Monthly Archives: July 2007

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Favorite cat photos

July 30, 2007 – 8:02 am

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder, just waiting for the right time to ‘go live’ . Since I have been thinking about Jasmine all week (and it looks like we are getting close to having her ready for a new home- vet visit tomorrow!), I thought this would be an appropriate time to prove my love for the feline variety of furbaby.

Most people think that I only photograph dogs. This makes sense as most of the animals on my websites are dogs. However, not only do I shoot cats as well, but I have multiple repeat clients who own multiple kitties.

Although they only make up about 15% of my total shoots, I love photographing cats! It’s a totally different ballgame from shooting dogs.

In what way?

Lots of ways.

Cats are much more challenging to shoot than dogs for a variety of different reasons.

Dogs are EASY. Cats- not so much.

A) most aren’t super thrilled to have a camera shoved in their face, or anywhere near them for that matter. Especially if you are a stranger. They are pros at turning away with their back/shoulder facing the photographer.

B) they are constantly in motion. Not the start-stop kind of motion dogs do, but more of a constant, fluid, unpredictable motion. Dogs start, then stop. And pause. Then move again, then stop. Cats seem to only be stationary when a) looking out the window while stuck between a potted plant and the back of a chair, making photo-taking difficult at best, b) while half-lidded and nearing naptime and c) sleeping.

C) unlike dogs, they will do whatever they damn well please, thank you very much. It isn’t you, the photographer who gets to control how the shoot goes, it is the CAT.

D) many cats require ultimate patience to get really great shots. Great cat shots really do need to happen organically.

E) the same noises that will get the attention and perked ears of a dog will frequently make a cats ears fold back- a very undesirable look for a kitty in a photograph. It takes timing and patience to get the elusive ears up and forward, yet relaxed eyes shots.

 

However, even given these challenges (or because of them) I love shooting cats!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tend to be a fairly high-energy person and move quickly and am always thinking and nearly always ‘doing’.

When doing a kitty shoot I am forced to slow down. My movements, my speech, my thoughts, even my blood pressure slow down. It’s like meditation. The Zen of pet photography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love that they control the pace of the shoot, and what happens next. Instead of feeling frustrated by this I feel liberated. I feel like the ‘happy accident’ shots are just waiting around the corner, which is often true when shooting kitties.

I am merely a bystander, waiting with my camera in hand to capture whatever special moment happens next. It may happen in 5 minutes, it may happen in an hour. It’s no matter. Like I said, I have ultimate patience.

I am always excited when I show up to a client’s house to shoot their dogs and discover that they have 1 or 2 cats as well that I didn’t know about. And you can bet I’ll be taking pictures of those kitties before leaving.

The only thing I wish is that more cat owners contacted me! I have had this conversation numerous times with friends who have cats, and the consensus seems to be that most people think their kitties don’t make for as interesting photographs because they are less expressive than dogs. I tend to agree with that to a certain degree, although I like to think that the kitties in these photos are pretty darn expressive. Love the cats! :-)

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Behind-the-Scenes, miscellaneous randomness | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Dane & Dane photography: competitor AND friend

July 28, 2007 – 11:48 pm

Back in June I had the pleasure of attending a City Dog Magazine party at a location just a stones throw from me on Queen Anne.

Along with subscribers and other pet industry folks and their ‘vip’s (very important pooches), a City Dog Magazine partner was there. This was Nichole Smith, owner and operator of Dane & Dane photography, based in West Seattle. Nichole does a lot of photography for City Dog and her terrific images have graced a number of covers, including the current issue.

Any fears I had of meeting one of my direct competitors in my own city quickly dissipated when I met Nichole. We hit it off smashingly!

We ended up drinking and eating and talking for most of the party and it was clear that we had a lot in common.

Since then I have gotten to know Nichole and have developed a deep respect for who she is and what she does. Although we are 10 years apart in age I can relate to her on so many levels, and she is clearly wise beyond her years.

Nichole is one of the hardest working people I know (besides myself of course, lol), and her drive and passion for what she does run as deep as the love she has for animals. She pours her soul into her business, and calls it her ‘baby’ just like I do.

She has received many accolades, all of which she works very hard for, including a stellar article in this issue of Professional Photographer magazine, where she is featured along with the venerable (and very famous) pet photographer Amanda Jones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nichole does both studio portraiture and location photography and a lot of editorial as well. Her harlequin great dane Olivia is her business mascot and she is easily recognizable by her ‘pink cupcake’ nose. Here is her rockin logo, and a gorgeous photo of her mascot Olivia:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Side note: in one of my shoots today my client asked if I had photos of Fergie all over my house. I said I didn’t have a single one and then realized that she isn’t even in my galleries online. I have been too busy photographing client’s dog to focus on getting shots of my own. Poor girl!).

Back to Nichole. I am thrilled that I have such a talented professional pet photographer I can refer studio portrait shoots to. I know that Nichole will take great care of any client that I refer to her and will produce wonderful imagery, like these great shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But mostly I am just glad that we have become friends. We share so many of the same challenges and although I’ve got a couple of years on her with my business, she helps me to see things differently than I did before, and makes me want to be a better photographer, which is good for her and me AND all of our clients. Plus we agree that there are enough dogs in Seattle to go around, and if you include the ‘burbs of Bellevue, Redmond, Mill Creek, etc, there are enough dogs and cats to shoot to have our hands full forever!

We both are deeply happy with our jobs, and love living and working in the city.

Nichole and I look forward to a long friendship and amicable ‘business competitorship’ and are excited at the future opportunities that await us both!

Next up for Nichole: the 2nd City Dog Magazine cover model contest in October. Check Nichole’s site as the date approaches for more information on how to get your dog on the cover.

Other pet photographers who inspire us are:

Bev Sparks: www.dogphotographer.com. Bev has been shooting dogs for a long, long time, and it clearly shows in her work. Her fabulous photographs were recently featured on the set of Oprah’s dog themed show (!). Can’t get any bigger than that! Plus she is just the nicest person you will ever meet, truly.

Emily Reiman: Best Friend Photography: Seattle pet photographer. Emily has been shooting dogs and cats for over 10 years and has a very distinct style. She does gorgeous film photos on black backdrops, often with an aged, sepia tone. Sophisticated and striking.

Kendra Luck: Dogumentarian. Kendra is my hero and every time I look at her images I smile, which is exactly what I want to be doing when looking at pet photography. If I lived in SF I would totally have her shoot Fergie.

Sharon Beals: I have owned her book “What Dogs Do”, which is filled with Sharon’s emotive black and white imagery, for long before I started doing pet photography as a hobby, and it has sat on my bookshelf, inspiring me during my journey from ‘hobbiest’ to ‘professional’.

Kim Levine: LOVE her work. I sense that Kim has the same type of feelings in her shoots that I do in mine- pure joy. She is truly the original ‘dog photo book’ author, and has been shooting dogs for over a decade.

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Cowbelly Family | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Limber Tail

July 28, 2007 – 3:59 am

Just when I thought this week couldn’t get any worse, when I took my dearheart Fergie out for her midday walk today I noticed that her tail wasn’t working.

Like, limp, dead, blah.

No wagging, no movement, no nothin. Just hung straight down like a limp noodle.

I tried not to freak out but given the way things have gone the last week I was fearing the worst.

After our walk I called the vet right away, figuring I would just make an appointment with them next week whenever they had an opening. After the receptionist told me they were fully booked both today and tomorrow, she asked what the problem was. After I told her she said “hang on a sec” and put me on hold.

She came back a minute later and said “can you come in in a couple of hours? The soonest opening we have is at 3:10″. “Sure” I said, feeling a lump welling up in my throat. “Great” she said, “we’ll see you then”.

To make a long story short this is when I had total meltdown on the sofa. Visions of spinal tumors and life-threatening neurological diseases filled my head. I thought “I can’t almost lose my mom and then my dog too in the same week”. All of the events of the last week finally caught up to me and I was nearly inconsolable, especially considering I was scheduled to take my mom home from the hospital today at 2. Given that I have not yet mastered the art of time travel there was no way to do both. Do I decide between my mom and my dog? Talk about a life challenge.

After a tearful phone call (me) my sister insisted that I take Fergie in and that she would take care of mom, so that is what we did.

It turns out that Fergie is just fine. (WHEW). She has a case of what is called ‘limber tail’ or ‘limp tail’ or ‘dead tail’. My vet calls it limber tail.

Limber tail is a mysterious temporary ailment that affects very athletic dogs, especially labs, particularly after they swim in cold water, which Fergie did yesterday afternoon briefly at a client’s house on Puget Sound.

For reasons that aren’t understood, the tail muscles and nerves stop working a couple of inches down and the tail is essentially lifeless all the way to the tip. This usually lasts for 2-3 days and always resolves on it’s own.

Because there is some pain and inflammation associated with limber tail the vet prescribed doggy painkillers which Fergie gets to start taking tomorrow (wonder if they work on humans too, lol).

I swear the sigh of relief that I breathed when I left the vet office could be heard across the entirety of the Greenlake neighborhood. Just to give you an idea of how upset I was taking her in, I had my dad come with me.

The other (very, very) good news is that my mom is doing very well. My sister got her home and she is now relaxing in her own environment which sure beats a sterile hospital room. She is incredibly happy to be home and is now firmly on the road to recovery.

My sister is staying with her until Sunday morning when I will take over. All is good. Quite good. Early next week we will take Jasmine in for her vet appointment before re-homing her.

These outcomes are really great because it means I can devote my full attention to my clients tomorrow at our Urban Beast photography event, which I am very much looking forward to.

No matter how complicated or difficult life gets, I will always, always take immense pleasure in taking photos of dogs (and cats!). I really, really love my job.

Here is a photo of a lab with limber tail. I would have gotten a shot of Fergie but she is so zonked from the day I can’t get her to stand long enough, lol.

But basically, this is exactly what she looks like right now, only brown. :-)

YAY for happy endings!!!

By doggirlseattle | Posted in fergie | Comments (0)

First ‘Special Screenings’ event planned for 7/28

July 19, 2007 – 6:50 pm

I am super short on time so I just pulled this from my website:

NEW: Seattle area ’special screenings’ photography events

The first of it’s kind offered by Cowbelly Pet Photography: special photography events starting in Seattle in the summer of 2007, called ‘Special Screenings’.

Special Screenings ‘mini-shoots’ for $35 will be provided to a set number of lucky customers at Seattle-area Cowbelly partners and local pet-supply stores. Discounted print packages and other fun products will be available to those who book a sitting. Advanced registration will be required.

First Date and Location for ‘Special Screenings’ photography event:

Location: Urban Beast pet boutique: 217 Yale Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 Tel: (206) 324-4400

Date: Saturday August 28th from 10-5

Cost: $35 per client for up to 2 dogs. (1 client per session).

Includes: 30-minute documentary-style photo session at nearby Cascade Park, private online photo gallery for 14 days and access to discounted print packages

Sign-up: Max 10 people for this event. Pre-registration and a $20 deposit are required to sign up. Please call or stop by the store to register. 206.324.4400.

Spaces are filling up VERY fast so call or stop by soon! A waiting list will be held once this event fills. Future dates will be posted as soon as they are planned.

labels: seattle dog photographer, seattle dog photography, seattle pet photography, pet photography, dog photos

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Events | Tagged , | Comments (0)

2 thousand people WOW!

July 16, 2007 – 7:24 pm

some of you may have noticed a little hit tracker at the bottom of this blog.

I chart the numbers of hits the site gets, not in actual page loads or ‘hits’, but in the number of unique users (called unique IP addresses- with one IP address representing one computer).

I don’t chart the number of total hits because it doesn’t help me to know how many people have visited the blog, it only indicates how many pages, images, links, etc have been clicked. One person alone can generate a lot of hits.

So I record the # of people instead.

And right now I am 41 people shy of 2,000 people who have visited this blog since it’s inception last October- woohoo! And that’s without the use of RSS feeds!

(Side note: I can’t do RSS with blogger because I am using an external server and blogger doesn’t support us FTP people).

I am sure this is nothing compared to many (if not most) blogs but to me it means a lot to me, and makes me a very happy girl. :-)

Thanks for following me!!

Jamie

P.S. I had an incredible weekend with the Pike Place Market shoot and the Dane Outreach event and as soon as I am recovered (and after I reply to the 29 flagged emails in my inbox) I will post pictures!

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Behind-the-Scenes, miscellaneous randomness | Tagged , , | Comments (0)