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Pet Photography 52 Weeks Project – Week 6 – Composite

Welcome to Week 6 of the Pet Photography 52 Weeks Project.  This week’s theme is “Composite”.

Luna’s first encounter with her cousin cat Velvet

Now I have to admit that I was really uncomfortable about this theme as it is not really a thing for me.  I tend to remove more than add in PhotoShop, such as leashes and distracting elements, and even people handling the dog during a session.  As for compositing, it is a skill I would like to learn, and this week has made me think I really need to start learning it and not just thinking about it.  For this week I’ve used a very simple composite I created last year and it was actually one of the images I used in my AIPP accreditation portfolio.

A little background.  Last June, I was commissioned to photograph a celebrity’s cat for the cover of a cat magazine called “Pussweek”.  So I borrowed some lighting equipment from a photographer friend, grabbed Luna and took her over to my cousin’s (Justine of @QueenJustineVintage) vintage shop to practice shooting with lighting in preparation for the paparazzi shoot!  Juz was out for the day so we had the whole shop to ourselves, and Juz’s cat Velvet (who is an Instagram personality @velvet_of_redfern) kept us company.

Velvet couldn’t help but tease Luna by coming in and out of the set… Luna was a little freaked out as she has never been around a cat before.  I was actually quite proud of her for not chasing, and she was more timid and respectful, as I think she realised she was in Velvet’s domain.

So here we go…

Oh, and as for the magazine shoot, it turned out that the celebrity was Sam Mac, weatherman for Sunrise on Channel 7 in Sydney and his cat Miss Coco was the cover star!  Here is the resulting image:

Pussweek (@lifeofmisscoco)

Pussweek (@lifeofmisscoco)

If you would like to find out more about this amazing little magazine by cats for cats and maybe even buy this issue, check ’em out!

Thank you for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s topic.

Continue clicking the link at the bottom of each post until you end up right back here.

Do you have a teeny tiny dog in your life?  Would you like them to star in an amazing coffee table book supporting teeny tiny dog rescue “Paws for Thought” Rescue?  If so, go checkout my latest fundraising project… “Teeny Tiny Dogs and their Stories“.

If you would like to book a photography session for your dog please get in touch as I’d love to meet you.  If you want to join the pack and be kept up to date with the latest news, please sign up here.

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4 Comments

  1. Angela on 9 February, 2019 at 1:47 am

    Great combination for an image with impact!

  2. Lynda Mowat on 9 February, 2019 at 3:53 pm

    Awesome Jo. I’m in the same boat, wanting to learn more about compositing, but not having done much. Great job with Velvet and Luna.

  3. Colleen on 10 February, 2019 at 1:09 am

    Velvet and Luna have me smiling. Luna’s expressions are priceless, she looks like such a sweet gal.

  4. Tracy Allard on 23 February, 2019 at 11:37 pm

    Clever image, great work and congratulations on your cover!

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