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

My modest little wedding season started off with a huge bang with Lindsey and Wilson’s Wedding Weekend Extravaganza. It was 4 days and nights of playing host to a culinary, seafaring, history-book tour of Boston, and they wanted it all captured on film. They just relocated from my home state of Georgia where Wilson recently received his doctorate in physics, UGA style. I met some Georgians among the guests who were visiting Boston for the first time. I wasn’t able to talk physics, but I was able to talk all things North vs South! What a treat it is to see Boston for the first time in this stylish, classy, and fun manner, thanks to the lovely couple and their families.

Friday evening: Rehearsal Dinner
The weekend kicked off with the Rehearsal Dinner hosted by Wilson’s parents at Mooo Restaurant. Everyone started with drinks and hors d’oeuvres on the roofdeck of the adjacent XV Beacon Hotel before descending downstairs to the restaurant’s private wine cellar for dinner. On the bar were the couple’s rehearsal dinner invitations in the form of wine bottles affixed with a custom label. Swoon. Name cards were professionally calligraphed – you know I love that! – and propped up by wine corks. After her speech, Wilson’s mom pulled out party favors for all the guests – collegiate T-shirts with the name “Lindsey” and “Wilson” printed across the front. Turns out, there is a real Lindsey Wilson College located in Kentucky! And the crowd went wild.

{ Custom wine labels created by Ceci New York }

Saturday Noon: Bridal Luncheon
The next afternoon, while the boys were enjoying a tour of Sam Adams brewery, Lindsey’s bridesmaids threw her and her girlfriends a bridal luncheon at Upstairs on the Square in Harvard Square. More laughing and mimosa and bellini toasts clinking over plates of delicious food. It was at this point I wanted to forget the camera, order my own bellini and be one of the girls.

Saturday Evening: Sunset & Cocktail Cruise
After a quick change and a little up-do, it was time to meet more family and friends for cocktail hour aboard a boat. When I arrived the boat’s bar stock was already running half empty. Do these people know how to do it right or DO THEY KNOW HOW TO DO IT RIGHT? We sailed around Boston Harbor and a little into the Charles River during sunset.

Sunday: THE WEDDING!
Ohhhh the wedding. The wedding! Held in Boston’s historic Old North Church in the North End, followed by the reception at the Lenox Hotel in the Back Bay, this wedding was full of old world class and spared no details. I was secondary shooter, Lisa Rigby was the primary. You can see all the gorgeous details from Lindsey and Wilson’s lavish black-tie wedding here on Lisa’s blog.

Here are some of mine at the Church. I was not as quiet as a church mouse as the sexton instructed me to be (”Once you’re up there, don’t move!” Me: “What! And photograph from the same spot?”). Well he should know – the wood floors complained loudly with every tiptoed step I took! It was like I suddenly weighed four tons and had microphones attached under the soles of my feet, just in case you couldn’t hear me, you all the way in the back. Oh I love old curmudgeonly churches!

{ See more wedding photos here }

Monday: Farewell Brunch
Finally, after 3 days of non-stop partying, it was time to refuel with a hearty brunch at Gaslight Brasserie in the South End, before catching your plane, train or automobile, and heading home…

A pretty amazing weekend for these two newlyweds, wouldn’t you say?
Congratulations to Lindsey & Wilson! It was a pleasure getting to know you and all of your friends and family.

This handsome feller is Balto the Rat Terrier. I met him and his owner at the barber shop they operate in Boston’s South End. At first Balto wasn’t too keen on having is photo taken; in fact, there might have been some choice words for me muttered (growled) under his breath as he sought refuge in his barber’s chair. But as soon as I we stepped out of the shop and into the sunlit streets all was good, all was light. His bat ears perked and his brown eyes sparkled!

Introducing Dakota and Scrappy, a pair of feisty pit bulls from Medford MA. We spent a warm spring late afternoon capturing them relaxing at home, and romping outside on their luxurious front lawn.

Dakota, above, and her brother Scrappy, below.

BEHIND THE SCENES
Scrappy, being the less scrappy of the pair, was being egged on to participate by dogs and humans alike.

I actually missed this shot of Scrappy shaking his head, jowls and ears and spit flying, catching the light of the late afternoon sun. Because I was in the middle of shifting positions, I had looked away from the viewfinder briefly, but that alone shouldn’t have stopped me from pressing the shutter regardless. Sometimes I deliberately fire away without composing through the viewfinder, and then other times I just plumb forget. I waited hopefully for Scrappy to shake his head again, but of course it doesn’t work that way!

A couple of months ago we had our third and final session with Dasha, the Frenchie I first photographed last year (wow!) when she was about 3 months old. We had a beautiful March day for the shoot, and here are some of my personal favorites.

{ HRH Princess Dasha }

After the session I made a coffee table book from the owner’s favorite images across all three sessions. The owner chose a 10×10 hardcover book.  Up until now I’ve made 8×8’s and I must say, the extra inch all around makes a huge difference! I might have to just offer 10×10’s only from now on.

For the front cover I chose a black and white image from the second session, and for the back I chose another black and white from the first session.

The front cover is more white than black, and the back cover is more black than white – I think it made for a nice juxtaposition, and an echo of her face is also perfectly bisected down the middle.

Here is the first page, with the dates of all three sessions included:

And a spread inside:

And a behind-the-scenes. As usual, it was all hands on deck:

Happy 1st birthday Dasha! Thank you for letting be a part of your first year!

To see more photos of Dasha growing up, here is her first session, and here is her second session. (yowzas, my post-processing was…loud!)

Well. I was going to start of this week by talking about our new kitten (!!! yay !!!) but instead I have to make this downer of a public announcement: Please don’t copy other people’s work. It’s lame. And illegal, and blah-dee-copyrighted-intellectual-theft-mumbo-jumbo. But mostly, it’s just lame. Laaaaaame.

Here are the offenders: www.sanberry.cn/wpblog

My blog design is based on this free wordpress theme which I picked apart to oblivion.

So aside from the layout dimensions, fonts, colors, they took my accent images. Next to the post title is my orange beveled square with a watercolor texture, and a 2-pixel high gradient, also with a watercolor texture, that took me forever to make. It’s not like some graphical masterpiece, but I did it myself so it’s mine. It’s mine!

I think the only reason they didn’t take the header image too is because my name and “fat orange cat studio” is on it. They didn’t have any problems using the cat icon. It’s cherry-picking thievery.

They link to me on their blogroll. Did they think I would see this and not be offended by this? I wasn’t able to leave comments to tell them otherwise. So here is this blog post.

I am offended. Be a man and come up with your own stuff.