Black and white cat stretching out on a garden wall.

This is my cat, Spook, stretching out in the sun on our garden wall. This is one of his favourite spots, right above the bird feeders!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5, 1/200s, 35mm, hand held.

Cat looking out over fields above the Calder valley

I took this at Midgley 2 weeks ago, early in the evening on the way back from a walk along the valley top. This cat was sitting looking out at the fields, possibly looking for prey, or maybe just admiring the view! I crept up to the wall behind it, totally expecting it to hear me and run. I took 3 photos of it from different angles and the only movement it made was to turn round and glare at me for disturbing its peace every time the shutter clicked!

The view is of Luddenden Foot in the middle distance and Sowerby village and church on the far hillside.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/11, 1/80s, 26mm, hand held.

Contented cat lying on a garden wall

This is George, lying in one of his favourite places on our garden wall, in July last year. I love to remember him like this.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/400s, 90mm, hand held.

Goodbye to George...

Today we had to say goodbye to our beautiful 5-year-old cat, George, lost to cancer. So sad. He was found with his brothers and sisters at just a few weeks old in a box behind a pub and rescued by the RSPCA. We then adopted him and his brother, Fred. Horribly, Fred was run over and killed at 9 months old. George went on to have a great 5 years of climbing trees (real ones and Christmas ones!), catching birds and rodents, eating too much food, lolling around a lot and generally being loved to bits.

So glad we had those 5 years - lovely memories and photos remain.

Black and white cat yawning

This is Spook, our 5 year old black and white cat. I was watching him and taking photos, trying out my new macro lens, when he did a huge yawn and I managed to capture it. I often find that cats start yawning when I'm photographing them - maybe it's a nervous thing; or maybe they're just bored!

In Lightroom, I converted to monochrome, increased contrast, reduced exposure and added a slight dark vignette to darken the background.

Ginger and white longhaired cat

I wanted to post a photo of George, my gorgeous 5-year-old cat, because he's just today been diagnosed with lymphoma. He's otherwise quite healthy and the vet tells us that with chemo (not as bad for cats as humans apparently), we will get up to another year with him. We're all gutted, but glad he's not leaving us yet.

Hopefully a happy year ahead for George, being spoiled silly...

Long-haired white cat behind blinds

This is George, my 5-year-old cat. He sits behind the blinds a lot (always knocking things off the window sill!). On this day the sun was shining right into the window - back-lighting him and taking away much of the detail of the blinds, making a really interesting shot.

No post-production changes, other than conversion to monochrome.