A Room Full of Kittens | Beauty in Chaos

I took this image in a room full of around thirty kittens. I had kittens on my head, kittens climbing my leg, kittens in my camera bag… kittens absolutely everywhere. It was one of the most fun shoots I can remember

Another beautiful shelter kittens. In the background you can just barely make out the tail of another one, I’m not sure which he is, but they were all adorable. This one was just fascinated with the off camera lighting, and getting him to look at me was a challenge. But it was well worth the effort.

Something I like to do every now and then is visit the local animal shelters. I’m always struck by the animals there, each with their own unique and wonderful personalities. I never have a ton of time with any one of them, but I always do my best to try at least a little bit to get to know them all.

In the photo above is a kitten who was absolutely fascinated by the clicking sound of my camera, you see him staring down the lens while he tried to figure out what was going on. I’m not sure he ever really got it, but that’s okay—he’s still young. I’m sure he’s been adopted now, this photo was taken several months ago and kittens never stay long, so wherever he is I hope he’s having a great time and getting lots of treats.

This post, really, is about chaos, I think a lot of photographers try and limit it as much as possible. It’s human nature, I think, to try and control as many variables as we can. The trouble with that is that when you control all the variables, there’s nothing left to be spontaneous. The best photos, the ones with character and emotion, are the ones that come about naturally. In my photography I strive to create an environment where those natural moments can happen on their own, rather that trying to pretend that they happened through complicated posing.

The kitten above was one of about thirty in the room at the time. They were everywhere, I’m fairly sure that one of them decided to use my lighting bag as a litter box (Thankfully it cleaned up just fine) it was chaotic, it was noisy, it was messy. And it produced some of my favorite photos. The beauty and personality of each of these kittens was found in their kinked whiskers, their tilted heads, their curious sniffs and the way they jumped when the shutter clicked. The room was chaos, but the photos that came of it are beautiful.