Cooper is a 4 year old American Shorthair cat living in Seattle. Once a week he wears a lightweight digital camera fastened to his collar, which snaps a new photo every 2 minutes.
In addition to taking beautiful still photos around the neighborhood once a week, Cooper has occasionally been shooting video with his new Video Cat Cam. And this week Cooper shot his best video yet!
Somehow this time he was able to capture it all: The start of Cooper’s day with a healthy breakfast, heading outside through his cat flap, encounters with a garden gnome and a friendly neighbor, scaling a fence, and heading home to be greeted by Dad at the door.
Thanks for the wonderful insight into your world, Cooper! You’re a smart cat and we love following your adventures.
Cooper is a pretty solitary fellow when he’s out with his camera. He usually sticks to photographing the landscape, trees and plants. Every now and then we get a surprise cameo appearance from a human subject.
Last week Cooper was roaming the neighborhood with his camera and ran into a neighbor, Elaine Thompson, who is a professional photographer here in Seattle. No stranger to Cooper and his work, she shot a photo of him, and he shot a photo of her! Elaine shoots all sorts of amazing photos and Cooper is pretty jelous of her work with the Seattle Seahawks – isn’t that a type a bird?
“Neighbor Visit” Here is Elaine saying hello to Cooper!
“Dorks” This is one of Cooper’s best known portraits of his humans, Deirdre & Michael.
“Baby Brother” Up close and personal with Cooper’s little sibling, Cameron.
“Garden Girl” Cooper commiserates with a gardener pulling weeds.
“Little Boy Orange” This cute child holds his hand out in friendship to Cooper.
Cooper is currently running around in the yard taking pictures. He wears his camera only once a week, which allows him to simply be a cat the rest of the time.
Cooper was just featured in an article in La Nacion newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina! This is his first South American press. The author of the article contacted us after visiting Cooper’s Exhibit in Chicago, Illinois (USA) at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Our friend Maureen is currently living in Argentina and translated the article for us. The article has some nice descriptions of Cooper’s work in the exhibit. Here is an excerpt:
Bright colours, unexpected angles… Cooper’s work takes you by surprise. It is even more astonishing to think that the viewfinder of the camera is not at eye level, but at his chest.
"Fall Colors"
Through April 11 the exhibition Cooper: Photographer Cat is on display at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which is funded by the Chicago Academy of Sciences. There are 24 unedited works, such as The Light (La luz) taken from the bottom of a staircase, a disquieting brightness projects from above, a notion that is repeated in Land of Adventure (Tierra de aventura), Fall Colors (Colores de otoño), an exquisite composition of organic geometry in a garden, Sweetness and Light (Dulzura y luz), a luminous abstraction in movement, Small Friends (Pequeños amigos), a different perspective of garden dwarves, New Haircut (Nuevo corte de pelo), an almost cinematographic portrait of a cat underneath a car and the suggestive Risqué (Riesgo) one of his humans in a nightdress, caught off guard in the kitchen in a not-so-discreet shot. [Translation note: The article’s translation of “Risqué” is actually “risk” in Spanish, instead of “atrevido”.]
People have been asking how Cooper is adjusting to being a big brother. The results are in: he loves hanging around baby Cameron (particularly if he isn’t crying). Cooper is always curious, and especially about the little noises coming from our newest family member.
This is the second video Cooper has shot with his Video Cat Cam. It begins about 12 hours before the baby was born; you’ll see a 42-week pregnant Deirdre at home in early labor! Then we jump to the following day when baby Cameron is receiving plenty of cuddle time with mom and dad.
I love the beautiful moments that Cooper recorded with his Video Cat Cam. He will be capturing many more of baby Cameron in the weeks and months to come.
Cooper is currently bird watching from the living room window. Oh – now he’s chewing on the fern – gotta go.
Just in time for constant reruns of The Christmas Story on TV, Cooper has won some sort of award! It didn’t come in the form of a leg lamp but Cooper has been voted one of Seattle magazine’s Best of 2009!
Seattle magazine considers Cooper the “Best Evidence that Cats are Almost Human” and we couldn’t agree more! They also suggest that “maybe Cooper should collaborate with the Woodland Park Zoo’s artist in residence, the painting orangutans and elephants.” It would be pretty incredible to have Cooper doing his photo journalism with elephants as the subject. However we’re not sure how much he’d like hanging out with them.
Cooper’s adorable face appears on page 93 of the December 2009 issue.
Cooper is currently hanging out on the stairs, taking photos of a spider.
Cooper has been hoping that a kitten (or maybe a litter of them) would emerge from Deirdre’s belly. But last Tuesday, December 1st 2009, she gave birth to a human baby boy! His name is Cameron David Cross.
It has been a bit of adjustment for Cooper getting used to his brother. After all, he has been an only child for over four years and used to getting all of our attention! While our family continues to adapt, Cooper has decided to take some photos of his baby brother.
“Baby Nap” Cooper, never wake a sleeping baby.
“Mother and Child Reunion” Love this shot of Deirdre holding baby Cameron.
“Sweet Kisses” This is a beautiful angle. Great shot, Coop!
Cooper is currently curled up in an otherwise empty baby papasan. He is considering busting out his new video cat cam again tomorrow.
Well, it’s finally happened – Cooper is now shooting with a Video Cat Cam! We’ve been working on getting it up and running for a couple of weeks and today he went outside with it for the first time. It’s about the same size as his still photo camera, very lightweight, and doesn’t seem to bother him at all when he’s wearing it.
We currently have the Video Cat Cam set to shoot video for 2 minutes then sleep for 2 minutes. It’s really interesting to watch the unedited footage – such a different experience than going through the still photos from his original camera.
In this video you’ll see Cooper spy on some dogs being walked, leap up on top of an 8-foot fence and enter his cat door to eat an afternoon snack.
Many of you who have been following Cooper’s work over the years have noticed that he’s not shot any photos of “wild” animals in the neighborhood. We think the video camera is going to be our best opportunity to see birds and squirrels as Cooper lurks in the bushes.
Next time he goes out to shoot video we plan to change the camera settings to shoot 1 minute and sleep for 3 minutes to give him a greater chance of actually moving – he spends a lot of time in one hiding spot before moving on to the next!
The camera came from our friends at Mr Lee’s Cat Cam who are also the makers of Cooper’s original camera.
Cooper is currently attacking the Christmas tree. You can look forward to video footage of him being squirted with the spray bottle and shown to the door.
Happy Holidays! We’re offering 10% off of all Cooper’s prints (both framed and unframed) from now until the end of the holiday season! A Cooper original makes a great gift for the cat-lover in your life. Or you could put it on your own wish-list for Christmas!
You can select from any of Cooper’s photos in the Gallery Store. Each photo comes complete with Cooper’s “paw-tograph” signature on the back. Cooper prints sold between now and Christmas will include a picture of Cooper with the photo you purchase! For special orders or to arrange pick-up in the Seattle area to waive shipping charges, contact us here: info@photographercat.com
Cooper admires his friend in “New Haircut.”
When it comes to photography, Cooper is on top of his game!
“Rendezvous” is one of Cooper’s all-time favorites.
Just think of all the fun things you could do with a Cooper original print! There’s the obvious, you could frame it yourself with a fun matte. Or gift one of our gallery-framed photos to your favorite cat lover (maybe this is you).
Cooper is currently digging through the wrapping paper bin searching for the perfect bow.
For the first year that Cooper was shooting photos we didn’t see a single shot of another animal! We were so worried that he had no friends. Maybe we’d raised such a charming people-loving feline that all other cats wanted nothing to do with him. After his appearance on Animal Planet in December, word must have gotten ’round to the neighborhood cats, because now Cooper has loads of friends! Okay, he only has three that we know of, but they sure look nice.
Recently, Cooper came home with a series of photos of a new slinky black cat. The photo is so cool, that it went straight to Cooper’s Chicago Exhibit! For those of you in the Chicago area it’s a really compelling photo – quite incredible to see at 16″x20″, be sure to stop by and check it out.
“Rendezvous” This is the first photo Cooper took of another cat. Gorgeous shot, Coop!
“Meow!” Cooper took this photo immediately after “Rendevous,” above. Looks like Cooper and this other cat were interested in a closer look.
“New Haircut” This is one of our all time favorites. The look on her face certainly says she’d rather Cooper not take her photo today!
“Back Alley Bandit” This shady character apparently didn’t want to be identified in the newspapers.
“Fire Marshall” We’re not sure who this neighbor cat is, but he seems to guard the fire hydrant with authority.
Cooper is currently curled up like a pillbug on a pile of pillows in the living room. Sleeping off too much catnip carrot.
The cat fanatics at LoveMeow.com have schemed up a fun way for Cooper to connect with his fans. They ran an exclusive contest for their readers to win a Cooper Photographer Cat Magnet.
As promised, Cooper personally selected the winners and it has been announced on his YouTube channel (see below). Congratulations to the ten lucky winners! I’m sure you’ll be hearing from LoveMeow very soon.
Here’s the LoveMeow official results page. The people at LoveMeow designed Cooper’s lucky draw so that he could press any key on the keyboard. This slick little program would randomly select the first five winners and then when he pushes another key he selects the remaining five winners. Cooper was a really good sport for the whole thing. And, yes, he does know how to sit on command.
Cooper prepares to select ten winners in the contest.
For those of you who didn’t win this time – you can still get cool Cooper swag in his Gallery Store. We’ve been seeing folks in Seattle wearing Cooper t-shirts (including his cat sitter!) and drinking from sweet Cooper water bottles. Of course, the ultimate way to show your love for this Photographer Cat is to buy one of his exclusive prints. A portion of photo sales from now until April go to PAWS Chicago.
In addition to taking beautiful still photos around the neighborhood once a week, Cooper has occasionally been shooting video with his new Video Cat Cam. And this week Cooper shot his best video yet!
Cooper is a pretty solitary fellow when he’s out with his camera. He usually sticks to photographing the landscape, trees and plants. Every now and then we get a surprise cameo appearance from a human subject.
“Dorks” This is one of Cooper’s best known portraits of his humans, Deirdre & Michael.
“Baby Brother” Up close and personal with Cooper’s little sibling, Cameron.
“Garden Girl” Cooper commiserates with a gardener pulling weeds.
“Little Boy Orange” This cute child holds his hand out in friendship to Cooper.
People have been asking how Cooper is adjusting to being a big brother. The results are in: he loves hanging around baby Cameron (particularly if he isn’t crying). Cooper is always curious, and especially about the little noises coming from our newest family member.
Just in time for constant reruns of The Christmas Story on TV, Cooper has won some sort of award! It didn’t come in the form of a leg lamp but Cooper has been voted one of Seattle magazine’s Best of 2009!
Cooper has been hoping that a kitten (or maybe a litter of them) would emerge from Deirdre’s belly. But last Tuesday, December 1st 2009, she gave birth to a human baby boy! His name is Cameron David Cross.
“Baby Nap” Cooper, never wake a sleeping baby.
“Mother and Child Reunion” Love this shot of Deirdre holding baby Cameron.
Well, it’s finally happened – Cooper is now shooting with a Video Cat Cam! We’ve been working on getting it up and running for a couple of weeks and today he went outside with it for the first time. It’s about the same size as his still photo camera, very lightweight, and doesn’t seem to bother him at all when he’s wearing it.
Happy Holidays! We’re offering 10% off of all Cooper’s prints (both framed and unframed) from now until the end of the holiday season! A Cooper original makes a great gift for the cat-lover in your life. Or you could put it on your own wish-list for Christmas!
Cooper admires his friend in “New Haircut.”
When it comes to photography, Cooper is on top of his game!
“Rendezvous” is one of Cooper’s all-time favorites.
For the first year that Cooper was shooting photos we didn’t see a single shot of another animal! We were so worried that he had no friends. Maybe we’d raised such a charming people-loving feline that all other cats wanted nothing to do with him. After his appearance on Animal Planet in December, word must have gotten ’round to the neighborhood cats, because now Cooper has loads of friends! Okay, he only has three that we know of, but they sure look nice.
a fun way for Cooper to connect with his fans. They ran an exclusive contest for their readers to win a Cooper Photographer Cat Magnet.