Why such a handsome cat should be so photo-shy is beyond me. Taking pictures of Kernal is a lot like taking pictures of most people, he starts looking shy or walks up to stand next to me as soon as he sees the camera pointed his way. The key is getting the shot set up while he is distracted and then getting the shot as soon as he takes notice. There are times when having a good portion of the photo out of focus is desirable. In this case, the feel of the dandelions on a sunny afternoon in the background comes through strongly, but without all of the distraction it would cause the foreground if it was full of crisscrossing little details. Keeping track of your depth of field can be the difference between beautiful and distracting. Most good cameras have a depth of field preview button somewhere, on mine it is right below the lens release. Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi Lens: EF-S60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Shutter Speed: 1/160 ISO: 100 Aperture: 4.5 Post Processing: A tiny contrast boost, a bit of sharpen, and I clone stamped a piece of lint off of his left ear. Cropped it for composition.

This is Esther. She's a tough old bird, survivor of two raccoon attacks (she lives in a fortress now), and an all around sweet chicken. She is several years old, but still lays regularly and helps out in the garden, always underfoot. Chickens are a great addition to any garden, provided you keep them out of the most edible plants. She spends her days on snail patrol, and gets along great with the cats. I took the shot on a sunny afternoon, sitting inside a small greenhouse and shooting through the open door. I had the lens on auto focus, because while chickens are generally perfectly still in the instant, they move in tics every second or so. As usual, I used my 60mm macro, which is perhaps even better at portraits than it is for bugs. I took about ten shots in this series, and every one of them was this sharp. Click on the picture to see it full size, the details are fun. Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi Lens: EF-S60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Shutter Speed: 1/320 ISO: 400 Aperture: 5.6 Post Processing: Just a bit of sharpen and contrast, and that was more out of a habit of trying to optimize than any ...