pi day with cats and labs

Luke

Today is International Pi Day because it’s 3/14, or 3.14. Whatever. The household creatures say ‘big deal’ since they can’t have any pie. Or pi. Again, whatever.

Ruby

Ruby is her usual quiet, contemplative self. She cares not for pi unless it it means she gets 3, or possibly 4, treats. She will have none of this fractional business, especially just a fraction of a treat.

Camera and Lens

I bring up that these photos were taken with my Panasonic GH4 and the Lumix 30mm macro. The GH4 is a mere 16mp camera, that when first released in 2014 was considered the bee’s knees. I’ve never used it for video, having fallen for the still imagery I can create with this hybrid camera. I purchased this copy four years ago, three years after its release, and some nine months after the release of the GH5 in March 2017. Panasonic still had a lot of copies in inventory, so Panasonic had a Christmas sale and marked the GH4 down over half, and I bit. I’ve never regretted that decision.

some household creatures in black and white


I’m back into that black-and-white kind of photography mode. I’m practicing again, trying to hit the mid-tones and smooth transitions, avoiding the crazy contrast I’m prone to with digital photography. I tried to preserve the way the light plays across Ruby’s coat. I’ve got all this photography gear and cameras on my iPhone, and I seldom use any of them any more. I need to start using them. And ignoring the “influencers” who would have me trash all my gear just to acquire the latest Canon/Nikon/Fuji/Whatever…

And of course all the little ones are more than willing to have me take their photos.

I like my black-and-white photos as light as reasonably possible, with a few dark-to-black areas in the composition to add interest to the photography. That was what I was after with Luke’s photo above. His handsome head is separated from the background due to it’s being lighter than the back of the chair he was sitting in, and then right in the middle of his face his irises are small yet distinctively jet black.

Both photos were taken with a vintage Panasonic Lumix GH4 and a Lumix 30mm macro.