Interview: Catherine Holmes

Catherine Holmes is a multi-award-winning pet, landscape and lifestyle photographer based in the Manawatu in New Zealand. She has a distinctive style that emphasises delicate details amidst sparse compositions to create images that are both immediately beautiful and full of character.

You can see more of her work on her web site, on her regularly-updated Facebook page or you can buy her creations as prints, throw pillows, bags, clocks, phone cases and more at her print shop.

Oh, and for the sake of full disclosure, she’s also my partner! But don’t hold that against her.

The Cheese Train

Background:

How long have you been a photographer?

Well I guess that depends on your definition of “photographer”. I think a made the transition from being a clueless idiot with a camera to slightly less clueless idiot with a camera sometime during studying. I spent three years gaining my Bachelor of Applied Visual Imaging and it wasn’t until well into the third year that I started to get a feeling like this was something I could properly do. Then I graduated and realised how much I still had to learn. That was my long winded way of saying I graduated in 2013.

What got you into photography?

I moved to New Zealand when I was 21 and over the first five or six years here I gradually found myself with a camera in my hand more and more. Not to be nauseating about it, but this country is completely beautiful and documenting it while I was travelling around and exploring was definitely a big part of my relationship with photography.

Why pet photography as a speciality?

Well I’ve always loved animals. Completely. My grandmother once informed me that I should definitely be a vet – which I was totally into until I realised syringes were involved. But honestly, pet photography was not something I intended to do because I didn’t really realise it was a thing. I didn’t focus on it when I was studying because I didn’t know a) that people wanted pet portraits or b) that I could be good at it. The whole thing grew pretty organically. After I graduated, I spent the summer photographing my cats. And like every other cat owner in the world, those pictures went on the internet. And I started to get new ideas about things I could try and people seemed to be responding to my silly pictures. After a while, I started getting enquiries about pet portraits. I then went on to work with local pet rescue charities which gave me more experience working with different animals and also gave me the opportunity to use my skills to help which is such a cool feeling. So things have grown from there.

Hare Force

On Photography:

What do you see as the main difference between photography and other art forms such as painting, music or writing?

A lot of the stuff I’m enjoying doing right now is, to me anyway, straight up storytelling. So in that respect I actually don’t see a large difference. I’m just using a camera and the tools I have to tell a story in the same way a painter would with a paintbrush. I think maybe the difference with photography in general is that there is a perception that what you’re documenting is real and representative of something that’s true. A book is either in the fiction or the none fiction section of the library so that line (generally speaking) is pretty easy to distinguish. With photoshop and image manipulation now heavily involved in photography, you have to be aware of how your work is going to be looked at and the perceptions it’s going to create, particularly when you’re talking photojournalism! I don’t really feel that weight so much though. The image manipulation I do is to create something fun and visually exciting to look at. I’m not documenting war in the middle east. I’m balancing a cat on a tower of books.

Driftwood

What makes a great photo?

• Emotion and connection to the subject.
• Lighting.
• Colour palette
• Composition.

Probably in that order. I have photographs I’ve taken that are less than great in the technical department but if you nail the emotion then you’re sorted (not that the others aren’t important!).

Who are some of your favourite photographers?

Oh gosh. Okay, this will take a little while. Well in terms of animal photographers, I’ve been worshipping at the alter of Rachael Hale Mckenna ever since I picked up her book The French Cat. Her compositions, the beautiful soft light she works with and her connection to her subjects are just so spot on. I go back to her books when I need a little shot of inspiration.

I also love Serena Hodson‘s work. She’s a fantastic Australian photographer who works with her family’s dogs to create awesomely creative portraits. She is who I want to be when I grow up.

Sharon Montrose does the most PERFECT simple beautiful portraits of animals of all sizes and I want to wallpaper my house with her pictures.

And the clean, clear (but always spot on emotional connection) of Ron Schmidt’s work is super inspiring.

Couple on Beach

More recently my images have become increasingly more whimsical and for that side of things I look to the work of Miss Aniela who incorporates old paintings into her pictures, Brooke Shaden who always such a cool vintagey fairytale vibe and Gregory Crewdson who is just a badass you can’t help but be inspired by. Honestly, you can’t see very much of Crewdson in my work but I just flicked through a book of his yesterday and I sketched three different ideas in the space of 15 minutes. His colour palettes and use of light is just ridiculously beautiful.

Your animal photography and landscapes both share muted colour tones and often wide, clean compositions. What is it about this sort of style that appeals to you?
I think negative space is a wonderful thing and allows your subject (be it an old shed or a labrador) some context of how they fit in the world. So that’s primarily why I tend to go that way. It all feeds back to storytelling. The choice of colours is something that just happened before I really realised what I was doing. In terms of animal portraiture, I really feel that a limited colour palette brings an image together beautifully. It can make it feel like a painting and has a timeless quality to it. I’ve seen a lot of cheesy animal portraits where a million colours are thrown in and it just doesn’t work for me.

For landscapes,  I favour overcast days because they have some mood to them and the colours are not harsh or overpowering. I like images you can sit and look at and melt into. I don’t think that would have been an acceptable answer when I was studying hahaha. I like melty landscapes. I like damp misty mornings. Blue skies are overrated.

Tessa and the Ice Cream

On Shooting:

Natural light or studio flash?

I’m primarily a natural light photographer. The main reason (or so I tell myself) is that I want nice soft fur and gentle light. I don’t want super shiny contrasty fur. This has recently been challenged (as you may know, Matt!) by the fact that our house now contains an enormous octobox. Which produces lovely soft light. So I don’t actually have that excuse any more. And in a complete contradiction to what I just said, over Christmas I had a little play with a flash and a snoot which I actually really enjoyed. Creating some mood with big dark shadows was fun because I like dark moody imagery. I’ve just never really incorporated it into my animal work. Times they are a changin’. So my answer is Natural Light but with a sneaky bit of flash on the side.

What one piece of gear could you not live without (aside from your camera, of course)?

My 50mm f/1.8 lens. It’s cheap, it’s cheerful and it’s great. I use it for everything.

What do you do to prepare for a shoot?

Depends a little on the animal. Rodents I photograph on a table and with mice, I actually gaffer tape a cardboard fence around the edge to completely seal it so they can’t get out. Dogs need lots of space. Cats, I basically line up everything I have that could possibly get their attention. And then I have my props in easy to grab places.  This is obviously in addition to having spare batteries, memory cards and lenses on standby.

Ameowlia

What animals are the easiest to shoot and what are the hardest?

I would say kittens are the easiest – or maybe just the most fun. They haven’t grown up to be snooty and uninterested yet. They’re enthusiastic and want to play with EVERYTHING. So with the temptation of a feather or a bit of string, you can basically get them to leap into things and clamber around like little nutters and it’s awesome to shoot. Rabbits are probably physically easier but they tend to just freeze and not give you much in terms of expression. So making something interesting with them is trickier.

The hardest by far is adult cats. I don’t think there is a creature on planet earth less into having it’s photograph taken than an adult cat.

How do you handle unruly animals?

Enthusiastic dogs are tricky because they constantly want to run at the camera and come and say hi. So with them, I would maybe get the owner to put the lead on, get them in position and then have them hold up the lead so it’s easy to photoshop out after. Also treats treats treats.

Cats are just doing their thing and you have to roll with it and be prepared to spend a lot of time lying on the floor. Pet photography is 99.9% patience.

You’re best known for your quirky images with a lot of personality. How do you go about creating one of those?
More often than not, they are shot in two phases. Quite often I photograph an animal leaping around. I’ll have boxes on standby for them to jump in and out of. I’ll shoot some of them just on their own against my wall. Their personality will really drive what happens here which is a lovely place to start from. Then after they’ve gone, I’ll review the images and see if there’s something that triggers my imagination. Then I’ll build props or modify the box they were jumping in, photograph the new props and bits and pieces from the same position, against the same wall, then merge the two together. There have been cases where I’ve built things specifically for a shoot but I tend to find that if you make specific plans for what an animals going to do, they generally have a habit of doing anything but and it gets frustrating and hinders you creatively. Having the time in-between to decide how everything’s going to fit together is super helpful.

How much of a part does post-production play in your images?

I used to be one of those purists that thought photoshop was the devil. I still think it’s overused in some areas but for me, I couldn’t create the things that I do without it. I now just see it as another piece of the creative process. It also enables me to do things that would otherwise be unsafe which is massively important. No picture is worth putting an animal in a precarious position.

Leonard and the Pirate Ship

On Being a Photographer:

What’s the hardest thing about being a photographer?

Having confidence in yourself and your work and being your own cheerleader. Particularly when you’re working for yourself and you don’t have someone to pat you on the back and say “EXCELLENT WORK, HOLMES. YOU’RE DOING GOOD”  I mean, I have you! So I’m lucky in that regard. But still, putting yourself out there is tough and scary.

Also being a creative person is definitely at odds with doing accounts.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give someone starting out?

Find photographers that you love. Go to the library. Look at books, look online, go to exhibitions. Find images you CANNOT stop staring at. That’s what’s going to light a fire under you.

What has been your favourite shoot ever?

Oh, God. There’s been so many this past year or so! Leonard and the Pirate Ship was fab. I’m going to say Ameowlia though because that’s basically what kicked this whole thing off. Shout out to our cat Pagan for her excellent superhero flying face.

Windy Day

On the Future:

What would be your dream animal to photograph?

I want to photograph a donkey so much, it’s not even funny.

What are your goals for the next 12 months or so?

I actually just wrote a list of animals I want to have photographed by this time next year haha! The list included a monkey and a dolphin so I’m not sure how that’s going to go. I want to get a little more ambitious in terms of the scale of the images I’m creating. I’m also looking to print a mock-up of a book that I want to get published which is one of those ongoing things that I’m hoping will work out in the end! Hopefully 2015 is going to treat me and my fuzzy friends well.

First Snow

www.catherineholmesphotography.com
www.facebook.com/CatherineHolmesPhotography