On An Adventure
On An Adventure
“Every day should be an adventure. Mimi and I explored a small section of the neighbor’s yard.”
I posted this on Facebook this morning, and decided it needed its own post rather than added into another. I like the composition right away, Mimi walking through a passage or sorts; I had posted one like this earlier this year as well. I love those two trees, the one with the “toes” is a maple and the other is a tulip poplar, each at least 70 feet tall, and I study them all the time, looking at them out my kitchen window and door in all seasons, and sketched and photographed that little scooped opening through the trees. Because they are so tall it’s very shady in my yard, but the neighbor’s yard in the morning is full of sun and the contrast adds to the feel of a passageway. When I saw her heading there I positioned myself to get the angle I wanted, then followed her. Then the first of the colored autumn leaves with the rich green of summer, the rough bark of the trees, the light, and little Mimi going fearlessly into new territory. Well, sort of. She still knows the neighborhood pretty well. Adding the vignette shading around the outside just added to it. I may do something with this at some time.
And some days I just have too many photos and have to post more.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Mewsette’s Minions
Mewse4tte and her minions.
You many not know that I have five rescued black cats, just by chance–they are all related. Right now I also have two foster kittens who are also–black! Halloween is a great day for us. You’re going to see a few more photos, and you can also join us on The Creative Cat for more every day!
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Awake, my minions, it’s Halloween! You know the plan—world domination by black cats via Halloween pumpkins! For every pumpkin a black cat! Now, go forth and find homes, and at midnight you will each become a black cat waiting in a shelter for a forever home!
We could only wish finding homes for black cats was that simple and fun. But tomorrow, you could go out and adopt a black cat from a shelter or rescue, even if you don’t have a pumpkin in your yard tonight! Think of the beauty of Mimi and her children and Emeraude, and consider adopting a black cat for your Halloween treat!
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I first published this in 2010 under the title “Help, Mom’s Gone Crazy” because Mewsette and all the other beautiful black cats couldn’t figure out what I wanted them to do with the pumpkins!
I just can’t figure out what she wants me to do but it has something to do with these pumpkins! Sometimes mom gets these crazy ideas and she chases us around the house and tries to get us to do things that we don’t understand, and she’s been after us with these pumpkins for days. I can’t wait till Halloween is over and mom gets back to normal!
Yesterday while mom was working on her computer I saw a few kitties wearing silly costumes. It’s just a really good thing she didn’t try that, and that’s all I’ll say on that subject.
You many not know that I have five rescued black cats, just by chance–they are all related. Right now I also have two foster kittens who are also–black! Halloween is a great day for us.
Mewsette Ponders Green
Mewsette Ponders Green
The world alight in
green
shades more than
I
have
brilliant life
given
giving
and glows in
spring
showers on all
I
love.
A little abstract ode to spring to accompany a little sort of abstract photo of Mewsette pondering the green plate, showers on her nose, and it does glow with the life-giving sun of late afternoon.
Happy spring everyone!
Poem ©2012 Bernadette E. Kazmarski
Read other poems inspired by my cats and listen to those I’ve recorded, and read about my poetry on The Creative Cat.
Poem for Sunday: An Old Memory
An Old Memory
I took the photo in 1983, just a few months after I got my first camera and I was only shooting black and white so I could learn how to use the camera. Even though it was black and white film, it was processed in a one-hour development machine intended for color and the black and white ended up sepia, which I really liked better than when I had it printed in black and white. It always looked like an older image and the sepia really reinforces that; it’s from the same era as “A Sunny Room”, and incidentally, the same cat, Kublai.
The holidays are a time for celebration as well as a time for reflection and remembering.
An Old Memory
Cut-paper snowflakes taped
to a wavy glass window reflecting
the big front porch from an apartment I lived in long ago,
and a cat I will always remember from when he and I were very young,
just beginning,
me just getting to know my camera, and my art;
how did I capture a perfectly blended image to reflect those times?
Poem © 2009 Bernadette E. Kazmarski
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Where to find this image
This was my holiday card from 2009, and I published it for sale in 2010. The message inside reads, “Wishing you wonderful memories this holiday season and new year.” The poem is printed on the back. You can find it in my Etsy shop singly or in a box of a dozen.
Window
Window
Just looking quietly at a frosty morning, a little spill of sun.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Apples, Cats and Colors
Beans and Apples
As I posted on Facebook earlier today: I had other plans, but I was just overtaken by a combination of two black cats, green apples, a cobalt blue glass pitcher, and angled autumn sunshine. If I recover from this any time soon, I will post photos. This happens when the sun shines in one of the windows and the cats find it. So I did spend some time sorting photos from this despite other things I had wanted to accomplish today. Above is the one that, at least at the moment, is my favorite of the group. Below is a slideshow of a sampling of all my favorite photos from this session.
To see other photos from this beautiful event, please visit The Creative Cat at Daily Photo: Overtaken By Beauty
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
Mr. Sunshine and the Basket
- Lurking in Black and White.
This is a very large, sturdy flat basket that I use at shows and festivals, and in between to move things around in my studio when I need to clear a workspace, except that it most often has a cat in it, or several cats as the case may be. Mr. Sunshine discovered it on the table and, seeing he had it all to himself decided to make a good time of it.
Above, I simply desaturated to make the image black and white.
- With Green Eyes.
Here, I desaturated everything but his eyes, then added a 10% deep yellow filter back into it when it looked too stark. I also shot it on an angle intentionally because it takes a pretty static, common composition and literally puts it a little off-kilter, and makes you wonder what the black cat is up to, especially with one paw on the edge of the basket, and one claw showing.
You’ve seen enough of my studio to know it’s always got stuff stacked everywhere since I always have projects going and the room will never be big enough. So seeing Mr. Sunshine happily settling in and exploring the space within the basket I tossed a piece of neutral-colored mat board up against the pile of stuff always at the end of my work table so he’d have a solid, light-colored background that wouldn’t interfere with the light and color metering in my camera.
Classic Sepia.
Sleepy kitty in basket! I desaturated and gave it a sepia filter just to warm it up.
I did get a number of nice photos, of which these are my favorites. Wasn’t it nice not to be distracted by all my stuff in the background for once?
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
The Dove With Glowing Orange Feet
The Dove With Glowing Orange Feet
This was an interesting sight to see this morning when I turned to follow where Mr. Sunshine was looking. Glowing orange feet! They were lovely, but neither irradiated nor magic, only subject to the magic of morning sun. Mr. Sunshine was entranced.
Mr. Sunshine is enchanted by the dove.
Changing Light
Giuseppe at the door.
Giuseppe stands at the door watching the birds and chipmunks, hence his very alert and somewhat aggressive stance. The sun comes down the hill at an angle and filters through the leaves and branches of my river birch and then through the garland of grapevines around my door, creating lovely and changing patterns at all angles on the porch outside, the screen of the door, the floor inside and on Giuseppe, who has no idea he’s modeling abstract shadows and seems to emerge from the sunbeam itself.
This was today’s Daily Cat Photo on The Creative Cat
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
Winter Sunshine
Winter Sunshine
The sun keeps teasing us with colorful sunrises and shines into the east windows so brightly for just long enough for us to get accustomed to it, then the clouds roll over once again, blanketing us in uniform gray.
Here, Giuseppe, sitting in the narrow casement at the top of the stairs, absorbs the full force of winter sun through old wavy glass, studying the geranium leaves as if he’s never seen so much detail. Giuseppe can be a little melodramatic now and then.
I featured this on The Creative Cat today too, and while I usually have two different photos today I was so glad for the little bit of sun we got that I wanted to share it all. I think I’ll share another photo of my cats that I posted yesterday, actually from last year, which is also a nice composition.
Aside from handsome Giuseppe being melodramatic, I really liked the simple, colorful composition of this photo.
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
To Sleep...
No living creature sleeps better than a cat. Out of my cats, Mr. Sunshine seems to sink deepest into dreamland, rolling on his back and simply collapsing into whatever heap of plushy black fur his limbs go to, toes curled, mouth open, all afternoon. I often wonder what sweet dreams his feline imagination composes for his unconscious enjoyment; he is motionless, not running or nursing or doing anything in his sleep, just slowly breathing. I imagine him imagining himself sleeping in some quiet field in the sunshine with a light breeze and birds singing.
He usually does this on top of the file cabinets in front of the window where I can turn to watch him in repose, a little tingle of jealousy in my belly; but I like what I do, I enjoy spending my days in pursuit of truth and beauty and, I’ll admit, enough almighty dollars to pay the bills, I really wouldn’t want to sleep my life away. No, I wouldn’t, and I’m happy Mr. Sunshine is here, sleeping his life away on my filing cabinets instead of some less desirable alternative.
(I meant to post this yesterday!)
Mimi in Profile
Mimi in Profile
I don’t usually post photos of my cats on Today, having the outlet of The Creative Cat blog for all the lovely photos of my cats (and who could complain about having two blogs to display my photos), but every once in a while I enjoy sharing one of the photos of my cats, such as this one.
Mimi enjoys the dappled morning sun as she lazily observes the birds. I get the idea they’re not the most important thing to her in this moment.
For all the photos I take that don’t work out or aren’t spectacular, there is one that does and is. The play of light is so important, like the dappling instead of full sun in this photo, the way it catches her whiskers in little rainbows and gently defines her features, and the colorful objects in the background blurred into a pattern that defines the negative space above her.
But most important is the model herself who inspired the shot, and trying my best to capture her personality in a simple shot.
It’s surprising how much color there is in a photo of a black cat. Five black cats live with me, Mimi the mom and her four adult children, and photographing them without getting black blobs or blurred shapes is a daily challenge, but always rewarding when it works well. In addition to the text above, on The Creative Cat I added two extra shots with a different lens and a different camera for comparison at how different cameras capture images.
Looks Like a Toy to Me
Giueseppe at the table with one grape
I put some grapes in a bowl for myself, then walked away but turned around to notice the single perfect grape sitting silently on the table. That in itself was a nice photo.
Then Giuseppe jumped up and saw the grape and was equally inspired, not to art but to recreation. I could see the little drama building in his imagination and the paw lifted to give the grape a swat. I wasn’t in the mood to rescue the grape from under the stove.
This is a photo of Giueseppe not playing with the grape. No, he’s not happy, but he’s not dangerous.
We have now discovered that grapes are not good for cats. Giuseppe wants to know why I think he’d eat a grape, because it looks like a toy to him, and toys and food are equally important and not to be confused.
I live with a whole bunch of cats and write about them and paint and sketch them. Visit my blog, The Creative Cat, for more cat photos, stories and information on feline fun, health and wellness.
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