A photograph of a photograph being taken by one of the world’s best cat photographers. The cat is a fine example of a Bengal purebred, pedigree show cat. He was well behaved. I took this photograph some time ago and wanted to republish it because they get forgotten and I don’t believe it should be forgotten 😉 The photo was taken using film – i.e. it was not a digital camera.
This photograph was taken in available, rather flat, fluorescent light. It was taken in a side room from the main show hall, which was in Waxahachie, Texas. Ken Flick sets up the studio in whatever room the cat show organizers allocate the Flicks.
The photograph has done well on Flickr, surprisingly. It has been viewed over 11,000 times. So, people are interested in cat photography.
The finished Helmi photo of the cat is taken with strobe (flash) light. There are four lights all synched up to the camera of course.
Ken is using a cat tease to get the cat’s attention. He would have positioned the cat facing away before catching the cat’s attention. The cat’s breeder is holding her cat. Helmi’s picture was a head a shoulders portrait so you don’t see the breeder’s hands.
You can see the finished Helmi photograph on this page: Bengal Cat Induna.
You can see more of the Flick’s set up here.
“A Photographers photographer”:- Gives a true picture of a cat show.Excellent and thanks as i have yet to see the majestic “Bengal Cat’ in real life, akin to the “Bengal tiger” in the wild forests of India.
The whole photo session per cat lasts about ten minutes max. As you can imagine there is a time limit before the cat becomes bored and loses interest. There are lots of failed images.
I love these ‘photos of photos being taken’ – they really are interesting and a genuine insight to the image which comes otherwise packaged and complete.
Thanks Marc. It is interesting to see how it is done. It’s about (a) a good looking cat (b) good lighting (c) good cat wrangling – cat positioning and (d) timing of the photograph. The last one is probably the most important.