For months, I have pursued Abby, looking to capture a portrait worthy of her beauty. Time has come to go with what I have. She is too wily a rascal for my amateur photographic skills.
The Featured Image starts where sightings began, on Jan. 23, 2018, in a yard on Adams Ave. where she hangs out but doesn’t live. A resident confirmed her name. I captured the moment with iPhone X, using the second camera to 2X zoom. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 16, 1/873 sec, 6mm; 12:47 p.m. PST.
The neighborhood’s boundaries are clearly defined, and the chosen kitties live within them. But for the fifth instance out of the 171 profiles posted since the series started in October 2016, we make an exception. Moophie (real name) joins outliers Buddies, Chill, Envy, and Sammy.
The handsome longhiair lives on the same street where my daughter moved two months ago. I frequently see Moophie saunter across the road near the end of the block; in Hillcrest, which is adjacent to University Heights and a mere 2.3 km (1.4 miles) walk from my apartment.
Nine. That’s the number of felines seen last night in the hour before sunset and not long later. Is it a Full Moon thing? There was one of two Maine Coons, which will join the series soon. Same is true of a Tuxedo, whom I may finally have gotten close enough for a usable portrait; I’ve been trying for weeks. Couple doors down there was a tabby behind a screened window. Both sightings were on Florida ,along with Wonder, who looked down from inside a residence rather than outside porch.
Over on Alabama, I passed by Burglar, Goldie, and Itchy Valentino—deciding to quietly walk by rather than to distract them. What a surprise! Tipsy crossed the road to greet me and sauntered back after being satisfied by her pats. That brings us yet to another Alabama cat—nineteenth from the street. The kitty earns nickname Dizzy for hanging out on a second floor balcony ledge.
To renew, or not to renew, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the budget to suffer the slings and arrows of haughty annual fees, or to take leave of a parade of animals—and by opposing end membership? Surely Shakespeare wouldn’t approve, but since he can’t come crying copyright infringement, well…
Our annual San Diego Zoo passes expire on April 30, and “Another year?” is question of the weekend. My wife and I trucked over to the animal refuge this morning and got great value from the hour spent walking about and looking at the beasties. But is that experience enough to warrant another year?
Sunset was 7:25 p.m. PDT on April 24, 2018. Nearly 20 minutes later, what looked like a bushy-tailed black and white shorthair trotted down Florida between Meade and Monroe before scooting up some stairs to a row of apartments/condos. Two months earlier, I had seen the kitty nicknamed Mew in the same vicinity. Second-sighting? I’ll never know, because another beauty perched above and stayed steady for several portraits.
Because of fast-falling dusk, I carried Leica Q, which packs a magnificently detail-capturing, fast lens. I set aperture wide-open and shutter speedy, letting the camera auto-crank ISO for shooting along the dimly-lit street. Vitals for the Featured Image: f/1.7, ISO 16000, 1/250 sec, 28mm, 7:44 p.m. The companion, taken one minute earlier, is same except for ISO 2000. I manually focused both.
My wife and I took a little drive to the ocean—our small way to celebrate Earth Day. The unremarkable Featured Image is simple demonstration of how much detail a full-frame sensor can capture; I used […]
According to Herbie, The Love Bug‘s owner, several “communal” cats live along Panorama, which circles round to Adams Ave. at both ends. Several neighbors put out food for them; the tiger tabby that I encountered on April 15, 2018 is among their members.
Herbie’s caretaker couldn’t give me a name for the female shorthair, who may have none. But she’s a long-time fixture, as are several others along a street where coyotes climb out of the canyon hunting for food (yikes, like cats). I dub this mature madam: Roadie, because she hung out between two cars and the sidewalk long enough for me to slowly approach and capture eight shots over two minutes.
Some of the neighborhood’s felines are blessed with memorable names—such as Captain Blackbeard, Daniel Tiger, E.T. (for Exotic Tail), Itchy Valentino, Mr. Kitty, and Persepolis. For this Caturday, we celebrate with the unforgettable Herbie, The Love Bug—and, yes, that is his real name. Perhaps you’ve seen one of the Disney films featuring the charismatic car (VW Beetle) that inspires this handsome shorthair’s moniker.
I met Herbie and his owner along Panorama on April 18, 2018. She sat on doorway steps, while The Love Bug lay prone sunning. He is an indoor putty-tat who gets supervised outdoor jaunts. It’s an exercise of love: At 14, he couldn’t jump over the tasteful fence onto the sidewalk, so he is fairly safe on the lawn.
Many moons ago, Hillcrest’s Hub plaza converted the choicest parking spaces to charging stations for electric and hybrid vehicles. That’s wonderful for the young, wealthier customers careening into Starbucks or Trader Joe’s but terrible for […]
I can’t imagine why we have come to either the fourteenth or fifteenth black cat—depending on whether or not Betty and Betty, Too are the same animals—without one being named, or in this instance nicknamed, Lucky. The others: Black, Fang, Farfisa, Frenemy, Mika, Pee-Pee, Peohe, Siesta, Skull, Sky, Token, and Wink.
My wife and I encountered Lucky on April 11, 2018 by the same apartment complex where Blue Too and Chub hang out—and presumably live—along Campus Ave. beyond Madison approaching the overlook. I used Leica Q to capture the Featured Image at 8:41 a.m. PDT. Vitals, aperture and shutter speed manually set: f/5.6, ISO 320, 1/250 sec, 28mm.
San Diego’s Hillcrest and North Park districts are local cultural and nightlife hotspots, much more so than the neighborhood where my family lives—University Heights. Because of zip codes—92103 vs 92116—there is sometimes confusion, which admittedly may be intentional, about what business belongs to which of the three. For the record, according to the official maps, UH extends outside 92116, well past The Boulevard all the way to Lincoln, which is the last major parallel street before University Avenue and the main Hillcrest and North Park strips.
The historic, and entertainment lively, Lafayette Hotel claims to be “tucked snugly in the vibrant North Park neighborhood”. That would be the case if located on the other side of Texas Street. But the place is “tucked snugly” inside University Heights, I say. Also, El Cajon Blvd is more ghetto than “vibrant”—no disrespect to the businesses along the strip or people living on or around it (I am among the latter).
What a lucky Friday the 13th find is this adorable white, which my wife spotted six days ago as we walked by Carmelita where it meets Mission Cliff. Aylin, or so her tag says, stood quietly in the grass of one house before coming out into the street to greet us.
I captured the Featured Image and companion using Leica M10 and Summarit-M 1:2.4/50 lens. Vitals for the first: f/8, ISO 100, 1/60 sec, 50mm; 9:30 a.m. PDT. The other, taken four minutes later, is same except for 1/125 sec shutter speed.