Hi, I'm actually in the process of reading all the great posts in the pet photo forum and loving it! Such great photos and great ideas. Thought I'd take a moment and say hello. I'm just in the process of building a business focusing on feline photography and primarily catshows, etc. I've known Helmi for a number of years and she has been a huge help guiding me into this new venture. My background is actually in earth science research tech support and data processing, I'm a bit of a tech geek, but have done photography as a hobby for many years. I also bred and showed Bengal cats for about 13 years but pretty much done with that in large part so I can be free to travel to shows. I've just started a blog
http://starrlightphotography.blogspot.com

Have to say I'm really looking forward to this forum.
Diana

Welcome Diana - you will find lots of friendly and helpful people here!
Bev

Lovely photos on your blog! I saw the term "kitty wrangling" and I think you need to call your helpers "Cat herders"

Welcome, Diana. Nice images and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Jim

Welcome! Your breed is absolutely stunning and they look easier to wrangle than baby wrangling. Cannot wait to see more images.

Hi and Welcome!!

LOL, Preston, I aspire to being a 'Cat Charmer.' :P How do you interview for that?

James

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I spent way too many hours last night (til about 1am) reading recent posts and checking out some of your websites and blogs. Your dog photos are just stunning. I do love dogs too and will probably shoot them at times but I think its better for now to concentrate on what I know best, which is cats. Besides I know there are already at least a handful of dog - focused photographers here in the San Diego area. I have a pbase account and have a gallery for my older cat photos
http://www.pbase.com/dianastarr/cats
and one for my first "real" shoot with an entire strobe setup (which was only a couple weeks ago). Helmi has already given some feedback, any additional comments would be great. I have a reputation for being pretty direct and welcome it in return.
http://www.pbase.com/dianastarr/kristine

There's also several other galleries of misc stuff, landscapes, architecture, flowers, etc, if you're bored.

Thanks again! Diana

Just now getting a chance to welcome you to the forum. You have some great images there!