“There are so many terrible photographs of house cats on the web, that it is so refreshing to see a creative, crisp, shot of a fuzzy feline subject!”—Jack Howard
© Dennis Ramos, Tampa, FL. Gear: Nikon D60, 35mm prime lens, Nikon SB-600, RF trigger. Exposure: 1/100 sec at f/1.8, ISO 200, manual mode.
Photographer’s statement: “I shot this photo around 8PM in a dimmed room with the lighted Christmas tree about 6-8 feet awau. My subject (Ash the cat) was about 2-3 feet from my camera, sitting on a table. I used one off-camera flash (sb-600) on the left of the camera triggered via RF @ 1/32 power on a stand. Camera was handheld. For the bokeh, I used a cut-out star-shaped hole in a black cardboard.”
Our critics say...
Jack Howard: What's not to love about this shot? There are so many terrible photographs of house cats on the web, that it is so refreshing to see a creative, crisp, shot of a fuzzy feline subject! I think we've all wondered what exactly it was that cats are so aloofly focused on at times, and now I think I know the answer! The creative aperture effect has been popularized by Lensbaby, but as this shot shows, it is also possible with any lens.
Monica Cipnic: This is a creative and imaginative image, just love the 'origami-like' tree lights, they look like birds, butterflies and flowers--all a cat's favorites! And a wonderful portrait of the cat--one thing, I'd like to see the shadow area by the cat's ear top and middle portion of it's head ever so slightly more open.
Mason Resnick: Everyone else here thinks this shot is the cat’s meow, and I agree—to a point. I like it a lot for all of the reasons stated by Monica and Jack. This is a great example of creative manipulation of Bokeh by using very simple cut-out shapes over a lens. Folks, do try this at home! The one thing that distracts me is the brown and yellow polka dots on the white material in the background. They don’t add anything to the scene. If anything, they draw my attention away from the cat’s regal pose, and the wonderfully shaped lights.
What do you think? Leave a comment!
