You just know something is about to happen…

Cleopatra sometimes needs reminders…

Moriarty is my creative consultant. For some reason, I was going to have the Halloween crow in the birdcage. I took the top off, and Moriarty said “Nope. This will be much better” and hopped in.

He was so right!!

Some photographs are created by carefully planning, arranging, lighting, and then trying to get the cat to actually do something interesting. And then some are sheer luck, being in the right place at the exact right time.
We had just brought Cleopatra home from the Humane Society. So I had plopped her on my bed to take some homecoming photos. Nothing special, just some snapshots to remember the moment.
Suddenly she froze, stared across the room, jumped off the bed and ran. She had seen herself in our full length mirror! I knew what was going to happen, so I crouched down and hoped. It was all of 5 seconds. She’s smart, she realized right away that it was her reflection. But in those 5 seconds, I managed to catch the perfect moment of excitement, curiosity, and a little bit of nervousness. It’s the fact that she put the paw up on the mirror that puts this over the top. It’s such a special story.

The typewriter is a Remington Portable. They were introduced in the 1920s, and the type basket folds down into the typewriter so you can place the suitcase like cover on it.

Moriarty is wondering "Where's its Mouse?" since every keyboard needs a mouse!After all, every keyboard needs a mouse.

Moriarty has very specific taste in books. His favorites are, of course, Sherlock Holmes. His hero is the Cheshire cat and Thomasina. However, he did think that the Cat in the Hat was rather full of himself.

I see the textures as a second subject in this piece. The dilapidated edges of the old books, the broken spine with the linen binding tape poking through.

The cat is Moriarty, the toy mouse is Dangerous Beans, and I won’t tell you which one of them is The Scholar!

The real story behind curiosity and the cat — after all, that which does not kill you makes you smarter!

Rim lighting a black cat is a challenging. Then try getting enough fill light to avoid a silhouette, and still not take away from the rim lighting all with a subject that tends to move is a masterclass in lighting.

I had finished watching a spectacularly beautiful sunset, when I turned around. And this is what I found. There were seagulls flying around, and I crossed my fingers and hoped that one would go in front of the moon. Just as the colors were starting to fade, I got lucky!

Part of the “Notes from a Sketchbook” series. Printed on etching paper to give even more of a sketchbook feel. Note how you can see the back wing through the front wing because of the backlighting.

Rim lighting a black cat is a challenging. Then try getting enough fill light to avoid a silhouette, and still not take away from the rim lighting all with a subject that tends to move is a masterclass in lighting.