I knew this was going to be interesting and boy was I right! My friend Pete Kofira and I volunteered for something we had never done before: cat shooting. Now before you get visions of General Tso's chicken in your head, we were shooting with a camera.
We volunteered our photographic services down at Stray Haven in Waverly. Stray Haven is a small, not-for-profit animal shelter organization serving all of Tioga County, NY and our neighboring counties. They receive no operational funding from the state or county level or other charitable agencies and rely totally on adoptions and some very generous donors to keep their doors open.
We thought we could help out by taking animal portraits for them. "How hard could that be, we said? Piece of cake, we said. Nothing to it, we said."
How could we have been so wrong?
Click to enlarge
Photographing cats is a very simple process. You put the cat on a table in front of a backdrop, give it some instruction so the cat knows what to do and the the cat proceeds to do whatever the Hell it wants to!
We were fortunate to have the help of a very capable volunteer named Linda otherwise we would have been in big trouble.
After about two hours of negotiations with the cats, they let us take pictures of a few of them. And we had a great time! What you see here is the result of some hard work and a lot of luck!
And now Pete can add 'Cat Wrangler' to his resume......
So if you can find the time or the money, Stray Haven can surely use your help! Donations of food and supplies are also greatly appreciated! And it's amazing how good you will feel after a visit with the animals at the shelter! To learn more about Stray Haven Animal Shelter, click the link or call (607) 565-2859. Or better yet, visit them at 194 Shepard Road Waverly NY 14892.