Friday Cat Blogging

by Bryan

12 comments

1 Modulator { 07.13.07 at 9:01 am }

Friday Ark # 147…

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….? Visit all the …

2 Steve Bates { 07.13.07 at 9:24 am }

Can’t say I blame him for being annoyed, but you certainly ended up with a fine picture of Sox at his most dignified.

My 2.5-year-old Canon camera shows they put some thought into the unexpected-flash problem, in two ways: one, there’s a light that shows that the flash will go off if you snap at that moment, and two, there’s a button that absolutely, positively prevents a flash…

…sort of.

Even that is chancy: as John Brunner observed in Stand on Zanzibar many decades ago (quoted from memory; may not be exact), “They said it was fully automatic, but actually, you had to push a button.” At my age, remembering to push that button is a serious challenge!

3 lisa { 07.13.07 at 10:24 am }

My cat usually closes her eyes when I point the camera at her, in spite of the fact that I now keep the flash off most of the time. I have to be sneaky if I want to get a shot of her looking at me.

4 andante { 07.13.07 at 1:29 pm }

Cat torturer!

My cats take off running as soon as they hear the little ‘whine’ as the flash warms up. Although sometimes I can catch Trouble in his usual catatonic state (pun intended).

5 Bryan { 07.13.07 at 4:37 pm }

Steve, Sox is the only one that would stay still for the process, as you have to push a lot of buttons to change modes on this HP, but the flashes were really getting to him.

Welcome, Lisa. It’s a similar, but different camera and I’m still not comfortable with the sequence of buttons. I’m still trying to get a picture of the third kitten, who hides whenever he sees me.

Andante, my old camera whined, but this one doesn’t. I preferred the whine because it told me it was going to flash. With this one you have to watch for the color change from green to red on the focusing brackets, which isn’t always easy.

6 jams o donnell { 07.13.07 at 4:42 pm }

My camera only uses flash when I flick it up (I went mad and bought a Nikon D200 a couple of weeks back) Even so Bebe, runs when she sees the camera!

7 The Culture Ghost { 07.13.07 at 10:43 pm }

I have the new work toy at home now (Nikon D80) and almost feel comfortable in taking a few shots. So the cats, while being the most numerous, but the dominant lifeform in the house will be test subjects….the 8mm fisheye should produce some interesting Friday Cat Blogging.

8 Bryan { 07.13.07 at 11:58 pm }

Apparently I have to change modes and then turn off the flash, otherwise flash is the norm for every mode. As you can see the flash washes out the white and you lose the detail. I knew how to do these things with my Pentax spotmatic, and now I’m having to relearn.

Go for a cat yawning with the fisheye, CG. That should be interesting.

9 The Culture Ghost { 07.14.07 at 12:48 am }

Couldn’t quite get the cat yawning, but I successfully got a cat shot. Not pleased with the shadow from the camera, but hell, the last time I used a fisheye lens, Reagan was President (these things don’t exactly grow on trees).

The flash modes on the Nikon are not too confusing or complex, at least in the fully automatic mode. The real trick will be to learn all the various combinations and then keep them in my head….

10 Bryan { 07.14.07 at 1:14 pm }

You need a computer to keep track of all of the “automatic” features.

11 oldwhitelady { 07.16.07 at 2:16 am }

Sox may have not liked getting pictures taken, but the camera loves him. What a beautiful kitty!

12 Bryan { 07.16.07 at 1:13 pm }

If I were a more experienced photographer you would see his true muscle-bound glory, OWL.