12 Days of Christmas Greeting Card

featuring original artwork by photographer, Walter Felix with his cats Willow, Daisy and Cinder For the last several years, I've designed my own Christmas cards that are sent out to family and friends. I normally start with a photograph, design the card and then send it out to be professionally printed. This is an actual greeting card, not one of those photo cards we always seem to get of someone's brats that I don't even recognize. For the 2008 card, my cats were featured again, because the previous cat cards are frequently talked about at family gatherings. I had this idea with feathers and The Twelve Days of Christmas. So, I laid a blanket and several pieces of white cloth on the floor, set up my umbrella flashes, opened up a couple of bags of feathers that I had bought at the local craft store and attempted to convince my models to take their positions. Cinder will allow the other two to get close, but you have to watch her very carefully, because she will change her mind with the slightest provocation or if the day of the week ends with the letter "y". Then it's just a hissy fit that may quickly escalate into a cat fight, if I don't intervene. I soon discovered models will pretty much do what ever they darn well please as I couldn't get them to cooperate with me by sitting, together, on a blanket full of feathers, and look up at me all at the same time. I eventually ended up photographing them separately and later editing them together in photoshop (trust me, it was much easier with a lot less drama). I also discovered, feathers will stick to a cat's fur so each time Willow ran off, she left a trail of feathers as I chased her through the house. After about 6 hours of work, I finally got the image I was looking for. My 3 cats, one or more of whom are usually at my feet, surrounded by colorful feathers. This was the most successful card to date and I get comments about it every time I run into someone on the Christmas card list, whom I haven't seen in a while (usually those who sent me a photo card of their brats). On a side note: I also figured out a great way to get rid of all these feathers, once I was done with the artwork. My wife and I placed a small handful of them in each card we mailed out to friends and family. This way, when they open the card, feathers will fall to their feet.