Hidden Treasure

[cjsoap]

I found this forum by accident.. what a wonderful learning enviroment this is. I'm not too sure what I'm doing and not sure if I fit in, but what the heck... I like what I see and would like to know what you think.
I found this little guy in the bushes... got 2 shots off and then he was gone. Thank you for your comments

[Irish]

Cute kitten. You have captured his/her curious and playful mood very well. I too have a beautiful cat living next door, but he wont sit still long enough for a picture.

The brown in the tree trunks are a little distracting and the blue green "foliage" competes with kitty blue eyes. I am a great believer in photoshop and in the crop tool. If your original image is big enough to take the crop you can frame the kitten and cut out a lot of the competing image to the left.

What do you think??

[Irish]

Here is another take to reduce the impact of the surroundings and draw the viewer to the kitten. Just my view - you might not like it.

[opus]

Here is another take to reduce the impact of the surroundings and draw the viewer to the kitten. Just my view - you might not like it.

I found the blurred foliage to be distracting too, and agree with the crop. I like the shot, but I keep wishing I could see more detail. That's why I like the B&W one better, because it focuses more on the kitten and draws your eye straight to it. When you only see half of the face, you ache to see more, but that's where this shot captures the feeling of the moment...the kitten wants to be elusive, and the kitten wins.

I took the B&W one a bit further, adding a small level of Unsharp Mask just to make the eye pop a bit more. And then I wanted to pull the kitten out of her surroundings a bit more, but playing with levels and contrast affected the kitten too much. So I made a selection of just the two trees, put a feather of 5 on it (so the edge wouldn't be noticeable), and in levels brought the black side of the slider to 15.

Here's my result, having worked on the second generation jpeg. Again, it's just my view, and I'm just fiddling around at this point. I like to make different versions before I make up my mind which one I like.

[cjsoap]

Thank you for your comments. I too agree with the crop, I had done
a little for it before and went back to the original. I really like the b&w
especially with the blue eye.
Kelly hit it on the head with the elusiveness of the kitten, that's what caught my eye. You guys are a lot of fun. I might throw another out to you soon. I have a lot to learn. What great photos I have seen here...
I love it.
CJ

[Todd Patten]

OK. I can't help but to wonder. Was this cat a stray? Did it have a home?

[cjsoap]

OK. I can't help but to wonder. Was this cat a stray? Did it have a home?

Unfortunetly his was a stray. There seemed to be a few strays around that neigborhood mostly young females. I had managed to catch a few of them and had them spayed and found them homes, however this one just showed up one day and was gone that same day.. he (or) she really was a cute little thing.
CJ

[evatgirl73]

Cute shot, you totally "get" the elusiveness of the kitten. The crops work for me, especially the b/w ones. Very cute, too bad the kitten disappeared... hope she found a good home!

Take care,
Eva