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Cats, are definitely not my favorite animal. I thought I’d just put that out there from the start, so the challenge was in photographing a subject I dislike and have no access to, well unless I trapped my neighbors cat that poops in my back yard. (however we haven’t had any mice in over 10 years so it’s somewhat forgivable)
Maybe I should clarify my statement I don’t like “Domesticated Cats”, large and wild cats on the other hand are off the hook cool!
And unlike the annoying little backyard poop machine access to these large predators is actually real easy, (in the off season) it only costs $9! I ran up to our awesome Hogle Zoo and headed straight for the Tiger (we used to have four now we have one, I can only presume the others have been sent to other zoos for breeding)
When I got there the big guy was resting, and I had him all to myself, so I slapped on the 70-300mm and started snapping away and apparently the sound of my shutter really pissed him off, because he walked straight towards me and stared my down for a second before he started bellowing! If you’ve never heard an Amur (Siberian) Tiger bellow/grunt it’s loud and very intimidating, and echoes through the entire zoo. Tigers do not “meow” And I love that about them.
Meet the gorgeous Kiril, this is as close to a “Meow” as you’ll get from him.
Here are a few more shots of the big guy.
Hogle Zoo also has a beautiful Snow Leopard (who hid from me so I didn’t get any shots of it) and two Siberian Lynx.
Here is Dmitri the Amur Leopard rumor has it he’ll be getting a girlfriend soon.
He was really tough to shoot since the fencing is farther away and doesn’t blur away as well as the tiger’s enclosure, not to mention he was pacing like crazy and the enclosure was mostly in shadow with just one small section in direct sunlight. When you can’t beat the fence embrace it! (Or use really fast glass which sadly I do not have)
Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed these really cool cats.
Happy Shooting!
Howard
New D7000 user 
Beautiful pictures!!! Most of them don’t show signs of a glass, chain link fence, cage bars or other obstructions which would take away from a clean looking photograph. The pictures give the feeling that the “cats” are out in the open in their own environment, free to roam. Great shooting!!!
Thanks so much for the kind comments John!
I LOVE cats, Howard, we’ve got 2 really really spoiled ones running The Hollow as we speak here. I suspect if I brought any of these home for a visit, this would be the first time our two would be less than comfortable in their own kingdom. You’ve done a terrific job in capturing these shots, as John said almost all of them have a natural feel and you just cannot tell that fences are in the way at all. What a terrific set, my friend, absolutely top drawer!!
Toad I won’t hold your love of cats against you! 😉 Thanks as always for the visit and nice comments! If I don’t talk to you before I hope you have a great Holiday season.