The Cat Walk

The feline factor. I should mention that I first started practicing with my digital camera on my 3 cats. Yes, I have 3.... probably 3 too many, but I'm a sucker for saving animals. To be direct, I'm much more a dog lover than a cat lover but, back in the apartment days I wasn't allowed to have a canine so, I won this white cat at a family Christmas and it's just became a hot mess!

So, I took many pictures of them licking dew off plants in my garden, coiled up in my quilt and posing on the stairs. To protect their identity I will not be posting pictures of them on my blog. I'll turn to the neighborhood cats to fulfill that obligation.

Cats are such posers. Seriously, what is their purpose in life? They sleep most of the time, threaten our song-bird population and they can burn a hole in your wallet when it comes to vet bills.

Once I had this naked cat that lived across the street. I just called it 'the naked cat'. It is a genuine breed called the hairless cat but I just want to stick to the naked cat. It really creeps me out. I guess I'm vain that way but I prefer pretty kittys. The way he/she would stare at me through that window gave me the chills. The naked cat is 'in my eyes' the ugly cat. It would have been like Kitty porn, so I refused to take a picture of him/her.

I continued up the street with my camera and just looked for cats doing absolutely nothing. I didn't know how to make a cat 'interesting' in a photo but I tried. Dogs can be so animated but the cat just stares. You feel very thoughtless zooming in on a cat who is just staring at you. Shaming a photographer seems to be one their purposes in life. I felt like I was insulting them or invading their personal space. Still, I needed to experiment as I had only spent a week with my camera and they are a subject you really don't have to go on the prowl to find.

Maybe this was the lazy photographer side of me. I found excuses to avoid marching to the Lagoon or the Ocean. Just do the cat walk on the cement , in the hood and hope something clever rises from the hairballs.

I realized it wasn't that easy to be clever with cats. You have to really work at it. What seemed so simple was actually very complicated.

I would challenge many photographers to come out of the woods and just try to produce 'interesting' cat photos. I'm still way off the mark but, I'll continue down the cat-walk of shame until something 'clicks!'

And yes, to be corny I had to post a picture of a 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'.