Kitty Cat Diary 2015

Kitty Cat Diary | 貓咪日記

The Kitty Cat Diary is a photo diary of my adorkable wife, and it's what happens when a photographer marries a woman who doesn't mind having a camera pointed at her during everyday life. Elena (A.K.A. Kitty Cat, because my nicknames for her all revolve around the theme of a cat.) is my favorite subject to photograph--there's just something very theraputic about grabbing a camera and capturing the person you love the most in the world, while combining that with creativity and aesthetic sensibility. This interaction has brought us a lot of joy over the years and captured a lot of precious memories. If you want to get to know Elena better, her bio is the best place to start.

Since these are spur-of-the-moment snapshots, it's best to enjoy them simply as casual fun instead of serious photography (you can find more serious photography in other areas of my site). A wide range of camera were used to shoot these photos--from professional cameras to casual compacts and smartphones. You can find out what photography gear I shoot with in the FAQ section.

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This is the second time I took the Sony a7RII out on a photo-shoot, and I also brought the Pilotfly H1+ and shot a bunch of videos too. But afterwards, I decided it's just too much hassle to be carrying all that (a7RII, lenses, and Pilotfly) every time we go out, and made the decision to keep the Olympus E-M1 as my dedicated "going out" camera system, while the Sony full-frame system with the Pilotfly will be my dedicated "home system" (while doubling as the "upstairs system").

Sometimes shots I really like happen unexpectedly. In the above photo, Kitty Cat was putting grocery into the trunk of the car, and I saw the golden rim-light from the setting sun on her, so I crouched down next to the trunk and waited. She wasn't even paying any attention to me or posing--she was just putting grocery into the car, but the instant she did look my way, I took the shot. A couple of week later, I got another shot I really like while she was putting stuff into the car trunk. I like how the light lights up the loose weave of the hat, giving it a sublte glow.

This was when I first took the Sony a7RII on an outing (picking fruits at Kitty Cat's friend's house). The camera performed beautifully, as did the FE 55mm f/1.8 and the FE 24-70mm f/4. However, its video image stabilization isn't nearly as effective as the E-M1, so it now the a7RII only stays at home, where I can mount it on a Pilotfly H1+ (a 3-axis gimbal stabilizer). I tried taking the a7RII out with the Pilotfly once and the setup was too bulky for casual shooting, so now I only take the E-M1 when we go out. From here on out, it's pretty much just going to be the a7RII and the E-M1. I almost never shoot anything with my Galaxy Note 3 since the camera just isn't good enough for my needs.

We were shopping at Ikea, and it was surprising how nice the lighting is in the area with the room displays, since they really try to light them to be as appealing as possible. We ended up taking a lot of photos at Ikea, utilizing their nice lighting.

In August of 2015, I sold all my of Canon gear (5D Mark III and all Canon mount-lenses) and switched to the Sony full-frame E-mount system (a7RII and Sony lenses), and I'm quite happy with the switch. The a7RII won "camera of the year" award in just about every single photography/camera magazine and website, and despite its fair share of shortcomings, it really is quite a remarkable camera for the technological innovations it brought to the table. Its main weaknesses are mostly ergonomic-related, and hopefully Sony will work hard on improving that aspect in future iterations.

Trying to nail shots while she's moving around between tree branches and leaves would have been extremely difficult if not for the touchscreen autofocus/shutter of the E-M1. I only have to tap exactly where I want to focus on the screen and the E-M1 will focus on that spot and fire the shutter. I wish all cameras have this feature, but many don't even have touchscreens, for no apparent reason other than some arbitrary preference by the manufacturer's design/engineering team.

This spot in our frontyard is quite pretty when the white flowers are in bloom. We don't like lawns (they waste too much water and are a pain to maintain) and prefer flowers, fruits, herbs, and vegetables, so there are no lawns in our yards at all.

Sometimes, it's really hard to decide between color or black & white, so I just do both. Those who don't know much about photography might not know that creating black & white versions isn't just a simple process of desaturating the colored version. You actually have to make a lot of creative decisions regarding how to translate the red, green, and blue channels into black & white balance, and the contrast is also often not a direct translation.