Today we feature a guest post of our good friend Vanessa Morgan. She has a new interesting blog, called Traveling Cats!
HOW TO TAKE TRAVEL PICTURES WITH CATS?
Hello! My name is Vanessa and I’m the owner of Traveling Cats, a blog where I publish travel pictures with cats. Most of them are my own, but I also accept submissions from readers and other bloggers. As every cat picture is accompanied by the city and country in which the picture was taken, it becomes a fun way to discover all the different places in the world.
Travel photography becomes so much more interesting if there’s a person or animal on the image ‘telling’ the story, so I thought I’d share a few tips on how to take travel pictures with cats.
Know your subject
Know your subject – in this case the cat – and focus on it. You can do this by using your camera’s settings to focus on the cat and/or by blurring the background. The more unrelated elements you’ll allow, the more you’ll weaken an image. If the location is interesting, it’s a good idea to include the background but still keep the cat as your main focus point. If the cat’s the only interesting part of the image, it’s better to zoom onto the cat and subtract everything else.
Put yourself on the animal’s eye level
Many beginning photographers make the mistake of snapping a picture of an animal from their own viewpoint. Put yourself on the animal’s eye level, even if that means kneeling or lying on the floor.
Opt for the sports or moving children setting
Some cats will readily pose for you, but most of them will have their own agenda and be in constant movement. That means your picture risks being blurred. You can avoid this by using the sports or moving children’s setting on your camera or by choosing a faster shutter speed.
Get familiar with the rule of thirds
Visually split the picture into thirds (vertically and horizontally) and place the cat on an intersection or line. This is more appealing than having the cat smack-dab in the middle of your viewfinder. Some cameras have a grid option to help you with this.
Avoid your camera’s built-in-flash
Most flash light is too harsh and makes for unnatural looking images. The best pictures are taken in the early morning or late afternoon.
Practice
The more classes you take and the more time you spend exploring your camera, the better your travel pictures become.
Submit your own cat pictures
Have you taken pictures of cats during your holidays? I’d love to publish them on Traveling Cats. You may send your cat pictures to travelingcatsblog@gmail.com, tweet them to @TravellingCats or post them on the Traveling Cats facebook page. Don’t forget to mention the city and country where the photo was taken.