In this episode, host Kristiina interviews BriAnne Wills, the creator of Girls and Their Cats. They discuss how the project started and the work that BriAnne does as a photographer. They also talk about BriAnne's history with cats and the importance of photographing rescue/adopted cats. The conversation also delves into the crazy cat lady stereotype and the societal perceptions surrounding it. In this conversation, BriAnne discusses her experiences photographing girls and their cats, the process of creating her book, and the challenges of photographing cats. She shares tips for cat owners who want to photograph their own cats and talks about her future projects and TikTok fame.
Takeaways
In this episode, host Kristiina interviews BriAnne Wills, the creator of Girls and Their Cats. They discuss how the project started and the work that BriAnne does as a photographer. They also talk about BriAnne's history with cats and the importance of photographing rescue/adopted cats. The conversation also delves into the crazy cat lady stereotype and the societal perceptions surrounding it. In this conversation, BriAnne discusses her experiences photographing girls and their cats, the process of creating her book, and the challenges of photographing cats. She shares tips for cat owners who want to photograph their own cats and talks about her future projects and TikTok fame.
Takeaways
Kristiina (00:33)
Welcome to Hiss and Tell. Today's guest is BriAnne Wills. She is the cat lady photographer and creator of Girls and Their Cats. Welcome, BriAnne.
BriAnne (00:42)
Thank you, that was perfect.
Kristiina (00:44)
Thank you. It only took 500 tries to get it right, but you know, we got there eventually So full disclosure BriAnne and I know each other from both of our backgrounds and actually BriAnne still doing this in fashion and beauty Photography I left like six years ago went and got my masters blah now here I am
BriAnne (00:50)
You got there.
Kristiina (01:04)
doing cat behavior. Brianne also started Cat or Girls and their Cats as wasn't it your side project and it has now kind of like blown up into this huge thing where I saw on your website you have all of this press. from like you know Refinery29 and HuffPo and
us a little bit about how you decided to start a side project.
BriAnne (01:31)
I'd love to. So I moved to New York in 2014, and I didn't know anybody, and I didn't have any work. I was feeling kind of lost. So I decided to start a series, a photo series, that I originally thought would be nude women at home. So original, but I was like, through the female gaze, it could be really interesting. And I think it was the...
First or second woman that I was photographing had a cat and the cat decided to join the photo shoot. And I was like, wait, this is actually so much more interesting. And then it got me thinking about cat ladies in general and how we're so stigmatized. And there's such a bad stereotype about everyone who is a cat owner is just like automatically labeled a crazy cat lady. And I didn't get it because I was like.
All the cat ladies in my life are actually really interesting and really cool. And so that is how I sort of changed gears. And I thought I would just do a small series of cat ladies. Um, I didn't even have a name for it yet. I was like, I think I posted it on my, um, my fashion Instagram very early on. And I was just like, I'm just looking for girls and their cats to photograph. And I had.
a pretty good response to that. And I photographed, I think, 20 initially, and then that got picked up by Board Panda, which is like this really viral website where if anything gets posted on Board Panda, you're going to get some attention. And then a couple, I think it took me a couple years to actually move it over to a different Instagram. And once I did, that gained a lot of traction. And yeah, I just.
I haven't stopped. So, yeah, didn't go in ever since.
Kristiina (03:26)
Well, that's great. what's the percentage of work that you do that is fashion and beauty versus the girls and their cats work?
BriAnne (03:34)
It's 90% fashion, beauty, portraits, and then 10% on the side, I do the girls and their cats. Because now it's evolved into like, I'm a pet photographer. So I couldn't keep up the series on its own. So I was like, if you guys still want this and you guys still want photos of you and your cats, like I'm available. And then I set packages up so that people could choose like their price range. And
Kristiina (03:45)
Right.
Yeah.
BriAnne (04:03)
So that is now just like a side job, which is great. And I don't know if you can hear my cat. She's scratching on her scratching post right now. It's very loud. So yeah, that is just a side job at this point. I try to just keep it on the weekends. And then yeah, 90% is fashion and beauty portraits.
Kristiina (04:24)
All right. Can you tell us a little bit about your history with cats? Like, did you grow up with cats? I know you have cats now. Tell us a little bit about the cats that you have now. Maybe shout out their TikTok if you're trying to grow that. Tell us a little bit just about what's going on with you and the cats in your life.
BriAnne (04:41)
Okay, yeah, I have never not had a cat in my life. I mean, it's just the cat distribution system. It's always worked in my favor. When I was born, my parents had a cat. I think we had two cats growing up. All of them were just like strays on the street that found us. I don't think we ever intentionally set out to adopt. They just showed up.
Kristiina (04:50)
Short.
Mm-hmm.
BriAnne (05:07)
And then there's Liza. She's my mama's girl. So the two cats that we have now are actually from Ukraine. My husband and I were living over there in 2012, 2013. And I was, they have a pretty bad stray issue and I was walking home one day from work.
Kristiina (05:08)
Oh, hi. Oh, look at those ears.
Ugh, gorgeous.
Yeah.
BriAnne (05:35)
This is back when I was teaching English and stumbled upon, well, okay, first story is Liza. It was the evening of my birthday. My husband and I were winding down, going to bed a little bit drunk. And yeah, and it was like four in the morning and I heard tiny meows and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. And I couldn't sleep because that.
Kristiina (05:50)
As you do on your birthday.
BriAnne (06:03)
needed to be solved. I needed to figure out. There was an animal in distress and I was not gonna let that happen. It turns out after I went outside and walked through my neighborhood, she was like four blocks away, stuck up in a tree, tiny little baby kitten, and I rushed. I do! I mean, four meows, yeah. Kitten meows, yeah, specifically.
Kristiina (06:04)
Of course.
GASP
Oh my gosh, do you have super hearing?
Four cats, yeah.
BriAnne (06:31)
So I ran home and I tried to get my husband out of his passed out state To go and get this kitten out of a tree and he did but These trees are massive and the branches don't start for like six feet up So there was we had a really hard time trying to climb this tree to get her and she wasn't coming down Because something had scared her
Kristiina (06:50)
Mm-hmm.
Oh.
BriAnne (06:59)
So luckily this very tall man was walking his dog and he passed us and he was like, do you guys need help? We were like, okay. And he hoisted my husband up into the tree and my husband climbed and the farther he climbed the farther she climbed and then she ended up on this very thin branch. It snapped. She fell. She fell to the sidewalk.
Kristiina (07:05)
Mm-hmm.
The further the cat climbed. Yep.
BriAnne (07:24)
I tried to catch her, I was like prepared, I had my sweatshirt out and I was like, we got this. We did not. And luckily she had very minor injuries. We were able to get her into the vet, the emergency vet. And yeah, she just had like a little scrape mostly. I mean, they're very bouncy at that age, I guess.
Kristiina (07:26)
Yeah.
They really, they really are. And it's amazing. I forget, I should look this up and then insert it into the podcast as text later when I edit it. But there's something like, if cats fall from like two stories or less, it's bad because they can't twist enough, right? To stick the landing. But if it's higher than that, then they're okay. Because then they have enough time to like rotate around. And if you watch a slow-mo of a cat falling where there's plenty of those
BriAnne (08:03)
Interesting.
Kristiina (08:11)
done it ethically you know and the cats not going to hurt themselves you can see them kind of rotating half of their body and then the other half and so she must have had enough height where she could especially because she's small maybe she could rotate herself to like to be okay.
BriAnne (08:26)
Whatever it was, she was fine and I stayed up with her all night while she was crying probably for her family. I don't know. I don't know how she got separated. But yeah, two months later I was walking home from my job and I saw this very pathetic looking tuxedo kitten on the sidewalk that everybody was passing by and he was crying this horrible gremlin cry.
like unlike anything I've heard. And he was just such a mess, like his whiskers were all fried and he was just filthy and scared. And I was like, yeah, you're coming home with me. So I picked him up and then plopped him in my sweatshirt, brought him home, tried to give him a bath, sent the photo to my husband, was like, ah, look what I did.
Kristiina (09:19)
Hehehehehehe
BriAnne (09:19)
We actually tried to find him a home because we're like there's no way we can have two cats. We were living abroad It wasn't gonna be easy to try to get them back to the states But Tuck Man, he won us over and there was no way we were giving him up. He's so perfect Yeah
Kristiina (09:26)
Right.
did you have a hard time getting them into the States? Like what was the paperwork kind of visa passport situation? Oh my gosh, I love it.
BriAnne (09:42)
Oh, I should have pulled out. Yes, they have passports. I should have pulled those out. They're so cute Um, I mean they don't have his their photos in there, but they are just like no no, I should just make them up Yeah, I know Passports for pets I mean it's such a cute thing
Kristiina (09:51)
Oh, they didn't get little passport photos taken. You should do that. What if you started a side business doing cat passport? Yes, cat passport pictures like just for that would be so funny.
BriAnne (10:05)
It is really cute. Like they have the little outline drawings of a cat and dog. Just information in there about all their latest vaccines because you have to make sure they're up to date on all of their vaccines before you can bring them in. Luckily there's no quarantine. So yeah, my husband did all the work because this is kind of an aside but the revolution started in Ukraine and things were a little bit precarious. So I was like I'm gonna go and then we'll figure this out later. So I went back to the States.
Kristiina (10:10)
Oh, of course, yeah.
Right.
BriAnne (10:33)
and my husband and the cat stayed in Ukraine until like, I think maybe, I don't know, Chris will correct me I'm sure, but it's like almost a year later, he was able to bring them here. And so yeah, they got their passports, he had a friend with him and they were each able to have one cat on their ticket. And they did really well, surprisingly, they were just scared but.
Kristiina (11:00)
Right. That's awesome.
BriAnne (11:00)
Yeah, they did really well ever since they've been in this apartment living their spoiled American lives.
Kristiina (11:07)
Mm-hmm.
good for them. You know, I've always wondered because before we moved here, my wife and I were thinking about moving to Finland, which is where my family's from and where we always thought like, Oh, we'll just move back there to be in nature and you know, we'll move there and retire and chill out, whatever. And then we were like, how are we going to get 11 cats over there? Like how would we do it? We'd have to have friends, you know, come on the flight so that everyone just has one cat and it would just be such a crazy,
BriAnne (11:35)
you would have to just like rent a private plane. Yeah. Oh my gosh, 11. Yeah, that would be so I would be so stressed. Oh my gosh.
Kristiina (11:38)
Prop yeah, and you know we've got that kind of money. We've got we've got PJ for cats money definitely so
Yes, it would be it was it was enough just getting them here from the city and that was just a two hour drive and we had to rent like a pet mover you know professional person who has a van where you can like lock all the carriers up and you know we played cat music and we did like all this all this stuff and that was the whole production and that was just two hour drive so I can't imagine like an eight and a half hour flight like international so anyway we didn't we didn't
BriAnne (12:04)
Oh my gosh. Oh wow.
Yeah, no kidding.
Kristiina (12:18)
and be moved here to Connecticut instead. But I think that's, yeah, I'm glad it worked out for you guys too, and I think that's so wonderful that you adopted those guys and you helped them out. And that kind of leads me then into my next question, which when I was doing my deep dive into your girl website, that it says that you only photograph, rescue, slash adopted cats, and maybe you wanna talk a little bit about why that is.
BriAnne (12:22)
So it worked out.
Yeah!
Yeah, there are a few reasons. Usually with these photo shoots, there's a story accompanying the photos. And the story is about how they rescued their cats or how they adopted their cats. I don't personally think there's a story when you go and buy your cat from a breeder. I mean, that's just kind of one and done. And also just ethically, I'm really passionate about.
Kristiina (12:57)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Yeah.
BriAnne (13:15)
rescue and adoption and I don't think it makes sense to I mean it sort of feels like if I included animals who were purchased it feels like I'm promoting that and I definitely don't want to send that message. I want to encourage people to adopt and yeah I just think that's the better way to go so just aligns with my ethics.
Kristiina (13:28)
Mm-hmm.
No, I totally agree. I just
Absolutely, and I think that's an important message to put out there. I think, you know, the whole adopt don't shop messages is out there, but I think it's great that you're actually, you know, putting your money where your mouth is and, and injecting that into your work. So I think it's nice to have like a little chat about it. And I also wanted to touch on a little bit what you already brought up, which is the crazy cat stereotype, the crazy cat lady stereotype, which I have definitely experienced my whole adult life.
BriAnne (13:52)
Right.
Yeah.
Kristiina (14:11)
and maybe you have too and just kind of talk about like what, since you said that was a catalyst for you starting this project a little bit, like what do you think that is, where do you think it comes from, you know, and I certainly from a psych perspective have my own ideas of where that comes from, but I would love to hear what you think and how you think this project kind of breaks that down.
BriAnne (14:31)
Yeah, I think it's probably a way or it was initially a way for men to control women. Just, I don't know, I mean I think there's the whole idea about cats having their own autonomy and you have to really earn their love and respect and you have to get their consent to touch and I just feel like that really kind of
Kristiina (14:57)
Yes.
BriAnne (15:00)
fits alongside women too. And I think pairing us together is just a fear tactic maybe.
Kristiina (15:02)
Mm-hmm.
I agree and I love that you brought up that I always tell people that cats are amazing teachers of consent. Especially to people with children. I think cats are really great family pets for children to learn. Good touch, bad touch, like how to ask touch permission. And I really do think it's, you know, there's something that bothers people about...
BriAnne (15:25)
Yeah.
Kristiina (15:31)
people who do caregiving and people who are, you know, because the crazy cat lady stereotype is like a woman who's alone, who like can't get a man and just has cats and whatever and I think there's something that's so irksome to some people about someone who's fulfilled and happy alone and solitary and doesn't need someone else to complete them and is maybe also happy in a caregiving role alone, right? There's, I don't know, there's something in that like is
bothers them. To people. Yeah.
BriAnne (16:02)
They get very... Yeah, I think men use this as an insult a lot, incel men, because it's like they're so upset that women would rather clean shit from a litter box than make a life and settle with you.
Kristiina (16:07)
Yes.
Right, or clean shit out of their underpants, you know? Like, whatever! I can say, you know, having previously been married to a man, that was something that happened. Um, you know, so it just, and I'm not gonna try to turn this into like a man-hating episode, you know, I knew you're married to a man, I've been married to a man, but like, I love man! That's right! I love man!
BriAnne (16:20)
Yeah.
I mean.
Ha!
No, I love... Love, man.
It's very singular, it's like my husband, that's it. And my dad, okay.
Kristiina (16:45)
I love lamp. Yeah. I love many cats who are men. Like many male cats. I love. I love many of them. But it is, I just think it's so funny. It's like, I've never heard a woman be like, you're a crazy cat lady. Like in like in a serious way. And I just think it's interesting and it's interesting how the stereotype is like men like dogs because we have spent thousands of years socializing, domesticating and breeding
BriAnne (16:51)
Yeah.
Kristiina (17:15)
us right from a psychology perspective and to listen to us to do to want to do what we say to really to be part of our pack and to want to do what we say and to look at us as the head of their pack and cats domesticated themselves and have not changed at all from a psychology perspective and really even from a genetic perspective they haven't changed at all and I think for a lot of people
that you have to come to a cat and understand what they want and that tends to be more of a pet that women understand because that tends to be a woman's job in society anyway is already trying to understand what everybody else wants and like anyway I'm going on a little bit of a rant now but yeah I feel like we could have a whole podcast just about this but
BriAnne (17:50)
Mm-hmm.
No, it's so interesting though, all of it.
I know. I know.
Kristiina (18:06)
Yeah, anyway, but we'll move on from that. But I do think that that's, it's a really interesting topic and I'm really glad that you're doing this project because it does really show all the different cool people who have cats and like all the different cool stuff that they're doing and showing them in such an interesting way that you don't have to be like that stereotypical crazy New York lady with like the big crazy frilly hair and like a million plastic shopping bags who goes home to like a hoarded house with 14 cats. You know? That doesn't have to be how everybody.
BriAnne (18:32)
Right, yeah.
Kristiina (18:37)
even if you have 11 cats like me. I'm not covered in...
BriAnne (18:40)
You have a big house though, I think it works.
Kristiina (18:42)
It does, but we had 11 cats when we lived in our little apartment as well. So it's just, you know, it was the same amount of cats. It's just the size of the apartment or the house has changed. So we lucked out and the cats are way happier here. So it's nice. So can you share any memorable moments or stories from your experiences photographing girls and their cats? Is there anything like.
BriAnne (18:47)
No.
That's good.
Kristiina (19:05)
stands out to you.
BriAnne (19:08)
Well, I think the most memorable thing is just being able to make a book and going on this like little mini tour of six different cities, New York City included. And yeah, that just felt, that was really special. It was just really cool to see how cat ladies in different cities live and in the way that like New York, we all have really small apartments. So how do we make that work versus LA? They have huge places.
Kristiina (19:32)
Great.
BriAnne (19:37)
and what are the differences and the similarities. And it was just a really good experience. And yeah, I hope I can do it again.
Kristiina (19:44)
Can you tell us a little bit more about how the book came together? Like, were you approached by a publishing company? Did you approach somebody? Like, how did that all happen? Because I know as photographers, like a dream is to have a book out. And you did it.
BriAnne (19:58)
Yeah, well it had definitely been a goal of mine. I didn't know how to actually achieve it. So I was just posting constantly on the girls and their cats Instagram and I think it was 2016 or 17 that um Chronicle, somebody from Chronicle actually reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in doing a book and I was like uh yeah obviously. So it worked perfect.
Kristiina (20:26)
And so then, so then if you just went from there and you decided to go on a tour of cities or had you already shot that stuff.
BriAnne (20:32)
I hadn't shot it yet, so it was kind of, we talked about what would work for a book, how we can make it different than the blog. And I mean, one of the biggest ways was to just include different cities because I had up until that point only photographed cow ladies in New York City. So this, I was the one who pitched that just, that would be one way that we can make it different. I could go to, and I did go to LA, Portland, San Francisco, Philadelphia and DC.
Kristiina (20:48)
Right.
BriAnne (21:01)
And then we, yeah, we had like, in addition to the stories and the photos, we had little fun kind of, I guess you would call them listicles, kind of like something Buzzfeed would have done back in the day. Just like, cattail language explained and like how to cat proof your home kind of thing, just to like round it out. And it's actually a pretty great book for a new...
Kristiina (21:22)
Right.
BriAnne (21:30)
cat person.
Kristiina (21:31)
All right, that's good to know. So now our listeners can go out and buy your book and where can they find it? Is it on Amazon? Is it in? Yes.
BriAnne (21:37)
It's on Amazon and it should be still at Barnes and Noble and I think pretty much as long as they're not sold out it was available everywhere they sell books.
Kristiina (21:49)
Okay, awesome. How did you go about doing the shoots? Like, did you have any challenges when you were photographing the cats and the girls together? Like, did you have to have a cat wrangler? Like, somebody like behind you with a toy, you know, or were you able to do it all yourself? Like, how did it happen?
BriAnne (22:04)
Surprisingly, I did a lot of it on my own and created some, I created some back pain along the way because I would have to hold my camera and then hold the cat toy at the same time. And our cameras are not light and they're just like too much upper shoulder back pain. But if there was somebody else home, I would usually ask them to help out. And I think...
Kristiina (22:09)
That's amazing.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. No.
Seriously.
BriAnne (22:33)
I think that makes it so much nicer, but the idea of bringing a cat wrangler with me I think would complicate it a little bit just because there's an extra body in the house, a new person. While it would be really helpful, I just don't know how the cats would respond to that. So I kind of just figured it out on my own and I managed.
Kristiina (22:39)
Sure.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That's totally fair and that was, that leads me into another question, which was, how did you introduce yourself to the cat? Because as cat people, we know that often when you go into a house with new cats, the cats like absolutely not. Like, I don't know who you are. It's going to take me quite a while to come out if they're not like a very bold personality type. So how did you handle going into the home and getting the cats comfortable with you and the people too? The people also had to get comfortable with you. But this is a show about cats. So we're just going to talk about the cats.
BriAnne (23:21)
Yeah, that's true. So I allow for about an hour time slot and that entire hour is not for photos. So maybe 30 minutes for photos, but I usually like to sit and chat with the cat lady, get to know them, let the cat get used to my presence. I don't really approach cats. I let them approach me when they want to and if they don't want to, they don't have to.
Kristiina (23:48)
Right.
BriAnne (23:49)
I have my camera bag that has been in every single other cat home with me. It smells like cats and that usually works in my favor. There's been some times where they're like, oh hell no, and then they'll hiss at me. But usually they're curious enough and like why do you smell like so many cats right now? I also have a cat toy that is just like a little, it's varied over the years, evolved.
Right now I'm using just a stick with a feather and a bell on the end and that is really intriguing to a lot of cats. So, yeah, I don't know. There have been some times where the cats just didn't want to come out and it was kind of holding the cat for a few photos and then they're done. And that, you know, sometimes that is just the way it has to go because you can't force the cat to sit there if they don't want to sit there.
Kristiina (24:22)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
No.
BriAnne (24:48)
Um, so I've been very lucky. It's worked out very, I photographed over 100, sorry, 400 cat ladies. And I have only had a handful of issues, like where the cat's just weren't into it at all.
Kristiina (24:57)
Wow
Have you had any where you just couldn't do the shoot because the cats wouldn't come out at all?
BriAnne (25:09)
They're back in the day, like probably one of the first 50 cat ladies that I photographed. I think we spent the whole time following her cat around, trying to pick him up for the photo. And it just didn't happen, except for like the last minute she was finally able to pick him up. I think I got like two photos. But ever since then, I don't know, I know. I've never had an issue where I haven't been able to get.
Kristiina (25:26)
Right.
BriAnne (25:39)
photos of the cats. Yeah, I guess it is. I think a lot of people know their cats a little bit to an extent like they know, oh, this isn't for us, like our cat's not going to respond to this. So I think so. I would imagine.
Kristiina (25:40)
That's amazing. Good for you.
fair.
Yeah. So they're self-selecting out. That makes sense. Yeah.
I wonder if also if your confidence change like at the beginning, you know, you weren't quite as sure of and you would have to speak to that but you know that cats are such great readers of energy and if you come into a situation and you're not like a hundred percent confident and you're a little bit like, oh I don't know how this is gonna go the cat's gonna be like, well I'm not participating in this like toodaloo, you know but if you come in really confident and you come in and you're like, I've got this toy and you're gonna love it and this is how things go and my bag smells like cats and like you're gonna have a good time
BriAnne (26:18)
Yeah!
Ha ha ha.
Kristiina (26:27)
be a star, then the cat's much more likely to be excited and participate.
BriAnne (26:32)
Yeah, absolutely. Nine years of experience will do that.
Kristiina (26:34)
Yes.
yeah I think they'll be like this lady knows what she's doing like we'll participate it is funny it makes me think of my wife and I were recently on the cover of our very small towns local magazine so exciting uh we live in a town of less than 8 000 people so eventually everyone is going to be on the cover of this magazine so it's really not a big deal but they did send a local photographer you know to take pictures of us in the house and of course they're like we want
BriAnne (26:39)
Yeah.
Oh, cute!
Good luck.
Kristiina (27:06)
not want to be in the pictures and all of our friends were like, where's any cat? Like we got one cat to be in one picture and looking just very like...
And that was it out of all of the cats. Because Steve was no longer with us, so he would have happily participated, but everyone else was like, absolutely not. But I think it was also because of course the photographer came in with all her stuff and just was kind of banging around. And there is a way to come in, especially as a photographer, which obviously you know, to not upset cats. And that wasn't done in that way because of course that's not her job to know that.
BriAnne (27:17)
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kristiina (27:45)
was sort of a very loud, boisterous entrance with like lots of banging and equipment and set up and I think that just made the cats even more like, we'd have no interest in this. Like, we're gonna wait for our Vogue cover, thanks. Like, we're not gonna be on the cover of this. This, yeah, we don't want to be on the cover of this.
BriAnne (27:51)
Yeah.
Yeah, they're holding out I am also I'm a very quiet person by nature So I don't go in with a loud voice and I always take off my shoes because my cat Personally hates when people wear their shoes in the house
Kristiina (28:13)
Yes!
So do ours, all of us, all of our cats hate shoes. And we couldn't figure out why recently they started running away from my wife until we realized she got new like house slippers and they had a hard bottom that were made, it sounded like shoes. And then you're like, oh, it's the slippers. Cause they're just not used to that, that clackity clack of shoes in the house. Yeah.
BriAnne (28:28)
Oh... Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, it's terrifying, I guess. Another thing that I do is I encourage the cat ladies to pick up their favorite cat treats. If they're food motivated, that works really well. If they're not, it is what it is.
Kristiina (28:55)
Yeah.
Yes, we love a food motivated cat for many things. Posing for photos, but also working on training, all different kinds of things with cat behavior. It really helps if your cat is food motivated. But again, I'll say one of our cats is not. He's very praise motivated and he loves a good job, Kevin. And it works so well. He's so happy when he gets a good job, Kevin. He just looks at you with his giant eyes and he's like, oh, I did a good job and I'm Kevin. He loves it. So there's always other things you can find.
BriAnne (29:08)
Mm-hmm.
Oh, that's cute.
No, that's so sweet.
I love that.
Kristiina (29:25)
to work with but food is so easy and so instantaneous and will 100% hold a cat there so I get it. I did want to ask you are you using it looks like from the pictures you're using strobes like how are you lighting the stuff like do you are you're not using strobes?
BriAnne (29:40)
I go in there with very little equipment. I have my on-camera flash, and I usually just bounce it on the ceiling, that's it.
Kristiina (29:45)
Mm-hmm. Right, so that's what it just looks like there's a little fill right? But okay, so I was just gonna ask if you've noticed, do the cats react to that? Do they seem to care, like?
BriAnne (29:49)
Yes.
Yeah, some cats are really into it and I don't have to use any noisy toy to get them to look at the camera because I don't know if you've had the Canon, oh gosh, what is it the pro photo flash on camera flash like, okay. It makes like a little beeping noise before the flash goes off. That gets them to look and if they're not afraid of.
Kristiina (29:59)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Yeah, that's what I used to have. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
BriAnne (30:23)
the bright flash, then it works really well. But yeah, sometimes it is a little bit too much for them. And I think the funniest thing is like, everybody's always like, oh no, my cats love having their photos taken. And I'm like, yeah, but you're probably just using your iPhone and natural A. And even though I don't go in with a lot of equipment, it's just, you know, the flash and the camera, it's still big and loud. So yeah, it usually takes some time to get them warmed up, but.
Kristiina (30:37)
rights.
They're different.
Do you like let them sniff your camera? How do you get them? Okay.
BriAnne (30:53)
Yes. I will let them sniff whatever they want to sniff and if they're afraid of it, I'll leave it on the ground and move away. Let them explore it on their own.
Kristiina (31:02)
Yeah.
yes, this was a follower question who wanted to know what is the most number of cats that you photographed at one time with their girl.
BriAnne (31:14)
Yeah, I think honestly, usually three is the max, but there was one person back in the day I photographed. I think she had five at the time. Yeah, so not 11 cats. I was hoping I could photograph you on your cat list. Yeah.
Kristiina (31:32)
Yeah
You can anytime you want you're welcome to come up here. It's an easy train ride and see if you can wrangle these 11 dorks into one picture. I have to say there are 11 of them are never all together, right? Because they're just spread throughout the house and there's like different clicks of them. So they do they all get along but they're just there's like the bedroom group and then there's the group that hangs out in the kitchen and like trying to get them all together at once would be very
BriAnne (31:43)
It would be a challenge.
Oh, so they don't all get along then?
Kristiina (32:05)
difficult. I think the most you can get at one point is like nine. That's the most I've seen together at one point because they're also sometimes one is sleeping and sometimes one's pooping and like they just are all doing different stuff and you're not going to get all of their attention at once.
BriAnne (32:08)
Yeah.
Well, that's pretty good. Yeah.
Yeah.
Kristiina (32:25)
that's the challenge, especially in like a bigger space.
so do you have any tips for people trying to photograph their own cats? I know that you said, you know, people are obviously just using their phones and natural light and not coming in with professional gear and professional lighting like you are, but is there anything that you'd recommend for people trying to get just a good picture of their cat?
BriAnne (32:46)
Yes, I always recommend cleaning their eyes. I think that's like the first step. Let's get that taken care of. Yeah. And then photographing them in front of a big open window or just any open window is ideal because otherwise you're just not going to be able to get a decent photo. And then having something noisy or crinkly that you can hold above or behind the camera to get them to look at you.
Kristiina (32:50)
Yes, yes. The gunk, yeah.
BriAnne (33:14)
catching them when they're just doing something cute on their own like sleeping or anything. Just sitting there trying not to like stage them. I just don't think that works out ever.
Kristiina (33:20)
Hehehehehe
Right.
Like putting them in an outfit and putting them in a basket. Yeah.
BriAnne (33:34)
Yeah, yeah, I mean I've definitely done cat photo shoots where there was like a little bit of staging like professional photo shoots. And it works but like not everybody's cat is gonna be open to that so try to catch them in their cute natural state.
Kristiina (33:40)
Mm-hmm.
I will say I remember I always when I had like letters of kittens from ACC or whatever and they'd be like in my studio, you know, because that's where I did all the socialization. So they'd be separate from my guys in the apartment. And every once in a while I'd be like, Oh, you know, it'd be really cool. So I'm just gonna like put these kittens in the editorial and I'd like to like wrangle kittens and like put them on a model. And it was always such a hellscape. Like every time I would try to wrangle kittens.
BriAnne (34:04)
Mm-hmm.
Oh yes.
Kristiina (34:22)
bigger cats into doing something that I thought was going to be great. It was the biggest shit show that I've ever seen. It is.
Very tough to get them to do what you want. So yeah, going to them and having them do what they want, I think is an easier approach than trying to force them into your concept, which is probably also really dumb. Yeah, yeah. Okay, and then how can people book a session with you? And are you only in the NYC area?
BriAnne (34:30)
Yeah.
Yup. Yes. Cats will call the shots.
At this time, yes, just because I live in Brooklyn and I'm taking public transportation. So I have my little geographical area that I stick to for now. I mean, eventually maybe it'll open up again, but you can go to my website, curl click on the schedule issue thing, read some information about it, and then there's a little form that you can fill out when you're ready.
Kristiina (35:21)
Okay, and if people want to look at your fashion and beauty work, do you want to shout out your other website?
BriAnne (35:27)
Yeah, it's BrianneWills.com. You might have to enter text unless you want me to spell it.
Kristiina (35:32)
do you have any plans for another book or any new projects that are cat related?
BriAnne (35:36)
I have hopes for another book. I have been, I think the pandemic really like took a lot out of me and I haven't been that motivated. I'm getting back into it. So yeah, I have hopes for another book. I just have to reach out, make it happen. That's kind of it for projects other than just like managing my new famous TikTok stars over here.
Kristiina (36:01)
Oh yeah, well you're doing a really good job. I mean your TikTok is like doing very well for having only started it a month ago. So, but that's how it goes. People just love cats,
BriAnne (36:08)
I am so impressed. People love tux feet.