It Has Come to This—Pictures of a Cat (Doing Nothing)
These days I don’t have much to take pictures of but the need to take pictures is very powerful. The need to feel the weight of the camera in my hands, my finger hovering over the shutter button. Doing the half-press that engages the auto-focus and in less time than it take to blink it takes the light readings necessary to get the correct exposure for the shot. Then with focus-lock set on the required subject area and the light readings locked-in, moving the camera’s viewfinder to re-frame the picture so it fits in the frame the way I want it to, then a check of the background for anything that should not be in-frame. Finally pressing the shutter release all the way.
The mirror flicks up to clear the light path from the lens to the sensor. The viewfinder blacks out. Once the mirror is well out of the way the shutter operates and lets in exactly the required amount of light from the lens; then the mirror drops back into place so I can once again see through the viewfinder. It all happen in about 150 microseconds—150 thousands of a second. Then the camera is ready to do it again.
I love it. I have loved it since I bought my first SLR camera some 44 years ago. I love the framing of the shot. I love the sound and feel of the camera as it takes the exposure knowing that it has captured my image onto the SD memory card.
Sometimes the need to experience this is so strong I have been known to take pictures of blank feature-brick walls inside my house, or the clock hanging above the TV (of which I figure I probably have about 1,000 shots taken with various cameras over the years, with and without flash, with each of my various lenses).
But tonight I really hit bottom. Tonight I spontaneously took some pictures of one of our cats sleeping on the kitchen chair. Yep. I sure did. A cat. Doing nothing. Just sleeping on a chair … I kid you not.
Sob. It would not be so bad if it was playing with a mouse, or chasing a ball of wool, or standing up on its back legs begging to be fed (as it does), or doing something. But it is just sleeping on the kitchen chair … and I took pictures of this …
I figure I must be in need of some kind of photographer therapy. Perhaps I should put my camera on eBay for sale.
