Showing posts with label pet portraits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pet portraits. Show all posts

Venti meets Zeiss

It's been a lazy Easter Friday - a chillaxed day to terroise the kitten with the camera. Today I was playing with the Zeiss 85 mm f/1.4 lens - long time no Zeiss!

I love the Zeiss lens - it's as sharp as when you can lock focus. Slightly more challenging with manual focus and a frisky kitten whose only two speeds are "100% Go" and comatose.

Shooting in AV mode, I tried various apertures - up to f/2, which does a great job at blowing away the background. Shooting Venti at f/1.4 though is practically impossible to get a sharp shot as she's always twitching....especially when she knows there's a camera in her face. Bless her little cotton socks :)

Happy Easter wherever you are, and have a great long weekend!



Practising pawtraits

It's the second week of having a little shadow weaving her way around my feet as I try to walk anywhere in the house. Venti the 17-week old kitten flies to  my side when I'm about to walk up the stairs, and stops on every step, looks up and sees if I'm still walking up or am about to randomly change my mind and flee in the other direction (as she does - often).

This week we have discovered she thinks she's a dog. She loves playing a good old game of fetch with her pink mouse toy, and absolutely bolts back to us when we throw it to the other side of the room. The throwing and fetching cycle goes for about 10 rounds or until she flops at our feet in exhaustion....poor little cat, it's probably her equivalent of running a half marathon.

I'm trying to hone my cat photography skills; shooting with fast shutter speeds and the flash if I'm photographing her at night. I'm sure the poor kitten is sick of the paparazzi that greets her every time she does a new trick (or just sits there minding her own business and looking cute). I'm learning that pet photography requires a lot of patience, particularly from the animal! It's not too different from photographing kids - both require a lot of patience and trust, and they're all entirely unpredictable!

I'm really looking forward to getting started as a volunteer photographer at the RSPCA in a couple of weeks. While I'm not allowed to do anything with the photos except provide them to the RSPCA, it's likely they'll post some of the photos on their cool Adoptables page on Pinterest.

Here's some of this week's photos of our crazy little fetchin' kitten, Venti :) You can see more of her antics on her Facebook page, The Venti Files, and follow her on Twitter.




365 Challenge #340 - Cats Eyes!

Pixie!

Misty!
I was staying at my parent's place on the Gold Coast last night, and stalked the two fluffy princesses with the macro lens and flash. I was using on-camera flash, bounced off a white ceiling. I'm fascinated by the detail in the Pixie and Misty's eyes and whiskers.

"The Girls" got their revenge at 4.00am this morning, when they jumped on my head demanding to be fed...that's karma for you :)

365 Challenge #239 - Puppy Portraits

George & Millie II, originally uploaded by Melanie Surplice.
"Find the light, and put them in it" and "pose the subjects for the light" were the mantra at least week's workshops. So I tried that this afternoon as I attempted to capture some shots of the gorgeous George and Millie.

Shooting dogs is hard work! This pair are hyperactive little bundles of joy, and the only way we could eventually coax them to look up and stay still for any length of time, was to dangle a food treat just above my head.

I love how it looks like George is smiling :D