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

There is a currently a stack of March 2010 Boston Magazines in the house, and the collection is growing…

…because Fat Orange Cat Studio is featured inside the pages!

Featured in the magazine is Luna, that cute swishy-tailed terrier mix I photographed in the beginning of January. I didn’t know it at the time, but her owner is the executive editor of Boston Magazine, and the session was set up by them as a test.  I think it explains now why the shoot was so short – they wanted to make sure I would actually 1) show up as scheduled, and 2) make sincere attempts to take good photos! Sneaky sneaky. For a couple of months now I have been sitting with the notion of possibly, maybe being in print – for the first time! -  so it is very exciting to see that it has actually happened.

And Veebs! He is especially thrilled to see “Fat Orange Cat” in print. So thrilled that he’s celebrating by sleeping.

I am sending a copy to my parents who are right now living in Beijing. I think I will have to translate the article slightly though for my mom. Her English is fine, but she is definitely not well-versed in the world of Yiddish, nor in the world of metaphors for that matter. The terms “cuddle-bunny” and “Milk Duds” will be a puzzle, heh. I am imagining too what she will do when she comes to the word “froufrou” and tries to read it outloud (she will pronounce it “fro fro”). It makes me giggle!

Here were my first paying clients of 2009, three cats named Tilly, Moxie and Truman. Technically, their session was at the end of Dec 2008, but I received my first glittering paycheck from the owner in Jan 2009, so I’m going with that.  I remember when I received that first check, made out to Fat Orange Cat Studio (eeee!), there was this huge jolt to the head that singed my eyebrows and rattled my teeth and sent my heart racing a million miles an hour. I was no longer just dabbling in photography for fun, for myself. I was skerred! Terrifed! My first reaction was to tear up that check and give her the prints for nothing, because I was sure that’s how much the prints were really worth, and apologize for pulling the wool over her eyes. A very sound practice to have, if your goal is to take your business and nosedive it straight into the ground.

{ Tilly, Moxie and Truman with my rudimentary logo }

And here is a sneak peek at the latest critter of 2010.

{ Sonny the pomapoo puppy }

The only unsound business practice I wanted to do this time was to run off into the woods with him stuffed in my mouth.

So yes, Fat Orange Cat Studio has turned one year old this month! I wish I had a hard date but I’m not sure what it is, having launched several times. I “soft launched” on Feb 5th 2009 but switched hosting providers almost immediately because the blog was running incredibly, incredibly slowly. I soft launched again a few days later but didn’t announce it to the world until I was sure things were running smoothly. I wrote a couple of posts and then officially announced on Feb 13 that the site was LIVE! Fat Orange Cat Studio was OPEN for BUSINESS!  (Okay duh maybe 2/13 should be my anniversary date.)  I announced this on another blog of mine I had been keeping, no I will not tell you where it is, and encouraged readers there to visit here and leave a question for me to answer so that I could have content for my very sparse About page. I received a ton of comments, my best college buddy in NYC sent over a bottle of champagne, Dan and I drank it and went out for a celebratory dinner, it was all very festive!

(Out of all the questions I received, I have only answered 10, eeps! I do plan on getting around to all of them though – many of which you can see in the comments here and here – and hopefully the last full year have given me more material to base my answers on…)

I’m not going to give the year’s round-down since I pretty much did that in my 2009 wrap-up post. Nor do I have a contest at the ready to celebrate. So instead I will be lame and just thank everyone again, so very very much, for helping make my first year such a wonderful and fulfilling experience! I feel so lucky to be doing this.

I’ll be the first to admit it: I am horrible at displaying prints. I take and take and take photographs and then I take some more…and at the end of the day I don’t know what to do with so many photos. Album or scrapbook? Desk or wall frames? Which ones, in what order and on which wall? I can’t make up my mind so as a result, many of my photos either pile up in a shoebox or in a hard drive, so sad and all alone. If only I had a little direction to help me organize and display my photos so that they receive the respect they deserve! Because what is the point of taking all these photos when you’re not going to showcase them properly?

Enter The Back Bay Framery, Boston’s premier fine-art framer.

I love supporting local vendors and working with great people, so it is with great excitement and glee that I announce a Fat Orange Cat Studio promotion with The Back Bay Framery, to help you turn your important photos into beautifully framed works of art, ready to be showcased in your home!

When you book a session with me and order prints, bring those print in to The Back Bay Framery and receive 15% off all display products and services! This runs the gamut from desktop picture frames to handcrafted scrapbooks to leather albums – and even custom framing.

There are a lot of beautiful products to choose from, and Kerrie, the owner of The Back Bay Framery, is on hand to help. She has been serving Boston’s custom framing needs since 1998, and because of her wonderful service, hands-on approach, and solidly crafted products, her business has flourished, winning the venerable Best of Boston award several times. I am finally getting a few important pieces custom framed, and Kerrie has been wonderful to work with.

If you visit her store now, you’ll see a rather lavish display of my pet photos at the front of the store…

So giddy to see my photos so beautifully framed! No, these are not your IKEA or Crate + Barrel frames, for sure.

Kerrie runs The Back Bay Framery with the help of her lovely assistants, Sadie Lou and Spike (the Yorkie mix). All three may greet you at the door.

So! If (1) You’re in the Boston area, (2) have a dog or a cat / or want yourselves photographed, (3) contact me to schedule a shoot, (4) order prints, (5) head over to The Back Bay Framery, (6) consult with Kerrie to get them beautifully displayed and (7) receive 15% off your order. Now you have no reason not to have your photographs properly showcased.

The Back Bay Framery
227 Newbury Street in Boston
Between Fairfield and Exeter Street

And tell Kerrie that Fat Orange Cat Studio sent you!

I was going to let my short and sweet “Favorite Photos of 2009” be my year-end review but then I decided I was doing myself a big disservice by not documenting all that’s happened this year. Even though I have far to go, I did accomplish a lot in this my very first year of business.

I spent the last part of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 getting everything together for the launch of this business, and finally did so officially – by announcing it online – in Feb 2009. The rest of the month and March found us busy hitting the streets with some old-fashioned face-to-face marketing. We visited pet grooming salons, vets, pet boutiques and animal shelters. I say “we” because Dan had a huge hand in this. It was extremely hard for me to go about soliciting and making cold calls as I am normally extremely, very, painfully shy. There were a lot of nervous stammering and ineloquent pitches when talking to store owners about something as simple as leaving a stack of business cards! But was I in it to win it or not? It was time to work outside my comfort zone.

The first pet boutique I decided to was Pawsh in March, and this meeting proved very lucky as they were just organizing a second grand opening event in April, and invited me to photograph it. A TV camera came by and the back of my head made it onto the 10 o’clock news! The owners of Pawsh have continued to promote and to support my business and for that I am very thankful.

In March I also partnered up with the South End Buttery and photographed the owners’ dogs in exchange for some wall space in his cafe. I’ve had large-scale prints hanging there since April, including one round of updates. They have really really helped me drum up business. {By the way, there is a video review of the Buttery up on Boston.com, and some of my photos got the up-close camera treatment which I think is hilarious.}

Before I even had my first official client pet shoot, I was convinced to photograph a small wedding in March. I never gave weddings much thought – other than I didn’t want to pursue it! – so the fact that I nevertheless found myself building a small wedding portfolio alongside that of the pets was a huge surprise.

In April I started getting clients! My first client was the adorable 6 week-old puppy named Logan. Strangely enough even though it was the first “official” shoot as a launched business, it was also my most comfortable. All the practice the half year before on friends’ pets really paid off, and I thought it a sign that I really was meant to do this.

In May, I had a pet photography Q&A published in Gadgetwise, a personal technology blog of the New York Times. That was very. very. ex.ci.ting. And tangentially with that came a rather unenthusiastic mention on Gizmodo.com. My photos are deemed “OK.” Heh. My site hits go through the roof, I get tons of very nice and supportive emails…but no new client booking as a direct result. The NYTimes keep trying to sell me overpriced plaques of the article. I keep refusing but now I’m thinking, Why not?! I’m in the Times!

In May, June and July I started photographing more weddings as a second shooter for Lisa Rigby, and find myself enjoying it much more than I thought I would! So it’s really her doing that I’m getting into weddings.

In August I attended Cowbelly’s workshop on pet photography. Cowbelly is based in Seattle had has been in business for 6 years already. Keep up, Boston!

September to December turned out to be my busiest months. Along with an influx of pet shoots, I donated my pet session in a silent auction at the Urban Barn Dance and Harvest Supper, organized by the Massachusetts Farmers Market federation. I donated a session at another silent auction hosted by Pop’s Restaurant with proceeds going to the Animal Rescue League of Boston. There were events at Bark Place Spa and SOWA Open Studios both in the South End.

There was a NEW CAMERA.

There was also a lovely wedding, which was recently featured in IntimateWeddings.com, my first wedding feature ever! And of course I had a great time with my first engagement shoot.

The year has also been about meeting with fellow aspiring pet photographers in person: pet photographer April Ziegler of Philly, who also atttended Cowbelly’s workshop and stayed at our place, Alexis of Alexis Hall Photo, Maria Andrews of White Whiskers Photography, Abby Christensen of Lorenz Photography, and portrait photog Grace Benson.

It was also about collaborating with other artistic professionals in the wedding industry: Lisa Rigby of Lisa Rigby Photography, Jennifer Cox of Esq.Events wedding coordination services, Sarah Parrott of Parrott Design Studio paper goods, and Bryn Chernoff of Paperfinger calligraphy. She will be designing a wedding-ized version of the Fat Orange Cat logo, incorporating both calligraphy and hand-drawn elements. So excited for this!

So yes, I am officially getting into the wedding biz! I’ve just joined the My Kate Parker Wedding family as a vendor. Before you think I’m starting to become an all-purpose shooter, I plan on keeping my focus narrow.

One of my very favorite photographers is San Francisco’s Anna Kuperberg, who specializes in weddings and candid pet portraiture. In fact, I initially discovered her as a pet photographer, and it wasn’t until a friend attended a wedding photographed by Anna that I realized she was a pretty hot-shot wedding photog too! I’ve even seen some of her work on greeting cards. Ann Hamilton is another fantastic West Coaster who has made a name for herself as a wedding and pet photographer (isn’t her icon cute?).

So I think it’s high time Boston got a pet+wedding photographer as well!

And that, at long last, is the end of the 2009 year-end review. As always, thank you so very much to all the wonderful fellow pet lovers, and you the readers, for making 2009 successful beyond my wildest expectations! With the confidence and valuable experience I’ve gained over the last year, I dare to dream bigger and reach for higher goals in the new.

Fat Orange Cat Studio says hello to 2010!

xo,
Li, Dan, Bunny & Veebs

photos by Lisa Rigby

I had more big orders recently that warranted Extra Special Pretty Packaging. My first attempt at DIY packaging was pretty good I thought, and until I become world-famous enough to commission a whole suite of branded products, I will continue to get my crafty mojo on and package items myself.

This time I kicked it up a notch. I punched circles out of pretty Japanese paper (I have a collection of them, love paper) using my handy circle puncher. Glued a strip of navy blue satin ribbon around the outside of the box, and then glued a trio of the paper on top.

Everything is from Paper Source – the circle puncher, the ribbons, the Japanese paper, the petal envelopes, the A9 and presentation envelopes (for 5×7’s and 8×10’s respectively), the portfolio box thingy…I have no idea what they’re called officially, but they’re like stiff cardboard boxes covered in book cloth, and there is a little pocket inside.

The boxes come in a variety of sizes and colors. I saw these smaller ones and thought they would be perfect for one-off items such as a CD/DVD. The box above is for the couple whose wedding I photographed at the beginning of the month. It contains the DVD, a print release letter and a thank you card. And biz card of course.

The box below is for Clive the Springer Spaniel. I check in regularly to Paper Source for new ideas/inspiration and was excited to see a small stack (2 only!) of ORANGE portfolio boxes. I quickly snatched them up. The ribbon color for this is teal, and I used a different sheet of Japanese paper to go with it. It has bits of teal and navy in it as well. Excuse the horrible lighting. It’s been dismal around these parts.

The stack of Clive notecards didn’t fit in the slot, so I placed it above and secured the stack in place with a rubberband, which I then concealed with satin ribbon, tied in a bow.

Clive is also getting 3 huge Mounted Prints which I can’t wait for them to see. I usually find that my favorites are not at all aligned with the clients’ favorites. But here, Clive’s owners picked 3 of my favorite images to blow up – all of which I consider a little “artsy” and unconventional.

In fact, a rep from the pro print lab called me to make sure that bike image selected was in fact correctly cropped — why yes most of Clive’s head is cut off. That’s straight out of the camera, so hit the presses!

All packaging materials from Paper Source, except
:: my business cards – moo.com “green” business cards
:: Letterpress notecards – Parrott Design Studio
:: CD/DVD label – designed and printed by me on Avery CD labels