Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Daily Photo: Bella in Blues and Purples

Bella in blues and purples black cat
Bella in blues and purples.

Photographing black cats is a challenge, and in many areas in my house the lighting is a challenge as well, which makes for a lot of neat photos that aren’t quite in focus, just a little soft. Even when I manually set my DSLR, the shutter speed is still fairly slow to let in enough light, and when I speed it up I end up with dark photos that are in focus, mostly, but the dark areas are saturated with other colors and tones.

And that’s where the fun comes in. With any photo like this one of Bella sitting on the steps I’ll take as many photos as I can, changing the manual settings as quickly as I can, so I end up with a large range from overexposed, shaky, blurry photos to dark and moody photos. Somewhere in between I hope to get one good photo—and in this case as Bella stared out the window at the mail delivery person all bundled and looking like a Yeti I got exactly the one I wanted of Bella’s eyes and a nice amount of detail on her face—but none are ever wasted.

This photo was one of the overly dark ones that was perfectly in focus, but the dark areas were too saturated and full of murky olive greens and when lightened were grained with dots of other colors, even in the RAW format. No loss there, I knew just what to do in Photoshop. I let PS find its own auto levels, and out popped pink and purple and blue from all that murky olive green and gray! The lighter halo behind Bella, angel that she is, was just barely evident, though her whiskers converted to purple shadows was really neat. I couldn’t lighten it any more or I lost the details in her eyes. I saturated it further and all those wonderful dots in the background began to differentiate from pale pink and violet to cobalt blue, and that same cobalt showed up on her face. Yes!

 


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Other daily photos shared on this date

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Mimi’s Cold Paws and…Dogs! 2014
black cat with snow
Mimi looks out at the snow.

This morning, though it was warmish and drizzling, we still had snow cover. Mimi desperately wanted to visit the yard, but not until…

…I made some solid footprints in the slush for her delicate little paws to step into.

black cat in snow
Mimi carefully steps into my footprints in the snow.

She visited the basement door where we’d spent so many happy mornings in the warm sun of the garden, and the brick patio, but it’s all closed up now.

black cat looks in screen door
Fond memories of warm summer mornings.

Although it was VERY exciting under the deck! Apparently lots of critters have been visiting over the winter, and a shelf I’d had suspended from the rafters came down, no doubt under the weight of our overfed groundhog, which has excavated everything under there. Mimi is in this photo though.

black cat in garden equipment
Mimi explores the heap of stuff that our wild friends have strewn about under the deck.

What do you do if the black cat is ON the ladder instead of walking underneath it? Once all her exploring was finished she had no interest in getting her tiny little paws cold and wet. I had to carry her from the yard up onto the deck.

black cat on ladder
What happens when the black cat is on the ladder?

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Meet Sasha

You can just see Bean on the inside and Sasha is on the outside.
You can just see Bean on the inside and Sasha is on the outside.

Jelly Bean meets Sasha, a Shih Tzu, the subject of one of my next portraits! You can just see him inside the door as he and Sasha are just about eye to eye, but the reflection is confusing.

If possible I like to meet my subjects in the fur, so Sasha and her human stopped by today on the way back from the vet. Sasha has congestive heart failure and though she’s doing well her human wants to have this done now while she’s still looking healthy. She had won the certificate at last summer’s Animal Care and Assistance event to help raise money for veterinary costs at Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Clinic. This is one of the portraits I’ll be posting as I work, so look forward to seeing more of Sasha!

Not sure about Bean and Mimi, though, as they slowly approach the door after Sasha jumped a few times to say hello!

two black cats
Mimi and Bean looking out the door at Sasha!

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And Miko

dog in warehouse
Miko greets me at the printing plant.

Then shortly after I met with Sasha and her person, I had to drive to a printer in Pittsburgh to pick up post cards for an upcoming event. No need to worry about anyone getting in the door unnoticed! Miko comes to work each day and guards the entrance door since the plant is noisy and the office is a little farther down a hallway and there’s no person right at the entrance door. Even over the equipment noise Miko heard the door and me. I didn’t have any treats with me at the moment. I’ll have to take extra next time.

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The Telltale Paws, 2013
black cat paws under pillow shams
Something seems out of place.

Giuseppe took the easy way to snuggle on this cold afternoon—instead of climbing in under the comforter, he slid in behind the pillow shams. Easy enough, but he forgot to tuck himself entirely in. Of course, I had to tickle the toes and tug on the tail. I was totally ignored.

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A Little Bit of Catnip…2012
A little bit of catnip does wonders for a shy cat.
A little bit of catnip does wonders for a shy cat.

This is the same shy Kelly I mentioned this morning in A Little Bit About Kelly, but it’s Kelly under the influence, about to do a somersault on top of the catnip toy. She’d been avoiding it for a while, afraid to let her guard down around the Fantastic Four who try to come over and play with her and she misinterprets. I brought out a fresh new toys from Aunt Carolyn from My Three Cats, and suddenly Kelly was not concerned at all with any black cats or anything else.

It’s always good to see Kelly relaxing.


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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

4 thoughts on “Daily Photo: Bella in Blues and Purples

  • Pawsome!
    What a cool way to have fun with those less than purrfect pics we all have 🙂
    Nancy and the kitties

    Reply
    • Nancy, that’s how I started playing around with filters in Photoshop, trying to fix up customer photos for design, now it’s just for fun.

      Reply
  • bluemoonalone

    Love those colors..

    Reply

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