A Man, a Camera, and 2 Cats

That's it for now, in this format..........

2013-04-21T20:59:00.001-04:00

OK, so there are some life changes on the near term horizon that look to limit my time for feline photography in this dedicated format, so I leave you, dear AMACA2C viewer, with this picture of a camera-shy kitty fleeing my attention in Bali. I mean you no harm, kitty, but clearly you don't understand!

If you want to follow my photography (cats, wilderness, etc.) please check in on my flickr page every now and then. To get you started here is a link to a photo that I took in Key West that I am quite fond of but didn't get around to posting on AMACA2Cs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonfromcincinnati/8445854329/in/photostream

Thanks for your support!

Merry Christmas from AMACA2Cs!

2012-12-19T22:26:00.000-05:00

So we had our Christmas photo shoot last weekend. It was as unpredictable as cat photography can be. Here's the best shot I could get of the 2 of them together:
I really like how FuFu looks like a kitten in this photo:
Here's XingXing slinking towards the camera with his best Kitty Grinch look. Notice in this photo & others the ornaments with their mug shots......

And finally here is one more of FuFu - he was quite happy he didn't have to wear the kitty Santa hat & beard this year! Merry Christmas!

Our Humans Went to Nicaragua and All We Got Was This Hammock

2012-12-05T22:14:00.001-05:00

FuFu didn't really get the concept at first, to him, it seemed like the hammock was a perfect multi-colored canopy to hide under. Then, at least he humored this cat photographer by staying put on the hammock for a bit. XingXing, on the other hand, would not play along. "I won't stoop to my brother's level" he seemed to be saying. "Hammocks are for humans to sleep on and my species will have none of this. This silly touristic gimmick strung underneath the dining room table is no substitute for a real tree in the jungle or savannah which is the proper platform that my cousins have used for many millennia to sleep & stalk prey."

Once a Cat Photographer.......

2012-11-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

So, like always I was thinking, man, you need to extend your photographic repertoire beyond cats. One must avoid being pigeon-holed as a feline photographer, right? What better subject matter than some amazing orchids that we got from Home Depot of all places. Classic still life material. Perfect. I took this first shot on a whim, liked the result, and then set up the home studio for shot #2:

All right, now we are talking, nice artistic floral arrangements. But then, I could not resist. Cats were fetched, toy mice, treats, laser pointers (I am divulging all my secrets, aren't I?) were employed. As always, FuFu was more game for the shenanigans than XingXing. It does beg the question, though - is there any photographic composition that cannot be improved with the addition of a cat?

Hurricane Sandy Sends the Cats Uptown To a Deluxe Skyscraper in the Sky

2012-11-07T22:20:00.002-05:00

What a crazy time its been here in New York since Hurricane Sandy hit. We lost power the night of the hurricane. After 48 hours without electricity, commuting uptown via taxi (no subways downtown with no power), and a forecast of temperatures dropping, we moved ourselves and cats uptown to our friend Tom's apartment on the Upper West Side which never lost power. I wish I had better pics but I packed very light and only snapped a few with my "small" camera. The cats loved Tom's apartment. XingXing spent alot of time by the window enjoying the views of Lincoln Center, while FuFu cavorted, lounged and splayed himself all over Tom's furniture. Although we got power back over the weekend the cats stayed a couple of extra days with Tom for some "quality time". Maybe in the future Tom will babysit the cats again (under better circumstances hopefully!) and I will be able to do a better photo shoot. His apartment was more-or-less designed for cat photography, with plenty of light, interesting city views for background, and interesting furniture for feline exploration.
Long time and perspicacious blog followers will recall that this is the second year in a row that a NYC hurricane has impacted the kitties. Last year Irene left the cats stranded by themselves for 48 hours as we were out of town and their caretaker couldn't reach them due to the subways being closed........hopefully no more hurricanes for many years!

The Cats of Bhutan, Without their People (International Cat Chronicles, Volume 2 Part 2)

2012-08-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

Wrapping up the Bhutan theme and before I move on to the feline delights of another country, here is another bunch of Bhutanese cats, this time without their people (check out the prior post if you haven't).

The People of Bhutan, and Their Cats

2012-07-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

The cats of Bhutan have it rough - on first appearance, this is definitely dog country. Canines are everywhere! I missed a great shot of a dog sleeping in the middle of a busy traffic circle (no traffic lights in Bhutan!). Here are two lounging pooches clearly unimpressed with the nice view of the capital city of Thimpu, and another doggie relaxing in the backyard of a temple.

However, although dogs are ubiquitous, an observant traveler will notice that cats are around and do have a certain status - they are present in monasteries, hotels, temples, homes, etc. for the same reason that humans have kept cats for at least several millenia - organic, cute & fury pest control.
Of course, Bhutan is famous for emphasizing "Gross National Happiness" as opposed to "Gross National Product". And the people of Bhutan do generally seem happy. But like people the world over, they seem even happier when they are holding a cat.........

P.S. - although these cats look similar, these pics were taken many miles and mountain passes apart!

My Cats, On a Tuesday Evening in May

2012-05-22T22:01:00.000-04:00

Love the long days as the summer solstice approaches, plenty of time to capture pics of the cats after work. But what to do when you have radically different white balances for the daylight & indoors? Instead of dealing and trying to make it look "natural", I rolled with the punches and got a little funky :)

After Eating BBQ Spare Ribs, The Cat is Content to Sleep in the Afternoon Sun

2012-05-07T22:19:00.003-04:00

I smoked / grilled some BBQ ribs for a good many hours this weekend, and FuFu was quite interested in the whole process. When they were finally ready at the awkward dining time of 3pm, no one was around except for FuFu and I. I ate a good many ribs (too many, others would protest after they returned....) along with the remnants of a bottle of Gigonda from the night before, and all the while FuFu lurked around the table, quite curious and aroused. Feeling pity for the poor kitty, I pulled some scraps off the pile of discarded ribs to feed him far away from the table (can't be cultivating bad begging habits, right?). He sniffed, pawed around, but would not consume. Hmm, quite curious I thought, the gourmand feline refuses? I then took the scraps and rinsed the BBQ sauce, spices and other flavorings off, and now FuFu happily consumed. This carnivorous kitty regularly enjoys chicken, turkey, beef, and even the occasional duck, but this day he clearly relished his slow-cooked pork treat. His appetite and curiosity happily satiated, he curled up for a nap in the afternoon sun, captured here with the iPhone.

International Cat Chronicles, Volume I: Tokyo's Cat Cafes

2012-04-23T22:40:00.000-04:00

Its been a while since I have posted, so might as well return with my longest and most extensive post to date.... There is much to admire about Japan: wonderful cuisine, an admirable degree of social cohesion that has been more evident than ever in the recovery from last year's disasters, a culture that seamlessly mixes old traditions with trendsetting fashion and a sense of modern urban cool, etc. Perhaps less well known is the fact that Japan is a great cat loving nation. I'm not really sure why - if you Google "why do Japanese people love cats" you find explanations such as cats are fastidious, amenable to living in tight quarters, etc. And please, lets not even get started with Hello Kitty, which has always kind of annoyed me. I'm talking about real cats, as AMACA2Cs followers know we try to celebrate the wild, not quite domesticated aspect of the cats that live amongst us humans, as opposed to cartoonish cute stereotypes. If you casually browse through cat photos on Flickr, you will quickly come across some great photos from Japanese cat photographers. My personal favorite is "Rampx", check out his excellent photos of somewhat "ferocious" Japanese felines here
Anyway, back to the subject at hand which is Japanese cat cafes. AMACA2Cs recently had an opportunity to travel to Japan and visit 4 of the over 30 cat cafes in Tokyo and 100+ cat cafes in Japan. For a general introduction on cat cafes, check out this CNN piece, and you can find an invaluable map of all the cat cafes in Japan here. The basic concept of nekocafes (neko = cat in Japanese) is that they offer a place for cat aficionados whose circumstances may not allow for keeping a cat at home to relax with kitties of various types and stripes. They also are a place to get caffeinated, meet and hang out with fellow cat-loving humans, or perhaps just chill out, read, or who knows - maybe take a few photos of cats! I must say that I was intimidated by the hardware of the fellow cat photographers I encountered at these cafes. Obviously the Japanese are somewhat camera-obsessed, and I left my DSLR at home in the spirit of traveling light (and due to a recent shoulder injury) and therefore felt somewhat underclassed and "outgunned" with my tiny point & shoot vs. the formidable hardware displayed by the local neko photographers. But the photos were workable, so I humbly present the following opinionated photo review of the 4 neko cafes that I visited.............

First off was Nekobukuro , which is actually listed as an attraction the the Lonely Planet guidebook.

Although Nekobukuro has friendly staff and an attractive layout, I must admit I was a bit disappointed as it was sort of Disney-like instead of a relaxing cozy cafe type environment that I expected. They also didn't appear to be selling coffee or tea or have comfy seating, so you can't really call it a cafe. They did have some interesting cats, though, including this "curly" haired kitty:

Here is the display of their full roster:

I arrived within 15 minutes of their opening on Saturday morning, so I was surprised that this gentleman was able to get in there, get comfy and fall asleep by the time I arrived!

There did seem to be quite a few kids and families at Nekobukuro, so I will give it kudos for being family friendly. One more Nekobukuro photo before we move on:

Next up and just a few blocks away was Cat Relaxation Cafe 299. This is my attempt at an English translation, but 299 is actually an interesting play on words that relate to a cat's paws. Anyway, this cafe was quite the opposite of Nekobukuro, it seemed its primary clientele was canoodling couples. The space is dark and cavernous, with plenty of couches and cats.

Here you can see a couple getting to know one of the kitties, perhaps as they cat to know each other. Quite a nice venue for a first of second date, I would imagine!

The problem from 299 from a cat photographers perspective, however, is that this was the only window in the whole place. With flash photography not allowed, that severely limits the lighting possibilities! So I hung out by this window, and was able to snap a few more photos:

So after a cup of coffee I was on to another cat cafe that was only a block away, Nekorobi

Nekorobi is actually "purr-fect" for cat photography, a corner location with windows on two sides that allow for ample natural light. And an interesting roster of kitties as well. Each had their own photo book:

There was also a guest book that had some interesting scribblings in it:

This was an interesting perch for the kitties (and human patrons!) to watch the activity of cars and humans scurrying below:

There is plenty of seating to hang out, an eclectic clientele, and all the drinks from the vending machine were free! I reluctantly left this urban cat oasis after my hour was up, but not before snapping these pics:

The three prior cat cafes were all clustered around the Ikebukuro train station, which is one of Tokyo's many transit and shopping hubs that link the city center with the suburbs. For the last cat cafe AMACA2Cs traveled to Shinjuku, which is sort of like the Times Square of Tokyo. The Calico cat cafe is the largest cat cafe in Japan (by # of cats, not square feet, a staff member helpfully pointed out), and has a spacious duplex configuration. The specific location is quite interesting as it is actually right next to Kabukicho, the infamous red light district of Tokyo. It was pouring rain so unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the outside placard that was advertising the cafe, but it was similar to placards on the same block advertising "hostess club" establishments. The only difference was that Calico's placard had pictures of cats instead of sexy ladies!
Here is a photo of the upstairs area, where there were a bunch of kids playing video games and not really paying attention to the cats.. I quickly proceeded to the much larger downstairs area.

You can see from this photo that Calico is one of the few entertainment establishments in the neighborhood whose clientele are mostly female!

You get a sense of how spacious the cafe is here:

A pretty grey kitty:

Like many of the cat cafes, Calico also has a nice collection of manga (japanese-style comic books) which these ladies are perusing.

This cat had particularly short legs - an interesting breed for sure!

What stripes!

This cat is so comfy and so oblivious to the swarming and adoring humans that his eyes are shut so tight you can't even see them!

A cat hanging out in a cardboard fire truck, with his short-legged lieutenant by his side. Note the license plate.

Cat soup!

Although there were many more cat cafes I could have visited, I was rather happy with the cross-section and diversity of the 4 that I visited. So I ventured off to a more conventional tourist destination, the temple-infused seaside town of Kamakura. It was a nice day, and I took this photo of a shrine that appeared to be dedicated to cats - do you see the two stone figurines?

I hope you enjoyed AMACA2Cs first international foray - more to come!

Interrupt My Bathing Session at Your Own Risk...

2012-03-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

I have a lot of material for a new post that will take AMACA2Cs in a new international direction...........but it will have to wait as I'm a bit pressed for time tonight. So instead, I offer you these photos that illustrate a classic principle of cat photography - if you want a semi-malevolent photo of a cat staring at you, interrupt a grooming session!

Cats in the Kitchen, Episode 2: Watch Out For Those Wine Glasses FuFu!

2012-03-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

Its quite a quandary for a photographer, to branch out into video or not? Should AMACA2Cs contribute to the voluminous amount of cat videos out there on the internet, or remain focused on artful (and sometimes not so artful) still images of cats (especially 2 particular cats)? I do love the purity of capturing an ephemeral slice of time or magic moment that is the essence of photography. That being said, most of us have passable video capability on our cellphones. And if you like cats, how can you not use this from time-to-time to capture those moments that just seem to work better as video? I personally don't use the video on the iPhone that much, but my lovely assistant does quite a bit, and captured this video of a cat raid on the wine glasses. The following humble video is the first, but certainly not last video to appear on AMACA2Cs.

Lap Cat? Nope. Except, Maybe in the Winter.....

2012-02-24T00:35:00.002-05:00

I must admit the tiniest bit of disappointment that XingXing and FuFu are not true "lap cats". You know, the kind that mosey over to the couch and plop themselves right down on your lap and could not be happier. But I guess XingXing and FuFu are a bit too wild & independent for this kind of bonding. They will come up to you and solicit affection, but it is on their terms and almost always those terms do not include your lap. Except........ ......Winter is perhaps my second favorite season after fall. Among the many pleasures of winter (snowshoe hiking, wearing flannel shirts, JoJo's yummy stews, reading by the fire) I can include some lap time with XingXing. It takes a magic combo of a rather cool ambient temperature in the house, comfy flannel pants (from the cat's perspective), and a chilled out and tired kitty. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago during just such a session. I didn't have the "big gun" handy, and couldn't quite move with the cat on my lap, so had to make do with the iPhone, which performed admirably. Its nice to see XingXing so relaxed, as he generally is the more high strung of the two.......

Seeking Enlightenment

2012-02-19T23:55:00.000-05:00

I will be so disappointed when they proceed with construction and fill in the space across the street - as it is now it is just such an excellent backdrop for shots like these!

Reading About Big (Endangered) Cats, With a Small (Pampered) Cat on My Lap

2012-02-13T23:07:00.000-05:00

I figure this is the perfect photo to introduce my carefully curated cat book recommendations, which you can find just to the right of this (and all future) blog posts courtesy of a nice Amazon.com widget (mobile followers, take a look a the website on the big screen of a "real" computer every now-and-then!). I will only recommend books that 1.) Are about cats; 2.) that I have read; and 3.) that are good. The selection includes the book that I am reading here, The Tiger, A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, a truly excellent book on many levels. It is a suspenseful page-turner, a big cat conservation plea, and certainly a paean to the mystique, power & beauty of felines of all sizes. It really opened my eyes to the plight of tigers, of which there are only several hundred left in the wild. Alas, I have found a new cause. This weekend I made donations to National Geographic's Big Cat Initiative and the Wildlife Conservation Society, which are two of the many non-profit groups working to protect big cat habitats. Furthermore, I will be donating any "kickbacks" that I get from Amazon when anyone clicks through and purchases these books to similar charities (and perhaps a bit more to local cat rescue as well).

Cats in the Kitchen, Episode 1: FuFu Goes Dumpster Diving

2012-02-11T15:58:00.000-05:00

Dumpster diving is an art that alley cats have perfected, out of necessity. After all, they gotta eat. Perhaps XingXing and FuFu remember stories of dumpster diving that their mother Penelope told them about growing up and getting by on the streets of Brooklyn. Regardless, they are quite fond of trash inspection. JoJo *swears* that they know how to open the trash bin in our kitchen by themselves. The following series was captured by JJ on her iPhone. XingXing appears quite reluctant to take a dive, but FuFu was up for the challenge.

and finally, a shot I spiffed up a bit in B&W:

One Cool Cat: Japanimation-Style XingXing

2012-02-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

So, you take a nice photo of your kitty on the iPhone and, well, its not quite as sharp and in-focus as you would like. What to do? Process it in a way where sharpness isn't important. Luckily it is quite easy and fun to play with a photo on the iPhone via various apps to do something like this. I processed this photo during a marathon business trip yesterday that included 4 flights of each about 2 hours long. Nice break from work-related reading, newspapers, magazines, etc. I like this photo so much it is actually my new iPhone home screen. There is kind of a Mona Lisa-esque ambiguity to XingXing's expression here. Does he looks debonair, rakish, arrogant, incisive, insouciant, omniscient? Any why on earth are his ears cocked back?

here is another interpretation, pencil-sketch style:

FuFu Illustrates the Four Classial Lighting Patterns

2012-01-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

I am one week into a 10-week course "Introduction to Lighting Techniques" at ICP. Our assignment for the first week is to take a photo of each of the four classical lighting patterns: split, loop, Rembrandt and glamour/butterfly. If you are interested you can learn more about these patterns here. On that webpage they are illustrated by a kind of goofy looking actor. Actually, I think it might be a mannequin. Regardless, I find it kind of creepy and prefer FuFu's modelling below! Conventionally these are meant to be lighting patterns for human portraits but JoJo was not as willing a model as FuFu, so you have to make do with what you've got. If you have lemons, make lemonade. If you have a cat, make cat portraits.

I couldn't decide between two potential Rembrandt shots, so I include them both, one stationary and one "action" shot:

And here, of course, is a split lighting pattern:

Loop and glamor are kind of similar, and with cats the shadow on the nose which is the telltale sign of which pattern is in play is not as visible. Anyway, I am calling this one loop lighting:

And rounding out the classical 4 we have glamor / beauty / butterfly / Hollywood:

Our instructor also added a semi-official 5th pattern, "monster" lighting. Here, instead of re-inventing the wheel I instantly knew I had the purr-fect example of this lighting effect from the AMACA2Cs archive, which long-time faithful followers surely will remember as it is an image that is difficult to forget!

JoJo Pursues a Master's Degree in FuPhotography

2012-01-20T00:06:00.001-05:00

Lately when I've been working late or otherwise not home JoJo has been sending me pics of the cats to amuse me / torture me / beckon me home. Its just so easy with the iPhone, a multi-generation upgrade from her camera-less Palm monstrosity. And the pics are quite good! Now, in the previous post I gave a rather outlandish example of some "artistic" processing you can do with the iPhone, and I promise more grungtastic, hyper-processed iPhone cat photos in the future, but for now these are two of JoJo's straight out of the camera pics. Isn't strange / cool how FuFu doesn't appear to have pupils in the first one? And the second one, I don't know if it is because she is covering one of his ears but it looks sort of like a human face / expression.........

FuFu gets the Andy Warhol treatment - all via the iPhone...

2012-01-13T00:03:00.000-05:00

Whoaa, this iPhone thing is huge! I took an iPhone photography workshop at ICP this past weekend with Dan Burkholder that was excellent! It is truly amazing what you can do on the iPhone with $20 worth of apps, in some (many) ways it is better than Photoshop ($600), and certainly more user friendly. It would have taken me ages to compose this "pop art" rendition of FuFu in Photoshop, yet this was a relative snap on the iPhone using PhotoWizard and PhotoForge apps. I'm almost tempted to port over some of my pics taken from my "real" camera to the iPhone for processing, but what I really need to do is start taking more photos via on the iPhone. There is kind of a cool purity to taking the photo and processing it all on the phone!

For those of you interested, Dan has an article in the winter issue (#13) of Peterson's Photographic that is on newsstands now that covers the gist of what he covered in the workshop. Also, he has mini-tutorials and such on his website as well.

Stay tuned for more iPhone cat photos here at AMACA2Cs, but don't expect me to use it for the majority of my pics, as my "big kahuna" DSLR is still the best choice for capturing a moving cat!

Hello Sudan!

2012-01-05T21:44:00.002-05:00

FuFu "hunting" a bird...........below you can see the end result! (Excuse the blur, cats & birds move fast when doing this kind of dance....) It is always interesting to see the breakdown by country of "hits" to AMACA2Cs from Blogger's analytics. And this week, a new country showed up: Sudan! So I would like to extend a warm AMACA2Cs welcome to our viewer from Sudan. Ain't the internet great? Maybe I will divulge some more international stats in future posts, but suffice it to say that outside of the US which is still the vast majority of our clicks, Europe and Japan constitute the "core" international fan base, so its always interesting when Southern Hemisphere countries show up. It is too bad that Blogger only ranks the top 10 countries, as it would be interesting if they showed all the countries that have ever clicked, so I could track our progress towards getting the whole world to take a peak at AMACA2Cs. Anyways, here is the culmination of FuFu's stalking!

Happy Birthday to..........AMACA2Cs! Raiding the Kitten Archives to Celebrate

2011-12-29T00:07:00.000-05:00

One year and 63 posts later, still going strong! Today is the "paper" anniversary of AMACA2Cs, which started a year ago with this post To commemorate this occasion, I have decided to raid the kitten archives to show this quartet of sleeping kitten photos. Who doesn't love a photo (or 4) of sleeping kittens? By the time this blog was started, XX and FF were already 1+ years old and no longer kittens, so there exists a veritable "treasure trove" of unposted kitten photos to trickle out in the future - consider this an appetizer. As I browsed through the kitten archives this evening it gave me an opportunity to reflect on how I have grown as a photographer in tandem with the growth of these kitties. It is not an exaggeration to say that my cats were almost singlehandedly responsible for rekindling a long dormant interest in photography (which first burned strong in the 90s with my first dear, and decidedly non-digital Canon Rebel). The kittens arrived, photos were taken, I wasn't 100% satisfied and wanted to improve, gear was bought, classes were taken at the International Center of Photography, more gear was bought, an increasingly large number of non-cat photos were taken, and the journey on a virtuous cycle of photography and feline appreciation has continued apace......thanks for joining on the ride!

Merry Christmas from AMACA2C!

2011-12-23T16:52:00.001-05:00

Alas, it was time for their Christmas photos, and with their powerful feline intuition the cats knew it. This was an especially troubling prospect for FuFu, who was all but certain that he would be forced to wear the same Santa cat hat & beard as last year (here is the link). XingXing was much less agitated, as he confidently knew that there was no way a human would be able to put a cat hat on him and not live to regret it. FuFu, on the other hand, was hiding from me behind a branch. But I must tell you, it is quite hard to find a place to hide behind a "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree!

So I pulled him out to have a chat with him.

Abandoning his plan to simply hide and hope for the best, FuFu decided to instead rely on his quick wit and fast talking to avoid the hat. "Please, he said, don't make me wear the hat. If I don't have to, I will stand REALLY tall in front of the tree and make a beautiful portrait for you". True to his word, that is what he did, and since I was pleased with this photo, I didn't have to resort to the gimmicky cat hat. Ahhh, a happy Christmas for all involved! Merry Christmas to all of our faithful feline & human fans!

Christmas Tree Shadow Falls on FuFu

2011-12-19T23:18:00.001-05:00

FuFu was perched in just the right place to catch the sunlight shining through our "Charlie Brown" X-mas tree for this pic. Yes, our Christmas tree is that tiny! This next pic looks like it might have had a complicated light setup (flash, reflectors, etc.), but was taken in the same light just before or after the shadow pic.

Baby Beware! A Cat is Stalking You!

2011-12-14T23:23:00.000-05:00

Although XingXing most of the time has more of a "macho hunter" persona, when it comes to encountering strangers and strange phenomena (such as human infants), he is quite a scaredy cat! FuFu, on the other hand, is more curious (or doesn't know any better?). So when our friends A&A visited us (J&J) this past weekend and brought their infant "a", FuFu was the one brave enough to get close enough to snap a photo. Although in these pics FuFu looks like a menacing stalking cat, I think he was quite scared himself!