Put the cat on a
pillow.
Set up your
camera and focus it on the pillow.
Put the
cat back on the pillow.
Get a
bowl of food and put it next to the pillow.
Put the cat back on the pillow.
Grab the food bowl and
follow the cat. As you run, hold the bowl in the cat's face, tempting her to eat.
See if the
neighbours will come over and pick up the
sofa while you
snap a picture of the cat underneath.
Cross the names of your neighbours off the list for
your next party.
Put the cat back on the pillow.
Place a
catnip-stuffed mouse in front of your cat and wait for your cat to
go crazy.
Go back to the pet store and
demand a refund.
Decide on
a family portrait with the cat instead.
To stop the
argument over which child gets to pose with the cat, agree to take pictures of each child holding the cat on his or her lap.
Tell each child that
it doesn't matter who holds the cat first because you'll shuffle the pictures after they're
developed and look at them in a different order than the order they were taken.
Get more cats, one for each child, and go back to step one.
-- by Jack Fleming
While the above is a
humorous account of cat
photography, taking a good picture of your cat is
no laughing matter. If you want to create an image of your
purrfect feline you can keep forever,
you've got to do it right.
If your cat is black, you're going to have many problems from the get-go. Be careful with your background: white will be too harsh and black will turn your cat into nothing more than a pair of glowing eyes. A neutral coloured background is best, and be careful with shadows or you'll end up with a giant cat head when the shadow adds centimetres to the actual size. Always make sure the lighting is good.
Try to capture the cat's personality. Throw a toy, catch your sweetie doing something gorgeous, snap them on the sly so they won't run up to you and sniff the camera (which can be a good photo, but there are only so many pictures of cat noses you need). Take breaks, give the cat a treat and try to make sure you both have fun.
The usual photography hints apply: get the cat to take up at least half of the photo, use red-eye reduction if you can, keep the sun behind you or at the side. Experiment with motion and angles, and go through a hell of a lot of film just to catch that one perfect shot.
Then bore your friends with the results. They'll love that part of the process.
Info from "277 Secrets Your Cat Wants You to Know" by Cooper and Noble.