FRITZ FRIDAY: OUTTAKES

When I had the idea for Fritz Friday, I had planned to make it a wordless experience. I think sometimes a series of pictures without explanation can be more interesting than when everything is all laid out.

This means that sometimes I get photos that I really like, but don't quite work for whatever storyline I have rattling around in my head.

So here are some photos I like, but didn't quite make the cut the first time around, or weren't quite the photo quality I was looking for.

The first Fritz Friday was at Fritz's birthday party, and I am really happy that my friends are as into this kind of stuff as I am. It hasn't always been the case that I have a bunch of friends who would be willing to come over to be in a cat birthday photo shoot.

Fritz's favorite part of the whole day was when my friend Leslie and I were hanging the streamers. He was pretty intent on getting them down, mostly by biting through them. Unfortunately, every shot of him messing with the streamers turned out blurry.

Leslie took a cue from Cesar Milan, and had a pretty impressive hiss that had him retreating to the bathroom for the rest of the set up, after he'd knocked down the streamers one to many times.

At another point in the evening, Fritz got a sticker stuck to his whiskers. I couldn't stop silently laughing as he attempted to get it off. He kept trying to lick it off. It never seemed to occur to him to use his paws. Also in this photo is an excellent sketch of Fritz by my friend Nathan.

Poor guy just couldn't figure out how to get that sticker off his face. I included one of the photos in the original post, but I laugh and laugh at all of them.

I also got a lot of fun pictures out of the Fritz Friday that was a take-off of Being John Malkovich.

The movie poster for the film was my inspiration.

This shoot was interesting because it was when I first started getting an inkling of how difficult it could be to get Fritz to react to things the way I wanted him to. I shouldn't have been surprised, because, well, he's a cat. They aren't exactly known for their obedience and trick ability.

I got some fun photos of my friends goofing around with the masks. These photos didn't really fit the story that I was going for, but I like them all the same.

Patrick and Nathan are always game to indulge my weird ideas.

And so are my roommate Jeff, and his girlfriend Sam.

We actually got Fritz outside for a few of the photos, but he really, really hates going outside, which is made quite clear by the expression on his face. I think he looks like a miserable owl. This whole photo shoot was in the courtyard of my building, and while none of my neighbors said anything, we definitely painted a strange picture.

I generally try not to include the pictures where Fritz looks really miserable, but for some reason I think those are the funniest photos of all. Maybe it's because he stands outside my door and meows at 6 in the morning.

I couldn't stop laughing during this photo shoot, which is a common occurrence for me when doing this.

It was easy enough to cover up his miserable face. It helps when you have a mask that is a photo of his own face.