Andy is easy enough to photograph lately…
…but Dougy’s been hard to get! Yep, he either moves during the shoot or holds his head down, hiding his eyes.

This is pretty much what the kitty boys had in mind to do this morning. As long as he was convenient, I decided to make some portrait shots of Andy.

Woo hoo! Looking good!

Creepy, isn’t it, seeing my hand holding my smart phone in the reflection in Andy’s eye…! Oh, and he’d just returned from a midnight snack, so has kitty food crumbs on his face. So it goes with long-haired kitties! They are little dust mops, thanks to static electricity in their hair.

LOL! This is a difficult photo to read. At first, I thought it was a double exposure – something not possible with the smart phone camera. Then I realized what looks like whiskers above Andy’s eye actually are vibrissae, “eyebrow whiskers”, if you will!
Dougy and I had a sweet time with a favorite wand toy early in the morning, and he enjoyed my enthusiastic “Good boy! What a clever kitty!” praise each time he snared the lure as it passed by.
Later, after the sun came up – yes, it was a sunny day! – Dougy lounged on the kitty lounger by the back door and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. I might add, it really, really, really showed how beautiful his ruff is at this point. Dougy and his brother are boy kitties, but I think they are just plain beautiful. Not handsome, beautiful!
Here’s another look at that ruff:
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Let’s not forget Andy. I tried to get a photo of him on the walker by the back door, but he was still a bit skittish because of the medicine episode documented in yesterday’s post. (This post and yesterday’s were both put together on the same day.) When I tried to get an angle that shows how pretty he is, he hopped off the little red chair and never did let me photograph him at his best.
Of course, after I came home after I took a little road trip to dry my car off after running it through the car wash, Andy greeted me at the door, all friendly and loving and huggable! I picked him up three different times, and he love, love, loved me rubbing his whiskers, nose, and tummy! The difference from when I tried to take his photo at a good angle? Beats me!
Yep! Same old problem! Andy (or Dougy – same difference) is being cute, posing nicely, looking like a potential subject for a blog post, but…he’s in the dark. Oh well. I took the photos anyway, hoping Photoshop would rescue them. One turned out subtle because his whiskers were highlighted by the sun behind him. The others had to be manipulated beyond a reasonable point, turning Andy into an extraterrestrial alien kitty: “Come to the light!”
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Here’s the subtle “highlighted whiskers” Andy.
This is pretty much what the rest looked like after typical Photoshopping.
Then, one last effort to bring out detail in Andy (exposure) resulted in this…
…and this~!
Oh well. I kind of like the “highlighted whiskers” Andy. In the meantime, I’ll try to catch him in good light for future posts.
The kitty boys have spent the past week sorting out which is top cat, with the attendant extra fur clumps on the carpet. No harm done, of course, other than to egos. (I think Andy won this round.) With that in mind, I was surprised when Dougy came onto the computer desk through Andy’s territory, stepped over Andy, and joined me on the lower shelf, Dougy’s spot since he was a wee fart.

Shortly after Dougy arrived, they both watched birds out the back window.
I had to take this photo!

The flash alerted the boys to my intentions, so Dougy closed his eyes for this one. Of course!

I almost got a shot with eyes open. Well, close enough!
I’ve told you before how Dougy ruins most photos by closing his eyes just before the flash goes off. He’s pretty cagey that way! Unfortunately, though, that means you see far fewer photos of Dougy than you do of his brother, Andy.
Here’s a selection of today’s Dougy photos. I think I caught him with his eyes kind of open in one!

Dougy poses nicely till he realizes the flash is about to go off. Then he closes his eyes.

The flash brings on refusal to pose. Dougy turns his back to me!

In low light, the camera assesses how much flash and open shutter are necessary to get a “readable” photo, then takes the picture.
I anticipate how long that takes, then try to attract Dougy’s attention so that he turns his head (with open eyes) at the right time to get a decent photo.

Oh well! What a lovely washed out shot of Dougy’s butt.

Dougy wanders off, and I say to hell with it for one more day!

Dougy reveals his eyes…!
I thought I had some photos of the boys ready, but didn’t. Here’s a quick shot of Andy, however, since he (reliably) showed up and took his spot on top of my PC. Good kitty!

Andy’s horns are up, but I think today that just means he’s interested in what I’m doing. I hope!
Other times, it’s a sign of mayhem to come. LOL!
I guarantee every photo I post of my kitties is one of several taken to get to the one that’s adequate to post! I also guarantee that there are times (all too often) where “adequate” is “barely so”. Kitties just aren’t that easy to photograph when they aren’t in the mood to cooperate!
Then, out of the blue, one or the other will pose nicely and hold it.

Andy is a sleepy boy…!
Back in April, I lost one of my drives. Today I finally took the computer in for repairs. Well, for a fix, because the repair for that specific type of port no longer exists. The fix, however, does, and it is yet another gizmo with a wire that fits a specific connection on my computer. What a tangled mess!
I’ve tried to go 100% wireless over the years, yet, well, here we go! But I can pull up photos off the SD memory card again, hence the title above. I thought the photos were pretty much lost forever, though I guarantee they aren’t that wonderful. First, though, here’s the gizmo:

You insert the SD memory card on the side.

This isn’t one of the lost photos. It is, however, a cute one of Dougy waiting to be scritched. You deserve a kitty photo for stopping by.
Well, shxt! I saved the lost photos to the SD card in the USB gizmo, then put it back in my camera, where I outsmarted myself and reformatted the SD memory card: The photos truly are lost now! Aren’t you glad they stunk and weren’t worth posting?! Grr!