A few cat photos

Anyone who is even an acquaintance of mine knows how fascinated I am with our cat, Butter (He used to be named Jaws, but his coat is yellowing with age, so we changed his name. That's the beauty of having a cat - names don't mean anything to them, anyway.)

I try and try to get good pictures of him, but he rarely cooperates. One night while he was huddled in the corner of our spare bedroom, I leaned over and snapped a quick one. His eyes typically beat the flash, especially when I have the red-eye reduction on because it flashes twice, but this time technology beat the cat.

I took this with equipment I no longer have - a Canon EOS 20D with a 50 mm F1.4 lens and pop-up flash. Exposure unrecorded.

We tried to get him to come along with our enthusiasm during Edmonton's Stanley Cup run last year, but as you can see from his smirk, he's not happy with the attention, the hat, my taking his picture, or just about anything at that moment.

I love this shot - it's so indicative of his moodiness.

As you can see, this was taken in ambient light - on this occasion, I didn't have the patience to take dozens of shots in order to get one with his eyes open. (Plus, he was more impatient than I was.) When I had my EOS 20D, I'd even turn off the camera's beeps, because he became trained to blink his eyes when he heard that. But, unless I wanted a picture of a demon cat with red eyes, he's still beat the camera.

So, my only solution was to pump up the film-speed equivalent and shoot with a fast lens in ambient light.

Photo taken with a Canon EOS 20D, Canon 50mm F1.4 lens, exposure unrecorded.