Last Saturday we were invited at a friend’s place for lunch. Oh, and to take some pictures. She’s got two lovely Egyptian Maus. One silver spotted and one black smoke, absolutely gorgeous cats. And we got to play around a bit with them.

Mauno, the silver spotted one, was a bit more cooperative than Eppu, the black smoke one, but I think things turned out very nicely. (More about Mauno and Eppu here and here).

We started with the “boring” stuff. Please, sit still, and look up. Head slightly more to the left… No, that’s too much… A bit back… That’s good. Chin up a bit more… nonono, not that much… cat nip is a bit lower…

D700, ISO800, 1/125 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm

D700, ISO1600, 1/125 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm

Eppu wasn’t too much in the mood of activity, so we did a couple of extra chin-ups with him

D700, ISO400, 1/125 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm

But after that we got onto the funky stuff…

D700, ISO400, 1/320 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

D700, ISO400, 1/320 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

D700, ISO400, 1/320 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

The next one’s actually slowly starting to become my favorite. Not because it’s fantastic, but it’s so elegant. Mauno’s got style. Put him in a tail-coat and he can… well… Never mind
This picture does remind me very much of the fairy tale “The Master Cat” (Puss in Boots).

D700, ISO400, 1/320 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

And then, well… after an afternoon of jumping… Also Mauno had enough and called it a day.

D700, ISO400, 1/320 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

So yeah, it’s been awhile…
Things have been stupidly busy.
Oh, and I’ve been on holiday.
Oxymoron, right?

I won’t bother you with a day-to-day photo-thingy like I did with the Canaries, but there are some pictures you should see.

When we were in Portland, our host there was the proud owner of two gorgeous cats. Having two cats myself, I just couldn’t help myself…

D700, ISO400, 1/320 sec @ f/6.7, Nikkor 50mm 1.4, on-camera flash

D700, ISO1600, 1/125 sec @ f/2.4, Nikkor 50mm 1.4

I dug out the macro lens again after not having used it for some time.
Missed it. Cassandra was the first victim, but didn’t seem to care much.
Interesting stuff…
My better half has been telling me to shoot a series of pictures like this and frame them as a collage. I really should!

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 90 mm macro, on-camera flash

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4.5, Tamron 90 mm macro, on-camera flash

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4.0, Tamron 90 mm macro, on-camera flash

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4.5, Tamron 90 mm macro, on-camera flash

Oh, before you start yelling that the eye has to be in focus…
This was done on purpose, for another purpose

Ok, it’s not the best picture ever, and I know it’s out of focus, but it’s dang near the funniest picture ever.
I can’t help but go back to this image and every time it cracks me up.
For some reason it reminds me of Bill Clinton in court swearing to the judge and jury “I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN!”.
Don’t ask me why…

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8, off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

As a good friend of mine tought me to say. Big ones!
After all this time of rain, clouds and overcast weather I got up this morning at 5am to shoot the sunrise. And what do you think? Not a cloud in the sky! Not ONE cloud in the sky! So I didn’t get to shoot anything worth posting.
That’s happened to me a good number of times now and it’s getting annoying. But I’m a patient guy… I’ll try again and get more annoyed

Owwell… I’ll give you something else. Earlier this week my new toys arrived and I tested it out on our two kitties.

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, off-camera flash with Photoflex softbox

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, off-camera flash with Photoflex softbox