The Scholar
The cat is Moriarty, the toy mouse is Dangerous Beans.
But I will not tell you which one of them is The Scholar!
I see the textures of this artwork as a second subject. The dilapidated edges of the old books, the broken spine with the linen binding tape peeking through.
Photographing a Black Cat May be Difficult —
But editing the photo can be even more challenging!!
"A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere." ~ Groucho Marx
Early Morning Contemplations
Beware of "Black Cat Bias"
Black Cat Bias refers to the higher rates of surrenders to shelters, lower adoption rates, and high chance of euthanasia.
Black cats are the best! Adopt one today!
Black cats are bad luck —
FALSE!
Revenge
Moriarty isn’t just the model, he is also the artistic director. I was silly enough to think that the halloween crow should be in the cage, but when I took the cover off, Moriarty jumped in.
He knew this would be a much better shot!
From the website “Petplace” — During the Middle Ages, ignorance assumed that single women who fed stray cats were involved in witchcraft and that the cats were their “familiars,” or companions in black magic arts. This belief led to massive eradication of black (and other color) cats and gave rise to witch burnings, as well. The purging of cats thus allowed The Plague (Black Death) to wipe out nearly a quarter of the world’s population, because the disease was carried by rats and misguided people eliminated the rat’s primary enemy.In contrast, many countries view black cats as being lucky. Great Britain, Russia, and Japan all regard black cats as bringing luck, especially if one crosses your path. In Ireland, however, should a black cat cross your path in the moonlight, it is believed you will die in an epidemic.
Germany complicates things by believing that if a black cat crosses your path from right to left it brings bad luck, but if it crosses from left to right, the luck will be good. Pirates complicated things further by believing that if a black cat walks toward you it is good, but if they walk away from you, your luck will be bad. This belief is the opposite in the U.K.
Seafarers and fishermen generally feel that cats are lucky, but if a cat walks on board a ship and back off, the ship is going to sink. Cruise goers take note!
Black cats are hard to photograph —
True! — But so what??
Black cats are hard to photograph. Camera sensors treat everything as grey, so solid black objects end up being a strange, muddy grey, or a blackish blob. It’s hard to get the details in the fur. And auto-focus systems sometimes have a hard time focusing on something that doesn’t have a lot of contrast to it.
So shots like this are a masterclass in lighting.
The good news is — they give you great opportunities to learn how to photograph challenging subjects!