Cat Photography

Persians can be quite passive and uncooperative in the photographic studio. Bengal cats are fantastic in the studio. Full of activity and providing great, fleeting poses with a wild, wide-eyed intensity. Persians just sit there with a take it or leave it attitude. Can you blame them? Of course not. Cat photography is by people and for people.

This grey Persian is staying put. Forget cat wrangling. Forget the cat tease. She is doing what she wants to do and the “people” can take it or leave it.

The ironic thing about it is this. The Persian profile is not that great. It is flat. There are almost no features.

Photo by Michael

If you want to read about cat photography, the following link takes you to some pages: Cat Photography.

In the picture, Helmi is using a high quality digital SLR Canon camera with a moderate telephoto lens. The picture is taken by flash light from 4 lights around the cat.

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Comments

Cat Photography — 15 Comments

Ruth aka Kattaddorra on August 1, 2013 at 4:51 pm said:
Jozef walking along a 6 foot high fence, one inch across, he moves like a ballet dancer
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- Michael on August 1, 2013 at 5:00 pm said:
  All cats are amazing. These very difficult actions are normal for a domestic cat. Some cats are better than others, though. Jozef is very good. Nice picture and a good place for a cat because there is plenty of “wild”.
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- Everycat on August 1, 2013 at 5:18 pm said:
  I love the way Jozef is so confident and definitely going places. Their grace is marvellous. Think how long a human has to train to walk the high wire, kittens pick up this kind of fence walking within hours.
  Jane
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Ruth Edward Anderspm on July 25, 2013 at 7:32 am said:
Well my cats let me know when they want to eat. They come up to me and say NOW in demanding voices. My Black cat Knodl has done this for 16 yrs. I thought perhaps only I could hear him say Now when he wanted to eat but friends were here when he came to me demanding food and said now. They both exclaimed “Ruth, did we hear right…Knodl just said “Now”. I agreed & told them how pleased I was that they heard him say Now. I then went on to tell them that Kiva learned to say “Now” from Knodl. If I don’t respond with dinner quickly enough Knodl says quite clearly “RIGHT NOW”!
I’m not sure about the barking sound but I’ll listen for it. Kiva, my Bengal makes some very unusual sounds that I only hear the wild cats make. Deep, heavy growls of triumph as she runs, no zooms around our Condo.
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Valley Girl on July 23, 2013 at 8:04 pm said:
My experience with photographing Tootsie is that if she sees me, she turns and stares at me/ stares into the camera. So, I have to be wily, or catch her from a distance, to get a different pose. One of Tootsie’s means of communication with me is staring at me. That can mean different things, and given context the meaning is apparent. “I want more food.” “I am unhappy because you are not letting me go outside.” And so on. Tootsie is more into “eye contact” than other cats I’ve had. I don’t know if this is a Maine Coon “thing” or just Tootsie.
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- Michael on July 23, 2013 at 8:37 pm said:
  This could be a Maine Coon tendency. Although I think it is more about individual cats. Charlie looks are me eye to eye and he even barks at me like a dog. He resorts to a loud bark when he is really wants to get his message across.
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  - Valley Girl on July 23, 2013 at 8:48 pm said:
    Interesting. He barks while looking at you? Tootsie as far as I remember, is usually silent when staring.
    But, My goodness, if I’m not out of bed on time to do her bidding, I am treated to “Cat Opera”. I’ll have to pay attention to whether she “barks” or not as part of the aria. I’ve often wished could figure out a reasonable way to record some of these episodes.
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    - Michael on July 23, 2013 at 9:05 pm said:
      Charlie just came to me on my bed. He plonked himself down in front of me and meowed loudly and then barked at me. Quite loud. Short, sharp barking sound. I knew what it meant and took him to the kitchen for dinner. It is about 10:15 pm and he is outside looking and sniffing and I can’t go to sleep. I ‘d like to record more of his sounds but it is practically impossible.
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      - Ruth aka Kattadora on July 24, 2013 at 9:54 am said:
        Walter barks when he wants our attention as well! There is no other way to describe the sound is there?
        We always say his father must have been a dog lol
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        Michael on July 24, 2013 at 10:10 am said:
        Wow. It’s nice to know that. My imagination runs riot. The Barking Cat Owners Society 😉 And so on. I would love to compare cat barks 😉 But it is all but impossible to tape them because they come out of the blue.
        In one way it does not surprise me because wild cat species have a wide range of vocalisations. For example, the sand cat makes an odd clicking sound after a hiss. They are great hissers 😉
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        Ruth aka Kattaddorra on July 24, 2013 at 10:17 am said:
        Jozef never barks, he looks quite surprised when Walter does it.
        Charlie and Walter, the founders of the Barking Cats Society lol
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        Michael on July 24, 2013 at 11:38 am said:
        LOL. I think we are on to something.
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Ruth aka Kattaddorra on July 23, 2013 at 12:26 pm said:
Cats can be very stubborn, if they don’t want to pose for a photograph, they won’t.
Sometimes if ours see the camera come out they stalk off, but another time they might happily pose.
I suppose it’s about having their own choice and we need to respect they aren’t always in ‘photo mood’
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- Michael on July 23, 2013 at 7:05 pm said:
  My impression is that cats don’t like to be photographed. It might be because we are pointing the camera at them. That said the best way to do it to use cat teases. Persians though are less active than Bengal cats. Activity is good because you get poses. Persians seem to be less confident and less relaxed in the photographic studio.
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  - Marc on July 24, 2013 at 7:35 am said:
    Red never looked at the camera if he knew I had it. Gigi however is the total opposite – she stares at it with big round eyes – some cats av oid eye contact more than others too so it just depends on the cat I guess. Every pic I have of my cats together they are all busy and Gigi is in the middle just staring – it’s quite funny actually.
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