Twinkle's portrait

Perched on the ledge, Twinkle turns around and accidentally mirrors the painting of the cat on the wall behind.

Notes
The best moments in photography often take place when you're not looking - or looking the other way. I was busy trying to photograph Iffy (our other cat), who was playing king of the hill atop the display cabinet, when my wife said "Look behind you". (I cannot tell you the number of times this has happened; she spots things I don't see, and sees things I can't because I'm staring down a viewfinder at something else)

Twinkle was sitting on top of the ledge, and I immediately realised the possibility of her pose mirroring the painting behind. I had to wait: it took about 20 shots to catch her with her head turned up. Most were discarded because she was looking straight at the camera. One was a close miss, with her head turned too far and her eyes not visible, which to my mind made it harder to see her as a 'person'.

This one was the best remaining, and had to be sharpened a bit to compensate for the slight fuzziness from the handheld shot. The colour was not satisfactory at all: I couldn't get rid of the yellowish cast of the tungsten light without making the image dull and lifeless, so in the end I desaturated everything. That black and white image wasn't good either, so I brought some colour back, bit by bit: when the brown ledge looked recognisably brown again, I stopped. And that's how I got to this image here.

tags:cat,photography