Mysticoon William Wallace

This Maine Coon boy, RW, SGCA Mysticoon William Wallace ("Will") was bred by Muriel Kay Heimer of Mysticoon Cattery in Florida and belongs to a good friend of mine, Ginny Padgette. In the spring of 2006, Ginny and Will flew down to our house and we all drove together to do a cat show in South Texas. Ginny exhibited Will and Ken and I did the cat photography. We stayed in the guest cottage of our long-time friends, Lou and Brenda Cabaza, who live in San Antonio.

It was interesting to watch how at ease Will was with strangers. This big boy (and he is large!) allowed Lou to hold him and stroke him, having never met him before. He charmed everyone he met... and still does!

On the way home, Ginny, Ken and I stopped north of Austin to shoot wildflowers in the early morning. Will was an excellent traveller and companion during the whole time he was with us.

Background fabric color for Will: Peat Moss.

Maine Coon from Japan

This is Michaelangelo, a beautifully groomed young Brown Classic Tabby Maine Coon whom we photographed in Japan in 2006.

Michaelangelo was the cover cat for a calendar published by Cat Fancy as a gift to new subscribers to their magazine. This was my first commissioned calendar!

What a face!

Background fabric color for Michaelangelo: Burgundy.

The Reach

These are young Norwegian Forest Cat kittens brought to my home studio for Ken and me to photograph. The breeders are Jim and Donna Armel of ForestKatz located in Spring, Texas.

The kittens are out of RW SGC NorseStar Berit of ForestKatz and RW QGC HattKatts Guri of ForestKatz. Donna called them her "Angel" litter: Ariel, Calli, Faith, Gabriel, Grace and Kadi.

The bubble was put into the image in post processing. This image of the kittens without the bubble was published in Cat Fancy when the Norwegian Forest Cat breed was profiled.

Background fabric color used for these ForestKatz kittens: Green Felt.

One of My Favorites

These guys are Ocicat kittens brought to me by the breeder, Barbara Stewart. My favorite part about this shot is the kitten who is lying down, peeking through his littermate's feet. It is rather chaotic as an image but one that's dear to my heart because of that little guy laying down.

Most of my multiple kitten shots are more interesting when one kitten is goofing off ... I think if a photo can make the viewer smile, then it's a success!

Background fabric color used for Barbara Stewart's Ocicat kittens: Black.

Michael's on the Plane for London

We put Michael Broad, the site creator of http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/ on the plane for London via Toronto this morning. I supplied him with some of my cat images from the Thunderkatz cat show this past weekend in Oklahoma City, OK, to salt into his videos.

One of the cats he plans on using is the gorgeous girl on the left. Piper is a 1 year old Silver Classic Tabby American Shorthair Female. Her name is CH Placer's Piping Hot of Blue Pau ("Piper") and she was brought to me by the owner, Paula Marouk of Bluepau Cattery in Coweta, Oklahoma.

Background fabric color used for Piper: Purple.

Michael plans on using my Aby kitten images, American Shorthair, two Bengals, a Havana, Exotic Shorthair, Somali and a Birman as well as a shot of a Pixie-Bob from the Thunderkatz show.

I'll be getting back to working on my past shows after I pull images for Cat Fancy's next request for cat breeds: Russian Blue and the Traditional Siamese: the Thai -- and retouch them.

The Beginning :)

Hi! This is my first blog. I am Helmi Flick and I am a cat photographer.

My husband, Ken, and I have photographed cats in the States, Canada, Japan and Germany. Ken is my cat wrangler and lighting guy.

Currently, we have a house guest, Michael Broad, who is the creator of http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/ . Michael came with us to TICA's Thunderkatz cat show in Oklahoma City, OK, this past weekend, after which we visited Kathrin and Martin Stucki of A1 Savannahs on a ranch outside of Ponca City, Oklahoma, here in the States.

I'll be uploading the images from the Thunderkatz show to my image computer today and picking out applicable poses for Michael to use on his website. He seemed to have a ball making little movies with his camera at the cat show and during photo sessions in the Photography Room.

I will upload some cat images to my blog in the days to come when I have some spare time but in the meantime, I'll upload some of my favorite shots from past shows.