by Greg Mayer
In the Chicago Tribune, William Hageman (who seems to be the beat reporter for pets) has an article on how to take photographs of your cat. The article is an interview with Chicago pet photographer David Sutton (his studio is in Evanston).
Among Sutton’s tips is the following:
The animal’s expression is important. “With some animals, if their ears are back they look suspicious, tentative, scared. If they’re looking at you and their ears are forward, the animals look most accessible, warm.”
This shows that he’s been paying attention to the behavior of cats, or that he’s read Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Darwin Online introduction and full texts in multiple languages). Note the laid back ears of the terrified cat.
Meanwhile, the affectionate cat has its ears forward.
The article appeared in the Trib in October, but has just appeared in syndication in my local paper yesterday.
I’ve often thought that pet photography would be the funnest of all the photography because every day, you’d get to meet different dogs and cats and I love meeting animals! My friend’s cats are the cutest with me – one of them has a distinctive way of mewing to let me know where she wants me to pat her.
It’s also one of the most difficult…it’s hard to direct your subjects, and, if they’re shy, they might not be coming out from under the bed. Think of child portraiture, only harder. And that’s on top of all the challenges every pro photographer faces — all the marketing, customer relations, and the rest.
If you can make it through all that…yeah, probably lots of fun.
b&
They say nature photography is hard and it is but I love it way more than something awful like wedding photography. I will take animals over people anyway as people are just annoying in so many unpredictable ways.
The marketing, etc. I why I wouldn’t be successful as a professional photographer. I hate that crap.
You know the best way to make a small fortune in photography?
Start with a large fortune….
b&
Ha ha! I once read something that asked, when you bought your last lens, did you shop around for the best price, weigh the pros & cons of spending the money on the lens & make sure you had the best price when you bought it? Then you shouldn’t go into sports photography. Sports photographers just pick the lens they need off the shelf without consideration of cost. 😀
It’s not all that uncommon for just one of a sports photographer’s lenses to be worth more than his car….
b&
Advantages and disadvantages with all aspects of photography as a profession. After the fantasy, the drudgery.
For me, it’s a personal joy, as it is for you Diana.
Indeed.
Fun until you have to make a living out of it!
SUB
check check
For photographers.
Ray Sent from my iPad
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Love the two cat drawings from the Darwin article.
Darwin’s ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals’ can be downloaded at archive. org.
Thank you!