Penning Photography Daily

Smokey, checking out something to my right, poised to pounce.

We were on the bed, playing a bit. Her, after a long day with just her companion cat Sissy for company, likely getting many of the 14-16 hours of sleep per day that a cat manages to fit in. Me, after a long day of wrangling computers, people and plans. We both needed the activity and friendly wrestling.

I had my camera, the Pentax K20D, fitted with the dream-like Vivitar 28mm f2 Close Focus lens, with the aperture wide open. It was just sitting on the bed, prepared for a moment such as this. I knew that I needed to give Smokey some time to play. Time to chase, wrestle, lick and have some kitty fun before I would get anything like a still moment to photograph.

The lens is full manual. One nice option on my camera is the Catch-In-Focus setting, which allows me to be able to use a manual focus lens and simply get it to the right focus point, and the camera will automatically activate the shutter without me having to be behind the viewfinder. So with this, I had it set to focus as close as possible, about 3 inches from Smokey’s eye. I then kept my finger on the shutter as i brought the camera closer to Smokey, just eye-balling the composition without looking through the lens. I’ve been doing this for a while, and have developed decent guessing skills at what I’m pointing at.

When I reviewed what I had taken, I was stunned at how good it came out.

Smokey is a beautiful cat. That makes any photo I take of her a cut above the ordinary. Being able to get this particular view of her eyes, that’s a special treat for me.

A nice end to a busy day for both of us.