I love Pet Portraits!

One of my dear friends has two of the coolest cats I know, Daryl and Puffers. Daryl, brilliantly named after Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon, is all about the hunt. He wants to get into things. He wants to explore the unknown. Destroying balls of paper is much more appealing to Daryl, as he is not at all interested in cuddle-time with his human friends. Puffers, who literally is a puffy fluffy ball of air, tends to be much more reserved and a bit more wise than his counter part Daryl. Getting up close and personal with Puffers face was risky business. My 100mm macro lens was clobbered, smacked, walloped, and whacked by the fury paws of Puffers, but I wouldn’t trade it for all the fur in the world.

A bit of the technical stuff: 

I used my 50mm, 85mm, and 100mm macro during this shoot. Shot everything pretty much wide open, expect for stopping down at 1.8 on my 50mm, if you can even call 1.8 stopping down. IDK? I had plenty of time to relax, drink a few beers, and photograph these furry pets. Most of the light was coming through the windows, so I set my white balance to sun, and stayed around the 800-1600 iso range. I always try to avoid auto white balance throughout a shoot, because of the inconsistency, and the headaches in post processing. Speaking of post, I do most of processing in Lightroom, and always work with raw files. I didn’t have to do much to these images, just the standard color grading and contrast adjustments. Enjoy!

Don’t mind Daryl, he’s had his fill of catnip.

-ryan