Scout Ascendant

Our cat Scout relaxes on top of the kitchen cabinets

I had forgotten how much in her early years Scout loved to be up high until I was looking through old pictures. Here in 2004 she’s on the kitchen cabinets, in other pictures she’s on top of bookcases or even on top of doors.

Brothers at the Window

Our cats Sam and Boo look out the window from the top of the cat tree

Sam and Boo sitting side-by-side atop the cat tree, watching out my office window. Taken with perhaps my favorite camera/lens combination ever, the Sony A6500 and the Sony-Zeiss 24mm. There isn’t much room between the edge of the cat tree and the wall, I’m standing with the camera held at Sam’s eye level, I tilted the screen so I could see the image and tapped to set the focus on the fur above his eye. Not a particularly slow shutter speed but I wasn’t in the stablest of camera positions so the image stabilization was appreciated. Really glad I picked up this camera in the spring, it has finally my solved my desire for a small walk-around camera.

Scout Is Not Impressed

Our black-and-white cat Scout yawns while resting on the hardwood floor

I upgraded from the Canon 10D to the Canon 20D in 2005 shortly before a work trip to Japan. Although the cameras were similar, I wanted a quick test before leaving, so I photographed my two favorite models then took a trip to Ridgefield. If Scout wasn’t impressed with my new Canon 20D in 2005, to be fair initially neither was I. It seemed such a tepid upgrade from the 10D on paper that I didn’t order it when it first came out. But a user review months later convinced me that the improvements in operational speed would be welcome, and they were, I used the 20D for years until the shutter packed it in on a hike on Mount Rainier.

Our black-and-white cat Scout yawns while resting on the hardwood floor