Happy Chartreux cat chilling
Jul, 2016Views
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Elizabeth_Suzanne
September 07, 2016
As a ViewBug curator I welcome you! Love this shot! I look forward to seeing more of you images!
margaretdiffenbaugh
September 08, 2016
Who could resist this smiling cat! Nice natural framing. Gorgeous palette.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Tokyo based cat cafe called Temari no Ouchi during my visit to Japan.Time
I believe it was a fairly cold March evening in Tokyo when I've decided to visit this cat cafe, and company of fuzzy warm kitties in this cozy cafe sure proved to be a great idea. When I got there, weather and time of the day didn't matter any longer.Lighting
Unfortunately lighting conditions inside were quite poor. It was really dim and warm interior lights, which does provide cozy and relaxing atmosphere but is a total disaster for taking photographs. On top of that, flash or any sort of extra lighting is not allowed in cat cafe in order to not disturb cats. Luckily Fuji X cameras are performing really well in poor light conditions so I've still managed to leave with a few decent shots and a lot of good memories.Equipment
I'm using Fuji X-E1 to take all my photos. Really like how compact it is while still offering amazing performance and all functionality I need. This particular picture was shot with Fujinon XF 35mm F1.4 lens, which is one of my favorite lenses so far.Inspiration
Thing with a cats is that apart from being cute they can also be very entertaining. Even people who don't consider themselves a cat lovers got to admit that poses and face (or is it snout?) expressions cats are capable of making can be really fun to watch. Sometimes things they do or poses they make may only last a few seconds and you never know if it will ever happen again, so it can be pretty fun and rewarding for photographer to capture those unique moments and I for one definitely enjoy doing that from time to time.Editing
I rarely do a lot of post processing in most cases. Our world is beautiful on it's own and only specific commercial work might require extensive post processing in my opinion. Normally when you know what you're doing to a certain extent, any decent camera is able to capture photos beautifully enough, so the only thing I'm trying to achieve through post processing is making photo look as good as it looked through my eyes. Most of the time it's just basic adjustments of white balance, minor tweaks of highlight and shadows in some cases, a little bit of contrast and a little bit of color tweaks in Lightroom. That of course applies to this picture as well.In my camera bag
In my bag I always have Fuji X-E1 which so far is my first proper camera, my teacher and my photography companion. Naturally there are also a couple of lenses that I carry around most of the time: Wide-angle 23mm for capturing cityscapes and environments (planning to change it to something slightly wider once I can afford it, perhaps 16mm), multi purpose 35mm lens for taking pictures of animals, people and all kinds of stuff, and finally 60mm zoom lens mainly for portraiture. All mentioned lenses are Fujinon XF lenses. Apart from that, there are some ND filters, polarizer and PRO Mist filters which are great for when you want to make your photos look a bit more cinematic. And of course there is a piece of cloth for cleaning lenses. I'm only using tripod when I'm planning to shoot some scenery or cityscapes, because I just hate carrying that thing around whenever it can be avoided. Not using any extra lights or flash either, at least for now. Natural light is the most beautiful thing, only problem with it is that sometimes it can be difficult or impossible to control it, but if you're just a hobbyist like me it's not very crucial.Feedback
I just barely started self-studying photography myself, but one major thing that I've realized is that you can't just find something that you think looks great and then simply snap a picture without putting much thought into it. The thing is, our eyes are far superior in comparison to even most expensive lenses and also we have not one but two eyes (sorry for stating the obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people are taking it for granted without even thinking about it) which makes everything look three dimensional, alive and amazing to our brain. So what may seem like an amazing and beautiful image to you might not come out all that impressive out of the camera if you don't take it's limitations into consideration and use them to your advantage. If you learn how your camera works, how exposure works, learn how to compose and frame your photos (most important thing) and then keep all that in mind before pressing shutter button, you'll most likely see that your images are improving day by day. Obviously you should pay attention to light and shadows as well, I guess this goes without saying. When you're on the spot with your camera, look at the surroundings with your eyes first, decide what is it you like the most about it rather than rushing or trying to capture everything, and then compose it while looking at chosen subject through viewfinder. Just don't forget that what you're composing is going to be captures as flattened two dimensional image and don't forget all the things you've learned about your camera and composition. Same thing applies to cat photography, but it can be a bit more challenging to plan your shot carefully because being able to predict or to control what cats are doing is not an easy task, especially if you don't want to disturb them too much. You can't just tell cat to turn face to the camera, drop chin down a bit and smile. So just gather your patience and observe them. Technical side wise, fast lens would be an advantage. Good luck and thanks for reading!
