Today I did a sitting with a cat; a bit of a different experience than dogs. Cats do not seem a bit interested in sounds or treats; they will pay attention to a dangling toy for a nanosecond but after that they are on the floor and into explorer mode. All comments welcome!

John,
great shot. That superglue really worked!

Cats are really tough. I usually shoot them in their environment rather than in the studio because I just haven't had good results with the studio shoots. Cats tend to get spooked by the strobes pretty easily.

You caught that wide-eyed wonder that is so catlike. How long did it take to get the glue off? Really nice shot.

Jim

Thanks for the comments Jim. No glue, this was part of the Visceral Image Exercise Program. I have at least 20 photos of him jumping out of the bucket. I think I picked him up at least 1,000 times to try to pose him again.

Next time I will try glue, or maybe an A-clamp would work well

I also tried some photos of a grey cat but stopped after the first shot because he was so afraid of the light (single frontal light in softbox). The next hour was spend calming the cat by carrying him around and speaking softly.

Hi everyone.
I've been working with cats a bit lately, and find that a trick is just patience. Try to keep them calm and let them explore a while and then position and photograph quickly. After they've explored a bit their attention can be got with a tease or sometimes mewing, pshshshing, or barking sounds, scratching/tapping noises or small sudden movements. It helps to have an assistant or owner too (share the exercise around a bit).

Also, I'll be brave today and attach a link to my gallery (which includes some cats), and would appreciate any and all comments.
http://gallery.mac.com/rshortt

Absolutely beautiful.

Ooops
I'm sorry. I linked to my general pages - please check http://gallery.mac.com/rshortt#100035
instead.
sigh.

That's just one more vote for always on lighting!

Looks like you made the best of it though.

Quote:

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Thanks for the comments Jim. No glue, this was part of the Visceral Image Exercise Program. I have at least 20 photos of him jumping out of the bucket. I think I picked him up at least 1,000 times to try to pose him again.

Next time I will try glue, or maybe an A-clamp would work well

I also tried some photos of a grey cat but stopped after the first shot because he was so afraid of the light (single frontal light in softbox). The next hour was spend calming the cat by carrying him around and speaking softly.

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Robyn

you gallery was slow to load but once it got up I was impressed, you have done some really good work with cats; I have so much to learn.

Jim Poor

the siamese did not mind the flash but I found that most cats do not like it; I like the stopping power of flash but I will try some "always-on", maybe make a spider lite.

I'm lusting after the spiderlite TD5. My father-in-law is building something similar for me to test out. Hopefully, it will be here soon.

Nice! Out of curiosity, did you or have you ever tried a bit of cat nip? I no longer have cats, my two girls died a few years ago (at over 20 years old, still miss them).

Anyway, I think it may have been worth a try with one of them, catnip made her a slow, dreamer kitty. The other one (usually very subdued) became a kamikaze cat under the influence, though!
Celeste