Cat Photography in Kent

When you look at my website, my social media pages, or my leaflets, you might get the idea that I’m a dog person.  You wouldn’t be wrong, I love every kind of dog, but that isn’t to say that I’m not thrilled to have the opportunity to work with any kind of animal. 

One of my favourites to work with, which many people aren’t aware can even have a portrait session, is cats. 

Right now I have my dog, Marley, but in the past I’ve lived with cats, including when I house-shared with friends, where I lived with three cats.  They all had very different personalities; there was Bella, the princess, Skylar, the friendly one, and Frank, who had a furball for a brain.  Like dogs, every cat has a unique character, and I always treat each one as an individual.

I had the opportunity to work with a pet parent who also had three cats at home: Blitzen, Ember and Nova. 

https://www.instagram.com/kingdomsteadcats/

This was an in-home session utilising my mobile studio, which I brought into the clients’ first-floor flat and set up in their living room.  I set up my paper backdrop draped over a table, rather than letting it come down onto the floor, as I would for dogs. This is because cats often feel safer and more relaxed the higher up they are, and they are also more likely to wander off from a backdrop or explore behind it. Cats can move very suddenly when they decide to, but keeping them on a raised platform where they have to pause and think for a moment gives us mere humans time to react before the cat disappears past us.

“As we were photographing cats, Conor came to my flat. He was respectful of my home, and belongings, making sure the equipment was in a safe location for both the human and feline occupants of my flat. Despite it being a slightly tight space, Conor turned it into a photo studio in no time!”

Cats are agents of chaos, and they often like to have personal space from each other, so each one had their own personal portrait session rather than attempting to manage them together all at once. This doesn’t mean that I couldn’t provide a family photo of the cats sitting together, but that’s something I create after the individual photographs.

We started off with Blitzen, the Bengal, a striking breed known for having a dog-like personality, as they are usually playful, sociable, and very intelligent.  Blitzen was the youngest and friendliest of the trio, so he had the first turn at having his portrait taken while the other two were allowed to relax in the makeshift waiting room (the bedroom).  Blitzen was happy to be placed on the backdrop and to stay there, with lots of treats and toy interaction to keep his interest.  He seemed to enjoy being the centre of attention and was curious about the camera, so we got some great shots of him looking straight down the lens, as well as some fun ones of him standing up to play.

 I’ll bring some treats and toys to every session, but if your pet has favourites (such as Blitzen’s favoured feathers on a stick), it’s always best if they are available to use during the session. Blitzen’s owners had already worked to teach him to stand on command, and he was happy to perform for the camera as well.

“Conor is an amazing Pet Photographer. He cared for my cats as if they were his own. His primary goal throughout the shoot was their comfort and safety. Despite cats being more unusual to get portraits of, he handled the entire thing as a pro, aware of each cat's tolerances and focus times. He used several methods to make sure we got keepsake shots I will keep for the rest of my life, but the cats didn't suffer for it. (They were well compensated with treats and playtime during the whole shoot!)”

After Blitzen was done showing off, we moved on to Ember, the daddy’s girl who is a darling to one owner, but merely tolerates everyone else.  Ember was more reluctant to stay on the backdrop, which is where having extra people around comes in handy.  You can’t usually put a cat on a table and expect them to stay put; instead, you have to make them think it is their idea to settle there.  With myself in front of the table, and Ember’s two owners on either side, we gently corralled her away from the edges of the table for a minute until she decided that jumping down seemed too much effort and she’d really rather lie down in the middle of the table.  

Ember had a steady look of unimpressed indifference, and I had feared she wasn’t enjoying the experience, despite signals from her body language suggesting she was relaxed and content. After a quick check in with her owners, it turns out that this is just how she looks and it’s something they cherish about her and love that I’ve captured it for them. That just goes to show that pet parents will always know their animals best and it’s truly their unique quirks that make them so endearing to us.

With some treats and encouragement from her dad, we got some cute shots of her lying down, sitting, and holding out her paw as if she’s waiting for you to kiss it (Queen!). After 20 minutes, she decided that all this fuss wasn’t worth any more treats, and when your pet says we’re done, then we’re done.

“His work speaks for itself (as modelled by my cats themselves) but what matters more to me was his professional attitude, whilst still being warm and friendly. I had several goals for the shoot and Conor worked with me, and the cats, to get the best we could whilst not pushing the cats too far. I think he was more aware of their mood than even me! I've never had someone be so mindful of their needs before.”

Last but by no means least was Nova, the most shy and timid cat of the three, and she was still a relative newcomer to the household at the time of the session.  I took extra time with desensitising her to the camera flash and kept her session as calm and quiet as possible.  She’s the most food-motivated of the three cats, and especially enjoyed her share of Lick-e-Lix (which can make a mess of the backdrop, but a bit of extra editing work to do is a small price to pay for a contented model).

She was quite reserved and held mostly still once she’d settled onto being on the backdrop, posing very prettily with her dainty little paws and big fluffy coat.  Nova is the only longhaired cat of the trio, with gorgeously rich, dark-brown fur with warm, chocolatey highlights, ranging to a deep black undercoat.  Her owners were particularly keen to have some pictures of Nova that reflect the true colour of her coat, because phone cameras tend to automatically adjust the light balance to make a dark cat look lighter than they really are, or turn them into an amorphous black blob.

“It was incredible to watch how he drew out the very different purr-sonalities of my three cats, getting action shots of my bengal and glamour shots of my shy cat. He even got some wonderful shots of our long haired, black kitty! Which considering her fur is where light goes to die is no easy feat!”

Using the same backdrop for all three pets allowed me to edit them together to create a composite image of the three cats side-by-side.  When I’ve shown the image to other people, the usual response is “how did you get three cats to all sit together like that?” which goes to show that a composite image can look completely natural.  After taking a couple of weeks to edit the photographs, I returned to the clients’ flat for the reveal session, where I hooked up my laptop to their TV so they could see the selection of finished portraits to choose from.  

“A couple of weeks after the shoot Conor brought over the edited shots for me to pick which were printed. He even hooked up my TV to show me the shots on a slideshow. I am very picky about a lot of things, and I was worried I would irritate him by wanting to change small details about how my products were printed. But far from being irritable he was enthusiastic about every change I wanted to make, however small. In fact he and his assistant helped me try several different formats for my kitties names so they fitted neatly on the front of the photo keepsake box!”

They chose to have the composite image as a 16x24” in my Fine Art style. It was a tricky job to narrow down the rest of the portraits, but they chose a variety of images that showed their cats in different poses that reflect different sides of their personalities, to be compiled in The Folio with 10 matted prints in a green vegan leather wrapped wooden box, with each of the cats’ full name embossed on the cover in gold.  They asked for a few small changes, mostly tweaks to how the images were cropped, so that each pet had both a close-up and a full-body portrait.  I’m always happy to make adjustments like these to ensure that the final product is exactly what my clients want.

“A final but important note, unlike can be customary in these roles, Conor didn't "upsell" me, or pressure me into purchases out of my budget. He was very happy to work within whatever figure I gave him, and I believe would have treated me the same if my budget was £100 or £100,000.”

When people ask for high-quality, professional portraits of their pets, the reasons are usually sentimental: they want to preserve their memories of their loved ones forever as pieces of artwork to adorn their homes.  These particular cat owners, however, also had a practical reason for asking for clear images of their pets from the front and sides: to have identifying photographs in case any of their pets were ever lost or stolen.  I took some extra shots for this purpose and provided the unedited digital files of those at no extra cost, which were then presented on a wooden USB stick alongside the digital files they received with their purchased prints. 

“In short I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Conor to everyone, no matter their pet, budget or scenario. Go get your own wonderful keepsakes to keep forever, and enjoy the fun photoshoot experience!”

If having a portrait session for your cats (or any other pets) sounds like something you would be interested in, then book a no-obligation consultation call to discuss creating artwork you can cherish.