# My favorite ugly!



## madmouse (May 19, 2012)

So I was learning to use my new camera and thought I would use my favorite misfit as a model. This is Shawty. She was born with a normal tail, but as a hopper she went through a two-week period during which her tail stiffened and kinked, and the tip dried up and dropped off.




























Thanks ppvallhunds for the tip on a good camera!


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## 4mb3rNich0l3 (Dec 22, 2011)

I need those tips lol. Pretty good pictures  I have trouble with lighting.. Ill have to go outside for good lighting


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## Pamplemousse (Apr 9, 2012)

I think she's cute! And clearly well fed  Did any of her littermates lose their tails? It's interesting.

4mb3r, natural lighting is ideal, but if you can't manage that then set up a bright spotlamp and have lots of patience! (lots of my photos end up as chocolatey or white blurs, but I just keep going until I get lucky or the mouse stops to have an itch or sniff something).


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## madmouse (May 19, 2012)

Pamplemousse: Poor thing, she can't help being a butterball- she's secretly brindle (Ay/a c/c) And no, none of her littermates had wonky tails. I even have 4 generations of descendants from one of the siblings and have never seen another tail defect.

4mb3r: I found that a good camera makes all the difference. The one I used was a Fuji finepix s4200. It's got like a 24x digital zoom and the manual says it has a special feature that allows it to focus on "small, erratically moving objects", which I think is the definition of a mouse. I found one new on Amazon for under $250. The other thing that made my photos turn out well was that my subject was old and fat. Plop Shawty down somewhere comfy and she will probably sit still long enough for you to paint her portrait lol.


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