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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Weekly ShopKat

I happened to be holding the camera with the 55-200mm telephoto lens mounted when I noticed ShopKat sitting in her favorite spot on top of one of my stock piles.

I love the colors and the contrast in these pictures.  They’re unedited except for size.

 

(Image settings provided for the shutter geeks)

@190mm. Aperture priority mode F-stop 5.6 Exposure 1/320s. ISO 400. Light meter is set to pattern

image

 

@55mm. Aperture priority mode F-stop 5.6 Exposure 1/125s. ISO 200. Light meter is set to pattern.

image

 

ShopKat will now hear your petitions…

 

…and most likely ignore them, as is her wont.

29 comments:

  1. That zoomed image is pretty damned fine. Nice eye.

    I seem to recall seeing you saying something about a Nikon in a previous post. Which one you shooting with?

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  2. the D5000. I'm very happy with it.

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  3. O GREAT SHOPKAT! YOU ARE MIGHTY AND WE ARE MEEK! HERE OUR PRAYERS AND HAVE MERCY UPON OUR SOULS!

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  4. The ShopKat HerselfJuly 6, 2010 at 10:17 PM

    Foolish Eric, lawyers have no souls.

    No Mercy for you!

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  5. Truth be: I expect no mercy from ShopKat, for I realize she is like Crom, a harsh deity whom we are better-off being ignored by.

    ShopKat, guide me to the wizard who killed my mother! And if you cannot do this, to Hell with you!

    -----

    ovelly: a sort of round but sort of square shape, except not really.

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  6. she is like Crom, a harsh deity...

    ...whose breath smells of liver bits.

    Just saying.

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  7. Great shots! And the Pens are beautiful too!

    I keep meaning to ask about Shop Kat though. My cats have so far determined that the following items are just waiting to eat kitties;

    Vacuum Cleaners, ice dispensers, furnace blowers, anything that moves, the dishwasher, etc.

    Does Shop Kat ever actually enter the shop? When actual shop activities are taking place???

    Just curious, probably a different standard of courage up there in Alaska.

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  8. The ShopKat HerselfJuly 6, 2010 at 10:50 PM

    I am without fear, Stuart.

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  9. She truly is without fear, Stuart. She is completely unfazed by the running equipment, even the planer which howls like a banshee.

    At the end of the day I usually vacuum the woodchips and sawdust of her coat, or blow it off with the air compressor.

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  10. Judging from the quality of shots you display here your happiness is well earned.

    We're about to go digital SLR and I keep seeing people quite happy with the Nikon line (although truth be told I know people who also love their EOS Rebels and their Olympus 'E' series cameras. As *she* has a history using the old Stone knives and bearskins version of a Nikon we're leaning in that direction.

    Carry on with the good shooting.

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  11. ...I usually vacuum the woodchips and sawdust...

    She is ALIVE, right? Not an animatronic/cyborg-like TK model terminator scout kitty?

    If I tried that with mine (who are known to catch and eat entire squirrels in one sitting) I'd have to try out some more of my awesome medical benefits. :|


    decare: deservices I receive when I go to dehospital after decat shreds me for devacuuming it...

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  12. 'zilla, you just can not go wrong with Nikon. The lens alone are worth the price.

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  13. The ShopKat HerselfJuly 7, 2010 at 12:14 AM

    She is ALIVE, right? Not an animatronic/cyborg-like TK model terminator scout kitty?

    You doubt us, do you, Karl? This does not bode well for your, very brief, future. No, it does not bode well at all. Meowahahahahahahaha.

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  14. ::throws salmon-smeared catnip stuffed jingle toy into 8" dust collector hose - holds hand over switch - waits::

    ::whistle "Cat's in the cradle" while I wait::

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  15. hmph, not falling for it...

    ::leaves kipper snack and nail file::

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  16. I'm sorry - is that a bell around her neck?

    What the hell is wrong with you? How embarrassing.

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  17. Silly Janiece, that's not a bell, it's a galaxy. Haven't you seen Men in Black? :)

    Flusl: Super powered fiber laxative.

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  18. The ShopKat HerselfJuly 7, 2010 at 8:51 AM

    DO NOT MOCK THE BELL!

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  19. I just heard that in my head with the voice of the doberman from the film 'UP'.

    DO NOT MOCK THE BELL!

    Kind of an inhaled helium squeakiness to it.

    Must be the kippers.

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  20. OK, I have to momentarily de-lurk here to admire ShopKat and her omnipotent (and round) loveliness. She is awesome to behold. I also love your blog, and laugh (and cry) when read your posts. And you have very clever and erudite commenters as well. I stumbled in here months ago (or maybe years) when searching for answers as to why a certain ex-Gov. from your lovely state was coating the lower 48 with her screechy platitudes. 'What did we ever do to Alaska,' I thought to myself. Will she ever shut up? I still have no answers, but I found some lovely blogs in my quest. :-)

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  21. We call that position "sitting nicely" when either of our cats sit like that. I think they would both expire of fear if the vacuum cleaner was in the same room as they are, even in the "off" position. In fact one of the cats (the formerly male one) once ran away from a cicada.

    For years I used a Nikkormat (Nikon beofre it was Nikon) 35 mm SLR camera. None of my pics were ever in great focus, and I eventually gave up manual cameras. I eventually realized that because my dominant eye can only be refracted to 20/25, I never could quite get the damn lens to clear focus. Thanks be to Ghod for PHD cameras (my new toy is a Panasonic Lumix FZ35 -- yummy!).

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  22. The Large Primary Cat is not afraid of the vacuum, however, he gets even more pissy when I try and vacuum him.

    Just out of curiosity, ShopKat isn't deaf is she?

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  23. And ShopKat, that was in no way meant to demean you. I was just curious.

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  24. Natalie--not sure about your camera, but mine has a button/wheel that allows you to adjust the focus of the eyepiece, so you can take need for glasses into consideration.

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  25. The ShopKat HerselfJuly 8, 2010 at 12:47 AM

    I hear everything

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  26. @neurondoc

    Nikkormat was the name of the non professional Nikon line, same lenses, but you couldn't use the body as a hammer quite as well.

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  27. I also have a well-loved, and still fully functional Nikkormat FtN. Still love that camera.

    At one point I was able to get a diopter lens for the view-finder to compensate for my vision. Alas, it came up missing after a mission and I was never able to replace it.

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  28. I thought ShopKat was a boy.


    pariesse = not exactly from Paris. Paris-like.

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  29. ShotKat is very much a girl, Konstantin, she's just not a girly girl.

    She's not exactly svelte either, as Meridith pointed out. Chunky might be a better description.

    For new readers, ShopKat (official name is Denali, nickname is Stinky, Shopkat is more of a job description) was an orphan, a tiny little ball of fluff I discovered on my back porch at -30 about two years ago. She's easily the single most intelligent and well mannered cat I've ever met, and certainly the most affectionate by a factor of ten. She reminds me of a fluffy Heinlein character named Pixel, who appeared in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

    She keeps me amused.

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