Looking Down on You

Ever get this look from your cat?

Fiona has become very protective of the slim and fleeting ray of early spring sunlight streaming in from our skylight in the mid-morning. She follows it around the room, perching wherever it may land. In this particular photo, she had (obviously) grown tired of my excitement over the dramatic lighting on her white fur and pink ears and was giving me that classic "if you know what's good for you" cat look.

She's been without that ray of sunlight since last fall. I don't blame her one bit.

Fiona Goes Dramatic

Fiona poses on our dining room chair. Dec. 2010.

Ever since we got the other two cats, Fiona's been particularly shy, especially around the camera. I love how this photo captures that shyness but also manages to be a great photo of her, and a great monochrome image of a cat.

Here's another I took, a close up.

Looking Down

Fiona looks down from the top of her cat scratcher. Inspired by another picture I took of Tabby, Em's cat.

I didn't start off knowing what I was doing taking pet pictures, and I still don't. But I've learned a few things shooting various cats - my own, Emily's, the MadCats. Lesson one - cats (and pets in general) always look better in natural light, hands down. No flash, no worries about weird looking fur or glowing eyes.

Lesson two - always take photos at eye level. Well, almost always. This pose of Fiona's was too good to resist. It's like the classic cat pose - infinitely curious about humans yet always looking down on them.

My cats are not afraid of my camera anymore, nor the shutter noise it makes when snap snapping away. But I always forget that they are conditioned to that sound until I take pictures of other cats.  Dottie got used to it the other day, though it made her nervous at first. And sometimes they don't like a big lens shoved in their faces.

With every "photo shoot" I do, I learn more and more. Techniques, what works, what doesn't, and how to make my subjects more comfortable. But I hope I'm getting better.  :)