Let photographic visions drive creativity.



I love you, honey.

A photo advantage is often about expanding your vision. Let me tell you about my cats. Actually, let me tell you about two kittens.

They were born in October, sometime around the 6th or 7th of that month, in a liter of six kittens. The mother had all good intentions of raising her wee ones. However, she fed them well for two weeks and then stopped.

I’m uncertain whether the kittens were too hungry or whether they bit her as they suckled. I do know she abandoned them. They were so little and young and pretty. I joined with several other friends, and we raised them on a milk supplement that surprisingly we found at a local Walmart.

One friend selected a yellow striped tabby cat. Another took that cat’s twin along with a second, white with splotches of grey stripes. I kept a white male cat with splotches of yellow striping and a female calico. While the sixth kitten didn’t make it, I thought we did pretty well with pulling these wee ones through.

Share your vision with others. It's totally fun.

I’ve had a lot of fun photographing my two kittens as they’ve grown. They are known as Starsky and Hutch, with Hutchie being the female. This photo was taken as they slept in a rocking chair. All tuckered out from hours of jumping in the air and tumbling over each other, Hutch sprawls atop her best friend sound asleep.

So here is my vision about cat photographs. I want more than to focus on their face. I want to capture a feeling of some sort so that I can communicate a message.

This picture isn’t the best in the world. Far from it, and yet it is a huggable pose that says ‘I love you’ in its easy way. I played with the picture even more using a Topaz Filter and then in Photoshop used layers to add text.

The resulting cartoon-like picture takes on a whole different feel and still says ‘I love you’. I’ve used both photos in greeting cards. The results are quite captivating. It all started with a vision…and so I encourage you to play with your pictures. Tell a story. Look for a feeling, and then find a way to use it so that everyone takes pleasure from your creativity.

Your comments are forever welcome.