"Hey, would you do photos like this?" the message asked.
Then the example photo popped into view. I felt my jaw drop open, and laughter sprang out.
“Totally!” I texted back.
And I knew this was going to be the funniest family photo session of my life. How do you make the “Walmart portrait” experience better? Bring all of your cats. And that is exactly what Sarah did.
The Strategy...
I packed up the studio gear, went to her home, and set up for the experience. I used a simple light set up because I knew that I needed to be able to work quickly because honestly, I was sold on the idea, but I had no idea how the cats were going to take this.
From being a cat owner myself… I knew we were at the mercy of whatever the cats thought about this in the moment.
During set up, some of the cats checked out the scent of my gear, and some of the others made themselves scarce. This experience was going to land somewhere between child photography and wildlife photography, or it was going to set a whole new frame of reference on my scale of portrait experience.
Cat nature and some worst-case scenarios considered, we started with the humans. I wanted to get the group and individual portraits of Sarah and her family members done before we brought the cats into the mix to avoid spreading fur all over their outfits. It also gave the cats, the curious ones at least, a little more time to observe the flash and new sounds before we put them in front of the camera.
The Strategy Paid off!
For the portrait composites that I planned to do, I needed at least one decent shot of each cat. If I got that I could super impose them into images with the people. We first tried to convince Gus to sit on a stool for his portrait. He did good with that for a second then wanted down. Then we discovered we were better off having Sarah hold him for his portrait. That honestly was the way to go. The cat was more comfortable with being in its owner’s arms than on the stool, so that’s what we did for the next three cats.
It turned out pretty well, one shy girl cat made it clear she was not going to participate, but all the others gave us at least one good shot with the “owner holding them” strategy. Mr. Gus was born to be a cat model, so he was in many more portraits with each of the humans.
What I loved most about this portrait session was the laughter. Every time I gave them a look at the photos, it set off episodes of laughter. We were making some very funny photos, but I knew this family was making memories from this experience. That’s what really makes me love the service that I provide to my clients.
Pets truly do have a special place in their families, and it was an honor to make these images for Sarah and her boys.