About Robert Sijka the man who photographs his wife's stunning Maine Coons

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This is a brief article on the man who rapidly became known on the Internet for being a Maine Coon cat photographer. His images and slow-motion videos of amazing Maine Coon kittens and adult cats started to appear on the internet a couple of years ago (for me) and we were all impressed by the cats which I have learnt are bred by his wife and that is how he became a Maine Coon photographer.

One of his photos of an amazing black smoke Maine Coon kitten called YOGA. Image: Robert Sijka. For me the image is too dark. The darkness of the image is for effect but I prefer more visual information. My eye searches for visual information but it is too dark to find.

Although he is known for these stunning Maine Coon photos (too dark for me by the way) he is a nature and pet photographer. 

He lives in Hong and Guangzhou, China but is an international photographer. By the way Guangzhou is in the south of China and is known for the region where cats and dogs are mercilessly abused before being killed for their skin or flesh - fur trade and meat trade. Ironic that.

He photographs fabulous Maine Coons thanks to his wife's efforts but they live in an area where the humble moggie is treated like shit.

I think they are Polish. I think his wife breeds the most amazing Maine Coons, the best in the world. I think she is the woman who breeds Maine Coons with human faces. Robert has great subject matter that is for sure.

This is what he says about himself on his website:

I love photography and cats; I do my best to combine both those things as good as possible. My journey with cats photography began few years ago when my wife started to breed Maine Coons. Being around the cats and photographing them gives me a lot of joy.

He has won photography awards such as the gold winner in the nature/pets category at the Tokyo International Foto Awards. This is deserved as he is an accomplished photographer.

Robert Sijka by him. I hope he accepts me breaching his copyright in publishing this image here. If not please tell me and I will remove it. Once again, for me, the image is 3 stops too dark. But this is a subjective aspect of photography. He must like dark stuff.

But his images of Maine Coons are almost invariably too dark for me. In photo terms they are about 2-3 stops too dark. That means 2-3 F stops too dark. He clearly likes to present them dark to enhance the appearance of black smoke Maine Coons. His wife seems to specialise in black smokes and similar dark coats. They are very impressive.

She also creates Maine Coons with incredibly strong muzzles. This is correct vis-a-vis the breed standard but there is a subjective element here and the CFA show cat Maine Coons do not have muzzles this strong (square and large). I believe that she breeds under the auspices of FiFe a European based cat association. Wrong? Please tell me.

Incidentally, you pronounce his name: Shee-ka. Thanks. Nice to know.

His MO is to:

My goal is to show different expressions and emotions flowing from the cat's eyes. I prefer to use a simple background and light setting which complements the cat, nothing else.

He follows Albert Einstein's maxim: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". I never knew that Einstein said that!

His bread-and-butter work is to photograph people's pets. He provide prints. I am sure that they'll be stunning images. I bet he is expensive though! Not for the run of the mill cat owner. You'll need to be one of the well-off in China or perhaps America.

His business is called the 'Felis Gallery'. The word 'felis' comes from the Latin (scientific) name of the cat: Felis catus, meaning domestic cat.

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