
My Echo - isn't she precious? I adopted my kitty on August 13, 2010 and she is about a year old now. She's a sweet little cat, but like all cats she has a very mischievous side. In the past year I have taken dozens of pictures of Echo sleeping or bathing or exploring the corners of the house or, much like this one, sitting for a photo session. I decided to try something a little different this time - black on black. As I look at this picture I think there are a hundred things I could have done differently, but I love it anyway. Just look at the sweet face and chubby little body. I like the exposure and the rich black of the leather chair and her fur.
My intent was to feature her soft velvety fur and her green eyes. I supposed I could have kicked the exposure up just a stop or moved the strobe over to my right instead of setting it up on my left. I should have also corrected the white balance or increased the warmth of the picture and bumped up the contrast so her eyes would really stand out. Those eyes are actually much brighter in reality. The position of the horizontal and vertical seams in the chair are a little distracting so maybe I should have placed Echo a little farther to the left.
I shot this with my Tamron 28-70mm f/2.8, mounted on my Canon Xsi, at 59mm and ISO 200. My 580EX flash was positioned camera right and bounced off the silver lining of the umbrella. I need to experiment more. Maybe next time I should take off the black cover and shoot the flash through the umbrella.