Luna

Weekend Cat Blogging: Light and shadow

This week, we have an exercise in light and shadow with this Instagram photo of Luna on the window sill. It was taking around 1pm on a Sunday, not the best time of day for photos. But with cats, you can to take the shot when it happens using the tools at hand. The lighting places much of Luna in shadow, which makes her dark fur even darker. But there is also a patch of light on her fur.

Luna is happy to be home after I was out of town for a few days on my desert trip, which was full of quiet stark landscape, intense heat, and “self discovery.” I already shared one photo for the most recent Wordless Wednesday. I am sure I will be sharing more soon.

By coincidence Jules is also showing off light and shadow contrast on his black fur this weekend as he hosts Weekend Cat Blogging at Judi’s Mind Over Matter.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Flash

It’s been a little while since we have done a combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt. This week’s theme is Flash.

I don’t often use a flash when taking Hipstamatic photos of Luna, but when I do I can get some interesting results.

In addition to the “laser eyes”, we see Luna posing with our heart-shaped kalimba.

Weekend Cat Blogging #368 is hosted by Jules and Vincent at Judi’s Mind Over Matter.

The Saturday Photo Hunt is up with this week’s topic Flash.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Fun with Highways

Today two of our frequent series collide. It’s a “Fun with Highways” edition of Weekend Cat Blogging as Luna poses near some of our California highway signs.

I-80 has obvious significance, as we live very close to its western terminus. Indeed, I used a clip of Luna with the I-80 sign back in April for the video performance I did at SOMArts. It was projected onto a two-story wall next to the I-80 terminal interchange.

By contrast, California Highway 41 (which runs from the coast through the Central Valley to Yosemite) is a bit more esoteric, but it might be part of a future conceptual art project.

Yes, we at CatSynth are a bit eccentric. But you probably already knew that.

Weekend Cat Blogging #367 is hosted by Pam and Smudge at Sidewalk Shoes.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at iMeowza, the home of Meowza who went to the Rainbow Bridge in May. We keep him and his family in our thoughts.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator

Weekend Cat Blogging #366: Morning Rituals

it’s another busy weekend ahead of us, so just have a quick post featuring our common morning rituals here at CatSynth HQ.

There is coffee (in a cat-themed mug), newspaper on the iPad, and of course Luna.

A big thank you to everyone who wrote in last weekend to wish Luna a happy Gotcha Day.

This weekend marks the 7th Anniversary of Weekend Cat Blogging. This special edition will be hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?!.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at iInfidel.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Happy Gotcha Day, Luna!

This Sunday (June 10) is Luna’s adoption anniversary, otherwise known as her “Gotcha Day”.

It has been seven years since I encountered her at the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter and she chose me. Here is her official shelter photo:

Luna has of course grown up a lot over the years, but in some ways she hasn’t changed much. Here are some very recent Instagram photos of her:

Please join me in wishing Luna a happy 7th Gotcha Day!

Weekend Cat Blogging #364

We at CatSynth are happy to host Weekend Cat Blogging #364 this week. It is a self-selected round-up of cat-related posts from around the blogosphere. If you would like to participate, leave a link in a comment below, on our Facebook page, or tweet us @catsynth with hashtag #WCB.

And without “further ado” as they say, let us continue with the round-up.

First up, we have good news from our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer, with several recent adult-cat adoptees. Among them is the black cat Hunny pictured above. We are happy for the her and the other cats who found their new homes.

Truffle turns 1 year old today and there is a celebration on at Sweet Purrfections. In true Southern style, they are holding a debutante ball with quite a list of illustrious attendees.

Speaking of parties, Cokie the Cat explains the upcoming BlogPaws conference. It is an annual event for pet-bloggers (or blogging pets), and cats, dogs, birds, humans and other animals of all sorts are welcome. It will be taking place about three weeks in Salt Lake City.

We will continue to add posts throughout the weekend, so please continue to send us your submissions. And thanks to those who participated!

Weekend Cat Blogging: Modernist Sunshine

Luna always loves the patches of sunshine that pour into CatSynth HQ in the morning. On this particular morning we see her posing regally in an Art-Deco-patterned sunshine spot. The shadow is cast by the table just behind her, a piece that dates back to my graduate-student days in Berkeley but still fits the overall style of our current pad in the city.

On a sad note, we learned that our friend and fellow cat-blogger has passed away. We send her family our thoughts.

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Bengal Business.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Mind of Mog

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Artsy Luna Photos

Since Thursday, we at CatSynth have been once again on art-and-music overload. We stopped at two of three large art fairs happening in San Francisco; attended a fundraiser for 826 Valencia at which a friend was reading; and today it’s back in the studio for more recording with Reconnaissance Fly. So on that note, here are some rather artsy photos of Luna:

These are among the more stylized configurations I now have in the Hipstamatic iPhone app. The latter is the same combo I used in the most recent Wordless Wednesday photo.

The one downside of such busy weekends is not having a lot of time to spend with Luna.

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by our friends Nikita and Elivra at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Back on the Patio

As summer weather comes to San Francisco, we at CatSynth venture out onto our patio.

The patio took quite a pounding this past season. During one particularly bad storm with high winds and heavy rain, that plant on the left side of the photo came crashing down from the sky, destroying a screen and one of those nice modernist black benches :(. Fortunately, everything can be cleaned up or replaced. And the sculptures were not damaged.

Luna ventures out onto the patio:

Of course, she goes right for the grass in that pot that fell fromt the sky.

I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be brown, as many decorative grasses are. But I don’t know that it’s safe for cats, so I tried to discourage Luna from chewing on this. It’s not easy, as she particularly loves found grass.

Weekend Cat Blogging, Mothers’ Day Edition, is at Mind of Mog.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna and Luna

In honor of the full moon last night (dubbed the “supermoon” in the media), we present Luna along with her namesake.

I always thought the name suited her well.

Photographing the moon is even harder than photographing cats. But I did also create this highly stylized image of the full moon with traffic from nearby Interstate 280 as it descends into downtown San Francisco.

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Samantha, Clementine and Maverick.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted today by Ritzi at iInfidel.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.