Cat Photo Competition 6 2015 : Entry Number 197

what a stunning black and white image -- deep black shadows and clean bright whites. beautiful framing, and the second cat lurking in the distance is just wonderful ... the wrapping of the trail around the cat's front paws and the variety of textures from the old iron to the cat's fur, the old leaf, the concrete, all give us a visually rich image. wonderfully done! ~ illona

Thank you so much, Illona. I am truly happy to see people are actually being drawn to this photograph for the same reason that made me stop to take it. It was taken in a suburb near downtown Rio, I was at a friends house and had gone out to grab a cup of coffee. On my way to the cafe I saw two white cats sitting at the stairway, I always stop to pet cats. And I started seeing how the contrast between the cats and the dark stairs of this abandoned house was playing out in conjunction with the framing rusty iron gates and concrete textures. I didn't think twice before running back to grab my camera and hope the cats were still there and they were! I was really happy with the image taken. I used a Nikon D3100 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens and processed using Adobe Camera Raw. Rodrigo Oliveira.