Cute Killer

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IMG_2772Canon EOS 6D (175mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO800)

Last weekend I visited friends who minded a young cat for a couple of days. A perfect opportunity to wipe the dust from my DSLR.

Like many others I bought a mirror less camera as a small second system. And like many others I started to use the “second” camera much more often than the “first” one. The reason is simply: convenience! It’s much lighter and smaller. That’s the reason why I never considered to take my DSLR on one of my business trips to Asia. My Fuji X with the 14mm and 35mm lens give me everything I need on those trips. Almost the same quality in a much smaller and lighter package.

IMG_2774Canon EOS 6D (123mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO640)
 IMG_2787Canon EOS 6D (200mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO1250)

But of course my Fuji systems has its limitations. AF is slower especially in low light or low contrast and as of today there is no fast tele zoom lens. So without hesitation I took y big gear when I went to see my friends.

The last couple of months I shoot mainly with my Fuji X Pro-1 and lately also with my Fuji X-T1. The EVF of the Fuji X-T1 is really impressive but it is still an EVF. It’s such a delight to look through a real large optical viewfinder again especially with a fast, bright lens attached. Nothing compares to that! And it’s a delight to have fast AF on a long lens even in low contrast. And it’s great to have real shallow DOF plus the flexibility of a zoom.

I’m sure that mirrorless cameras will offer all of that in the future but today that’s not the case.

IMG_2790Canon EOS 6D (200mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO1250)
 IMG_2794Canon EOS 6D (120mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO1000)
 IMG_2808Canon EOS 6D (200mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO1000)

Maybe it is not obvious but the light and contrast situation was tricky. I was sitting in the gras pointing my camera up. There was strong backlight, not a lot of light and contrast for the autofocus and leaves and branches close to my subject. I didn’t bring my Fuji but I know its AF would have hunted a lot. And thats not a good thing when you try to follow a young cat that is constantly moving around.

IMG_2812Canon EOS 6D (160mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO1000)
 IMG_2820Canon EOS 6D (155mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO800)

Maybe I should also explain my settings. I shot at 1/1000s@f4 because I wanted to freeze the motion when the cat was running around in the gras. I forgot to change the setting when I followed the cat into the tree. That’s why ISO went up. There was no need to use 1/1000s for the tree climb shots but it isn’t an issue to shoot the 6D at higher ISOs.

I was so focused that I almost forget to say something about the little cat. Her name is Lucy, she is 10 weeks old and she never climbed that high before. When she went down she jumped from a height of two meters. She landed on her feet but the landing was rather hard. She was standing there for a couple of seconds, impressed and shocked by the hard impact. Just before I wanted to pick her up she started to run around in the garden again, hunting her own tail. It’s such a joy to watch a young cat playing and enjoying live.

It’s even more impressive to see how capable a 10 week old cat is. Everything is there: she already stalks, runs, climbs and attacks as she has done all of that for many, many years. A powerful predator, a cute killer!

IMG_2832Canon EOS 6D (200mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO1600)