VWGolf

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

On 20/04/2022 at 22:36, Hatter said:

Took me ages to notice the cat! 

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.

On 09/03/2022 at 21:15, CMunzel said:

I seem to recall you have cats? 

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!  

Quote

Thank you.  I'll probably be taking the next lot of pictures at her home, so hoping for a few quiet moments.  I wish I had even a tenth of her energy!  

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  

4 hours ago, Les said:

It was a lovely two story house. I have a photograph of it somewhere. The owner was OK as she was in Sweden at the time. Luckily there were no animals in the house apart for the cat which had escape route through the cat flap. The hedge was untouched as it was some distance away.

Glad it didn't have an tragic ending

1 hour ago, Les said:

I'm a gardener to trade and I used to maintain a garden in the Colinton area of Edinburgh and there was a noisy feral Cockatoo living in a thick Laylandii hedge nearby.

The customer told me what it was. I don't know what it lived on and I don't know if its still about as I don't do the garden anymore because the house burnt down! 

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!  

14 hours ago, Paul said:

I assume the MF is on a string?  2 out of 3 interested, but not the one on the left!

Paul.

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!"

"Mum!  MUM!"

I had a go at doing a 'night time' portrait in afternoon sun in my garden. With flash!  

Copied the method of the photographer Glyn Dewis.  Line up subject, then chose small aperture so that you can see nothing, only darkness.
Flash in small soft box to right of subject.  Shoot.

The small aperture/fast speed cuts out ambient light so that subject is lit only by the flash.

I was quite impressed that it worked.