写真

Cats, you just got to love them. They love to sleep in high soft places. These guys are so lucky to live near a bike parking place. Like most street cats all over the world these cats have slight eye infections. He is not blinking at me, there is something in his eye. Here in Japan there are always many kind people that feed and care for them. Most Japanese cats look pretty healthy except for the dirty eyes.


I was taking pictures of them while I was waiting for my train to the airport. It always seems to happen that the lens you forget is always the lens you need. I left all my bags in the coin locker along with my film cameras and extra lenses. As soon as I put my money and closed the locker, I realized that I left some lenses inside. Did I want to open up and use another 600 yen to lock up again? I was only going out for 30 minutes......

I had only a long telephoto lens so I had to climb up high to take this photo. I did not have much DOF to work with because of the low light. I did not want to use a high ISO speed with all the noise. I hate the words "You can always photoshop it" Before things were digital, I used to hate it when other other photographers would say "Let the lab worry about it" To me it means you did not care about your work to begin with.

I was very angry I could not get this on film. I just kept thinking to myself "For 600 yen more I coulda, shoulda, woulda.....
All the pictures actually came out good and sharp. I was on a job in Taiwan and downloaded all my photos into a laptop. I forgot to bring the CD's back home but luckily I e-mailed a copy of this picture to my friend. It does not look as sharp as the original but I will get all the originals when I return to Taiwan on my next assignment.
Interesting things happen all over our own back yard. We always think that the grass is greener on the other side, but if you look you will find. I'm getting a good collection of cat pictures during my travels. It is something that I would have never expected.

I have been taking photos of many cats in Japan on a personal level for the last 18 months. I keep returning to the same spots such as Kaga and Gotanda. I'm sad to see beautiful photos of them and then see them months later bleeding from scratching infected areas. It is sad but it is part of street cats life. Others have grown to be leaders of their communities.