Those of you, to whom Rusty owes dozens of treats for complimenting him on many of his appearances on this blog, probably think that he is a natural on camera. He is – if we’re talking about those times when he didn’t know what was happening: I have hundreds of cute, funny and entertaining pictures of Rusty sleeping, napping or packing himself into the next newly arrived in the mail box.
But when it comes to catching him on camera with perfume I plan to feature in the post, it takes a careful planning and some trickery on my part. Without a fail Rusty will photobomb the picture I’m trying to shoot if it’s something new that he hasn’t seen earlier. Unfortunately, he does it with a complete disregard to the lighting, composition and other important things. And then, 15-20 seconds later, he’s done with the exploration and there’s not much I can do to persuade him to stay longer and allow me to take a proper picture of him and the object in question. I tried explaining to him that modelling pays well but in vain: you know how fickle those prima donnas can be. So usually I have to bring everything I want in the picture to the place with an appropriate light, quickly assemble the composition, take the camera, wait – and then quickly take as many pictures, moving around, as possible, hoping that at least one of them will be usable. So from time to time I finally choose one of the “less bad” pictures or give up and go with “still life.”
But sometimes… sometimes Rusty is in an especially good mood, he slept for too long and got bored or some element of the packaging caught his attention – then I get minutes of Rusty’s not paying any attention to my paparazzi act. And then I get another conundrum: which picture to choose when each one of them is good but different?
Sometimes I work around it by using a slide show. But mostly, after agonizing for much longer than I should, I decide on the one I liked a little more hoping that maybe one day I’ll get to use other pictures as well… It doesn’t happen too often, so I decided to do a new series – From the Cutting Room Floor, in which I’ll be publishing pictures of Rusty not included into the posts for which those were taken.
For the first episode I decided to go with pictures of Rusty “playing Milo” during my recent attempts to take a picture of the mimosa confiture (and a YouTube link to the scene from The Mask for those who did not recognize the reference):
By the way, this dog toy was also a birthday present from the same friend who sent me the confiture. That’s why I wanted to take a picture of both of her gifts with Rusty, which I managed to do in the end (see below), but I think she liked the one above even more.
Images: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
Thank you, Undina, for this post! Start the day with Rusty’s photos, what a treat! I love the photo of the dog’s head with Rusty’s body. Perfect. Your efforts are making us fans of Rusty so happy! ;)
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Thank you, Magpie. It was a completely unintentional photo: I just kept clicking and only later on a computer monitor noticed how funny it was.
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That Rusty doesn’t know the meaning of taking a bad picture!
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I bet he thinks that taking a picture is bad ;)
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Haha, I so agree with Steve! The cushion shot is especially cute and he blends in so well with your colour scheme. I have said this before, but I swear Rusty is either wholly or partly Norwegian Forest Cat – the resemblance is so striking. Enjoyed hearing these ‘back room stories’ of the photo shoots and keep the ‘duff ones’ coming. ;)
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We think that Rusty has some Maine Coon blood in him. And yes, he’s well color-coordinated with my interior ;)
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Maine Coon, yes I see that too!
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Rusty – you are so beautiful, as all the pictures show. I did love the one of his body and the dogs head but my favourite is him on the cushion at the start. Anytime you are looking for a cat sitter, i’m your gal (even though it would mean me getting a plane to the other side of the world). :-)
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Pats, I’ll keep you in mind :)
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AAAaaaaawww! That’s a cuteness overload. Rusty is definitely the most photogenic perfume cat in entire blogosphere. If i could I would pick some cat treats myself in a pet shop and send them by post to you so that you can treat him to them on my behalf. That Milo plush toy is adorable. Is it just a plush toy or is its function different? It looks kind of like it could be a part of animal fluff bed
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It’s just a toy, not a bed, but it’s not a representation of the Milo dog from The Mask, but the picture reminded me of him – hence “Rusty playing Milo” and not “with Milo” :)
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Still he is a total cutie
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Rustyyyyyyyyy! What a brilliant post, thank you. I never doubted it wasn’t an easy feat to do the proper cat and perfume photo, so well done both for all the photos over the years.
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Thank you, Asali. I always remember an article that I read years ago about how much more filming time it takes to shoot children. And then it’s even more when it comes to animals.
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Wow! Rusty gives ew meaning to cuteness perfection! Does he sleep with his eues open or does he have a sixth sense when it come to uou approaching or zooming in with your camera?
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When he sleeps he sleeps. But while he’s napping sometimes it feels like he’s checking on me: “You are taking this cute pose of mine, aren’t you?” ;)
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I think in the first apricot picture Rusty just wanted you to capture his best side. Thanks for the morning laugh and thanks to Rusty who looks so handsome in any pose.
PS: SOTD is Chergui. Thank you.
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That’s what I just wrote above in the reply to hajusuuri’s comment without seeing yours! :)
I’m glad it works for you. I should wear it again soon before it’s too hot.
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“I tried explaining to him that modeling pays well, but in vain: you know how fickle those prima donnas can be.” – LOL!!!
He is so beautiful, and I’m sure he knows it, Undina. I love your cutting-room floor idea. We will take Rusty any way we can get him! :-)
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He’s definitely aware of his power over us and he uses his charm when he wants to get some affection from us (food he usually just demands).
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Wow, the way Rusty is looking at you/the camera in that last pic is almost human. Such an amazing expression in his eyes.
This is a fabulous idea as Rusty is so completely captivating – and I say that as someone who is not normally a cat person!
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Stick around and we (Rusty, Truffle, Vanessa and I) are yet to make a cat person out of you! ;)
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Ha! You all make it very tempting :)
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So fun Undina.
Hey Rusty. Looking good.
Portia xx
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Thank you, dear (from Rusty as well since he’s getting a treat)
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