Cat Cheek
The Cat really is the centre of the universe that I call my surroundings. Sometime She does not wish to have Her face photographed and I just have to make do, like this time on the lawn earlier this year, with my Takumar 100mm macro to hand.
This was taken with a Canon 5D that I bought second-hand, with really low miles on it, for a much lower price than one would expect because it had a cosmetic flaw on the upper housing. It turned out that in video mode at anything over about 400 ISO it had a patch of stuck pixels which left a red dot in all video – once you noticed it you could not take your eye off of it. Since the camera was purchased partly to take video of my son’s gigs, which is often a low-light proposition, this would not do. Canon would fix it, but then the camera would be away for weeks, it would cost nearly $300 and might not really work for that price, they could not be sure.
I returned the camera to the store and ended up buying a new body since by then I had bought a lens, and adapters for the Takumar lenses, and a new camera bag, and filters, and, and, and. Still, I would not have bought one of these cameras for full new price had I not become ‘trapped’ in this set of circumstances as it was way beyond budget. But, to be really truthful, once we had the first camera for a week, there was absolutely no way that I wanted to accept less in a camera, so that was the real trap. And I am not complaining; this camera has given me a lot of pleasure in the past 3 months, and I expect a lot more to come.
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burnt embers 
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I love the details, wonderful work!!
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Hey Jaunita – thanks for coming by again, and the lovely comments 🙂
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Your blog is one of my favorites, I have to say. Great shot here, and I just LOVE your accompanying writing style; it adds so much depth to the images you post! Give Her a nice little rub from us Toads, we also have a pair of rather spoiled cats in our house. Sometimes hilarity can ensue when one of them decides to chase one of us around the house.. we are Toads, and the cats are quite a bit taller than us…
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Toad that is one hell of a compliment coming from someone that ranges so widely in the on-line photography world Thanks so much. And, thanks once again for including my work on your weekly list of places to check out. I am constantly perplexed and honoured by these inclusions.
I can just imagine your cats chasing Toads around the house – I am sure they don’t quite know what to do with them either – tentative batting with paws, sniffing from a safe distance, circling for a view from all sides, jumping backwards when a toad hops forwards – these visions all come to mind from your description.
Speaking of quite a bit taller, these questing dolls are part of my surroundings too, though I am not the author of these stories or photos. I have a feeling they too experience what could be called a toad’s-eye-view of the world. I happen to know that they are very discriminating when it comes to photography as well, they pipe up about some of my edits from time to time. This post caused me no end of grief to get the crops to meet their standards – they are pleased to have their own blog now, well removed from my heavy hand on the mouse.
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I love details like this image. And oh yeah, camera equipment is so expensive. Glad you got a great camera. It’s amazing what they can do.
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I have no regrets about getting a good camera – I had used some pretty decent equipment that belonged to a friend a few years ago so had a sense that there was another world out there, but I did not use it for creative purposes, nor really learn how to make it work, and so really only peeked at the DSLR world. Am now officially hooked.
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Wow, this is so amazing. Rich in texture and colors. 🙂
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She purrs in your general direction – She says, with a bit of blush, that she is like that all over.
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I would have jumped on the 5D even knowing it had video problems if the price was right. I have no intention of using video, so it wouldn’t be a deal breaker. You’ve taken some great photos with it.
Unless a cat is asking for your attention, I think they prefer to be ignored so they can get on with their work. In Emo’s case, that would be guard duty at the back window or sleeping.
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I think you are right about cats and attention. Ours is pretty good about asking for attention, and tolerating the occassional interruption. She is making approving noises about your references to Her work – She says many people are disrespectful and think that sleeping is not work. Some nice purrs are wafting in your general direction.
I expect that 5D ended up with an even better price because of the video. The store did not blink a single eyelash about taking it back, it probably sold a couple of days later. I don’t use the video much, but my son does – we share the camera. The videao is astonishingly good – they use these cameras to shoot some TV programs since they have a nice old fashioned cinematic feel with the lenses and manual focus and all that.
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