If you can’t get to the ground, bring it up to you with eye level cat portraits!
Today’s Portraits – On Bannisters!
Our back deck has a wooden railing that is a popular lounging and strolling spot and even senior Sienna makes the leap, as you can see. There is there is a platform that gives the cats a helping paw up, if they need it, but the cats are often happy to make the jump.
I discovered that resting my camera on the railing to take photographs will give a unique and fun perspective on cats. I always tell folks to ‘get low’ to help you get a great cat photo but how about if your bring the ‘low’ up to your level? This could be a railing, the edge of a stair or a wall of some kind.
- Look for a location your cat enjoys, a window ledge, a wall or halfway up the stairs.
Settings: I used my DSLR Aperture Priority (Nikon A) and an ISO of 200. This gave me an f-stop of f4.5. If your background is a bit darker you can try ISO 400. This will give you a bit more light or you can try to add or remove a bit of exposure compensation.
For a smartphone shot, it pays to know how to use your Burst mode. This will allow you to take lots of photos and delete the ones you don’t need once you find the shot you like best.
Exposure compensation in a bit more detail
I especially like this capture of Toulouse walking towards the camera. The original was shot in camera raw mode and I pushed the settings quite a bit so the effect is more textured.
Have you taken taken portraits at eye level. Do you think it is a fun way to show off your cats? Or do they prefer that you capture them when they snooze?
A Crossword Birthday
It’s Dash Kitten Dad’s birthday! Paul runs his own blog on the theme of cryptic crosswords. He is a renowned professional ‘crossword setter’ in his spare time and you will find his crosswords in the BBC Music Magazine (classical music with a little jazz) and British national newspapers under the pseudonym Phi.
Paul’s photo is one I took that features in his bio at The Guardian newspaper. Our tortie Sienna does her best to help him by sitting on his lap as he works!
Happy Birthday wishes to Dash Kitten’s dad!!!
I LOVE the eye level pics…it really puts one right there with them. This would work for dogs, too! Amazing shots. Always great info! Pinning to share!
Happy Birthday to Paul and hope he had a wonderful day. Awesome tips as always and I am slowly learning so much from you, thank you
Great tips for taking a wonderful photo of your furry friend at eye level. I’ll give this a try with Henry. Thanks!
Happy birthday to Paul! What a great career!
Happy BIrthday to Cat Dad, Paul!
I do like all those ‘lions’ on the deck railing.
I sometimes put the cats, even the pups, on the middle stair, not so much for the eye level, but for the better light that was there. Of course I didn’t know that eye level was so good at those times, LOL!
Excellent shots and advice!
Happy Birthday to catdaddy Paul!
These are all beautiful photos. Sienna is gorgeous.
Happy Birthday to Cat Dad Paul! Love those eye-level walkway pictures!
Happy birthday to Paul! These are spectacular photos! The one of Toulouse is award winning for sure. P.S. We figured out that if we visit your blog directly and don’t go through a blog hop link, our comment will go through. Go figure!
Great photos ~ motion, perspective, lighting. So blessed you can photo them outdoors, natural settings …
Happy Birthday Day … to the cat dad!
Happy birthday to cat dad Paul! The eye level photos are lovely, particularly Toulouse. I took a lot of Flynn’s photos at eye level, but 50% of Eric’s were with the zoom. He really disliked the camera.
Those pics are all lovely.
Happy Birthday to Dad Paul!
So well posed and as always much feline grace captured. Happy Birthday to Dad Paul!
ERin
I mostly try to get on the PAWS cats’ eye level when photographing them. Great tip!
Those are all so cool with the purrfect purrspective!