While the election looks like a landslide from an electoral perspective, the popular vote broke down to 52% of voters choosing (now President-elect) Obama and 46% choosing Senator McCain, with the remaining two percent split between Ralph Nader and all the other independant candidates. That’s not the overwhelming majority that reporters would like to present. The same people who voted Obama as the next president also appear to be passing Proposition 8 in California. I’m still processing how I feel about both issues, which represent the insane dichotomy of public opinion (black okay. gays bad) and just how close the divide is between the two sides.
I’ve said from the moment when both candidates were finally picked that no matter who won, either candidate would bring four years of political turmoil, but for different reasons. McCain would have brough international charges of fascism. Obama has me wondering “Can the American Presidency be bought?” and “When will the white supremecists come out of the woodwork and try something idiotic?” I’m not sure how I feel about those things, either.
Instead, while I sort those things out, I present the best picture I’ve ever taken of Boo.
Boo at her most beautiful
It’s very difficult to get a really good picture of a black cat. For starters, cats aren’t generally the most willing of subjects as far as posing go. I mean really, I have cats who come to their names when called, but teaching a cat to sit and stay is an exercise in frustration. A cat’s going to do what the cat wants to do and you just have to take a boat tonne of pictures and hope for the best.
With a black cat, the added difficulty comes from the depth of their color. Capturing inky saturated hues without washing them out, or completely losing all detail in their depths is more luck than either art or science. If you take two pictures of a cat of any other color to get one good one, you need six of a black cat to hope to get anything useable.
With Boo, who is particularly aloof, I count on taking at least ten pictures and maybe getting one that’s acceptable. Not good, mind you. Just acceptable. Given those parameters, this picture is a miracle.
I caught Boo just waking up from a nap. I snapped as many pictures from as many different angles as I could without disturbing her. For this particular picture, I was laying on the ground next to her and she stretched out toward me in one of her rare affectionate moments. It really captures her grace and the inky depth of her fur.
Unlike this one.
This picture is the same cat. Really.
See how her color is washed out. Plus, not her usual graceful self. It looks like the kind of picture a popular girl might be mortified to find posted on the internet after she over-indulged at a spring break beer blast. It’s the kind of picture I usually get of Boo and it always reminds me that my Camera-fu is weak, lest I become overconfident.