The Cat We Almost Rescued

Sorry, I don't have a picture of the cat. 50mm, f/1.4, ISO 100, 1/1000s.

For the first time in a long time, Evan and I were behaving like REAL PEOPLE. People who have dinner parties. I was so proud of us. Not only had we cooked a real dinner, with multiple courses, from scratch, but we were also schmoozing with the best of them.

If you had been a fly on the wall you might have been persuaded that we did such a thing every night. And thought nothing of it.

But then somewhere in between "pass the caprese salad" and "would you like a touch more wine?" there was a bit of an interruption. A banging at the door. Evan went to investigate, we carried on. Until he burst back into the room and said tersely, "Jess, take the cat downstairs. Alec's at the door with a cat." (For the uninitiated: Alec is Evan's brother.)

Imagining a sick, injured, abandoned cat, I followed instructions. Once our Mouse was safely stowed, I went to check out the newcomer, only to find Evan and Alec both still outside, now lying facedown on the asphalt outside next to a car. Apparently the cat had squirmed out of Alec's arms and sought shelter under the nearest vehicle. Eventually we lured it out with some salmon treats, I grabbed it, and we got it inside. Then we checked the collar and called the emergency numbers on it. I could only imagine the relief of the owners that someone had found their cat and was taking care of it. I mean, if we lost Mouse I'd be in pieces! The area of San Francisco we live in is all asphalt and concrete, cars and stoplights. There are pretty much no street cats.

Well, no one picked up at either number so Evan left a couple of rambling messages, trying to explain the situation without making it seem like we had stolen the cat. We put out some water for the cat, and pet it a bit. Under the circumstances, it was doing pretty well.

Then Evan tried calling again. And someone picked up! I was picturing their relief until Evan said, "So we should just put him outside again?" Turns out, we weren't heroes at all. Apparently there are some outdoor cats in our area after all. And we had just captured one, but not rescued it.

A bit sheepish, we shooed it out the door. It sat on the step for a few moments, unsure why it was getting the boot. And then it trotted away, into the night.

Caturday

Recently Evan and I have been talking about adopting another kitten to have a companion for Mouse. At the moment it's not feasible, because we simply don't have enough space for two kitties. But when the remodel's finished, we will. (Hope that's soon! Evan . . . )

So, you know, as we do sometimes, we've been on the internet, trying to figure out what kind of cat we want to have. We've almost decided on a Bengal, because it would look a bit like Mouse, and they have super cool personalities. Some Bengals like to swim, they're very active, and they're beautiful.

But part of me also feels like it would be better to rescue a kitty from a shelter (like we rescued Mouse from the streets of Thailand). And so I went down the dangerous path of looking at Petfinder for cats in our area that need homes. This one in particular stood out for me. She seems super sweet, and like she really needs a good home. Anyone want to adopt Tia??

San Francisco Afternoon

There's this great light by the water in the afternoons. Alois and I met up there and walked along the water taking pictures for a couple of hours. I had the Lensbaby on the camera (I promise, I'll start using other lenses soon!) and it was really nice. Kind of meditative. I love that quote on the lower picture. I don't know what an island light is, but I agree. We have it.

CreativeLIVE

Fun with shadows. 50mm, f/13, 1/1000s, ISO 1000

So I've been spending a fair amount of time in front of my computer, just staring at the screen recently. No, it's not writer's block. I'm not pretentious enough to think that if I wait some better sentences will come out of my fingertips. It's also not pondering the universe, questioning the meaning of life, or having a narcoleptic attack. (I hope.)

Instead, it's that nefarious brainchild of Chase Jarvis, CreativeLIVE. Long story short, they broadcast photography classes live online for free, and then you can buy them to view and download afterward.

The first class I bought from them was Wedding Photography with Jasmine Star. I'm glad I bought it, because it took me about 3 months of watching it at odd intervals to really make it through it all. 3 days of solid information, and watching her shoot a real wedding. If you're at all interested in wedding photography, it's definitely worth it.

And then last December, CreativeLIVE was offering a deal on all of its weekend classes, basically at half price each. I'm a sucker for a deal, so I bit the bullet. Aaaand then life intervened, so I never really watched much of them. But I got reminded recently, when Jasmine did her second class, on the business of photography, and I watched it live. (Great class, but I'm glad I didn't have to buy it, because a lot of the information was repeated from the first class.)

Then I watched Zack Arias's Studio Lighting class. I don't have a studio, and I don't have the space for one, but I could not stop watching! He is a force of nature, and I learned so much about lighting from this class. If I ever have enough room to set up some white seamless I am SO THERE. Great class.

Anyway, all of this to say: if you've been living under a rock, and you didn't know about CreativeLIVE, well, now you do. And Zack's teaching another course this weekend, called Foundations of a Working Photographer. (See his great ad for it here.) So if you want to hang out on Saturday, well, I might be busy. Sitting in front of my computer, staring at the screen.

And taking mad notes.

Lensbaby Sweet 35 Optic

Ok, so remember that kool-aid I talked about drinking a couple of days ago?

On a (dangerous to my wallet) whim I shelled out for the new Lensbaby Sweet 35 Optic. It fits into my Lensbaby Composer, and has the same selective focus as my regular Lensbaby optic, but it's wider - 35mm instead of 50mm - and it has adjustable aperture built in. For any Lensbaby aficionado this is BIG NEWS because the other optics: double glass, single glass, plastic, fisheye, etc., all had aperture rings you had to insert manually with a little magnetic thingy.

Kind of cool, yes. Certainly made you think about changing your aperture. A bit of a pain? Also yes. You had to really want to change your aperture. Also, I mislaid mine last week, so I can only shoot at f/2.8 now. Forever.

With the Sweet 35 I can change it on a whim. The camera still doesn't electronically register my aperture because I change it on a click wheel on the lens, but metering works just fine. However, that means I don't remember what aperture any of these images are. Oops! Sorry.

One of the first places I took it was the California Academy of Sciences. I liked this shot of the dinosaur in the entryway.

You'll notice that the glass is sharp where it needs to be, but it's also really contrasty. This makes images have a certain pop, but it also creates more blown highlights and blocked shadows than I would expect with another lens.

The oval bokeh is fun to play with. And like any Lensbaby optic, you can move the spot of focus to fine tune your composition.

I also happen to think it's a great lens for pets. The wide angle gives a bit of distortion close in, and the selective focus is really fun.

A shot from a Passover Seder I went to this past weekend.  I really enjoy the simplification that the spot of focus gives a crowded composition.

And a shot from an Easter celebration! Also a fun lens for flowers. Can't wait till Lensbaby makes a macro lens for this one.

And, because it's that time of year, and I can't resist, a couple blossom shots. As I mentioned before, it's fun to move the focus point around and really get your composition exactly the way you want it. With the 50mm double glass optic, it seems much sharper in the center than at the edges, but I didn't feel that way with the Sweet 35. It seems equally sharp just about anywhere.

So, a fun new toy to play with. And the secret behind yesterday's post! Definitely a specialty item, and not one I'd recommend to everyone. But I'm enjoying it.

*As I've said before, Lensbaby has no idea who I am, and I buy all their stuff with my own hard earned money. But if they wanted to sponsor me, I'd be all over it! Lensbaby? Call me.*

Mouseover Monday!

Mouseover the image to see it in color.

Ok, ten points for the person who can tell me what special piece of equipment I used to take this photo.

The answer to be revealed tomorrow!