And the story continues…

‘Of course, these stories don’t stop with the rescues. These cats were lucky enough to live out their lives with their people, and in 2011, the year I created, designed and published Great Rescues, several were still very much with us.

I found that many of the photos I’d taken of the portraits through the years weren’t good enough for printing. Photographing artwork on film was a challenge because you never know if the photo is good until it’s been developed and printed and back in your hands, but my customers often needed their portrait before I got the photos back to check—many were gifts, especially surprise gifts, others the animal companion in question was in ill health and the caretakers wanted their portrait with them before they lost their animal companion.

I used a tripod and lots of extra lighting, but even then things could go wrong. Some photos were a little blurry and when enlarged were even blurrier, more were not accurate for colors, and some portraits were large and even if fairly sharp scanning a 4″ x 6″ print really didn’t enlarge well. I have been a graphic designer for 40 years, 25 at the time I designed this book, and I knew the standards, and also had all the professional graphic and photo software I needed to work with them and sometimes still couldn’t make the photos work.

I pulled out my old paperwork, from as much as 20 years earlier, and reconnected with these people to ask their permission to have their story in my book; I own copyright to the portrait, but they own their story. I also asked them if I could rephotograph their portrait with my DSLR where I’d have a larger lens area and I could see the image immediately. I’d be photographing through the glass and I have a technique to avoid glare on the glass, but the glass would also give the portraits a greenish cast which I could filter that out.

What a joy that was to reconnect with them, and some I’m still in touch with as friends 15 years later.

This section includes notes about the subjects and their people and what they were doing when I published the book. When I called to get their stories and visited to photograph the portrait for a newer digital image I was somehow not surprised to see a fair number of the people still rescuing cats.

I have also included notes on the design and completion of their portraits—I specialize in creating a custom piece of artwork and I love to discuss how it comes together, so those are often interesting stories as well.

I hope you enjoy reading even more about the cat subjects and the people who rescued them, and about the artwork’s creation as well.

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No content may be used without WRITTEN PERMISSION from the author.

Great Rescues Calendar and Great Rescues Day Book are published by Beauty of a Moment Publishing

Site designed by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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