Category: Cats

change of technique

whbeebe

Lately I’ve lamented my lack of motivation to use my existing camera equipment. I’ve even contemplated selling some of it, the most expensive and salable bits, because they’ve been sitting unused in my bag or on my shelves for some time now. Then today I grabbed my Olympus E-M5 Elite with an m.Zuiko 1.8/75mm lens attached and started to take candid photos of some of the little creatures as they enjoyed the afternoon outdoor weather on the lanai. I then moved the digital photos off the E-M5’s SDXC card and onto my 2016 iPad Pro and post-processed them in Lightroom, uploading them to my Flickr account. I found enjoyment again in the entire creative process of using the E-M5 through posting the photos to writing about it here. I suppose I’m not quite ready to give up my “real” cameras. I like the look of the 75mm; it’s so different from the look I get from my iPhone 11 Pro, a look that I prefer depending on the lighting, subject matter, and general composition.

Beautiful smiling Ruby, all of fourteen years.
Danï with her lynx-like ear tufts.
Zoë with her electric green eyes.

For those of you who know about the original Olympus E-M5, but don’t know about the Elite, that was the originally released E-M5 with a new paint job and outside cladding that also fixed the rear swing-up LCD panel. I got the body for free when I purchased my first PRO lens, the 2.8/12-40mm, with which the Elite body was bundled. It was a special deal from B&H Photo the Christmas season of the year the Elite was introduced. I still have my first E-M5 and will never give that up due to its historical value. No one remembers anymore, not with the massively expensive cameras from Canon, Nikon, and Sony, but the E-M5 really set the camera world on fire for a time because of all it could do in such a small and compact DSLR-like body. For all practical purposes the E-M5 was the first serious mirrorless camera, at least from Olympus. I’m sure that Panasonic Lumix fans would argue the point that it was one of the first Lumix cameras that should hold that title.

caturday — vet visit

whbeebe

Nicholas Joseph Purry is all of one year old, and it was time for his first official big-boy vet visit for his very first rabies vaccination. After a decade-and-a-half of dealing with cats I’ve evolved a fast and simple method of putting a cat in a carrier and then transporting them to the vet. In Nick’s case it was to leave out the carrier, with the top unlatched, in the same room I use to feed Nick. After an hour in the room Nick is a napping kind of cat, which makes it easy for me to gently but swiftly pick him up, pop open the top, and quickly place him in the carrier and latch the top closed. The only trick is to keep from agitating him so that he immediately throws out all four paws, blocking his entry into the carrier.

Once we got to the vet we settled into an examination room, where I took him out of his carrier and just held him. A tech came in to weigh him, and we both placed him in the scale’s bowl and then put up our hands as a kind of living barrier to get him to stay put. He weighed a good eleven pounds.

Since we were not the only patients, we needed to wait for the vet to arrive with Nick’s vaccinations. Nick wondered around the examination room and checked every nook and corner to see if he could get out through there. He was anxious and really wanted to leave. Barring an escape, he came up and sat next to me for the majority of the time. When the vet finally came in, Nick moved right up next to me, at which point I reached down and put both my hands on him to comfort and to rub him. He purred for a while, and when it came time for his shot, he didn’t move or give out a peep. He was a very good boy.

The day after his vet visit Nicholas wanted to nap more than usual. Two days after his official visit Nicholas is again all cuteness and playfulness and boundless energy.