Getting Buzzed with the Kitties

I took this photo on Easter Sunday, as my kitties slept together with dreams of catching a glimpse of the Easter Bunny (thankfully for the Bunny, she came and went while they slept). I found them curled up together as I came downstairs and had to quietly slip by, grab a camera, pop up the built-in flash and grab a few quick shots. The original is fine (though there's a bit of clutter behind them that I can paint out if I want), but I ran this through a Photoshop plug-in filter called Buzz-X that was made by a British company that no longer exists. It's too bad that the filter is no longer made (and I think the company has gone out of business completely) because it was a great simplification filter--easy to use, had great creative effects and was quite popular. I even tried to buy the rights to the software at one point, so that I could market it in the United States, but was unable to even locate the owner. A company called Topaz Labs makes a similar filter, but I haven't tried it yet (it requires a PC or an Intel Mac and I don't have either). If you've done any shots using their simplification filter, let me know and I'll post one (or a few) on the blog. Using Buzz is incredibly simple, you just adjust the inner, outer and middle portions of the image while watching the results more or less live and then when you see what you want, tell it to process. It takes just a few minutes. I'm sure the Topaz product is probably just as easy to use. (By the way, the orange thing in the front right is the pet fox that they often sleep with--your pets need pets, too.)

Photo notes: Shot with a Nikon D90 with a 70-300mm Nikkor zoom lens; ISO 200, in the night-portrait mode. Exposed for 1/60 sec., at f/5.6. Recorded in both RAW and JPEG simultaneously.

Ignore the Rules & Press the Button

I'm sure it's reflective of my larger personality, but I have to admit I'm a quality control freak when it comes to taking pictures. I almost always use a tripod (more about that in an upcoming post), I always meter carefully and I think a lot about the camera settings. But for the fuzzy, ill-composed shot here, I didn't think about any of that: I just pressed the button when the moment happened and I didn't have any idea what the camera settings were.

The kitty in this picture just arrived in my house about 8 weeks ago and prior to that she had led a feral life for more than four years. She was born outside and survived by her wits, cunning, speed, elusiveness and hunting ability. She was "tamed" somewhat by my friend Lynne, but Lynne already had two cats so Mama Kitty ended up living with me (and my other cat, who is her daughter--are you following this?). Anyway, she's an extraordinarily sweet, but very shy cat and though she's a wonderful pet, she is still very cautious around me. If I move quickly, she dashes off to another room in a cloud of dust (leaving a trail of claw marks in my beautiful hardwood floors!).

I took this photo a few days ago when I was just sitting on the porch and cleaning my camera. I had no intention of taking any pictures but then I looked down and saw that I was being spied on by this very curious cat. This kitty is so fast and so elusive that I knew if I paused to set the right shutter speed or turn on the flash, she'd be gone. So before she could move a whisker, I just pressed the button. The photo is badly composed, nowhere near sharp (it was shot handheld at 1/8 second--something I'd never knowingly do), the white balance is all wrong and the shot is full of clutter--but I love it. This is my first shot of my new model and she created the idea for it by watching me; she told me it was time to start photographing her. And so I did.

Sometimes a shot will happen so quickly (with kids, pets, animals) that you have to shoot first and think later. In these situations it's more important that you capture the moment and save the finesse for another time. The curious look on this sweet cat's face is far more important to me than a sharp photo.

Get Down to the Jungle Floor

Since most of us stand somewhere between five feet and six-and-a-half feet off the ground, that's the height from which we shoot most of our photos. Easy and convenient, but predictable. You'd be surprised how few people don't bother to kneel down or lay on the ground to shoot a photo--even when the subject (like Sailor the cat) happens to be at ground level.

Getting low works particularly well with children and pets because you're shooting at their eye level, which not only makes the photos more intimate, but makes the subjects feel more engaged with your camera (although to be honest, Sailor was far more engaged with the wild suburban jungle than with me). But getting down low provides an interesting and fresh-looking perspective with almost any subject and really adds nice variety to your photos. Some cameras (like my Canon point-and-shoot) have an articulated LCD screen that makes it easy to see the image even when you're laying flat-out on the ground because you can aim the screen up at a comfortable angle (it's tough to use that peep-hole viewfinder when you're laying on the ground). I love that articulated LCD, by the way, and it's a feature to keep in mind next time you're looking for a new camera.

Get down low, get up high, do whatever it takes to make your photos interesting.

Combine Window Light and Flash Fill

I love the look of window light because it's generally warm (especially early and late in the day) and somewhat diffuse. The problem is that compared to the dim interior of my house there is a major contrast problem. The best way to solve this is either to turn on a few room lights or to pop on the built-in flash. I prefer using flash in this situation only because it's more convenient--I just press a button on my camera and the flash pops up.

The great thing about using flash with window light is that it tends to open up the dark areas adequately (the parts of your subject facing the room) but, because the window light is so strong, doesn't overpower the natural light. My cat likes to sleep on a little bookcase in a sunny window in my office and, because she's a cat, she tends to lay there when the sun is at its brightest (and warmest). Photographed without flash her face would be lost in shadows and I'd lose those pretty colors in her face. With the flash there's a nice sparkle in her eyes and fur and yet the scene looks quite natural.

Turn on the flash when you're working near a window and you'll see that your contrast is less intense and your pictures are much easier to print.