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

Normally I reserve sneak peeks for the Fat Orange Cat Studio Facebook page, but I can’t resist posting a few from my latest shoot here. I just returned from a trip to Seattle, a trip that was mixed with a little business and a whole lot of cute.

Meet Augustus, a 2 year-old Cavalier with his new sister (actual half-sister), Lily who is 4 months old.

And that is Daisy, Lily’s full sister, over for a play-date.

I am so in love with this breed.

There are so many photos that I can’t wait to share. Between Augustus, Lily, Daisy and four cats I had a lot of great material to work with. Stay tuned!

This little charmer’s name is Sonny, and no he is not an animatronic, nor does he take AA batteries and do backflips every fifth bark. What he is is a 3 month old pomapoo, or pooranian, or pomeranian and poodle mix. He is so, so adorable that when Veebs saw Sonny’s photos, he bristled and growled, for he knew he had just seen someone cuter than he, and was jealous.

I met Sonny and his owner at his aunt’s house in Waltham, MA. The photos were to be surprise birthday gift for the owner’s fiance. I will admit that this little bugger really made me work hard for the money. He had me on the ground, under beds, up in the trees to get the shot. How can something so small be so dangerous? Luckily all of his fluffy, edible babiness more than made up for the next morning’s bout of muscle aches and pains.

Here’s Sonny!

BEHIND THE SCENES!

PLUS ONE FUNNY OUTTAKE!

Just like me, Sonny was rather terrified of the lynx and wolf-skin rugs in the library. Yet in spite of himself, Sonny found himself alone inside the room with the lynx and the wolf…couldn’t bring himself to look at them, couldn’t bring himself not to look at them, barked wildly at both, challenged them to a duel…

…and then…

I had a really fun time at the beach a few weeks ago, meeting and photographing Freddy, the cute and spirited Norfolk Terrier. I met him and his owner at their beach house in Nahant, MA, a nubbly little “almost island” sitting out at sea. Freddy had me scuttling all about as he bounced up and down the beach. A great workout – it might as well have been 80 degrees and not the 30 degrees that it actually was!

It was a great house, a beautiful beach and a wonderful little dog.

And some behind the scenes!

The owner helping me get Freddy to stay in the chair while I make squeaky noises.

I really liked the whale!

This is Crystal, a sleek and glamorous rescue dog living in the South End. Due to her high motivation for stinky treats, she gave me one of those short 30 minute sessions, which truth be told is still freaking me out. We stayed indoors and started in the late afternoon, just as the setting sun was coming through the living room window. We also shot in the bedroom where the light streamed in a bounced off a wall of mirrors directly across. Awesome! I was having a field day shooting in this room, trying to make use of this dramatic lighting. A lot of these photos would have looked great in black and white. I had a hard time not converting ALL of them to black and white.

Crystal has a very glam and sophisticated Gretta Garbo look going on, even as she chews on cowhide.

Thank you for being such a pretty and cooperative model!

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing my first Rhodesian ridgeback, a breed which came into my radar only last year thanks to super talented Claire of Rouxby Photography and her BEAUTIFUL photos of her Rhodesians (all of her photos are wonderful). Since becoming a huge fan of Rouxby and following her love affair with her dogs, I have been intrigued by this breed and was super excited when Buddha’s owner called to schedule a session. Buddha! I asked his owner how she came about that name, and she said it’s because having a dog in her life has kept her well-being centered and healthy. I like that a lot. The name became even more fitting as the shoot went on. Though Buddha is only 10 months old, he was perfectly mellow, zen and stately throughout the entire shoot (except for the few minutes outdoors when he met his friend Sophie). Just a lovely, beautiful dog.

We meet Buddha at his house in Cambridge, MA.

Thank you Buddha for a wonderful shoot!

BEFORE and AFTERS!
With this beautiful dog in this beautiful light, we were having such a good time that I forgot to take behind-the-scenes shots again. So in lieu of that, I’ll include a few before-and-after shots.

Before (image on left) is straight out of the camera, after is with post-processing applied in Lightroom.

Below image taken in the living room. We started in the late afternoon and there was some very weak light coming in through the front door, which was facing north. I shot a few stops shy of wide-open (I’m trying to shoot between f/2.0 – f/2.8 these days), probably could have slowed the shutter speed down more since Buddha was so mellow. But instead of doing that I bumped the ISO super high to get more light.

RAW: 1/200 sec at f/2.0, ISO 2800 | 50 mm f/1.4 lens
Lightroom: WB adjustment, brightness increase, blacks increase

***

Below image taken in the field out back. We had a nice, not-so-unobstructed view of the setting sun, which is rare in the city! We couldn’t have timed this better.

RAW: 1/250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200 | 50 mm f/1.4 lens
Lightroom: WB adjustment, fill-light increase