The Photographer’s Assistant

 

“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” ― Terry Pratchett

The photo above is part of a series of extra shots I was taking while preparing to do a shoot. I was warming up, trying to synchronise my eye and the camera, and get a feel for how best to create what I had in mind.

Usually I delete these extra shots after I’m done with them. But this one is a keeper. It made me laugh when I saw it because it expressed how I sometimes see my cat, it may have the body of a domestic being but that belies the feral fierceness within. It is gentle and tame because it chooses to be so. Don’t mistake its kindness and docility as weakness or lack of ferocity.

And frankly it’s better than any of the other shots which I took in this series because it is a spontaneous moment of cat.

“Time spent with a cat is never wasted.” ― Colette

My cat is my photography assistant. It has to check out everything before I can proceed, and often interrupts a shoot to give me some much needed perspective.

This shot above is me trying to do a Lara Croft impression during a shoot for a Tomb Raider competition on deviantart.  And that bottom is what my cat thought of what I was doing.

As much as I sometimes want to disagree with my cat’s advice and critique, and wish it wouldn’t interfere, it is usually right.

“Never try to outstubborn a cat.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

Now… when I want to take a picture of my cat, things can get very blurry. But when I don’t want the cat in shot…

…things can get very copacetic.

The image above is a part of the shoot I took after I captured my cat with its head in the mask. It is sort of what I had in mind for capturing – Mars in Scorpio – for a series I was doing of my astrological chart in photographs (which is still a work in progress).

I did not plan on having a cat in the photo…

If I had planned on having the cat in the photo… it would have never happened.

…my photographer’s assistant decided that this image needed a cat.

My assistant was right.

I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps I’m the assistant and my cat is actually the photographer.

“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.” ― Jean Cocteau