Peter, I did a double-take when I saw your ISO. Did you run that through any de-noise filter or anything? That's pretty remarkable. Your cat could be the twin of one of our cats. Ours is an old man with one bum eye, but he still plays like a kitten.
Bill, your HDR looks great! That is a super cool image. I don't know if I would have automatically thought HDR if you hadn't mentioned it--I sorta think that if it's not obvious, then that's well done HDR. So, well done, eh?
I'll continue in the cat theme. The day after Christmas we visited Tinker's Cat Cafe in Salt Lake City. It's a business duplex that has a cafe on one side and a "cat room" on the other. Cafe patrons can go hang out in the cat room--for a small fee, of course. They have maybe nine or ten cats that live in the cat room and they are all available for adoption. Our youngest daughter is a cat fanatic, so our oldest daughter gifted her this visit to the cat room for Christmas. We already have two cats, so we won't be adopting any others, but the youngest was in cat heaven for the hour we were there.
I think I'm going to be super self indulgent and post a few of the photos because I can't decide which one I like best... I got back to basics and used my 50mm lens for these.
Tinker's Cat Cafe by Nicole Fernley, on Flickr
Tinker's Cat Cafe by Nicole Fernley, on Flickr
Tinker's Cat Cafe by Nicole Fernley, on Flickr
D810, 50mm f/1.4, all shot at f/2.8 with varying shutter speeds, ISO 320
The natural light in this place was quite nice--giant north-facing window with white walls all around.