new year caturday

Joan Jet in her zen position on the patio.

New Years Eve was another traumatic event for all my little guys. As usual the neighbors set off their purchased fireworks, starting almost as soon as it got dark, and continued past midnight. I have a lot of little visitors snuggling in next to me while all the booms echoed through the neighborhood. When the festivities ended they slowly moved off to their regular sleeping spots for the rest of the evening.

The morning and the day were spent with everyone in the household napping and resting in general. They were all happy for the quiet of the day as well as the very pleasant sunny day. It hit 80°F today, not bad for the first of January. Everyone was outside of the house and around our screen-enclosed lanai (patio). I have discovered that the cats in particular are quite content to stay within the enclosed area, as long as they can go out and watch what’s happening on the outside of the screen. And that’s fine by me, as it keeps the cats from roaming around the neighborhood and considerably reduces their chances to pick up parasites such as heartworm.

Danï stayed up too late last night…
…as did her sister Zoë
Luke is on the lookout for lizards and squirrels, and perhaps a few of the birds
Sweet Ruby certainly enjoyed the day

Finally one from the garden. The hibiscuses have been blooming again, along with my azaleas and some other flowing plants. That means getting out in the garden pronto to get things weeded and replanted.

Everything taken with the 75mm on the Pen F.

christmas caterday

A Christmas Caturday is a special Christmas Day and a special Caturday. So in that spirit I present a series of cat photos (along with one of Annie the Doodle) to help celebrate the Christmas season. The first photo in the sequence is Luke in his usual morning kitchen location, with our Christmas tree in back and out of focus. And his classic look…

Danï with all her toes pulled in and looking fabulous.

Litter sister Zoë keeping eyes out for lizards.

One more of Luke looking coy.


Last, but by no means least, Annie looks around to keep up with a house full of cats.

Except for the first photo, which was taken with the Panasonic Leica 1.4/25mm, all others were taken with my Christmas present to me, a heavily-discounted-because-it’s-refurbished Olympus M.Zuiko 1.8/75mm prime. I got it because it’s my little gift to me for a long year, and because refurbished it was less than half the prince of the 1.2/45mm PRO, making it a lot more affordable.

As far as I can tell so far it’s an outstanding lens even wide open at f/1.8. At a 150mm equivalent it allows me more distance between the animals and myself, helping to better catch them photographically. I used to be a heavy user of 135mm film lenses from Minolta and then Olympus, so working with this lens isn’t a challenge at all in spite of a number of 75mm lens reviews.

The body on all these was the Pen F.