VWGolf

Great photos, magnificent cats A place I've always wanted to go. I'd love to stroke one of those jaguars or maybe the cheetah - it'd almost be worth losing an arm for!

I don't bother using a light meter, I have an idea of what sort of power I need my flash on, so normally I take a quick couple of shots, then adjust it. Unfortunately, by the time I'd adjusted it - a matter of seconds - the model had disappeared down the other end of the room! <sigh> That's what you get for working with supermodels, I'm afraid. I thought I might get away with passing it off as high-key, but sadly not! I suppose there's a chance I might get another go, maybe next time there's a full moon and an R in the month I don't know how wildlife photographers cope, they must have the patience of a saint and a very fast trigger finger!

I don't bother using a light meter, I have an idea of what sort of power I need my flash on, so normally I take a quick couple of shots, then adjust it. Unfortunately, by the time I'd adjusted it - a matter of seconds - the model had disappeared down the other end of the room! <sigh> That's what you get for working with supermodels, I'm afraid. I thought I might get away with passing it off as high-key, but sadly not! I suppose there's a chance I might get another go, maybe next time there's a full moon and an R in the month I don't know how wildlife photographers cope, they must have the patience of a saint and a very fast trigger finger!

Really sorry to hear you've been poorly, Fuji - hope you're soon back to full health. Cats make brilliant nurses, stick to you like glue and they're living hot water bottles. And this girl is stunning, amazing eyes. Great win x

That expression - priceless Well captured.

Great set of pictures -love the B&W treatment, it really suits them

It did me, too!

Having not been able to do as much portraiture as normal this last couple of years, I decided to try something different. Having acquired a Nikon 105mm F2.8 macro lens, I thought I would try food photography. Then I remembered I can't cook for peanuts and a few past their sell by date cakes from Sainsburys don't really look like I imagine my food photography would. So I decided to move on to still life. Itit is quite a challenge, setting up and lighting the subjects. But I'm suffering from total lack of imagination and I really wish I could come up with such a lovely arrangement as yours. it is so well done.

Yes, I do. Baz is a fighter and would have done his usual 'attack is the best form of defence' routine! Fortunately for her, she lives with my nephew 50 miles away!

Leia's (GSD puppy, aged 13 weeks) first day out in public - she loved meeting lots of people and dogs. After exhausting her walking round Coombe Abbey park for hours, she sat for about two nano-seconds before she made off again

Glad it didn't have an tragic ending

Oh, dear! That's sad. I hope the owner and the cockatoo both survived. They can live for many years apparently - up to 80 years - which I think is why some of them end up homeless, having outlived their owner.

I looked it up and he is a blue-eyed cockatoo - so called because of the blue skin around his eyes, not actually blue-eyed This picture is of Sidney - who followed me around for ages, including hanging onto my camera strap! He's a juvenile male cockatoo who shows off a lot and last time I went, he was in the naughty cage for pecking a visitor! He lives at Tropical Birdland in Desford, Leicestershire (well worth a visit if you're in the area). It started off as a parrot rescue and is now a lovely park to visit. They have some exotic species in walk-through aviaries but most of the parrots are free-flying and tame enough to feed from your hand - though you have to watch out for the buttons on your coat! They also have some very rare hyacinth macaws - magnificent birds!

A blue-eyed cockatoo (I think)

She is beautiful, Fuji - and obviously has you wrapped around her pretty little paw. And cats don't knock things off - they push them!

Lovely. And different.

Thank you, Fuji I'm so glad you've got another cat - having once lived with one, it's awful without the company and amusement they give. I couldn't imagine life without one. And they keep you young - instead of being a pensioner, sitting on the settee, watching day time television, you're kept active and fit by chasing after your cat. I'd recommend to anyone - sell your television and buy a cat! Far healthier for you than plastic surgery and botox! PS.Don't forget to house train it, will you?

Having worked in cat rescue for years, I'm fairly adept at handling them and knowing their likely behaviour and reactions. But I still have many failures, even with my own boy!

No - it's on a different layer. The original toy was on a piece of string, but there's a MF in-joke in the family. He paid an awful lot of money for the Lego MF, spent ages building it, then his wife knocked it off the table with her vacuum cleaner! Accidentally, she insists! The old boy on the left is twelve and his favourite hobby is sleeping. It wasn't an easy photoshoot! I got some cracking shots of each individual cat, but trying to get three of them together wasn't easy - being a pet photographer isn't quite as easy as it may sound!

"Let's tell Dad - he'll know what to do!"