Category: Critters

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 14, 20166:41 am

The Cats of University Heights: Betty

Some furballs lap up the attention, which I’m happy to give. But their need can really muck up the portraiture, which is the case with Betty (her real name), whom I visited on Nov. 11, 2016 in the alley behind North Avenue up from Madison.

Among the 10 photos shot with Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS lens, this is the only truly usable one; it’s marginal, but I want Betty to participate in the series. Featured Image vitals: f/4.5, ISO 6400, 1/58 sec, 21.4mm. I cropped and auto-tuned White Balance in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The JPEG is converted from RAW. I captured the moment at 5:01 p.m. PST, about 12 minutes after sunset.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 13, 20166:32 am

The Cats of University Heights: Mini

We begin the first of three cat portraits shot on Veteran’s Day (November 11) afternoon. Look closely and you will see this kitty is missing one front leg. Mini (real name) gets around surprisingly fast, and […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 12, 20166:27 am

The Cats of University Heights: Skit

Yesterday’s kitty must be related to Skit (not her real name but chosen for skittish behavior). Perhaps they’re littermates, or today’s furball is the kitten; she’s not exactly the biggest beast on the block. Their […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 11, 20166:30 am

The Cats of University Heights: Lurks

Sometimes the best cat pic isn’t the one you want but what you can get. Yesterday afternoon, I walked through a new part of the neighborhood, around Arch and Meade streets, looking for furballs to […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 10, 20166:24 am

The Cats of University Heights: Scout

On a March 22, 2016 Campus and North Avenues Cat Walk, I spotted Scout—well, my nickname for him. I’ve looked for, but not seen, the furball since. I shot both photos at 6:12 p.m. PDT using the Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF35mmF2 R WR lens. Another capture was botched, despite best composition of the three, because the focal point fell on the grass instead of the animal.

My guess, looking at the colorization of the images, I used the camera’s Classic Chrome Film Simulation mode, which is a delight. If I rightly recall, Fuji introduced the filter first for the X100T, which I owned before buying the X-T1 in July 2015.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 9, 20166:23 am

The Cats of University Heights: Cozy

Yesterday, as my wife and I walked down Monroe from Park Blvd., where we voted minutes earlier, a friendly feline snatched our attention. I had seen him several times previously, even featuring a distance shot with […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 8, 20166:30 am

The Cats of University Heights: Looker

On the evening of March 24, 2016, I set out on a Cat Walk, carrying along Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF35mmF2 R WR lens. I spotted several felines along North Ave., including this one that gets my nickname […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 7, 20166:24 am

The Cats of University Heights: Frenemy

Neighborhood tortoise Morla shares residence with four other animals: Pair of dogs and cats. She has a little house at the end of the driveway, while the the black, whose name I don’t know, moves between the front and backyards. On Nov. 4, 2016, I spotted the feline, as she intently watched birds. Presumably the mammal tolerates the reptile—hence today’s title.

I used iPhone 7 Plus second lens to zoom 2X for both photos. My expectations, with distance to her and head in the shade, were low. But bright green eyes piecing from the shadows make the shot. I present a second, to demonstrate two different characteristics of Apple pic processing. The Featured Image, captured at 9 a.m. PDT, is a 100-percent crop, auto-enhanced in Apple Photos. The second, shot three seconds earlier, is an in-camera HDR composite that’s a little dark for my tastes but reveals more detail.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 6, 20166:50 am

The Cats of University Heights: Jumper

There nights ago, I spotted a neighborhood feline that’s new to me, lounging in an apartment building parking lot on Campus near Meade. While the kitty goes there often, she apparently resides in a house behind. I nickname her Jumper, because she repeatedly leaped in the air chasing something—presumably bugs. Hehe. Naturally, I missed capturing the activity.

The Featured Image is the last of 20. Lying down, Jumper presents a good view of her coloring. I captured the moment at 6:12 p.m. PDT—about 20 minutes after sunset—on Nov. 3, 2016. Before embarking on the photo Cat Walk, I attached the Fujinon XF35mmF2 R WR lens to the Fuji X-T1, anticipating low-light shooting.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 5, 20166:18 am

The Cats of University Heights: Fess

My favorite neighborhood cat is an old-timer. Fess (his real name) is at least 12 years-old (that’s how long he has been with his owners). At one time, the Tom Cat roamed a wide territory around Cleveland Ave. and parallel street Maryland. In his youth, he was known to scale fences to poach from other animals’ food dishes.

Now he stays fairly close to home. I often see him, in the driveway of the apartment where he lives, waiting for the master to come home. The gent drives a pick-up truck, and Fess jumps up into the cab when the door opens.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 4, 20166:50 am

The Cats of University Heights: Patience

On the morning of Nov. 1, 2016, while walking and talking to my other sister on iPhone 7 Plus—not the one when sighting Pee-Pee—I spotted a cat not ever seen before. I was surprised, because […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 3, 20166:19 am

The Cats of University Heights: Bonded Pair

This is bit of a double repeat. On Oct. 26, 2016, the series featured the cat on the right as Stretch. Two days later, I spotted the pair together, and in rare occasion captured them both looking out, rather than one of them turned away. BTW, both beasts also appear in March 22, 2016 post “Here, Kitty, Kitty“.

Or am I mistaken? Because further comparing the photos from March and October, the cats do look somewhat different to me. Location is the same, but what is the chance that two different pairs hang out at the same place?