On Saturday I thought it was time to take some more photo's of the cats. I loaded up the camera with a roll of film then headed out into the backyard to find some cats to shoot (in the non-violent sense). 36 shots later I came into the house feeling quite pleased with my efforts knowing that I had taken at least 5 good photo’s. From this recent photo session I noticed that there are three types of cat personalities when it comes to photography:

Personality type #1: This cat is the poser and is the cat photographers dream. As soon as the camera is out the cat will prance around, roll about, flutters it's eye-lashes and "make love to the camera". Good photo’s of this cat are never at a shortage.

Sonic and Tink are personality type #1.

Personality type #2: This cat is scared of the camera. As soon as the camera is pointed away from the cat, said cat will do something adorable and wonderful. However, when the camera comes out, the same cat that was striking a pose only a second ago, will put it's ears back, give the camera the look of death, then hide behind the nearest potted plant. By far the most annoying personality to photograph. Most photographs taken of this cat will in fact be photo’s of furniture, plants and other irrelevant objects. If a photo of the cat is actually obtained, the cat will have such a fearful look on it’s face, the photographer will be unwilling to show this photo to anyone for fear of being accused of ill-treating the animal.

Widget, Mango, Monty and Gollum (an honorary cat) lie within this personality group.

Personality type #3: This personality type is also very difficult to photograph. Although not afraid of the camera, this cat has a incessant need to run up the photographer for a scritch, making it impossible for the photographer to focus the camera. Consequently the majority of photo’s of this cat will be blurred. There will also be many photo’s of the cats nostrils and cheek, taken while the cat is rubbing it’s face on the camera’s lens.

Moggy and Vincent are personality type #3.

Copyright © Dewi Williams
December 18, 2000