Cats may well be the most photographed animal around. Statistics show that 15 percent of the videos circulating the Internet are cat-related. And, I’m pretty sure, that some of them are flukes. It’s not easy for an amateur photographer to capture a cat’s personality through photography. But some cats are easier to photograph than others. Particularly challenging to photograph are the black cat and the white cat.
We once had a white cat with one blue and one green eye. He was stunning. But to get a nice picture of him, we had to call in a professional photographer. Close ups were difficult because, if I set my camera on automatic, it wouldn’t focus on his white fur. I eventually discovered that I could get a nice closeup shot of Winfield if I’d focus first on one of his eyes.
Black cats are also difficult to photograph. 
My experience is, if the background is light and the cat’s eyes are open, you can get a fairly decent photo. But the lighting has to be right to see the details in the cat’s face. Yesterday, I came across a tip saying to get a better picture of a black cat, use a blue background. Would appreciate hearing about your experiences.
Photobombing.
This morning, I learned a new phrase—photobombing. My Cat-A Day calendar for today shows an adorable kitten posing for the photo and a kitten in the background (would you believe a black kitten) has his tongue sticking out. The black kitten is photobombing. I guess this is the name they’ve applied to situations when someone put rabbit ears behind the person next to them as a photo is being taken or, as has happened to me a time or two, when someone walks into a photo you’re taking or posing for. Once, a friend was taking a picture of me and another friend in front of a sign in Colorado when we felt someone join us. Now we have a photo of us and a random fellow who decided crash into the moment. Of course, we all got a kick out of it.
While researching photobombing, I came across a photo of a family at a marine park standing in front of the dolphin window and there’s a dolphin photobombing with what appears to be a big smile on his face. There was a shot of a steer at a distance, with another steer barely in the picture peering into the camera–obviously a last minute decision on the steer’s part.
Tell us about your photo-bombing experiences—especially those with animals.
And while you’re visiting the web today, be sure to check out my newest book review for my first book—Catnapped. This reviewer, Alice Holland, is new to the series and vows to read more of the books.
http://ahollandreads.blogspot.com/2016/04/catnapped-by-patricia-fry-review.html
Photograph a black cat in natural light from a window, and on a white or light background so as much light reflects onto them and highlights details. The best photos I get of my black cats are in the bathtub! Various light sources are really best, so you can also turn on all the lights in the room and hope for the best.
Sometimes when I try to focus on three or more of my black cats my camera just beeps at me because all it sees is black…I find an “edge”, something that contrasts with the black.
Digital point-and-shoot cameras and cell phones tend to meter light depending on your focus point, so if you are focusing on white, it will darken the rest of you photo, and if you are focusing on a dark area, it will flash out highlights in the rest of your photo, so finding that “edge” that includes both light and dark helps to balance the color in your photos so that light or dark markings on your cats don’t lose details.