Vintage Photo: Sally’s Photo Shoot, 1984

Our handsome friend Maxwell over at A Tonk’s Tail reminded us that this week has been “Deaf Pet Awareness Week” as part of “Deaf Awareness Week”. We’re happy to share these photos of Sally to show that deaf cats are just as beautiful as hearing cats, in fact you can’t tell at all! And Sally’s deafness may have added to her mystique as a model since she was often so deeply focused on something without the distraction of sound that she could hold perfectly still and I could capture an immense amount of detail, even as a total amateur.

I still can’t believe I managed to take these photos after having my camera for only about a year. I laid on the floor watching the late afternoon sunlight fill Sally’s frothy fur, its texture and depth holding the light more than reflecting, and in the shadows showing the textures of her fur instead of just a shadow as if she was emitting light on her own. Kublai was black and I was just learning how to photograph him in different lights, without too much success, and Bootsie was gray and white and much easier, but Sally, I found, was the perfect model.

I used the photo above in the post about Sally earlier today, not realizing I had it backward. I’ll leave that one as is, but this is correct.

I will admit that I don’t really understand how cameras work, not logically. I understand visually after much experimentation which lenses achieve which effect and how manually changing settings changes the outcome. But at the time I took these photos I had little understanding of what I was doing. That’s okay, we all begin somewhere.

I continued on with this photo shoot, seeing the interesting difference in texture between her fur and that awful olive green sculptured carpet, much improved in contrasty black and white, and the unintended nearly solid black background. The prints have been missing for a while—I find them among a stack of reference photos, then I lose that folder, etc. —and now that I’ve scanned the negatives I have them all digitized.

But I also liked the effect of her face in shadow instead of in the light. I would never have thought of that at the time, I know, if she hadn’t posed herself like that. And this was still in her wild days so I don’t know if she was actively teaching me a lesson or if she was just being Sally. Probably a little of both.

Below, she looks as if she’s made of whipped cream. She was so beautiful.

The image below is the only one from this set that I’d scanned years ago, and the only one I could find, but it’s still one of my favorites.

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Read about Sally’s life and see more photos and art and read more about my lovely Sally.

Also, see other Vintage Photos of my household of cats from days gone by, and taken on film with my Pentax K-1000.

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And make sure you hop over to read about Maxwell and a lot of interesting information about deafness in cats on A Tonk’s Tail!

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Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals on Etsy.