May 04, 2012

tails and tales


click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Shortly after I decided on this image yesterday I realized I could have made a better shot by employing fill-flash. I would have ended up with a properly illuminated image--but one that would have looked just like it had been treated with fill-flash. I've got to ask--where is the FUN in that?



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Okay, lets see, what OTHER piece of equipment did I NOT use? My silly TRIPOD, of course... Oh, I've got one, but I usually make it stay in the car. Lug that #$%@*! around for a while and the fun of photographing quickly fades. It's usually easy to find something suitable to brace the camera on.

Location (above): Loch Lomond Spit, on San Pablo Bay, near San Rafael.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

More Cat-tails, Typha, corndog-grass, punks, or whatever you want to call them. Location: San Andreas faultline, near Point Reyes Station, Marin County, California.




And here is a tale of a little lover of a cat that I used to call Kitty. It's been about 10 months now...

But lets go back about 16 years. It's a Saturday when the (then) little girl from upstairs, Jolie, excitedly knocked on my door with news that she and her family were going to pick out a kitten at the Humane Society. Jolie, only 9 but quite the organizer, had already phoned the shelter to get the specifics.

When Jolie gave me the rundown, which included a BLACK AND WHITE cat, something immediately clicked and I told Jolie that she should most definitely adopt the BLACK AND WHITE cat. Not a bit of doubt in my mind which cat she should pick.

So Jolie and her family came home with the BLACK AND WHITE cat, a.k.a.: "Tuxedo Cat", so you see, I've known "Kitty" most all of her life. Kitty would visit me on a regular basis--and one day, when she was about 2, came to stay permanently when her family moved on and couldn't take her along.

So, I thought I was mostly a "dog-person", but get a cat and see what happens. Early in the relationship the cat has us sign a loyalty oath, whereby we SWEAR to abide by the cat's terms. Debate is discouraged. Getting a cat is the beginning of giving up OUR wishes for those of our furry little Gods and Goddesses. Its a religious kind of thing, I suppose...

Okay, you DOG lovers out there... Stop shaking your head in disbelief.

Now, don't get me wrong here--I'm bragging about my Kitty, not my sketchy attempts at web-mastering; but, so, if you didn't already know, I hammered-out a daily blog covering Kitty's antics from 2004 to mid 2011. I had fun with it (((hope you can tell))) and the blog had a good run. Even today KittyBLOG holds on to the number one ranking for the Google search term; "kitty blog". As for the search term "cat blog" KittyBLOG is farther down on the list at about number 56.
CLICK if you'd like to jump into the middle of some KittyBLOG adventures.


CLICK for the very "best" of my work on my photo website.

2 comments:

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

Tripod woes, here's what I do. With the camera mounted on the tripod and the camera sling around my neck, I tuck the legs of the tripod between the straps of my shoulder bag (I never use a backpack) and let the legs of the tripod rest on the shoulder bag. The weight is distributed between two seperate carrying points and the whole set-up poses no problem while hiking. Enjoyed reading about how Kitty came into your life. If you want to know the character of a man, find out what his cat thinks of him.

Civic Center said...

Wow, so Kitty lives forever. Just like Miss Tina the Siamese Bitch who presides over FotoTales.

 
under construction