’s so unhelpful.

It’s been awhile since either of the boys got any face time on the blog, so today I share with you the recent craze on the streets.

Veebs is like a hermit crab, ditching his sleeping compartments as soon as he comes across something new and sexy in his path.

10 years ago this very Mother’s Day, my mom flew from Atlanta to visit me in my first grown-up apartment just outside of Boston. After I picked her up from the airport, I drove 30 miles out straight to Buddy Dog Humane Society to take home a pair of brothers: one named Sam with the funny tail, the other named Pumpkin with the patch on his arm.

My mom spent most of Mother’s Day cleaning the vomit and watery poo off of Sam’s wiggly body. Happy Mother’s Day!

Two new cats and high-waisted jeans in my first apartment

Pumpkin, now VanBuren, falling asleep while playing 10 years ago.

VanBuren today, just slightly more distinguished.

Sam, now Baxter, sitting for his first portrait, 10 years ago:

Baxter, 123189345982 million portraits later:

Baxter and VanBuren were the first things Dan and I ever owned jointly, even though we weren’t living together at the time. The cats stayed with me. It turned out Dan was quite allergic to cats. It turns out their maniacal shedding happens year-round. They were here to stay though, so either Dan becomes not allergic to them, or we break up, take your pick.

We didn’t break up, but Dan is still allergic to them. Oh the price was pay for LOVE.

We had actually intended to adopt these other brothers at the shelter who had been there a very long time. They were long-haired versions of B and VB, named Oreo and Elvis. After the second visit to the shelter, we noticed the short-haired brothers, who had also already been there for some time – 6 months! As I approached, the plump orange one smeared himself back and forth so hard against the cage that the bars rattled. His open display of violent affection was very effective. I had never met a friendlier cat in my life! I changed my mind on the spot and decided I would take them home, even as his green-eyed brother remained in the back unmoving, with his trademark disdainful look which he still gives us today.

It turns out that he’s the biggest lap cat. He cannot WAIT to sit in your lap.

And VanBuren cannot wait for more roast beef. Tuna is good too. Today we’re giving them a little extra of both, plus some good old-fashioned cat treats. And then we’re going to write another special song for them, to add to our collection of 15 or so special songs already written.

Look how photogenic they are, even from this angle! How many film photos of them do I have sitting in a shoebox, and how many digital photos of them to have burned to disk? TOO MANY and yet NOT ENOUGH. In a few hours I will have the privilege of doing a pet shoot for another pet lover, and it’s because for the past 10 years I have been unknowingly gearing myself towards this goal. Fat Orange Cat Studio would not exist right now without Baxter and VanBuren who gave me the obsessive need to document them from every. conceivable. angle.

Here’s to another 10 (maybe more??) years!

Hopefully by then prices in pet cloning will have gone way down.