Catsofinsta on The Singemonkey

October 26, 2024

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 17:03:20 +0000

Boi’s official spring portrait

We did some wild gardening today helping Nicola in her mad dash to empty out her Gran’s house of 30 years before the bulldozers come for it - rescuing a few lucky plants.

September 15, 2024

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 21:51:42 +0000

The prettiest kitty. Dozing on a branch over the Sabie just like her ancestors have probably done for thousands of years.

June 26, 2024

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 09:59:14 +0000

Caught Bun’s little fuzzy face this morning next to my old Fuzzface.

June 21, 2024

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 12:27:24 +0000

The Mouse is now firmly ensconced in my dad’s house. And she’s living up to her name/job-title as no mouse has been seen within since her arrival. She’s got to explore the outdoors for the first time in her life and is already in a feud with a squirrel that swears at her from a perch in the white stinkwood tree my folks planted when they moved in and now towers over the house.

June 10, 2024

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 15:12:58 +0000

We got more secure AirTag holders for the cats and changed the batteries because it’s been a year. Naturally Bun here thought she’d been subjected to war crimes.

We chose AirTags because they only require this annual battery change. The range is limited (about 10m) but they will ping off any Apple devices with the “find my” app enabled - which in practice gives them endless range at least insofar as getting close enough for fine tracking.

May 16, 2024

Thu, 16 May 2024 11:58:12 +0000

I’m getting to grips with the Nikon D600. It’s criminal how little I knew about this camera before. So now I’m trying to really learn it to get the most out of it.

One thing that involves is setting up a hybrid jpeg/raw approach where I have useable jpegs like I do for my Fuji - that require little to no editing for sanity and quick sharing. Here I’m experimenting with the jpeg at max saturation. Probably ott but I’m not ruling it out for wildlife and some landscapes and architecture.

April 22, 2024

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 14:41:50 +0000

His current favourite autumnal spot for taking his daytime zizz with the advantage of being able to see his rivals from the balcony.

April 15, 2024

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:37:42 +0000

I grabbed a pic of Trinket aka Bun aka Bunbun just before taking my dad’s camera back to him. It was my first ride since I recovered from a bout of COVID at the beginning of last week. I discovered there doesn’t seem to be a way to take an “easy” ride in Cape Town thanks to being in the foothills of a mountain. Still needed to change my shirt on the other end.

April 14, 2024

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 11:50:40 +0000

This time last year, this boy was still missing - living on geckos and rainwater. It’s so delightful to have him back. We’ve got him airtagged now which will hopefully help us find him if it ever happens again. It would have last time given that he was stuck only 10m from home.

April 14, 2024

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 11:05:22 +0000

@johnthevudio’s new kitten gets its first day out in a very big world.

April 04, 2024

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 14:24:10 +0000

My dad has recently acquired this cat, Madam Mouse, a Nikon Zf, and a Viltrox 85mm f1.8 lens. I just picked up an SD card to lightning adapter to take advantage of them all. It should also mean I’ll post here more often and fewer latergrams.

I was astonished that her mouseship had no objection at all to her collar. Barely even noticed it.

August 16, 2023

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 17:51:05 +0000

Mr Crumb had his first morning out since his injury. His knee seems to be about 80% - a little stiff when he’s been lying around for a bit. He enjoyed himself so much that he climbed under a blanket and slept the next five hours.

July 13, 2023

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 11:56:55 +0000

8 weeks living in a tiny little room after surgery to fix the two ligaments he broke. He’s finally free to roam the house and is catching up. The vet was very pleased to see he was putting a certain amount of weight on the injured leg. It’s been a stressful time for all in the house. And this came so soon after he was missing for three weeks. A month indoors and then we’ll decide if we’re ever letting him go outside again.

January 21, 2023

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 10:12:30 +0000

The Boi in one of his brief spells of wakefulness.

Watching lens reviews can sometimes be useful. I discovered this ttartisan 50mm f1.2 is quite a bit less sharp and contrasty focused at its minimum distance at f1.2. So stopping down to f2 makes quite a big difference when focused close like this.

January 21, 2023

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 10:05:21 +0000

Bun’s current top-favourite spot. We call it her tube.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:27:06 +0000

Two cheetah brothers. In the second pic you can see the one brother calling the other down from his pedestal in his surprising cat-like high meow.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:15:44 +0000

The sportiest and slinkiest. The African Cheetah. Two brothers using the way markers outside Orpen rest camp as viewpoints and scent marking them. Seeing cheetahs in Kruger is special. Seeing them clearly and close is magic.

November 20, 2022

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 17:44:07 +0000

Bunday morning.

October 31, 2022

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 10:03:53 +0000

The place we live in faces the rising sun. So morning coffee-time is one of the sunniest of the day.

Bun likes this part of the house where she can hang out on my loudspeakers or on the windowsill and watch other cats safe from bullying.

August 23, 2022

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 14:15:36 +0000

Doing some technical reading on the balcony with this chonky chap. It’s the first warm weather in a good long while and he’s here for it. 27 degrees according to the weather app. No doubt there’ll be plenty more cold weather ahead. But this is a nice break.

I’ve had a nasty cold for a week. Did a great show on Friday @noongunbrewery in Muizenberg. Thank goodness we do a lot of instrumentals because I couldn’t croak a note.

July 07, 2022

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:37:01 +0000

Early morning Trinket, aka Bun.

With the rolling blackouts due to our corrupt and negligent state power provider we’ve been using candles a fair bit. Bun can’t seem to learn that these lights are too spicy 🌶 for her and keeps singeing her whiskers.

February 14, 2022

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 14:11:30 +0000

This fella has been feeling like the house is the siege of Stalingrad since the painting began. But he seems to gradually be accepting that he’s not in mortal danger.

November 11, 2021

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:37:10 +0000

The boy and I taking some down time this morning due to rolling blackouts from our shameful state power provider.

October 30, 2021

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 22:20:10 +0000

Perched where she can see who goes up and down the stairs.

October 28, 2021

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:53:28 +0000

My boy is apparently now completely unfazed by the vacuum cleaner. Trinket, on the other hand, has once again gone into deep hiding. She still thinks it’s Stalingrad.

October 01, 2021

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 08:52:37 +0000

I took many hundreds of pictures of Skitten since 2007. But this was the very last one. When we first got it home from Maatjiesfontein, I was convinced that we didn’t need a third cat. I took the cutest pictures I could of it parading about to make into a collage to advertise it… and in so doing it tricked me into falling in love with it.

It liked to sit on windowsills and contemplate the world going by. A most philosophical animal.

September 11, 2021

Sat, 11 Sep 2021 14:08:48 +0000

There’s a non-zero chance that this is the same Cape Buffalo that I photographed chasing off that leopard at this same waterhole the other day. Impervious to leopards though they be, the boldest African lions can lay them low. As I understand it, the usually-complacent male lions are the ones that hunt buffalo - since it requires all of their massive strength to kill one of these aggressive bovine behemoths.

September 09, 2021

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 18:15:02 +0000

Not every leopard just walks right up to your car.

August 23, 2021

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 09:11:07 +0000

@goflow42 nearly stepped on this beautiful lady just outside the Geelbek restaurant in West Coast National Park as we were walking towards one of the bird hides. This is only the second time @withoutaleaf and I have seen one of these beautiful cats in the wild - they can be spotted anywhere between here and Iran. Caracals are expert bird-ambushers. They can leap to extraordinary heights to pull down birds trying to escape by flight. This one was only slightly bigger than a house cat, but full grown males are considerably larger.

August 18, 2021

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 08:45:47 +0000

Morning Trinket.

Do people only still make black and white photographs to seem cool and sophisticated? The answer’s a little complicated. Knowing why you’d prefer a picture in black and white means you’ve spent a little time thinking about photography - which makes you a more ‘sophisticated’ appreciator of photographs. So then, in a sense, yes. But I can give you that ‘sophistication’ in not many words: Eliminating colour makes you more conscious of form, light and shadow, and detail. So, like any abstraction, it shows you things that that the full set of information may conceal. It helps you see the trees for the wood.

August 11, 2021

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:42:36 +0000

Having the house thoroughly cleaned is a deep joy for us but a nightmare for Trinket for whom the vacuum is a combination of the devil, Godzilla, and Voldemort. She’s fled the house for most of the day.

July 19, 2021

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 17:57:13 +0000

Poor Skitten has been wheezy and needed vetting. It’s going in tomorrow morning to check its larynx again. But at least its lungs are fine. Skitten is not a fan of automobile travel.

July 17, 2021

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:55:46 +0000

I realised I’ve never owned a fast wide-angle lens before. And I’ve gotta say, I like it. Mr. Crumb was assisting me by totally destroying the corner of the bed as he likes to do.

One thing no one’s mentioned about this fantastic little ttartisans 17mm f1.4: it has a screw-in metal lens cap. Everyone talks about how inconvenient that is. But in this case it screws tight with a half turn - making it in some ways easier to manage than a clip-on cap. The 50’s cap takes multiple turns and is totally impractical as a working lens cap. But this one on the tiny front element of 17mm is actually great.

July 15, 2021

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 17:21:41 +0000

My lenses arrived. Literally the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. They suggested I cancel my initial purchase to take advantage of their sale that was coming up in a few days. When Aliexpress wasn’t cooperating on giving the promised free shipping they gave me a discount for another portal to the value of the sale - and then stayed in touch via whatsapp through Fedex’s idiocy until I had the lenses. @ttartisanofficial is a company that can be proud of its customer service and it speaks well of Chinese customer service in general.

July 01, 2021

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 17:02:56 +0000

They were having some mid-afternoon madness - usually reserved for the late evening. This chap is getting chonky again in defiance of my meal planning.

The box behind him is an extremely rare Gibson lap steel guitar from 1967 belonging to @sad_ivan (who was supposed to collect it after I discovered that fewer than 50 were known to have been made and hence they were a chunk more valuable than we’d suspected… but COVID).

July 01, 2021

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:56:23 +0000

The world has been too long deprived of Trinket! … or Bun as she’s known around here. I recently saw that a Youtuber I enjoy calls their cat, “Pigbunny,” which is a perfect cat name.

My camera seems to be working fine with a different memory card. I’d already decided if it packed up, I’d just get another ‘obsolete’ model like it. This sensor apparently has quite the reputation for getting analogue-looking results. I’ve ordered a pair of native TTartisans lenses for it - a 50mm f1.2 and a 17mm f1.4 (cheap as chips at <US$200 for the pair despite very good reviews - which I think will be a super-versatile pair. It makes photography difficult - manual focus lenses shooting at fast apertures with very little depth-of-field to nail the focus. But it’s exactly like the film camera I’ve used for so many years. And when I do get a sharp picture at f1.4 and 1/60th it makes me very pleased. It’s a big chunk of the experience of shooting film without the cost… or the tedious scanning.

June 23, 2021

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 11:15:29 +0000

A grab-shot of my boy moments before he jumped up next to me where he is as I write. He had a scare the other day where he tangled himself in the handle of a paper shopping bag that then followed him making hideous noises no matter where he ran. Even after being rescued - and his assailant banished forever - he’s been a nervous fella for a few days. We shan’t let such grotesque monsters come into contact with our high-strung boy again.

June 22, 2021

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 16:46:09 +0000

It’s a lovely day tomorrow…

Some proper Cape Town rain today. Skitten is taking every precaution to ensure coziness.

June 08, 2021

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 09:07:45 +0000

My main visitor during COVID times. His name is vlad. He helps himself to food and says cry in a silly little voice before leaving without a word of thanks. I still let him in though.

April 16, 2021

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 12:14:35 +0000

Skitten making use of its little tower chamber again.

April 09, 2021

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:17:17 +0000

Why yes. We are those kinds of childless cat owners.

March 19, 2021

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 15:41:25 +0000

A truer love you’ll seldom see.

The weather is beginning to turn in Cape Town. And Skitten is far more tolerant of this kind of thing than she was a few weeks ago. It’s my birthday which, for symbolic reasons, means it’s Skitten’s birthday too. It’s 14 now. A venerable creature. It still doesn’t know anything. A little less feisty and not quite as adventuresome. But otherwise very much the same strange little animal that @withoutaleaf sent me from Maatjiesfontein back in 2007.

February 28, 2021

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 16:24:26 +0000

Trinket likes secret places for her daytime summer naps.

January 31, 2021

Sun, 31 Jan 2021 18:04:24 +0000

Trinket enjoying a rainy sunday.

October 29, 2020

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 14:38:08 +0000

I thought I’d maintain my vertical line of Skitten pictures. Seen here on its balcony that it loves.

October 26, 2020

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 12:40:14 +0000

Spoiled Boi got a comfy spot provided under my morning balcony coffee chair. Taking a load off those big paws.

October 26, 2020

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 12:38:10 +0000

Skitten was ill recently - which is most unlike it. And kind of strange given that @withoutaleaf and I have had not even a sniffle this year thanks to all of the anti-covid measures also protecting us from common viruses. Its eyes were streaming and it was sneezing up a storm. Luckily after some vet-prescribed eye-drops and pills, it’s right as rain again, full of beans and following me down to the kitchen every single time - ever hopeful of treats.

October 09, 2020

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:04:42 +0000

Trinket woke up early and was ready for tea.

October 09, 2020

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:03:12 +0000

Skitten in the clouds. I thought I might post the one of Skitten yawning to show its single remaining fang. But it might not approve.

October 09, 2020

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:01:22 +0000

The sleepy midday Crumb.

October 06, 2020

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 17:01:19 +0000

Here’s another one of Trinket. Taken about this time yesterday when the late sun comes washing through the window of the little room where I work currently. Sometimes she visits and greatly enjoys standing on the table completely obscuring the screen and keyboard. But then sometimes she sits in the window and photosynthesises - as cats do. Got the Nikon adapter so I’m trying a very old Nikkor 50mm f1.4 instead of the Olympus Zuiko 50mm f1.8 I’ve been using for cat portraits ’til now.

October 06, 2020

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 12:56:42 +0000

It’s the sleepiest time of the day for the crepuscular ones.

August 13, 2020

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:48:51 +0000

Yes. It’s possible I may never photograph anything besides cats again. @withoutaleaf made a little tent on the couch for them in this cold weather.

August 08, 2020

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 18:27:50 +0000

We’re having a late winter cold snap.

August 07, 2020

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:44:28 +0000

Portrait of a handsome chap.

August 06, 2020

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 12:26:39 +0000

And now it’s a series. Trinket is enjoying the plushness of the winter duvet for her daytime snooze. I’m using all manual everything here. I don’t say that as a brag, but to reflect on how easy it is with a ‘modern’ mirrorless camera. There are a couple of new developments that excite me in this regard. The one is the massive viewfinder resolution and magnification of Sony’s latest camera. Over 2000 pixels across and 90% magnification. That’s like the best of both worlds. The what-you-see-is-what-you-get of mirrorless with all the fine visible detail of an optical viewfinder, plus the large size via the magnification of the best old film SLRs. That will make manual focusing even easier on mirrorless cameras. And then I’ve found out a Chinese company that’s made a knockoff of Leica’s 50mm f0.95 Nocton lens. The Leica costs $13,000 (no that’s not a typo). The TTartisans 50mm f0.95 costs $750 (that’s not a typo either) and seems to have better centre sharpness in tests than the Leica. Since Leica mount to mirrorless camera adaptors are tiny, it’d make the perfect portrait lens for a Fuji camera. But that gold-leaf thin depth of field at f0.95 would really be helped by a large, high-res viewfinder to aid focusing. Great times for users of dedicated cameras even as people are writing hot-takes about their death.

August 05, 2020

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 13:37:57 +0000

Poll: Who thinks we need to clean the windows after a third of a year of deadly epidemic. Comment below to cast your important vote. Nothing for six weeks and then two Trinkets in a row. Being less sneaky. She likes to hold a little vigil in the morning when the sun is diffusing so beautifully through the build-up of gunge on the windows. Probably making sure the street isn’t full of sneks. She’s very concerned about sneks, this one.

August 04, 2020

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 21:13:18 +0000

Not a single pic posted in July. Well, I’ve not gone more than a handful of kilometres from home. I’ll probably be one of those people with no pictures of this time that anyone in the future could recognise as being from the pandemic. But then I suppose there’ll be no shortage of pics of empty streets and masked faces. I’ll be pleased to look back at a picture of Trinket spotted through the kitchen window getting up to sneaky shenanigans.

June 15, 2020

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 13:15:49 +0000

Sekrit boi. June gets surprisingly cold in winter in Cape Town because our houses aren’t heated. So though it’s not cold in the big sense, your house becomes really damn cold. But this boi knows how to deal with it.

May 12, 2020

Tue, 12 May 2020 11:25:56 +0000

My handsome boi is good company with morning coffee… and any other time.

May 04, 2020

Mon, 04 May 2020 09:42:54 +0000

Trinket is the agile one. So using the balcony railing as her runway doesn’t bother us. Skitten on the other hand - who’s twice been witnessed trying to jump onto a coffee table and failing - makes us fret every time.

I took a run Friday when the maximum lockdown restrictions ended. But I need to rethink. The government’s curious decision to only allow exercise between 6 and 9 AM meant that my run by the river was like Oxford Street on a Saturday morning. Most people were wearing masks, but the social distancing is near impossible. . In general our government has given a very mixed performance during the pandemic so far. They locked down early and hard - which is good. But they’ve failed to provide adequately for the massive food insecurity, tolerated extraordinary levels of police brutality (including multiple murders of civlians), and made decisions on lockdown policies that lack any evidence base. It feels, as usual, like the conflict between the essentially competent (if unimaginative) faction of the president and his allies vs. the remaining kleptocrats from Jacob Zuma’s economic strip-mining regime - including the police minister, Bekhi Cele.

April 14, 2020

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 19:47:42 +0000

Housecats. Except they’re free to wander. Luckily Skitten does not, as a rule.

April 04, 2020

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 11:58:08 +0000

A fat, heavy bass guitar amplifier holding up a fat, heavy boi.

March 27, 2020

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 08:14:44 +0000

It’s the new normal here on my plague balcony of privilege (feat. Mr Crumb).

March 12, 2020

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 14:09:32 +0000

Skitten has made the rocking chair by the bedroom window its own perfect bed. It even uses my old Tanzanian blanket as a pillow.

January 31, 2020

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 14:33:58 +0000

Buy @sadshirtshop’s demonic #catsofulthar T and win the original sinister artwork.

December 25, 2019

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 19:06:23 +0000

This was the second leopard posing on our drive this afternoon. We only stopped for a few minutes for this one because it was 20 minutes to gate closing. The other one that @withoutaleaf photographed was even more amazing.

December 08, 2019

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 12:27:02 +0000

It looks just like our Trinket. But it’s actually her sister, Miffles, who lives with @sad_ivan. There are subtle differences. But in personality, Miffles and Trinket are pretty much the same pint-sized cats.

November 22, 2019

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 14:21:42 +0000

Skitten is adoring its balcony. It says “ak” and “gnka” out of pure enjoyment when we’re out there in the mornings soaking up sun and tea. This change of house has been an enormous quality-of-life bump for our little old Maatjiesfontein lady.

November 22, 2019

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 14:18:18 +0000

Trinket is being pretty conventional this summer - taking her 19 hrs a day mostly in bed.

November 22, 2019

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 14:16:25 +0000

Summer updates. Our chonky chap is still improving his mid-morning sleeping technique.

October 25, 2019

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:38:28 +0000

A rare moment of sibling harmony from the gremmies.

October 23, 2019

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 13:53:27 +0000

On the way back from the shop, I stopped to talk to this handsome cat who was watching the world go by.

October 03, 2019

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:35:14 +0000

And I shouldn’t keep Crumb from his fans. This is taken during his midday hard-burn sleep. Being this sleepy exhausts him and often requires him to take a post-sleep nap.

October 03, 2019

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:30:42 +0000

Skitten loves its new house. The upstairs carpeting is a neverending joy to it. And the balcony, especially now that it’s spring, is its pure delight.

September 03, 2019

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 09:25:26 +0000

Bun in repose

August 16, 2019

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 10:50:06 +0000

Spring is dropping hints all over the place and these guys are especially enjoying having balcony access.

August 09, 2019

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 10:24:31 +0000

A different kitter. Trinket has a new game of trying to catch her tail under the banister.

August 07, 2019

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 19:07:04 +0000

Mad kitter. I’ve shot a lot of wildlife footage over the years but I’ve never done anything with it. Maybe it’s time to actually cut some of it together - even though the gear I used is pretty primitive by todays standards.

August 01, 2019

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 13:33:44 +0000

I’m still enjoying this custom jpeg profile I’ve made for my Fujifilm XE1. Still not missing shooting RAW.

July 27, 2019

Sat, 27 Jul 2019 13:33:25 +0000

Trying out new jpeg settings on my little Fujifilm XE1. Never used a digital camera I liked this much. Straight out of camera jpegs can be tweaked to look so great.

June 27, 2019

Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:24:30 +0000

It’s turning out a classic Cape June. And that means very chilly mornings - for which Mr Crumb has found ways of compensating.

June 27, 2019

Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:22:01 +0000

Morning Trinket.

June 24, 2019

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 09:17:12 +0000

Our boi visiting his new balcony for the first time. He was very nervous but realised he could watch a little dog pottering down the street without being noticed. I think he liked that.

June 10, 2019

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 17:08:45 +0000

This character had a lot to say to me in a growly little old lady voice on my lunch run.

May 29, 2019

Wed, 29 May 2019 10:19:46 +0000

A throwback to when little Trinket was even littler. I’m hoping they’ll like their new house.

May 16, 2019

Thu, 16 May 2019 15:28:00 +0000

@withoutaleaf wins today’s Trinket pic competition. The weather’s changing and the cats are becoming sun-seekers. (btw, if you want to see pics I don’t post here, check out our @krakatoa_band account).

April 26, 2019

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 17:06:13 +0000

We’re moving this boy towards set meals. He’s a serial snacker. A snacktopus. And it’s showing.

April 23, 2019

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 11:20:31 +0000

This handsome boy has rediscovered his tower.

April 17, 2019

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 14:30:51 +0000

I did warn you…

April 15, 2019

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 16:06:51 +0000

This is Mr. Crumb’s sleepiest time of the day. And that’s saying something.

Carrying the new-old camera around, but until I get my eye in, I’ll just keep posting cat pics.

April 11, 2019

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 18:31:41 +0000

Still playing with the XE1, natch. It’s old. But not as old as the last one I was using. So I don’t have to restrict it to bright daylight. This arm of the couch is Trinket’s current top fave evening spot.

February 19, 2019

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 23:06:03 +0000

Every so often they sleep snuggled up like when they were babies.

Slow photography months for me. Today I spent a mind frazzling time learning about 5 months worth of Javascript in 24hrs. #fakingittilyouremakingit might be the single strongest way to learn. They should teach airline pilots that way. “Just get in the cockpit. Sound confident on the intercom. Google the startup procedure. One of our experienced pilots will email you back within two hours if you get really stuck. #bigkittens #gremmies #catsofinsta #salaciouscrumb #effietrinket #crumb #trinket #sleepycats #capesummer

February 11, 2019

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 18:18:41 +0000

My daft boy derping out with his tongue out.

February 07, 2019

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 12:47:08 +0000

Summertime sleepiness for Skitten and her no.1 fan, Mr. Salacious Crumb.

January 06, 2019

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 16:15:32 +0000

We finally saw a spotty cat. This was yesterday. Quite a scrum of cars. We saw one better today though that @withoutaleaf got some nice pics of.

December 29, 2018

Sat, 29 Dec 2018 14:40:17 +0000

I hate to brag… actually I love to brag about stuff that’s inconsequential… but this was lion sighting 4 out of 8 so far since Wednesday. Four of those were today. First up was a set of heavy boys who were shaking up the morning bush with their calls.

Photographically speaking, not the best day. But I used some 19th Century style photo printing techniques to make the most of this. Only it’s a lot easier on digital where you don’t have to wave bits of card under enlargers for set numbers of carefully planned seconds.

December 28, 2018

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 12:16:11 +0000

We got up at 4 this morning to go look for these lions in the hopes that they’d be doing something in la crepescule du matin. Well, at least they weren’t hiding under a bush.

December 18, 2018

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 17:33:12 +0000

Seen in the March ‘77 @natgeo, cats serve a luxuriant mouse. A satire from 1100 bc. Still relevant. Pic by Victor R. Boswell.

November 22, 2018

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 13:22:32 +0000

I’m not sure this is ok.

October 25, 2018

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 12:11:21 +0000

Still too hot. Mr. Crumb’s strategy is to snooze until the heatwave is over.

October 13, 2018

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 09:19:56 +0000

My boi goin crazy in the bathtub. I meant to trim the clip but insta’s tools are not old man proof.

October 11, 2018

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 10:42:37 +0000

A Trinket under the table.

October 01, 2018

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 14:26:42 +0000

He’s back and blepping. Also he’s grounded.

September 15, 2018

Sat, 15 Sep 2018 14:44:42 +0000

Hanging out with my boy listening to an interview on the beeb about the 60s London fashion scene.

August 24, 2018

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 16:25:38 +0000

So I had a brainwave yesterday. My 50mm f1.4 lens is so old that it will get stuck on my (very old) digital camera if I try to use it. But, aha! What if I put it on an extension tube? Well it works just fine at taking pictures of a grumpy looking Crumb. But it’ll only focus super close. .

August 22, 2018

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:31:07 +0000

Famous Skitten has gone to bed early on a cold August day.

August 17, 2018

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 16:05:50 +0000

Trinket got bigger in the last couple of months and is almost a full-size cat now. She’s still obsessed with playing and doing her little ‘social roll’ on the regular. .

August 17, 2018

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 16:05:25 +0000

Back to cat pics, I’m afraid. It came down in torrents last night. The dams are nearly at 60%. But the sun is shining beautifully for the liesured classes in Cape Town this afternoon. .

August 16, 2018

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 11:20:04 +0000

While I’m going through some ancient pics, this is one I’ve always been fond of. Scanned a bit small. I used a clunky old Takumar 400mm lens and my old Pentax MX with Tri-X film. I’m still interested in making wildlife pics with B&W, though it’s not as original an idea as it was back in 2002 or whenever.

July 13, 2018

Fri, 13 Jul 2018 12:49:09 +0000

I’m biased. But I reckon it’s pretty cute when Trinket goes to sleep in my sock drawer.

July 10, 2018

Tue, 10 Jul 2018 12:37:55 +0000

And Famous Skitten (aka Fatty) is enjoying a relaxing time in her Gryffindor common room in Mogwarts Castle.

July 10, 2018

Tue, 10 Jul 2018 12:10:55 +0000

Little Trinket is soaking up some sun time during our Indian summer.

July 09, 2018

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 13:55:12 +0000

The business of the morning done, these two settle in for a truly productive Monday.

July 01, 2018

Sun, 01 Jul 2018 15:05:36 +0000

My favorite gormless thicc boi twitching in his dreams.

June 25, 2018

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:06:27 +0000

A latergram of Trinket just to keep up appearances.

June 11, 2018

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 14:51:08 +0000

Since I had the 50 f1.4 on the camera I grabbed a pic of princess fuss-pot - aka Trinket. Unfortunately, because it’s an unconverted early 70s lens, I had to do some minor surgery to get it off the camera again 😬 #catportraits #effietrinket #trinket #princessfusspot #greeneyes #whiskers #f1.

June 04, 2018

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 18:04:46 +0000

Trinket’s up after a brutal day of relentless napping. She’s exploring the mess that house repairs have left the back yard in. Being a crepuscular creature, she enjoys the winter twilight.