Photographing the foster kittens

I received a call from African Tails asking if I would foster some kittens that had been abandoned. Taking care of babies is time-consuming and involves cleaning quite a lot of poop, but working from home has made this possible and fostering is very rewarding.

I said I would take two kittens.

They were delivered peering with huge, frightened eyes out of a red igloo-type bed and hissed and spat in fear. We placed them safely in the guest bedroom with litter tray, toys and beds and let them settle in.

It did not take long to discover that they love human company and enjoy being cuddled.

I went to fetch the camera.

They quickly learned (after my husband taught them) to climb on the bed and this was perfect as they were side-lit through a large window. There was still not enough ambient light so I bumped up the ISO. A higher ISO setting increases the sensitivity of the image sensor to light but adds grain to the pictures.

I wanted to capture the kittens wrestling without adding too much blur to the image and needed a fast shutter speed so this was a good choice in the absence of flash. The wrestling looks vicious, but they don’t really hurt each other and they seem to takes turns in getting the upper hand.

We have named them Onyx and Marmalade. Marmalade is definitely a boy. Not sure about Onyx.

African Tails will put them up for adoption in the next two to three weeks.

In the meantime the story continues while we try not to fall in love. Too late.