Seth Casteel - Pounce

Some of you folks may know me as the Underwater Dogs guy. I obviously love dogs and have spent many yearsfull of curiosity and delightchasing them around with a camera in hopes of better understanding why they are just so awesome. But you should know that before I was photographing dogs underwater I was photographing cats on land. Thats how my career as a photographer and author actually began.

While working at a Los Angeles movie studio in 2007, I became friends with the cat people who cared for the community of cats living on the studio backlot. They provided food and water for the kitties but also ensured they were spayed and neutered. Life was pretty good for these kitties, and the word got out, which inspired more to move in. Not surprisingly, baby cats began popping up. My cat people friends became a little overwhelmed, and I, having just acquired my first digital SLR camera, offered my photographic assistance, although at the time I wasnt sure if I could truly help: I barely knew how to work the camera and had no idea how to work with cats.

One day, while a senior executive was out to lunch, we snuck the kittens into his office and let them pounce around on the furniture as I snapped candid pictures. And the pictures looked great! But lets be honest: I think its impossible to take a bad picture of a kitten. Kittens are the cutest creatures on the planet!

Using the studios email network, we blasted out the kitten pics and info to our colleagues. Apparently the email network was not intended for this kind of message, but we thought surely we couldnt get fired for helping kittens. And we were right. Not only did we keep our jobs, but because of the pictures, all the kittens were adopted within hours! It was at this moment that I realized the power of a photograph, and I became obsessed. I photographed another litter of homeless kittens. And then I started volunteering at the local animal shelter, photographing both cats and dogs, and then at another shelter, and then at shelters in different states, and then at shelters in different countries. I want to thank that litter of kittens for inspiring what has become my purpose in lifeto try to make the world a better place through photography.

For a while now Ive been excited to make a photography book about cats. But to answer the question I am asked most often: after an extensive worldwide search for cats who willingly dive into swimming pools, I found approximately zero participants. So unless something radically changes with the behavior of cats around water, Underwater Cats is permanently on hold.

For me, the only book to create about cats would feature them doing what they do bestpouncing! The undisputed number one instinct of cats, pouncing makes them among the most incredible creatures on earth. From their initial reaction upon seeing the prey to their stealthy stalk to their sudden burst of dynamic energywatching a cat pounce inspires in us humans a range of emotions: respect, fear, joy, disbelief.

I collaborated with numerous animal shelters and rescue groups in the United States and Canada to create this series of images. Every single cat in this book was available for adoption or already rescued at the time I took the pictures. This project was by far the most challenging I ever experienced. Dogs are easy to photograph. Catsnot so much. A typical day of shooting for Pounce looked like this:

9:00 a.m.: Arrive at a home where an amazing pouncing cat lives.

11:00 a.m.: I have yet to see the cat.

11:45 a.m.: On a nearby wall, a shadow appears that resembles a cat, but it turns out its just the dog again.

1:00 p.m.: At this point, Ive heard the line Cuuuuuudles, where aaare you? at least a thousand times.

2:00 p.m.: Cuddles is carried out to the room where I am sitting. Finally I can begin to take pictures.

2:00 p.m. and three seconds: Cuddles is nowhere to be seen.

Even the friendliest cats can be wary of new people and new things, such as my camera and flashes. With dogs, I can bribe a friendship with a toy or a treat. With cats, it doesnt always work that way.

I explored dozens of different ideas to solve this riddle and ultimately wound up working with mostly younger cats due to their slightly more easygoing attitude, boundless energy, and athleticism. To get the cats to pounce, I experimented with more than two hundred cat toys and countless movement tactics. Four out of those two hundred toys proved to be consistently good, generating multiple pounces both directly at the camera and nearby. For the majority of the photos in this book, I wasnt able to look through the viewfinder, so I had no idea if the cat was even in the picture until after the pounce occurred. The reason for this was I attached cat toys to the camera itself and used it as a lure. Voil! Of course, a number of cats pounced on the actual camera, and more cats than I care to admit pounced into my hair. They just loved something about my hair. Eventually I had to wear a beanie to avoid any more cats leaping onto my head.