Submitter's name:	Hans van Veluwen
Title:	Yet Another Cat
Subtitle:	Secretia
Equipment:	Olympus OM-4, Zuiko 135mm/F4.5 Macro, T8 Ringflash 2 with Reflector 1 (20cm)
Film:	Fuji Press 800 forced to 1600 ASA
Shutter Speed:	1/60 sec.
Aperture:	F16
Exposure:	Auto, -1 stop compensation
Subject info:	I would have rather submitted a nice studio shot of my girl friend Carla or our mutual friend Karin using a fancy multiple T flash setup, and my Hama studio flash with snout as a hair light, but unfortunately both ladies got shy at the thought of being exposed on the Internet ;) ;) So here I end up with Yet Another Cat shot. Secretia didn't mind, as usual. Why call a cat Secretia? We used to have two cats, and the other was called Lucretia (after the notorious Lucretia Borghia). Both did honour to their name, ruining two couches and the covers of half of my huge LP collection.
Technique:	Nothing special; 1 stop underexposure because both the cat and the black leather couch she's lying on, or rather what's left of it :( are dark. The T8 is known for its soft lighting and can be useful not only for macro shots but also for shadowless 'glamour' portrait shots. The fast film was not deliberately chosen for this session; it just happened to be in the camera because it was loaded during the Laïs concert in Amsterdam for available light stage photography.
Here you can leave some comments about this picture. Please fill out all the fields before submitting the form. Once you're done filling out the form, click the "Leave comments" button, after which you can see your comments down below.
Your name:
Your e-mail:
Comments:

Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

Yet another cat indeed, but nonetheless this is an excellent animal portrait, as it has very original framing, a nice black background with the hairs in front of it, and just look at that eye...

Comment left by: The Boss ;) (no e-mail specified)

I see that I forgot to mention the Telescopic Auto Tube 65-116 in the Equipment section.

Comment left by: Barry Bean (bbbean@beancotton.com)

Nice detail - good use of a macro

Comment left by: Keith Berry (k.berry@telinco.co.uk)

You can't have too many cats! Remarkable quality for 1600 ASA!

Comment left by: Charles Packard (packardc@hiwaay.net)

Extremely nice detail for 1600. I like the framing makes me wonder what she's watching.

Comment left by: The Boss ;) (no e-mail specified)

I also forgot to mention the home made 6V Battery Holder (containing four D size cells), to feed the modelling lights of the T Macro flash. And the secret behind the name Secretia will be unclear unless you speak Dutch. 'Sekreet' means nasty bitch! Of course we never call her that and when she's not scratching her nails in the couch she's a very sweet cat.

Comment left by: siddiq (siddim01@student.ucr.edu)

now THAT'S a neat angle on a cateye, very intruiging. also, as others noted, amazingly smooth for 1600.

[Previous]

[Return to index]

[Next]