Photographing kittens and other pet portraits - part two

The foster kittens from African Tails became a permanent part of our household. We were always keen on keeping Bella as she has a deformed leg and a tri-pawed is always vulnerable.

Shadow stayed because we thought that she was important for Bella’s development and also because she crept into our hearts. I am obsessed with photographing the pets, but the kittens must have felt that they were being pursued by the paparazzi.

Photographing our furry friends is so much fun, but it can be challenging. Those images that look posed are actually captured just in the moment before they scoot off again. I have tried setting my camera to high speed continuous and low speed continuous, but I still prefer setting it to single shot and waiting for the moment.

Kittens move fast! A low shutter speed, for example 1/50 sec may result in a blurry image and if this is not your intention it can ruin the shot. I got away with using my favourite lens for portraits, a 50 mm prime, on aperture priority, 1/100 sec, f/3.5 and managed to secure a sharp image of the kittens wrestling on the couch. It appears that Bella is on the losing end, but this is not always the case. She is a fighter!

The shutter speed had dropped to 1/80 sec in this image which is quite cool as it shows some motion in the image – note Bella’s paw. Incidentally, I had bumped the ISO to 1600 to compensate for low-light conditions. A higher ISO number increases the sensitivity of your camera to the light, but the disadvantage is that extremely high ISO numbers can add grain to the image.

The kittens grew stronger and it became difficult to keep track of them.

They fell asleep everywhere.

They crept onto his favourite chair with our boy-cat Cougar, who is also a tri-pawed but that is another story, and insisted on being kept warm and protected.

Shadow became interested in watching birds and Bella wanted to climb trees with Amie. Amie was also adopted from African Tails. She is amazing with the kittens. She groomed them, taught them to use the scratch pole and how to ask for food when the bowls were empty. She taught them how to climb trees and how to intimidate the dogs.

We all watched over them and Bella, originally so weak and vulnerable, grew strong and confident.

The babyhood of our pets, like the babyhood of children, is so fleeting that to document it with images is so incredibly important and so precious. How amazing it is to look back on the memories!