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 […]
Tag: photography
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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?
The Cats of University Heights: Blue Too
My wife Anne and I took a “cat walk” early evening Oct. 29, 2016—with Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS lens in tow. My hope: For her to see Chipper outside the apartment building where Copper once lived. We walked down Campus from the canyon side towards Madison. Sure enough, he was there and scurried out to the sidewalk for attention. I also could see Blue, curled up in a pet bed.
A few minutes after the petting and head-rubbing shoes started, another Blue cat approached from the apartment building across the way. I backed up into the street to shoot the Featured Image, at sunset, 5:58 p.m. PDT. Vitals: f/8, ISO 5000, 1/60 sec, 55mm. The aperture setting was accidental, left from the last time I used the camera. The photo is a JPEG converted from RAW using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
The Cats of University Heights: Blue
I hadn’t seen any cats on Campus beyond Madison in the months after learning about Copper’s demise; she was a neighborhood favorite. So I was surprised to find her long-time companion, whom I call Blue (real name unknown), on Oct. 9, 2016, in the outdoor space they shared and where they were fed. I featured her in a photo comparison testing the HTC One M8, in Spring two years ago.
What a smile that Blue evoked. The cat, and another, live outdoors. Copper was a stray, as Blue may too be. I shot the Featured Image at 6:17 p.m.—five minutes before official sunset, but already quite dusk—using iPhone 7 Plus’ second lens to zoom. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 320, 1/60 sec, 6.6mm. Below the fold is the comparison photos shot with the M8 in May 2014. I hadn’t known how much the kitten Blue was two years ago. Look how she has grown!
The Driving Dead
Happy Halloween! The couple may be gone from this world, but they are remembered every October 31st. I shot several portraits of them over several days before overcast skies removed offending glare. This is an […]