Meet Paul in duotone

[LaFoto]

Well, this is embarrassing, but I am actually putting this up after I have seen those brilliant dog portraits of "Mowgli in duotone"... and I had been asked to photograph Paul (must tell you his story later) for friends so his pic can appear in the newspaper, and most turned out blah!

After I have seen the Mowgli-pics, I tried to do the same to my Paul-pics, but I think I am far from getting to where djengizz already is...

 

[djengizz]

I really like your toning LaFoto! You did a great job on the conversions.
I think one of my advantages was that i had some nice center shots (object in the middle). Thats why i was able to add a lot of vignetting to the pics.
Maybe you can try to add some and add a little burning effect with your photo editting software.
A quite like the compo and stature of the cat in #2 by the way.

 

[alexecho]

I really like the cat's posture in number two and the way you've framed it. Nice tones too.

I'd like to try photographing a cat, I'll have to see if I can borrow one from somewhere!

 

[LaFoto]

Well, djengizz, for one, please do post the edits that you had sent to me in PM in this very thread, too (he did a SUPER job about re-editing my edits posted here so Paul's fur shines even more!), and in answer to why I did not take a more central picture: it was my goal to capture all Paul, as it were, including his very slim, long tail. Paul is a very elegant cat, in my eyes, long-limbed, slim, proud. I tried to capture that in one of my photos, but as I was saying before: most turned out bad. Much to my dismay. The Paul-Posing-On-The-Stairs was, indeed, the only good one of the entire session.

Do you want to hear Paul's story and the reason why I was asked to take his pic so it could appear in the newspaper?

 

[Rob]

Great toning job there Corinna! My cat won't behave for the camera - she turns into an evil joker.

Of course we want to hear Paul's story!

Rob

 

[djengizz]

Well, djengizz, for one, please do post the edits that you had sent to me in PM in this very thread, too (he did a SUPER job about re-editing my edits posted here so Paul's fur shines even more!), and in answer to why I did not take a more central picture: it was my goal to capture all Paul, as it were, including his very slim, long tail.

Oké here they are:

Hello LaFoto,
I saw your picture of Paul and i took the liberty of inserting one of your pictures in the same Photoshop file I stil had frome Mowgli's shoot.
I burned them a bit as i said in your topic. There's still a bit of a halo around the cat but that's easilly removed.
This is what came out.

As for the central shots: it's usually better not to put your subjects right in the middle as you said. I only mentioned it because it made the editting much easier.

 

[JTHphoto]

i'm not much of a cat person, but i like the second shot - nice composition and i like your conversion too...

 

[Chiller]

These are great shots Corinna. I really like the second. Gotta dig cat eyes eh?

 

[LaFoto]

Yes. That Paul is very special, he is so elegant in his black dress, slim, tall, slinky. Very elegant.

Well, Paul is actually my friends' second "Paul" after the first "Paul" died of old age last year. So they got themselves a new tom-cat, once more all black, called him "Paul" again because they just could not make themselves call their cats anything else - and were quite happy with him. Until his "dad" (erm... you know) came and told us that Paul had gone missing. They had let him go for a little run in their tiny garden, five minutes at the most, and Paul was gone. And gone for good. Any enquieries about who might have seen him, searches in the entire neighbourhood, including places into which he could have fallen and died, everything was in vain. Paul was gone.

They were quite sad. And decided they did not want to be without a cat. So they went to get themselves another baby-cat, male again, and they called him Nico. Nico is not all black, kind of tabby, though more with large blotches of black on his back. A beautiful little cat boy. I have been over to photograph Nico just for fun, too.

So on Monday night, my friend called me and said: "Can I invite you over for coffee tomorrow afternoon? Yes? Good! Could you bring your camera?" I asked in return: "Do you want me to take some more photos of Nico then?" - "Well," my friend said, "Nico, too, if you like, and another cat..." I thought at first they had got themselves another kitten. "No", my friend said. "Paul!"

Indeed, Paul was back. After more than three months, they had got their Paul back. He did not walk back into their door. Not like that. But Paul must have roamed a village down the road (a good 10 kilometres down the road) where he was fed by people who liked him, but then decided not to feed him for any longer but give him to that very animal shelter, where my friends had initially got him from as a kitten. Those people (who had meanwhile given my friends little Nico, too, and therefore KNEW about the "lost Paul" story, of course) thought: this cat so very much looks like this Paul! They checked his chip, for he is chipped, and indeed, it is Paul.

Now the newspaper article on "The Pet of the Week" usually deals with pets that look for a home. And this one will deal with Paul and how he had gone awol, to be found and proved to be the very Paul through his chip, and it is supposed to make people aware of the good of such a chip beneath a pet's skin.

That is the story.
Now my friends have a totally new kind of stress factor at home: Paul and Nico. Two cats. Who do not naturally like each other. There is a lot of hissing and meowing and running and pouncing about their place now .

Oh well...