On Christmas Day, I shot the cats.
Sounds like a great opening line for a short story. Of course, you do realize that I shot them with a camera, as is my wont. And this was actually Boxing Day :-)
These cats get fed in a pair of bowls several times per day. Enzo is awfully cute when he eats, sitting so daintily and munching away. You would be forgiven if you could not help but notice how much Enzo looks like a chicken ready for the oven here :-) … that hairless skin of his stretches over his limbs in a most peculiar way …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 1600iso f/2.8 1/15
That was a rather low light image, shot with the GX1 and Sigma 2.8 lens wide open. I still managed only 1/15s, which is too slow to stop any movement. At 100%, Enzo’s ears show movement, but at this size the blur is very slight. And it adds slightly to the image anyway, since he is clearly munching on food …
Lightroom handles this image very well, removing all chroma noise with ease (at a very low setting on the slider.) The grain, on the other hand, is pretty persistent and you simply have to leave some at 100% if you are to retain a lot of detail at this size. The grain disappears when downsizing for web or small prints.
Later in the evening, I bust out the flash and catch a nice shot of Sammy lying around the living / dining area. Lazy girl …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 500iso f/2.8 1/60
The settings were a bit wonky for that shot. I have been shooting something else earlier and forgot to reset to base ISO and 1/160 … but the shot turned out very nicely because flash does not of the work anyway.
A bit later, the cats find themselves relaxing comfortably on the couch …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 160iso f/1.8 1/160
It doesn’t take long for Enzo to crash …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 160iso f/2.8 1/160
Sammy follows soon enough ….
same as previous exposure
And down she goes …
same as previous exposures
She rallies briefly …
same as previous exposures
Enzo remains dead to the world. Curled up like a rat cat is wont to do.
And there we go …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 160iso f/2.8 1/125
You can see that I accidentally changed the shutter speed. Makes no difference though, since there is no movement and the flash exposure swamps the ambient exposure. The images would look identical no matter what shutter speed I chose, although a really low shutter introduces motion blur that would be detectable sometimes.
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 160iso f/2.8 1/160
These two really like each other, obviously
