ISSUE 312

Hi everyone! Thanks for checking out this new edition of Furry Weekly! We know it’s been a while, but we’re working through some challenges to try and get back into the rhythm of bringing you new issues every week. We seriously appreciate your patience!

Speaking of those challenges we’re facing, understaffing is one of them. That’s why we want to keep calling your attention to the ‘Recruiting’ section below. It’s part of our usual announcements you’ll find, so we hope you’ll take a look at that, but if you want to get straight into the issue, just keep scrolling!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

RECRUITING

We have a ton of open roles we’re looking to fill to help us keep making new issues each week! If you want to be involved in helping us showcase the fandom, take a look at the positions below:

- Furry of the Week Host
- Art Corner Co-Host
- Writing Showcase Host
- Fursuit Focus Co-Host
- Species Spotlight Host
- Fursuit Designing Tips Co-Host
- Photography 101 Co-Host
- Radical Raffles Host
- Available Artists Host
- Cover Artist
- Content Artist
- Content Migrator
- Editor

You can reach out to Yeshua, or Carkas if you’re interested in helping out, or have any questions. If you want a description of the roles, check out this document! If you have any suggestions for other roles or things we could bring into Furry Weekly, please let us know as well, we’d be happy to hear your ideas! Doing this project requires a lot of help, so please do consider joining us or sharing with other friends in the fandom if you can! We’d really appreciate it!

SEND US YOUR STUFF

Our goal here at Furry Weekly is to showcase the creativity the fandom has to offer, and if you haven’t noticed, most of our segments center around featuring folks in the community! So we want to remind you that you can submit your content to us! We actually have two new ways for you to send us your stuff:

Email us: Email us at furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com! You can submit your work (e.g. artwork, writing, quote, original species), tell us you are interested in appearing in a segment like Furry of the Week, Fursuit Focus, or Character Interview, or suggest someone to be featured in one of these segments.

Fill out our form: Check out this Google Forms link and fill it out based on the content you want to submit!

Remember that if you either email us or fill out our Submissions Form, you’re giving us permission to feature you or your work here on the magazine! We will always link back to you if you or your work appears on Furry Weekly!

READER SURVEY

We’re always looking out for what you, our readers, have to say about Furry Weekly! Like we said above, our goal is to showcase a little bit of everything in the fandom, especially giving a small spotlight to all kinds of creators and folks in the community. So we want to know what you think about what we’re doing now as well as what you might want to see from a furry magazine. So whether you’re an avid follower of Furry Weekly, or maybe you just found us, we want to hear what you like, what you don’t like, and what you would like us to do in the future! That’s why we have a short survey on this topic. We would seriously appreciate it if you took just a few minutes to take it and give us your feedback! You can do this multiple times as well! The link is below!

Click here to take our reader survey!

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That’s all for our usual announcements! We do want to apologize as well for the shorter issue this week. It’s another impact from not having enough staff, but we’re doing our best to work through it! We still hope you enjoy, and let us know what you may want to see in the future! We have a lot of ways to contact us, but you can also catch us on Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon; we’re @FurryWeekly everywhere!

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SEGMENT LINEUP

[❌] Furry of the Week

[❌] Art Corner

[✔] Writing Showcase

[✔] Fursuit Focus

[✔] Species Spotlight

[❌] Animal of the Week

[✔] Art 101

[❌] Writing 101

[❌] Fursuit Designing Tips

[✔] Photography 101

[❌] Available Artists

[✔] Radical Raffles

[✔] Character Interview

[❌] Convention Calendar

[✔] Furry Quote

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WRITING SHOWCASE

Hello literature fanatics, and happy 2025! I hope the start of the new year has been going great for you. It’s Danielle once again, and this week we have a spooky poem to send chills down your spine.

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The House

By ArcaeFox

Summary: This poem captures a supernatural narrative through themes such as decay, fear, and an unrelenting search for something lost. An unidentified anthro character is waiting in a house that feels heavy with time and cold from a blizzard. The narrator is in a desperate state, feeling cold and confused. Shadows urge them to explore the house, but it seems to be broken and haunted. They encounter a ghostly figure who questions their presence, revealing that the house is decaying and no longer holds the hopeful life they seek.

Highlights: This poem has an amazing sense of atmosphere and vivid imagery. The use of personification, symbolism, and rhyming work really well together. The way the natural elements interact with the house feels almost alive as if the environment itself is part of the haunting. The overall feeling of this poem gave me intriguing vibes of Ebenezer Scrooge’s ghostly encounters from A Christmas Carol.

Suggestions: While the nature of the poem is alluring, certain lines may not feel as clear. For example, one of the ghost’s dialogue could be expanded to clarify what “this life” refers to as well as to clarify what the dragon symbolizes. If the ambiguity is intentional, then only fine-tuning it to maintain some clarity will help keep the mystique intact. The language spoken throughout this poem is unique, but certain areas would be fun to explore more. For instance, it would be interesting to know more behind the ghost’s motivations to add more depth to the emotional weight of the poem.

Question Time! Feel free to answer along by making a post and tagging Furry Weekly either on Bluesky, Instagram, or X/Twitter.

★ Have you ever felt the presence of a spirit nearby?
★ What are some fond memories you have from home?

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That’ll be all for this week’s storytelling. I hope you enjoyed it! Let’s give our author a round of applause.

Eager for us to showcase your own story or poem? Feel free to fill out this form if interested. You can also submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading along with us, and we’ll see you around!

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FURSUIT FOCUS

Hi you all! My name is Yeshua and it’s a real pleasure being here to bring you the first Fursuit Focus segment of 2025! Right now I’m doing my best to fill in on this segment since we don’t have a permanent host for it, so thanks for your patience while we sort this out! If you think you’d want to host this segment, please contact me!

We’re starting the year off with a neat feline! Let’s meet Dumb Alchemist Cat!

Look at this adorable kitty! Alchemist’s fursuit is a partial of his character, Mathew. It features a head, sleeves, and paws, perfect for experimenting with outfits! As crazy as it sounds, it’s not incredibly common to see characters with dark color palettes, but Mathew is a fantastic exception. Most of his fur is a sort of navy blue, paired with some purple markings that look especially good up close! Then there’s white fur that of course complements the two main colors very well, giving a slightly more natural look along with the pink inside of the ears and the paw pads. Plus, the gray eyes add yet another color that combines nicely with all the others, making for a pretty visually pleasing fursuit! Although the dominant colors are dark, this feline still looks right out of a cartoon thanks to the maker’s wonderful toony style! It also helps that those dominant colors (i.e. navy and purple) are not exactly natural colors; goes well with the toony look! Huge props to Mabels Cowbell for bringing this cat to life; he looks great!

Mathew is a pretty adventurous cat! He loves fursuiting outdoors, and there are a couple of reasons why. One of them is because fursuiting itself actually motivates him to go out and explore, since he’s usually inside; more on that in a bit. Perhaps the main reason Mathew likes to fursuit outside, though, is because he lives in Alaska! If you’re a long time reader, you may remember we’ve already met a couple of fursuiters from Alaska, and the consensus is that it has stunning environments! This is of course true for Mathew, who likes to hike to different outdoor locations and capture those trips. That’s not all, though. Mathew also likes to share outdoor photos as a way of showing other fursuiters that simply going outside is a great option for fursuiting! “I think it’s also nice to post [outdoor photos] not only to show people parts of my area, but to show you can have fun in fursuit outside of going to conventions or meetups.”

Along with the outdoors, Mathew, much like a lot of other cats, also enjoys spending time inside: “I also am a bit of a nerd so you’ll sometimes see me in my nerd cave, either for a quick pic or sharing something of mine.” He’s not kidding, either! If you scroll through his social media, you’ll see a fair bit of photos where Mathew is just chilling in his room, which is nicely decorated by the way! Whether he’s indoors or outdoors though, just be ready for a nice dose of kitty goodness when you check out Mathew’s socials!

Mathew’s road to fursuiting is pretty interesting. Before joining the furry fandom, he heard a lot of negative stuff about the community, including fursuits. It wasn’t until he came across convention and fursuiting videos that he started liking them a lot! “... seeing these unique and diverse characters come to life and be in our world, seeing them live and interact as people. It made me want to make my own character and to try to see the world through their eyes, think about what they would do. That’s still true today…” This led Mathew to making a fursona, and quickly commissioning a fursuit. After some research, he managed to find Mabels Cowbell through TikTok, and he got his fursuit in July of 2023! So as of writing this, Mathew has been fursuiting for about a year and a half!

Mathew’s adventures are only getting started! There’s a handful of things he’d like to do as a fursuiter, one of the main ones is going to a convention. Although living in Alaska is great for getting awesome outdoor fursuit photos, it unfortunately lacks a lot of furry events, and especially conventions. Sticking with the outdoors, though, Mathew also wants to go cross country skiing in fursuit and possibly doing a vlog for the trip! I’ve seen a fair amount of fursuiters doing winter sports like that and it’s always so fun to see! Finally, something else Mathew has in mind is possibly getting into making YouTube content using his fursuit. Whatever he decides to do there, he’ll definitely have a lot of options, whether it’s furry stuff, or some of his other nerdy interests – remember he’s the one who called himself a nerd earlier! No matter what this kitty does, though, he is more than ready to keep at it in the fursuiting scene, and meet people and make great memories along the way!

As Mathew looks ahead to his next adventures, he’s also thankful for the people who have helped him so far! He appreciates his fursuit maker a lot because they worked and communicated so well with him while his fursuit was being made, and even to this day they answer his questions about maintaining his fursuit. Mathew is also grateful for his friends who have helped him shoot some of the great fursuiting photos he has shared! I’ll let him close out the segment, explaining why the help he’s gotten is so meaningful:

“As somebody going in with zero photography skills, having somebody who is willing to assist you is really helpful. I’m super grateful for all of their help and hope someday I can pay it forward and help out other fursuiters in the fandom.”

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That’s it for this edition of Fursuit Focus! Thanks for reading, and be sure to keep up with Mathew for more cute and fun feline content!

I’m always looking for other fluffy individuals to feature here, so if you’re a fursuiter and you want to be on this segment, OR you want to see us highlight a certain fursuiter, reach out to me or preferably – you can email us at furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com! We also have a Submissions Form you can fill out if you prefer!

Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far! I’m Yeshua, and I’ve got another Fursuit Focus segment for you next week! Until then, take care!

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SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

Hello readers, and welcome back to an exciting week of Species Spotlight! This is Danielle making a return as a guest host.

Before we put the spotlight on this week’s original species, I wish to let all of you know that we’re still looking to recruit more hosts for this segment. If you enjoy diving into species lore and/or find original species fascinating, then this might be for you! Feel free to message our boss, Yeshua, or our HR, Carkas, if you’re interested in hosting Species Spotlight.

This week, we’ll be taking a look at Pluto dwellers called Earlings by Saikotiggs!

MEET KON (LEFT) AND TAG (RIGHT)!

Konpeitō, also known as Kon, is the Earlings mascot. It has three sets of ears which are rare among the Earling race. Tag is a fan favorite and a flighted Earling with a missing eye and funky whiskers.

WHAT ARE EARLINGS?

Earlings are intelligent, soft, fluffy, and silly looking Pluto-dwelling creatures. They were named Earlings because of their abnormally large ears that sometimes have more than one set. The species has been observed to be diverse, very friendly to other creatures, and eating what looks like ice and rocks. They also use rocks and ice in different ways such as for currency, building, and even art.

Bringing an Earling to earth is a tough task because they’re built to live in very low temperatures and gravity. They accommodate for this by having special vests and helmets which are cooled with dry ice, letting Earlings travel around some areas of earth without overheating. Their big ears usually flop down due to the drastic gravity change, and some even have trouble walking.

Earlings do not have a gender or any reproductive parts. They have been told to choose whatever pronouns they like, and since then, they have been doing that. Two Earlings have to mutually agree to wanting a child. A magical fuzzy egg will appear in a crystal nest that the parents built beforehand. The color of the egg usually determines the main fur color of the Earling inside.

Earlings live between one to two Pluto years, equivalent to 250-500 earth years. Their lifespan, however, is still a mystery. Some people believe they’re some kind of godly species, angels, or even devils. In reality, they’re just some fuzzy beings living an extraordinarily long life on Pluto with pet companions called Tardigrub. Feel free to check out more information about Tardigrubs here.

TRAITS AND ANATOMY

Earlings are known for their large ears, oddly shaped mouth, tiny eyes, big three-toed front paws, small two-toed back paws, and a long skinny tail with a tuft of fur at the end.

Ears
Earlings have been observed to have two to six ears on their head with great hearing. Six-eared Earlings, also known as Kwings, are very rare and often become leaders or even royalty. It’s hypothesized that the size of their ears help them locate special gems deep under the ground or to avoid deep cracks in ice that could be dangerous.

Eyes
Unfortunately, Earling eyes are not very effective because of their estimated 20/100 vision. Even though they can have two to six eyes, it does not make their vision any better or worse.

Mouth
An Earlings mouth is quite unique where it shapes an upside down T. They have sharp teeth around the entire mouth with two longer fangs that stick out when the mouth is closed. They often have forked tongues but have been seen to have a tongue that ends in a single point too.

Body
Earlings stand at a whopping three to four feet which doesn’t include the ears. The two main body types are grounded Earlings and flighted Earlings. Despite the name, flighted Earlings can’t fly. Their wings are attached to their arms like a flying squirrel, and with the low gravity, they’re able to jump high and glide quite far with their uniquely shaped wings. Earlings are often very lean but can have a little chub on them.

Paws
Earlings have paw pads that are all connected instead of separate like a cat or dog. They only have retractable claws on their front paws.

Extra traits
Earlings have been discovered to have a wide range of traits: horns, pouches, crystal growth, and longer or shorter fur than usual. Some have even been seen to change color like a chameleon.

Colors
Earlings come in all different colors. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to what color or marking an Earling can have.

AQUATIC SUB SPECIES

Aquatic Earlings are found in the oceanic core of Pluto, and these guys are very similar to their land counterparts, but there are some key differences. These Earlings are almost completely hairless with the exception of small bits of peach fuzz in some areas. They also have tattered, slicked back ears to help steer and gain speed while swimming with equally as useful arm fins. Another distinguishing feature is their jagged teeth sticking out.

Aquatic Earlings also often have fins on each side of their face that connect to their ears, webbed front paws, and commonly spiked or finned tail tip. They have been seen to have fins elsewhere with many different types of aquatic tails and are also more commonly seen with whiskers than their land counterparts. They still have lungs in order to breathe air though and can hold their breath for up to ten hours. Tardigrubs come in handy by blowing air bubbles and creating air pockets when visiting the oceanic core of Pluto.

CREATING AN EARLING

Earlings are an open species, which means you’re welcome to create your own or as adoptables. Please be sure to follow the rules listed below as well as to credit Saikotiggs for the species.

1. Stick to the basic anatomy. The spikiness is a stylistic choice and isn’t required at all.
2. If they’re a flighted Earling, please keep the wings a similar shape shown on the traits and anatomy sheet as seen here.
3. Unfortunately, Kwings (six-eared Earlings) are currently not open to make, but they are often raffled off in the Discord server.
4. Not safe for work (NSFW) is not allowed. Please keep Earlings safe for work (SFW).

Feel free to join the Discord server to immerse yourself more into the lore, for the community, and to find bases that you can use to start creating your own Earling. If you have any questions regarding the species, feel free to reach out to Saikotiggs.

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Thank you for tuning in to this week of Species Spotlight! I hope you enjoyed learning about Earlings today. There are plenty of creative original species out there, and we’ll be sure to hunt them down.

Ready for us to explore your original species? Feel free to fill out this form if interested. You can also submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com.

As Coyote Peterson from Brave Wilderness says, stay wild, and we’ll see you on the next species adventure!

Disclaimer

All information and art pertaining to the species belongs to Saikotiggs.

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ART 101

Art 101: Posing & Dynamics

Clinging to the edges of our forms, casting over the depths of our landscapes, and catching on the shapes of our illustrations is the humble shadow. That which gives our subjects the appearance of three dimensional objects!

Running over rough terrain, jumping across gaping chasms, standing before a mighty beast, and sitting down after a long day. All of these beats of motion can be captured in the dynamics of a single illustration with the help of a great artistic tool: Posing

Hi all, Shroom here! It's time to look at the unique ways we can shift our subjects. Let’s strike a Pose!

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So, what exactly should be the pose we’d be taking? Well, it depends on both the scenario and the character within the scenario. Now think about how you might sit compared to how someone around you is sitting. Then factor in how your fursona might sit versus someone else's. You can quickly start to see the possibilities that arise.

Especially, when tails and wings get in the way.

Let’s draw a simple sitting position:

Right away you can see how the character feels a bit rigid. The way they hold themselves in this small scenario helps convey a bit of information about them to an audience. The small environmental details let us know that this cat is waiting patiently for their bus to arrive. They are neither late nor in a great rush. They are simply just sitting.

So, let’s add another character to sit with them.

Now this guy has somewhere to be. His pose is more anxious and closed in. That worried gaze remains firmly on his watch. Wherever the bus is, it’s certainly not where this guy needs it to be.

Let’s invite one more character to the bench.

It’s a stark contrast, but this new addition doesn’t seem to mind anything that’s going on. Relaxed with a smile and checking their phone; they don’t seem to mind at all that the bus may or may not be running late.

We can see really quickly the importance of this small exercise. Posing characters helps us tremendously when it comes to our art. In reality, it’s a singular element within the entire composition, but it helps convey information.

Information is critical in art. Art remains a means of conveying information or a message. Regardless, if that message is complex or just “Hey, look at this!”

If you want someone who is viewing an illustration of your characters to walk away understanding a bit about them, it all starts with how those characters are posed. That body language is a critical part.

Turning back to our bus stop illustration, regardless of whether or not the bus is arriving late, the audience knows that only one character seems concerned about that fact. One remains fairly neutral and the other is busy on their phone.

So, how do we go about constructing a pose?

We start with perspective.

My first step that I usually take starts with blocking out where subjects are supposed to go. These can be done with a rectangular box that matches the perspective of a piece. I tend to use a mix of this technique and a blobby cylinder. The cylinder still gives me perspective with the help of contour lines, but does so with an organic shape.

From here, I think about what the character is doing and how they’d go about doing it. If someone is swimming across the lake, are they doing it actively or passively? If passively, how do they look as they float, relaxed in the water? If two people are sitting on the shore chatting, how do they look in that conversation? If people are playing catch, whose tossing the ball and who is catching it?

Small questions, but as we’ve learned they’re important ones.

Which brings us to references and pose sets.

These can be taken from real life or given by other fellow artists. I used to have a lot of fun making group poses with these a few years ago. Nowadays, I use them for help with pose studying. There's a few artists I turn to for pose sets, but mellon_soup is one I rely on a lot.

Pose Sets by mellon_soup

For these, I’d recommend first attempting to study the pose without directly tracing over it. Essentially, first try to understand the dynamics of the pose with what we learned from our anatomy lessons. Break it down and then think about how your character would fit there. We can try it now!

We first grab a pose that catches our eye. Then it’s time to look at the anatomy of that pose. Finally, we can apply the anatomy to our character! In this case, my own fursona Shroom.

The same process can be done with a photograph or screenshot.

I encourage you all to try doing a similar exercise with one of your characters! It's a fun and rewarding way of understanding the body language of the poses we create. Furthermore, it allows us to use and expand our knowledge of anatomy and apply it to all types of scenarios.

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If you have any suggestions for future segments or simply have some questions regarding anything I’ve discussed feel free to reach out to me! Regardless, I hope to catch you all real soon as we further our art journeys together!

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PHOTOGRAPHY 101

Hello, friends and photografurs! Welcome back to this week's Photography 101! I'm your host, Jaden. I wanted to talk about some amazing initiatives some companies are taking to make photography more environmentally friendly, and some ways you as a photographer can follow them!

What drew me to this topic first was a collection of very cool companies that repackage old film into new, usable film perfect for your film camera! These companies repurpose old kodak cinema film into 35mm camera film, perfect for your film cameras! There are currently three different companies doing this across the globe: CineStill in the United States, Mr.Negative in Australia, and CineMot in Portugal!

Next we’re bringing our attention to a more name brand company with fujifilm! Fujifilm has a special recycling program for single-use cameras not many people know about. Their program allows photographers to bring single use cameras (exposed film rolls included!) to any supported store, they then take these cameras and use them to build new single-use cameras!

Lastly, a very underappreciated company is your local pawn shop! Pawn shops are filled with old cameras no one wants anymore and they stop these cameras from becoming electronic waste, so be sure to give your local pawn shop some love and check out what cameras, film or other photography goods they have! Try to reduce electronic waste yourself by shopping at places like these or consignment stores. I've personally gotten almost all of my camera accessories from places like these; they are an amazing spot to build up your kit, so go give your local shops a look if you can!

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That concludes this week's segment! If you have any questions or would like to share your photos, don't be afraid to shoot me a message!

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RADICAL RAFFLES

Hello, everyone! Danielle here once again, and I’m here to bring you some fun raffles to start off the new year great.

Before we get into the raffles, I wish to remind all of you that we’re looking to recruit more hosts for this segment. If you enjoy coming across raffles, then this might be for you! Feel free to message our boss, Yeshua, or our HR, Carkas, if you’re interested in hosting Radical Raffles.

We have seven raffles for you this week! Let’s take a look at them.

First, we have an art raffle by Frencore!

How to Enter:
★ Follow, like, and repost.
★ Comment “wolves are the best” as well as your reference.

Prize:
★ Character illustration

Deadline:
★ February 14th

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Next up, we have a Bluesky raffle by Cynthia!

How to Enter:
★ Follow, like, and repost.
★ Comment your reference (please label/flag not safe for work (NSFW) references).

Prize:
★ Shaded full body sketch

Deadline:
★ January 31st

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Up next, we have a furry raffle by Bane Dingo Fursuits!

How to Enter:
★ Follow, like, and repost.

Prizes:
★ 1st: Wacom One pen tablet, two goldfish plushies, and one bone plush
★ 2nd: One custom fursuit tail, two goldfish plushies, and one bone plush
★ 3rd: One goldfish plush and one bone plush

Deadline:
★ February 14th

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Celebrate with a 100 followers raffle by bluebell!

How to Enter:
★ Follow and repost.
★ Comment your character reference or sticker idea.

Prize:
★ Custom vinyl sticker (10 copies featuring the winner’s character or design request)

Deadline:
★ February 1st

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Celebrate with a 300 followers art raffle by Wulf/Max!

How to Enter:
★ Follow, like, and repost.

Prizes:
★ 1st: full body and bust
★ 2nd: full body
★ 3rd: bust

Deadline:
★ February 5th

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Next up, we have an art raffle by Furrito_Amarisho!

How to Enter:
★ Follow and repost.
★ Comment your character’s reference.

Prize:
★ Shaded full body

Deadline:
★ January 31st

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Last but certainly not least, celebrate with a 100 followers raffle by Grey!

How to Enter:
★ Follow, like, and repost.
★ Comment your character’s reference.

Prize:
★ Cell-shaded bust

Deadline:
★ March 7th

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Those are all the raffles I have for you this week. There's always more out there, and we'll make sure to find them and bring them to you every week.

Would you like us to showcase your own raffle? Feel free to fill out this form if interested. You can also submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com.

Thank you for taking a look at this week’s raffles. Stay tuned because more radical raffles are coming your way!

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CHARACTER INTERVIEW

How's it going everyone? My name is Yeshua and I'm so happy to be able to bring you all the first Character Interview of 2025! We're gonna take a close look at a side of the fandom that can sometimes get overlooked, and I've got a certain canine who is perfect for giving us some great insight.

YESHUA: Today I'm excited to talk with Auto, otherwise known as AutomataDog in the furry online scene! Thanks so much for taking some time to chat with me! Now, I'm sure some folks in the fandom know about you, and others have probably come across your work without knowing it! But for those who are reading about you for the first time, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do in the furry fandom?

AUTOMATA: Hey, thanks inviting me on for an interview! My name is Automata and I normally go by 'Auto'. I'm 36 years old, originally from eastern South Dakota, and currently living in St. Louis, MO with my partner Norfair. I've been lurking in the fandom since before 2006, and in early 2021, I started getting involved with communities. I'm a Computer Toucher by trade (DevOps Engineer), and I've always enjoyed working with computers/electronics, cars, gaming, etc. My fursona is a Bohemian Shepherd, a breed originating from Czechoslovakia, where most of my family is from. My name is a reference to Automata theory: the mathematics behind computer science. My main hobby, which most know me by, is photography. I've always had an interest in taking photos, and started with landscapes and storms. I got involved with the fandom and attended my first furry convention (Midwest FurFest 2022), and had an amazing time taking photos. Shortly after, I upgraded my camera and started taking a ton of pictures of my partner and at conventions. Since then, I've taken many photos at furry conventions - portraits, dance competition, candid - as a personal thing and as staff. I have more than 4,400 edited photos to share with the community, which can be found on Flickr and FurTrack. Every day on social media, I post one new photo. I take photos for fun, to improve my skills, and to create good memories for myself and others.

YESHUA: Wow, you've definitely been around the fandom for a while, and it sounds like you've really found your place in it! And yes, your photography! That's exactly what I want to focus on because as I alluded to, your photos are not hard to come across on furry socials! You actually already answered one of my next questions, why exactly do you take these photos, whether it's just for fun, or commission work. So let's dive a little deeper! Tell me, when you're at a convention, how do you choose who you want to get on camera?

AUTOMATA: When at conventions, I try to take pictures of everyone, but that is an impossible task. For personal work, I take photos of people who come up to us when we are walking around while Norf is in suit, and I take photos of interesting places. For staff work, I try to get everyone: fursuiters, people attending events, staff, and even the venue itself. My goal is to capture the mood, not just the person, which is fleeting.

YESHUA: Ah I see! Then, here's something else I'm curious about: which photos get shared where? You mentioned you post one photo every day to your personal social media, which makes me think those are the personal work photos. What about the staff work? Are those shared by others? The reason I ask is because I've seen the photos you post, but I also see fursuiters tag you if they share a picture of them you took.

AUTOMATA: I prefer to post recent photos, but the selection beyond that is whatever I'm feeling for the day. This includes both personal photos or ones I've taken as staff. I've been asked by a convention to delay posting them for a few weeks, but we try to get them out fairly quick. Since I upload to the FurTrack website and fursuiters get tagged, they may see their photos before I can find them or post the photo. Fursuiters will frequently post their photos on social media before I do.

YESHUA: That all makes sense! I didn't realize when you said 'staff' you meant convention staff, that's really cool! Some of the photos I've seen from you capture fursuiters during parades, dances, or other activities where they may not look directly at the camera. I want to ask, how do you track down these fursuiters you don't get to interact with in those moments? Are they usually surprised to learn you've taken such nice photos of them?

AUTOMATA: Yeah, I'm photography staff for Furry Weekend Atlanta and Aquatifur! I really enjoy it. Takes a lot of work at the convention and many times more work processing photos afterwards, but it is absolutely worth it. My starting point is the name on their badge, but it is not reliable. Next, I use a website called FurTrack which allows the community to identify and tag photos of fursuiters. You can search by name, maker, event, colors, and other features. If I can identify the maker or species, I can usually find out who they are. Sometimes I have to simply say I don't know who it is and hope someone who knows them sees the post.

YESHUA: That's pretty cool! Interesting too that you're staff for two conventions in completely different states! We'll talk a little more about conventions in a second, though. Sounds pretty straightforward now that you explain it! I've definitely heard that FurTrack is a great tool for fursuiters and photographers; sounds like it's pretty useful for you too, huh? What reactions have you seen from these fursuiters you've photographed, including those who find out later on they had such nice photos taken of them?

AUTOMATA: Yeah, the FurTrack website is fantastic since it allows fursuiters to find pictures of themselves. I'd wager a majority of my photos wouldn't make it back to the fursuiter without the website. All reactions to the photos I've taken have been positive! I try to make each one as good as I can, so I'm glad people like their photos. Imposter's Syndrome hits hard sometimes.

YESHUA: Nice to hear FurTrack has been so useful! Just in the little time I've been fursuiting, having someone capture even one photo, especially when you're not expecting it, is such a neat surprise, so I'm personally not shocked folks have reacted positively to yours! Now, outside of the conventions you're staff for, do you go to a lot of other events? And do you take photos at every furry event you go to, or do you take breaks sometimes?

AUTOMATA: It's unfortunate when someone doesn't have a photo of their suit, which is one of the many reasons I enjoy being able to provide them one. I've been to a few events outside conventions, such as pride events, birthday parties, and local meetups. Every furry event I've been to, I've taken photos with either my phone or camera. I find I'm more sociable with a camera and it gives me a good talking point.

YESHUA: That's really kind of you to do! Definitely a great way to do something nice for someone in the fandom, as simple as it is. It's pretty clear that fursuit photography is something you enjoy, but I'm curious, are there any specific kinds of photos you like to take? Whether they be during certain events like dance competitions, or just having fursuiters posing for you? And while I know you've taken literally thousands of photos, do you have any in mind that you are particularly happy with?

AUTOMATA: I prefer situations where I don't have much control over the environment or the subject, such as portraits taken when we are walking around, candid photos, raves, concerts, and especially dance competitions. I like capturing a moment as a viewer, without interacting or changing what my subject is doing. Each has their own challenges. When walking around, you can ask the subject to move or pose a certain way, but you don't have much control over the environment, such as lighting or the position of other people. You have to hunt around for the right position and angle to use, capture interesting features, and exclude things you don't want the viewer to see. Then wait for the right moment and capture it.

For example, in the photo below with Norfair leaning against the railing in the hotel hallway, we waited for people to walk through so it looks empty. The camera was carefully positioned to create "sight lines" to lead your eyes to him. I also used the window in the background for back-lighting to give his fur an outline while balancing it to not be too bright.

Raves and concerts provide even less control. I can only change the camera settings and my position. I'm at the mercy of the AV (audio/visual) crew, random chance for good or interesting lighting, and to be in the right place at the right time. I don't know where people will stand or what direction they'll face, so I have to guess based on their movement or the music.

Finally, my favorite are dance competitions. These events require planning and research. During qualifying and practice, I take notes on how they move. Knowing this allows me to decide on which lens to use, how much I can be zoomed in, and if I should be prepared for quick movement. I also get a feel for what interesting poses to capture. We have no control over lighting or where the dancers will be. The team lead will decide where people sit and we can't easily move during the event. Once the event starts, I take thousands of pictures to sort through and edit later, swapping lenses as necessary. The lack of control and unpredictability along with the required planning and research creates a fascinating combination.

YESHUA: Wow, it's incredible how much thought and planning there is behind your photos, but that's exactly what I was curious about. It's easy to tell that there's a pretty skilled photographer behind the pics you share! Especially with how little control you have over a lot of scenarios. I want to start shifting the topic just a tiny bit, but before I do, is there anything else about what you do as a photographer in the fandom that you'd like to mention? Or any favorite memories you'd like to share?

AUTOMATA: Yeah, there is so much more to photography than pushing the shutter button. The preparation and execution of taking the photo is already fairly involved, then they need to be organized, edited, and shared! A single favorite memory would be difficult to choose, but I always love traveling with my partner. Wherever we go, we take photos; it is ingrained into both of us.

We've gone out to parks, sculpture walks, pride parades, the Black Hills in South Dakota, Prada Marfa art installation, and many conventions. I love spending time with him! Being able to capture the moments and share them with others makes it extra special.

YESHUA: It's great to hear that this hobby also allows you to capture moments that are meaningful to you! That's definitely one of the great things about photography I'm sure everyone can appreciate; thanks for sharing a bit more about how this is particularly special for you! What's in the future for you and your fursuit photography? Anything new you'd like to try with your photos or anything specific you're looking forward to doing?

AUTOMATA: I don't have anything specific I'm working on, but there is always something to learn and techniques to try. I would like to improve on studio and posed photos, which I've been working on with the help of my partner. I've also been dabbling in video, but I'm very new to it. As far as events, I will be doing staff photography for Furry Weekend Atlanta. My partner and I don't have much planned this year since we are looking to buy a house.

YESHUA: I think it's neat that you're trying out some new stuff! Whatever comes out of it, I'm sure it's gonna turn out great. Wishing you all the best with the house hunting! Now getting into a bit of a different topic, something else I'm very curious about is, after taking so many photos of fursuiters and with more on the way, have you ever thought about joining in? Or do you feel like you'll just stick to taking photos?

AUTOMATA: I absolutely plan on joining the fursuiters! In fact, I have a head piece being worked on right now and have a partial (hand, sleeves, feet, tail) already made. I know visibility is exceptionally low in suit, so I'm not sure how much photography I'll do wearing it, but I intend to try!

My hand paws were specifically made to be used with a camera. I love the idea of taking photos while wearing a fursuit, but I'll likely stick to photography outside my suit.

YESHUA: Oh heck yeah, you have it all planned out! I love that you can still use your fingers while wearing the paws; I bet it'll help you take photos easier, and you'll look good while doing so! I'm not a photographer by any means, but I love taking photos when I go to furmeets, but I also like to stay in suit, so it's a constant game of taking off my paws and putting them back on. That's why I especially appreciate that detail of being able to use your fingers while wearing your paws. I'm sure you're probably trying to keep things under wraps, but any idea on when we could see you with your partial? Perhaps sometime this year?

AUTOMATA: I'm hoping it'll be done this year! The head piece is patterned and the fur is being cut. I went for a realistic style and I'm very excited to see it done.

YESHUA: That sounds like some good progress actually! It'll be great seeing you join in on the fun once the time comes! Now, I want to back track for a moment. You mentioned before that imposter's syndrome hits sometimes, so I'm curious if you have a way to deal with it as you continue taking photos every year?

AUTOMATA: Yeah, Imposter's Syndrome affects me pretty much every time I work on photos or share them. When I first started taking pictures of fursuiters, I doubted my work and was hesitant to post them on social media; frequently deciding not to share them. It is easy to see the flaws in your own work and be blind to what you do well. To help combat this, I force myself to post one photo per day on multiple social media websites, no matter if it is one of my best or one I quickly took with a phone.

At first, it was uncomfortable to share photos I didn't think were 'worthy', but it rapidly became a daily habit. After a bit of introspection, I turned my focus to why I was uncomfortable sharing. I'd ask myself what I don't like about the photo. Was a camera setting not right? Was it not framed right? Something not lined up? Uninteresting perspective? Keep that in mind before taking the photo next time. I've integrated these checks into my process and I feel like I've improved. While the feeling of Imposter's Syndrome has been dampened, I don't think it will ever fully go away.

YESHUA: Wow.. it's genuinely so interesting that posting a photo a day has a pretty impactful effect on how you work to improve your photography. I hope you can continue pushing back against Imposter's Syndrome as well as keep enjoying what you do!

There's one more topic I'm interested to hear about when it comes to your photography. Of course, there's a lot of preparation and effort that goes into just taking photos, but you mentioned before they also need to be edited. What exactly entails the editing process for you when you're getting a photo ready to be shared?

AUTOMATA: The editing process is a lot more involved than most realize. When I go to a convention, I'm taking tens of thousands of photos. At Furry Weekend Atlanta 2024, I took over 27,000. At Aquatifur 2024, I took over 33,000. With the sheer number of photos I take, organizing and optimizing my workflow is important. At the convention, I load the photos onto my laptop to get select photos out quickly. Once I get home, everything gets transferred to my desktop. Then, I sort the photos by the event. Large events, such as dance competitions, get split even further. Next, I make a selection/rejection pass, which means I'm looking for photos I want to edit and remove ones I'd never use. I'm looking to make sure the shot is in focus, not blurry, and somewhat interesting. This leaves me with about 5% of the original photos to edit.

Then, I move on to the bulk editing phase. Editing is open ended, and there isn't really a wrong way to do it. My goals are to make the image look representative of what it did in person, to draw the viewer's eye to the part of the image I want them to look at, and be interesting. All of these goals are nebulous and sometimes at odds with each other. Most of my photos only require a little bit of editing to make them stand out, but there are situations where I want to put more effort into them. When taking a photo, I'm not always able to remove distractions from an image, usually due to space or time constraints. If I'm taking photos on the floor of a convention, there are likely people everywhere so my options are limited. If it was a candid photo, I have essentially no control over the background or timing. In the photo with Cryo, this angle was the cleanest background I could get. The photo of the fursuiter walking on the sidewalk was candid; we were walking past them. In both, I used tools to remove people or things from the background.

At the Furry Weekend Atlanta 2024 fursuit dance competition, the AV team was using a fog machine to create beams of light. It looks really good in person, but it washes out and colorizes photos. Since the dance competition is all about the dancer and what they are doing, I put extensive time into color correcting photos.

Initially, this took me about 30-45 minutes per photo, but after learning to use my tools better and optimizing my process, I was able to do them in a few minutes each.

After images are edited, I add them to my full image list spreadsheet, upload them to Flickr, upload them to FurTrack if they have a fursuiter, and save them in two different folders. In total, it takes me about a month to process the images from a convention; far longer than the convention itself.

YESHUA: I knew you took a lot of photos, but wow, that's an insane amount! Plus, that's a ton of work behind the scenes to make sure every photo you do use looks the best it can! Seeing those before and after comparisons is impressive; just makes me respect photographers even more! Now that I see just how long of a process it is that you have, I'm curious, is there a specific part of it that you enjoy the most?

AUTOMATA: Yeah, many people don't get to see the unedited image or see the work that goes into transforming it. I like sharing that aspect of it. While filtering, cataloging, and sharing images are fun, the editing process is easily the most enjoyable. Being able to refine an image to make it 'pop' is incredibly rewarding. I'm essentially given a blank canvas. Simple changes may drastically alter the feeling of an image. I get to try new processes and play with the tools to see what I can extract.

YESHUA: Thank you for sharing how you edit, yes! I'm honestly not too surprised to hear editing is also your favorite part of doing all this, which I'd say is a good thing considering that it seems to be what you spend most of your time on! It definitely sounds pretty rewarding elevating photos the way you do. Well Auto, it has been great hearing about your photography work here in the fandom! I'm so grateful for you taking the time to talk about it all; it's really cool digging deep into a side of the fandom that doesn't get talked about all that often. Before we wrap things up, got anything else you want to mention or talk about? Or any final remarks?

AUTOMATA: Thank you for interviewing me, I had a great time! If you want to start or get back into photography, now is the best time! It doesn't matter if you have top of the line gear, something decades old, or use a phone. The biggest thing is to have fun!

YESHUA: Some great advice there for anyone interested in photography. Thanks so much for your time!

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That’s it for today’s Character Interview segment! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! If you’re into photography, fursuits, or both, you can’t go wrong following Auto!

As always, I’m looking out for other folks in the fandom to interview! If there’s someone you’d like to see here, or maybe you want to be interviewed, just lemmino through one of my socials! You can also emails us at furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com to let us know you’d like to be interviewed, or fill out our form if you prefer!

Thanks again for stopping by, especially if you’ve read this far! I’m Yeshua, and until next time!

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FURRY QUOTE

Howdy, all! Tide again. I hope everyone is having a good start to their year. I’ve been thinking about acceptance lately, and what that means not only for us as furries, but as people. While thinking about that, my friend Shojine shared a video game quote with me that fits it perfectly.

”If we lived forever, maybe we’d have time to understand things. I think the best we can do is open our eyes and appreciate how brief and strange all of this is.”

~Edith Finch

As both a gay man and a furry, there are a lot of things that my friends and family just do not understand, nor do I expect them to. There’s just not enough time to experience everything in life, and like Edith Finch says, maybe if we lived forever we would have the time to understand things, but as it is we don’t. When I tell people about who I am, I don’t expect them to understand. I have made bizarre life choices including ones I wouldn’t recommend to other people. What I do hope for is acceptance. We live in a world where there simply is not enough time to understand. Seeking to understand the universe or a person can certainly be something you work towards, but know you may never see its completion. I personally find acceptance to be a far more joyful way to live. Yes, I do my best to learn to understand the world around me. It is a fascinating place and with every piece of knowledge I gain it just becomes more interesting. But if you cannot accept that we are alive without understanding why we are alive, then it is unlikely that you will live happily.

I love science and asking questions and learning, but I think with people in particular, it is better to accept them than to try to understand them. You don’t need to understand why someone is Christian or Muslim or Hindu or so on, all you need to do is accept the fact that they are. I think this incessant need to understand just causes more conflict. After all, people fear that which they do not understand, but if we can learn to just accept people for how they are and love them and their difference, I think the world will start to heal. I have not had an eternity to come to understand things, but having been around the world and met people from dozens of cultures there is one thing that I do understand. We are not so different from each other. We all just are trying to work, live, and be happy. The perceived differences are just the unique ways we go about it. And I think it is time we accept we are more similar than we are different, and that is beautiful.

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That’s it for this week’s Furry Quote. Now that you’re all caught up, think of someone with a viewpoint that you don’t understand. Maybe you don’t get along with that person or maybe you do. Choose to accept that person for who they are and love them anyway, because acceptance will always be easier and more peaceful than understanding and the easy route isn’t always a bad thing.

Do you have a quote or topic you’d like us to discuss next? Feel free to submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com, or you can directly message me on Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by, and until next time.

All the best, -Tide

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