Cat Prowling in a Field on Naxos

I came across this cat early one morning on the Greek island of Naxos, close to our hotel. I had gotten up early to see what kind of photo opportunities might present themselves, and discovered this fellow in the field adjacent to the hotel. Judging by his low crouch position and slow forward movement, I believe he was in hunting mode, trying to secure a nice breakfast for himself.

He turned to look at me as I tried to sneak close enough for a decent shot. I was able to capture a few good images thanks to the zoom lens I had attached to my camera at the time. I took this photo at maximum telephoto zoom, 200mm, for a 35mm equivalent focal length of 300mm.

Anyway, I hope he was able to find a good bite to eat that morning. I know I did - the breakfasts at the Hotel Grotta were excellent!

The Santorini Coastline

Before I get back to the business of posting more cat-centric images in this blog, I thought you might like to see a litttle bit more of the western coastline of the Greek island of Santorini.

Here's a view looking to the northwest, taken from our hotel room balcony. This image shows the central portion of Santorini's main town of Fira. The diagonal 'switchback' path in the lower center is used by hard-working donkeys (and people on foot) to reach the small lower port area (out of view to bottom left). There's a short cable-car ride that accomplishes the same thing a lot faster, and without all the donkey-infused ambience and sweaty exertion.

This second shot is from the north side of town, looking south. Visible in the background just to the right of the church is the southernmost part of Fira, home to our hotel - the Hotel Keti.

I have several more good landscape images from Santorini, but will save those for a little later. Back to the cats soon.

On Santorini - One Room, Great View, Free Greek Cat Included

Question: What's better than a nice room with a great view on the Greek island of Santorini?

Answer: A nice room with a great view, and a free (hotel) cat for a few days.

Here's a shot that shows a little more of the Santorini town of Fira in the background, as seen from the balcony of our room (looking approximately northward). Our favorite 'hotel cat' has stopped by for a proper dose of head-scratching attention. Naturally, my wife was more than happy to oblige. No language barriers here!

On Santorini - A Room with a Great View

This image illustrates a bit of the scale associated with the Greek island of Santorini. My wife is looking over the edge of our hotel balcony at the Hotel Keti, with the main port village of Fira built into the rocky hillside in the backdrop. The water and the volcanic caldera are outside the frame of this shot, far below and to the left.

Much, much further to the northwest (well beyond the background of this image) lies the village of Oia, which is where people go to see the most spectacular views of the Santorini sunsets over the caldera.

But as I'll show in future posts - and as you can start to see here - the view from this vantage point is pretty spectacular already!

(And yes, the cat from my previous 'Hotel Keti' posts liked to hang out with us on this balcony. Who wouldn't? More on that later.)

The Cat and the Cruise Ship

This image is from the back of the Hotel Keti on the Greek island of Santorini. The cat here is the same pregnant female I highlighted in an earlier post.

It was late afternoon, and my wife Melissa and I were relaxing in preparation for what was sure to be another glorious sunset over the water-filled volcanic caldera that fronts the main town on Santorini. Along came the female cat we had befriended earlier - hungry for a little attention, and as it turned out, for food as well.

Melissa implored me to go into town and get some cat food. So I did - climbing up, up, up, and up some more to reach the main town level. I was back in 30 minutes or so, and we popped open a can of food for the cat. After all, she was eating for many, not just herself. She consumed an entire can of food in less than a minute, and the picture you see here is basically 'cleanup' time.

Now for the cruise ship in the background. What you can't really get a sense for in this photo is the scale of things here. That rather large ship is hundreds of feet below the level of Hotel Keti. Just beyond the cat is a fairly sheer dropoff to water level.

In later posts I'll add a few non-cat photos to provide a better sense for scale and context about the 'Santorini experience.'

Cat Tail and Water Pail

This is the tail end of the cat in the garden at the Hotel Philippi on the Greek island of Mykonos. She's peering through a square opening in a short wall that borders one of the garden beds at the hotel - no doubt spying for any ground-level activities that might require her further attention. She stayed motionless in this position for several minutes, allowing me to take photos from several angles. I liked this one the best.

The Cafe Break

Trekking around Greek Islands in search of photogenic cats and other interesting distractions can burn a lot of calories, especially with a full photo backpack in tow.

This image is from a small cafe just down the way a bit from the Hotel Philippi on Mykonos island. We stopped here several times during our stay to enjoy the chocolate-filled pastries baked fresh daily, not to mention the cappuccino and espresso.

I made this image with a 35mm lens (approx. 50mm equivalent), set wide open at f/2 to minimize the depth of field. I'm sure I was very close to the minimum focusing distance of this lens.

(Photo Tip: If you're going to take 'food pictures' while traveling, just remember to do it before you and your travel mates devour everything on the table.)