FuFu Shows Some Fang for Halloween

FuFu has much more prominent fangs, and likes to display them more than XingXing. Or at least it seems that way, maybe its just because his white fangs are highlighted against the contrast of his gray semi-beard and lips, while XingXing's mouth area is white all around. Anyways, if any holiday can be associated with cats, its Halloween, and I thought these pics are kind of in the spirit (as well as the pumpkin pics several posts back!).

Two Cats, Coming Right Up - Do You Want Them in Black & White or Color?

It is always an issue with these particular kitties, whether to convert the photo to black & white or keep it in color. They are quite suited to monochrome depiction, being gray and white. If only it wasn't for their eyes! It does seem like a shame to convert XingXing's intense amber, and FuFu's odd-eyed splendor to various tones of black, white & gray. Today I give you two photos, each with a color and B&W version, and I will tell you which I prefer, and why. For this one, I just couldn't pass on the eye color: In the B&W version, it is more obvious that FuFu's face isn't in focus - I shot this at too low an F-stop (4.0), so you start to lose some depth of field when you get to FuFu, even though XingXing is more-or-less razor sharp:

However here, the image was almost in monochrome to start with and very little eye color, so it was a rather easy decision to go with B&W. However, I played around with "Split Toning" in Adobe Lightroom and "enhanced" the B&W with adding a bit of a golden hue to the highlights and only a tiny bit of a blue hue to the shadows, which I liked better than the pure B&W: Here is the B&W version without the above-mentioned split toning. Subtly, but noticeably different:

Here is the color if you would like to compare:

Do you prefer a different version from my selections? I always welcome comments, critiques, criticisms, blatant unadulterated praise, etc., so drop a line!

We Have No Interest In Your So-Called "Bounty"....

Don't you understand by now? We be carnivores!!! Up until about 2 (human) generations ago, the primary reasons cats were kept by humans was the fact that they are consummate hunters that won't eat what they are protecting - i.e., grain, vegetables, etc. Now of course in this enlightened age we keep cats in the household because they are so darn cute, funny and cuddly, and food protection isn't really important. But I wanted to test this theory so I left these vegetables (from a CSA, "community-supported agriculture" farm-to-table outfit we are a part of) out for an evening, and sure enough, although the cats were initially intrigued, by morning they still hadn't so much as nibbled on them. And therefore, it is mind-boggling that pet food manufacturers advertise putting veggies into their foods, as "garden veggies" (and virtually all carbohydrates, i.e. about half of most dry foods) are quite simply junk food with no nutritional value to the obligatory carnivore! I'm saying this even though XingXing and FuFu do have a fondness for Soulistic brand "Chicken Dinner in Pumpkin Soup"!!! Although I can guarantee you they aren't in it for the pumpkin. More on feline nutrition in future posts................

The Cat Jumping Over the Couch Project

These are from a while back, finally decided to post them. This project shows some of the challenges of action cat photography, a subset of the already challenging field of cat photography. I wanted to capture XingXing in one of his typical athletic endeavors. Of course, these usually involve throwing his rainbow catnip mice. He will jump over objects large and tall to pursue those mice, and usually he brings it back to my general vicinity in his mouth, like a dog playing catch - haven't captured that on camera yet. Or perhaps that would be better on video. Anyway, the object here was action stills. I set up multiple flashes (infrared triggered) and the camera on a tripod with remote trigger on the other side of the couch. Because I'm using infrared trigger and not wireless radio trigger, I need a line of sight to take the photo, so that resulted in me in the background gesticulating oddly with the remote trigger immediately after I threw the mouse. I set the focus to manual at the top of the couch. The most difficult aspect was the timing, as it all happened extraordinarily quick. I got 2 or 3 "decent' shots out of about 20 attempts! This is one of the funnier ones. Would be perfect if only a.) had captured the XingXing's front paws and b.) no goofy cat photographer in the background: And here, this image is terrible. The flash is concentrated on the cat hair rug in the middle of the couch.............

But wait! the power of a good crop. Here is the same photo, cropped down just to the cat. Now, after cropping so much can't blow this up to an 17 inch photo, but for a humble cat photography blog, it does just fine:

Finally, here is another of the keepers. Look at the intensity of a world class feline athlete!