Why Oneiroi Photography?
Why Oneiroi Photography? I have been asked this question a few times in a couple different contexts and I thought I’d give you some answers here.
“Why should I choose Oneiroi Photography as my pet photographer?”
Excellent question! I will start off by saying that if you have a dog, I am probably not the right photographer for you. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, I was raised with dogs, I have photographed them in the past, but I created Oneiroi Photography as a photography business specializing in cats and other speciality pets.
There are hundreds of incredible dog photographers in the Seattle area who specialize in dog photography! Dog photography is it’s own kind of beast, it has its own set of skills and experience that is necessary to create beautiful photos of your dogs. My speciality is in cats, so I wanted to focus on that and leave the dog photography to the dog photography experts.
Now, if you have a cat, a snake, a horse, a bunny, a bird, or any other sort of specialty pet, I’m your gal! In looking for local pet photographers myself I realized that most of them do specialize in dogs and only photograph the occasional cat or bird here and there. I totally understand this, as I said above, dog photography is its own beast and a ton of work in and of itself!
So I wanted to create a photography business that specialized in cats and other pets you don’t always commonly see when searching for pet photography. For most of us our cats or birds or bunnies are like children to us and I think it is important to honor that and capture those special memories you have with your pet!
“Why name your business Oneiroi Photography?”
Another excellent question and one of my favorites to answer. The quick answer is that I named it after my cat Oni, aka Oneiroi. But why the name Oneiroi, not only for a business, but for a cat too?
My family and I are Greek so I knew I wanted to give him a Greek name, but I also wanted it to have some kind of meaning to me (blame the artist in me for my insufferable tendencies to feel unique). So I dug around and researched various Greek words and Greek mythology and I found the term Oneiroi.
Oneiroi, in Greek mythology, are little dark-winged spirits that emerge each night in flocks (picture bats) from Erebos—the land of eternal darkness. During their nightly travel they would pass through one of two gates, one made of horn or one made of ivory. If they passed through the gate of horn you would end up having god-sent prophetic dreams. If they passed through the gate of ivory your dreams would have no meaning. The Oneiroi were basically the spirits of dreams… and you know what that sparked in my head? The song Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, a crowd favorite.
I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks’ Landslide is the first song I can remember hearing so this double meaning of sorts made the name Oneiroi feel like the perfect fit. Plus, sometimes Oni really does look like a little dark-winged spirit rising from a cave!