Chris has slowed down these last couple of years, partly because of age, I suspect, but mostly because he has gained weight. Still, he sometimes surprises me by being his old, bad self.
Last Friday I was cooking dinner when Chris jumped on the kitchen counter. He then opened the cabinet and started rummaging through it. Since we have a small kitchen, I have some cat related items and other things sharing space with our dishes. There are feline supplements, premix for the raw cat food that I make, and a container of catnip, among other things.
I thought he was after the catnip but that was on the second shelf and he was clearly interested in the first shelf. I looked at what he was looking at and found a ziplock bag with flavoring that came with my order from NomNomNow. Someone already chewed through the original packaging which is why it was in a ziplock bag. The flavoring helps to get finicky cats used to the new kind of food but our cats never needed an incentive to eat it so I just put it in the cabinet. I put the bag on the top shelf above the bag of Tostito’s that was up there. I figured it was way out of his reach.
The next morning we went out for a little while and when we returned I found the bag of flavoring mostly empty on the counter and the Tostito’s with a hole in the side of it.
Apparently, I underestimated his current ability to be bad.
I originally thought that doing a camera review on a cat blog is a bad idea but then I realized that my blog is just as much of a photo blog as it is cat blog and I am sure there are many other pet bloggers that are interested in photography.
My birthday is coming up in a couple of days and I am a hard person to buy for so my wife put it in my hands to find I gift that I would be happy with. So I decided it was time for a new DSLR camera. The camera that I had been using is a Canon EOS Rebel T1i. I got it for Christmas in 2009 and the way that technology advances it should be a dinosaur but, surprisingly, at 15.1 megapixels, it still takes better photos than any smart phone being sold today. Nevertheless, I think I could benefit from an upgrade.
I did somewhat upgrade my camera a couple of years ago. I bought a Canon EOS M1. It is a small, mirrorless, 18-megapixel camera that is not a DSLR but it does have interchangeable lenses. I like it because it takes excellent photos and because it is small, lightweight and much easier to carry around. I don’t like it because it takes way too long to focus. That is fine most of the time but try to get a cat to hold still for more than a second while the camera is focusing. There are several upgrades to the M series that probably corrected that problem and thought about upgrading that camera instead but chose the DSLR instead because it is more obsolete.
I looked around for a long time. I wanted a camera that was at least 24 megapixels but was also reasonably priced. I also wanted a Canon because I have lenses for it and because I have liked Canons since my dad gave me his Canon F1 in 1987.
It came down to the Canon EOS Rebel SL2 or the Canon EOS Rebel T7i. Both cameras had similar features and the T7i had some slight advantages but the SL2 was a bit smaller and lighter, which is helpful when you have to carry it around for a long time. It was also almost $200 less expensive which was a big plus for me.
I ordered the camera on Amazon and paid about $600 for it. The Rebel line is made for amateurs and is significantly less expensive than the pro version without much, if any, loss of picture quality. I think the main difference is in how rugged the camera is built but this will be my third Rebel since 2005 and I never once had a problem with any of the cameras.
It arrived Monday, too soon for my birthday but my wife didn’t care if I opened it, so I did.
Naturally, I wanted to test it out so I spied Frankie lying on the floor.
I always set the camera to shoot RAW + Jpeg. This takes up more room but allows me to view all my photos easily and the RAW format gives me more options when editing the photos. I want to say that I then erase any RAW file that I know Is not top quality to save room but I usually forget that step or I am rushed and don’t bother doing it. I didn’t look at the settings until after I took the above photo but it came set up for just Jpeg so I had to change it later.
The camera comes with several options for scene selections and other things but I won’t review those because I don’t use them. I use one of four settings:
Program Auto Exposure – This sets the aperture and shutter speed automatically.
Shutter Priority – Lets the Photographer select the shutter speed and the camera does the rest.
Aperture Priority – This is like shutter priority except it is the aperture that is set by the Photographer.
Manual – All settings are set by the Photographer.
My first Canon Rebel, the XT, was a fine camera but changing a setting was a laborious task. You had to fumble through various menus until you found what you were looking for. This camera has the main settings laid out on an easy to use touchscreen. In addition, the screen can be pulled out for viewing from different angles and then turned for protection when not in use.
I have had no opportunity to take this outside for a real-world test but I did take several photos of the cats. I was very impressed with how quickly it focused. There was no noticeable lag time between pushing the shutter release and hearing the sound of the mirror flipping up to take the photo. I’m sure it wasn’t instantaneous but it was fast. I also took several photos very quickly and had to wait for the camera to write them to the SD card. I was using a cheap, slow, memory card and was glad the camera had a large enough cache to accommodate it.
The photo below was taken in the morning before the sun came up so it was relatively low light. I had it set to fully programmable and it used a shutter speed of 1/13th of a second. Typically, I don’t like going below 1/30th of a second when hand holding a camera but, thanks to image stabilization, this photo is pretty sharp.
And thanks to the 24-megapixel sensor, I can zoom in on the eyes with much clarity.
The fast focus also allows me to capture Chris while he is rolling around. It would have been pure luck to get this photo with my M1.
Another great feature is the Canon app that allows you to control the camera with your phone. The app lets you see what the camera sees and you can change settings or take the shot remotely. This is useful for group photos or maybe even for catching your pets being naughty.
Here is the photo of Floki that I took remotely.
The app has a couple of other features that I find even more useful. Since the camera does not have GPS, it can take GPS information from your phone and include it in your photos. It also allows you to download photos to your phone so you don’t have to wait until you get home to share your photos on social media.
I plan on taking this camera with me when we go away for my birthday. We are going to the east coast of Florida to visit my wife’s father. We booked a hotel on the beach and we hope to see nesting sea turtles. If we do, I can’t use a flash or other form of light to photograph them and since they only lay their eggs at night it could be a challenge.
What do you think? Do any pet bloggers use a DSLR for your photos? Would anyone be interested in a blog post on basic photography?
Chris is a very touchy-feely cat and loves to lie against, or on top of, any cat or human that will tolerate it. This time it is Floki but now he is on my lap as I write this.
Does anyone else have a touchy-feely cat like Chris?
Here is another early photo of Chris with his adoptive sister and brothers. It was taken about ten days after we adopted Chris and it shows, even then, that he loves being the center of everything.
Here he is between Alex and Tigger with Abbey Sleeping at the top. Unfortunately, Flash is missing from the photo. I don’t think a photo exists with all five cats in it.
I decided to look into the archives for today’s Photo Friday. Sometimes it can be fun to stroll down Memory Lane. I found a photo of Tigger and Flash dated December 28, 2009.
Tigger and Flash were brothers who we ended up with due to an unusual circumstance. You can read about them in my post “Life Before Chris.” We adopted them in 2006 and, unfortunately, Flash died in April 2010. Tigger passed away in early 2013. Both were lost too soon.
At the same time that I took the above photo, Chris and Abbey were on the cat perch just to the left.
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Caren from Cat Chat with Caren and Cody. The folks at NomNomNow were looking for recommendations for a couple of bloggers that could review their premium cat food in exchange for some food. She thought I would be good for some reason. I don’t know why but I appreciate the confidence.
I told her I didn’t want to do it. I tend to be too honest and I didn’t want to be disappointed and have to give a bad review after getting free food. I did reconsider after reviewing their website and the ingredient list and committed only to talk to their rep.
So a few days later I spoke with Kevin. He was very nice and talked about the veterinary nutritionist that formulated the recipes and about how the food is made fresh and shipped overnight to your door. In addition, the quantity of food is based on the current weight of your pet and the ideal weight that you want your pet to be. I got the impression that it was a small operation staffed by people who really care about the health of my pets so I decided to give them a try.
I told Kevin about my cats and gave him the information about their weights. There is a pretty cool tool on their website that does the math and figures out portion size. If you have more than one pet the packages are numbered so you can tell which one is for which pet. They also sell food for dogs so you could probably order both at the same time but I am not sure about that.
As of now, they have five recipes for dogs and two for cats. I chose the
“Chicken Chow-Meow” because all my cats love chicken and I didn’t want to take a chance with the uncertainty of the “Flavorful Fish Feast.”
It should be noted that the way I feed my cats doesn’t fall into their carefully calculated meal plan. I usually give our cats one 5.5 ounces can of cat food and follow that 10 to 30 minutes later with about the same amount of homemade raw food. They seem to like the variety and I like them to have a variety. My feeling is that I can replace the canned food portion with the NomNomNow food.
I think the cost is similar to that of a high quality canned food but the ingredients are better. I compared their ingredients with that from a can of Earthborn Holistic Chicken Catcciatori, the canned food that is most common in our house.
Since ingredients always start with the largest ingredient and end with the smallest, it is the first few that are most important. That being said, some chemicals can be unhealthy in small amounts so they should all be considered.
In the Earthborn food, the first five ingredients are Chicken Broth, Chicken, Potatoes, Sunflower Oil and Natural Flavors. Chicken broth is okay but I never saw a broth as the first ingredient before. I don’t consider potatoes to be a very healthy food for humans and less so for cats but it is number three on the list. Sunflower oil is not considered a healthy oil. Number five is “natural flavors.” When you see this on the list, be wary. A natural flavor starts out natural before being sent to Dr. Frankenstein’s lab. Considering that Earthborn is a premium cat food, I don’t even want to know what is in Cat Chow.
The NomNomNow Chicken Chow-Meow has Chicken thigh, chicken breast, chicken liver, carrots and asparagus for the first five ingredients. It isn’t until the eighth ingredient that I found something I didn’t recognize, dicalcium phosphate. I looked that up and it is a calcium supplement, which is necessary because there are no bones in this formula.
The food arrived the other day while I was at work and my wife opened the box and put the food in the refrigerator. I saw the empty box so I knew it was here but I didn’t have time to do anything with it because our cats are trained to expect food as soon as I get home and any delay results in a meow-fest. So I gave them a can of food and then took a shower.
When I got out of the shower I grabbed three bags of the food and placed them in warm water for a few minutes before scooping it onto their plates. I didn’t see any directions so I just winged it. I took a video of this so that the cats could do the review for me.
They all seemed to like it. Even Chris who I struggle with to get to eat wet food. Floki especially liked it but Chris and Frankie stopped before they finished. That was probably because I gave them too much. It didn’t look like there was much food in the bags but once I scooped it onto their plates I could see it was way too much considering they already ate some canned food.
Also included with the order was a flavor packet and a container of beef broth.
I saw the beef broth in the fridge but didn’t know what it was for until later when I found the instructions and the card with the flavor attached. Both are to help finicky eaters. I moved them to my desk to take the above photo and returned the broth to the fridge but left the flavor pack on the desk. You can guess what happened. The next morning I saw Frankie licking the desk. It was still too dark to see what he was licking but I felt something gritty so I turned a light on and saw this the torn up flavor packet on the floor.
Also included in the order was a sample of chicken jerky.
It was well received by our boys but our carnivores can be like little babies sometimes. I needed to break them up into smaller pieces to make it easier to eat.
We also received a sample of the Flavorful Fish Feast which our boys gobbled up.
As of now, it looks like I found a great replacement for our canned food but I still plan on also feeding them the homemade raw food as well. I think if I were to give any advice to the company I would recommend grinding the vegetables into smaller pieces so it is more difficult for the cats to avoid.
What do you think? Is this something you would be willing to try? If you are interested, click here for their website and more information. They have a special offer that gives you 50% off your first order. I am not compensated in any way for this post except for the food I already received.
Chris’s increased age and weight have slowed him down a bit so posts about his “badness” are not as frequent as they used to be. For Throwback Thursday I’d like to share this one from late 2015 that shows him in all his badness, even at six and a half years old.
These last few days have been cool and we have been leaving the window open on the door near the bathroom while Rose gets ready for work. We put a stool or chairs there so the cats can look outside and they love it.
After the cats got bored with the window Saturday morning, Rose moved the stool away. I was in the other room so I didn’t see what happened next but I heard Rose scream, “Come quick! Chris jumped through the window!” When I came, I saw the window open with no screen in it. Rose told me he jumped from the ground and through the window. He popped the screen out like it wasn’t even there (thanks to the weight he has put on lately) and landed, seemingly uninjured, on the stairs below.
I wish I was videoing him when that happened but I missed it. I…
Bad Cat Chris 