Gabriel and Cat Book (photo)

Here is my cat resting against a reference book about cats. The book is The Cat, Its Behavior, Nutrition & Health. It is a good book. The author is Linda P. Case.

 
I took the photograph “blind”. I placed the camera on the open book and positioned it so that it looked like it was facing Gabriel. I wasn’t sure it was positioned correctly because I was not looking at the camera screen.

The camera, a Sony compact camera: DSC-HX20V, was set to wide angle on the zoom. The lighting was a single source reading lamp. It was dark outside.

There was almost no Photoshopping. I just burned in the corners and edges of the photo (darkened them) and dodged (photographic printing term meaning lightening an area) to the left side of Gabriel’s face (as we face it). The color is probably slightly warm, meaning the the color balance is a little brown/yellow because the light source produces that color balance but I don’t bother to correct that unless it causes a problem. I actually like it a bit warm. I focus on getting the shot: capturing the fleeting moment. Everything else is secondary.

I think the expression is great and I like the composition. I took it about 30 minutes ago.

Gabriel was having a nice time next to me. I had just got back from a walk and he was pleased to see me. I went to bed to work and he joined me to wash 😉 . He was confident and relaxed. He’s probably gone back to his hiding place for a snooze before his evening meal.