Photo
Oct, 2018Views
386
Likes
Awards
Action Award
Zenith Award
Legendary Award
Contest Finalist in Curious Pets Photo Contest
Top Shot Award
Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Virtuoso
Genius
Superior Skill
All Star
Emotions
Impressed
Happy
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
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Top 10 rank
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This shot had to be taken in a place where our cats felt comfortable with plenty of room for the backlighting, the homemade wooden prop and me laying on the floor. I chose our dining room.Time
It took multiple attempts over the course of a few days and nights. The night shots allowed the lighting to work best. Curiosity killed most of the shots. Cats are rough to work with.Lighting
In order to get the harsh spotlight to cast the mouse hole shadow at just the right angle was key. Content is king I was taught, but the three cats I was working with had artistic differences with me. It took many attempts to finally get this shot.Equipment
A 24”x24” piece of plywood and a $5 work light to create the scene and a Nikon D5500 with 28-70 kit lens.Inspiration
I took a shot like this decades ago and was just plain lucky. Cat, prop and lighting was similar, but my Minolta 700 and 50mm lens and zero post processing made the shot far more difficult. Even with 24 hour developing photography was a different world back in the early 80’s. Inspiration was trying to recreate that first shot, but even with the advances in photography since the first shot, animals and children are still the hardest to work with.Editing
I had to darken the original just a little and I had to remove one spot of reflected light.In my camera bag
I usually carry a 28-70 zoom, a 70-300 zoom and a 50mm lens. Other accessories are carried but rarely used.Feedback
Planning and patience. The mouse hole’s size, the blocking of light between the wall and floor, the positioning of the light source so that the hole’s shadow is properly angled, the intensity of the light source, the ISO setting, the cover used to block light from the top and sides of the prop to the floor behind you are all important and under your control. The cat, however, is the wild card. Is the cat hungry, is he unusually curious that day, will you need treats, will you need a toy, will he be scared of the prop, will he be brave enough to look inside the hole or reach in with his paw instead? Then you have to be ready, or lucky, to catch the image you want or at least the one the cat allows you to capture. I took about 15 minutes to make the prop from scrap wood. I left the completed prop in the general area where I planned to take the photo for 2-3 day so the cats came to recognize that it wasn’t a threat. I set up the shot with the light on and the cover on it and tried some practice shots using toys near the hole. This allowed me to adjust the camera height and lighting angle. Finally I used a toy and food to get shots of all three subjects I had to work with. As you can imagine, this took at least a week With at least 3 days of shooting for that one photo. Out of probably 150 photos I only liked this one. Patience paid off in the end.
