Lens-Artists Challenge #358: Live and Learn

Lens-Artists Challenge #358: Live and Learn

This week it's Tina's turn to host the Challenge, and her theme is 'Live and Learn'. In her post (https://wp.me/p2uCEm-7X3) on her blog, Travels and Trifles, Tina writes: 'Show me some of the things you’ve learned about photography or any subject you choose'. This was a frustrating theme for me, for one simple reason: I'm away from my weird and wonderful collection of film and digital cameras.

Back home there are so many cameras to choose from, it would have been fun to relearn about one in real time. But now I'm 'stuck' with just my smartphone and a couple of cameras that I can't get the images developed or downloaded before September. So I thought I'd briefly talk about 'the right moment', as Tina called it. I'm not good at waiting for the right moment, which is why you'll always find my posts full of my favourite trees, or telegraph poles, or graffiti/street art. They aren't going anywhere. 

When photographing animals, insects, or even, on that rare occasion, people, I'm always waiting for just the right moment, and in that moment ... they're gone. The bird has flown, the lizard has run away, or the person has got fed up waiting and gone off to make a cup of tea. But sometimes, in an odd moment, the right time just presents itself, and I've got the almost perfect image (for me). And so it was with the cat in these images. We were enjoying a post-beach beer when I spotted this grey tabby cat on a low roof. It was sitting there, in the dip of the corrugated roof, just watching us. Of course, I didn’t have my smartphone to hand, but fortunately the cat was still there when I got back.

Cats can be notoriously skittish in Portugal, and it looked at me warily as I approached, but didn't run away. I edged a little closer and took the shot. I wasn't really happy with the result, there was too much clutter around the cat, with the wires from the TV antenna. So I edged around a little further and took another shot. This was better, but the cat was getting bored now and just looking around. The background was a little boring, too.

So I moved around and a little closer. This was better, with a lovely golden background from the trees in the early evening (it's not called the 'Golden Hour' for nothing), but the cat's attention had been drawn to something outside the frame. The profile image was not actually bad, but I wanted something a little better. 

So I waited — I think the cat was getting used to me now, and was just ignoring me — and he turned to look at something over my shoulder. That was it. The right moment, and I'd got it. I thanked the cat quietly and moved away. I don't think I'll ever top that cat image, and it was perfect for posting on social media under the #Caturday hashtag. Job done, and I returned to my (now warm) beer.

Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here (https://photobyjohnbo.com/about-lens-artists/), and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag 'Lens-Artists'.

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the 'Snapshot' WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com@keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.

#LiveAndLearn, #LensArtists, Lens-Artists, #Challenge, #Smartphone, #SocialMedia, #Caturday, #Cat,