Snapping Shelter Cats Now Available!

I'm happy to report the release of Snapping Shelter Cats: Using Your Camera to Help Shelter Animals Find Loving Homes.    This book is similar to Snapping Shelter Dogs, which released a month ago, but because photographing cats is nothing like photographing dogs, it differs in many ways.

If you enjoy photography and if you've ever wanted to do something for animals at your local shelter, this book will give you practical instruction and lots of examples about what and what not to do.

So download your copy of Snapping Shelter Cats today! Available for the Kindle, and can be read on the iPad or any computer via Amazon's free Kindle reader.

All proceeds from these two books will go to support the Largo, Florida SPCA until the kennel renovation project is completed. Help us spread the word!

~~Angie 

Book is done, so I can play!

Since I handed in my book Wednesday morning, I took the day off to go to the SPCA and snap puppies.  Today was "little dog" day, coincidentally, but they were all sweet.  Here is my crew:

Gretchen

Melina, who must be adopted with Miller 

Miller

LOL!  I love this picture because I whistled, hence the tilted heads. :-)

Sweet little Sam

Adorable Spike. He gives delightful puppy kisses. 

Vicky, Gretchen's sister. 

SPCA and Sixties Fun

Spent the day snapping dogs AND cats at the SPCA, then hubby and I went to a surprise birthday party for some friends of ours who are married and have both turned sixty. Their daughter threw the party based around a sixties theme, so we ate, enjoyed root beer floats, and listened to sixties music.  Fun!

Anyway, here are the doggies and kitties of today.  Still snapping kitties in their cages, which works sometimes and sometimes doesn't.  Hard to get enough light in there if the cage is in a bad position, and I've learned something--cats close their eyes before the flash, resulting in narrow-eyed kitties every time.  Bummer.  Have to come up with a plan for better light, for sure.

Anyway, here they are: the lovely ladies and gents of an SPCA Saturday (and a few mixed in from Thursday):

I'm Branching Out! Into ART!

I never thought I'd type the above headline!  But here I am, delving into art for a couple of reasons. First, I want to do something to help the shelter animals and the folks who have been so gracious to me. Second, I love photography and playing around with pictures. Third, I love words, so why not "marry" the two?

And so I've opened a little studio at smugmug.com.  And I believe you'll find a link in the slideshow below.  You can order any print in any format you like--photo, canvas, or even on a tee shirt or mug.  Enjoy!  You can bet I'll be adding more as time goes by (and I find the time to create more!)

Angie

Rinse. Repeat. Recycle

I will freely admit that writers--including me--have favorite bits of dialogue and phrasing that we tend to use a lot.  For a while there, I had a "sag-bellied rat" running through my books, and at other times every gun couldn't be picked up without the hero "slamming the cartridge home."

This video is a clever look at Aaron Sorkin's recycled bits, and it's rather eye-opening.  Makes you appreciate just how influential a writer's words are, doesn't it?  And all this time, I wanted to believe it was the characters speaking . . .   ;-)

HT to Jim Bell for pointing me toward this video.

~~Angie 

Photomosaics--very fun!

Years ago I worked on a book in which photomosaics were a major theme.  What's a photomosaic?   Easy--a mosaic made of photos.  :-)

In any case, I suspected that now there might be easy computer programs to put these works of art together for us, and yep, I found a free one on the web (you can find one, too, just use Google.)

And I created two photomosaics using only my SPCA doggie photos.  :-)

To best view these, click on them to enlarge, or save to your own computer and then zoom in to take a closer look.  Pretty cool, huh?  They would make great posters.  :-)

First, a landscape, and then a cartoon.  Enjoy!

~~Angie

SPCA day

It was quiet this morning at the SPCA, but I enjoyed taking pictures of some new dogs.  Also went into the cat wing and took a few shots, but they were rough, as I had to take pictures while the animals were still in their cages.  Still, I suppose a rough shot is better than no shot at all.  :-/

Anyway, here are today's dogs . . . I fell in love with Caesar.  I've been watching him for about the last month as he went through treatment and evaluation, and I just love this boy.  Isn't he beautiful?

Agatha

Caesar

Chi Chi

Noel

Rodeo