Most of you know that I am a personal trainer, yoga instructor and coach but I have another profession on the side. I don’t talk about it. It’s not something I would put on my resume.

Get your minds out of the gutter, it’s nothing bad. I am a professional cat photographer.

Well that may be overstating. I am the human with an iPhone at my house who takes pictures of my cat. I like to call myself a photographer because it sounds nicer than someone whose cat makes up 89% of the photos on their phone at any given time.

A little over a year ago when we adopted Bhakti, we discovered her Christy Turlington/Cindy Crawford/Naomi Campbell style ways with a cat walk (see what I did there?).

I took photos of her frequently and sent them to my family in group text message (read: messages that hold a group hostage). Before long, my sister suggested that I start an Instagram page for cat photos. I did and soon I was getting comments from friends and co-workers that this silly little page was giving them a bright spot in their day so I continued.

Before long I found myself laying on the floor (worm-cam style), hiding around door frames and participating in all sorts of other ridiculous antics in order to capture the purr-fect cat photo.

I have clicked the shutter 20 times in a row in hopes of getting the best angle and moment. And it’s worked. I have accidentally caught random moments with her tongue sticking out, her pushing her paws out in a big stretch, amazingly relaxed napping positions as well as her showing me her most regal pose.

She’s a bit of a diva so she doesn’t always cooperate. My goal is to post a new photo at least every day and sometimes it’s not always the best. Even when I took a break from Instagram I still took photos every day and had my husband post — because everyone needs their Bhakti fix.

And she has quite the diverse following. Bhakti is a Sanskrit name, which means love and devotion. I also use #bhakti so I get all the yogis trafficking the site. What I love most is while they may end up with a photo of Bhakti by happenstance, they often stick around and become a regular follower. She has quite the admiration society hailing from India, as well as the Western Yogis.

On any given day you may find me standing outside my house in the freezing cold to get the perfect shot of the cat inside. You may hear the story of me taking her photo at 6 am because she’s doing something unbelievable. It’s even highly probable that I will sit on the floor and wait for her to do something adorable — all in the name of art — and adding to the collection of cat photos on the internet.

We all have a secret hobby or two that next to nobody knows about. This is one of mine.

Sunshine & Sarcasm,
Lowi & G