Pussy Willow, a Vintage Photo
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: cat photographs, cats, daily photo, my household of felines, namir, photographs, vintage photo | Tags: cat in sun, pet photography, photography, pussy willow 1 Comment
Pussy Willow, photograph © B.E. Kazmarski
It’s time for another vintage photo of my household. I have this photo hanging in my kitchen and though I see it every day, there are days when it fully captures my attention. I study it, and each time I see more in it. And so I did today.
It’s from the time when I first began to consider my photos “good”, perhaps to consider them “photographs” that I might display and sell as prints and framed items, instead of just “pictures”. This was, maybe, ten years ago. “Pussy Willow” was taken earlier than that but stayed on my mind. It was one of the first that made me take another look at my other photos.
What I like most is the abstraction, the light and shadow playing on the objects and the walls, both the pussy willow and the cat turning from positive objects to negative space as the sun and shadow move across them.
I would not have taken the photo without Namir, though. I do like the pussy willow on its own and always have it somewhere around the house where I can enjoy its stark figures. When he got bored with me and walked way I took a photo of just the pussy willow, and it’s nice, but not something I’d frame and hang on the wall.
I always associated Namir with pussy willow too, something about the texture of his fur, and his white oval paws reminding me of the catkins. I turned around, there he sat, that lovely warm spring sunshine washing over the scene, it was as if it was waiting for me to photograph with the old fully manual film-based Pentax K1000.
It was also taken on a day very much like today, a sunny late afternoon in late April. I have a version of it that I desaturated in PhotoShop and I like the semi-sepia look, but it doesn’t capture that original inspiration, the warm April sunshine literally pouring in the window, coating everything it touched with gold.
You may have photos like this as well, this is partly why I explained all my reasoning.
I’ll have this for sale in my Etsy shop soon, but it’s not a standard frame size so I have to be certain the molding I choose for the frame is regularly available from my supplier.
This article tells a little more about Namir and how he came into my life “Who Was That Namir, Anyway?”, and about his life in my household, “Not a Bad Deal on a Pre-Owned Cat”.
You’ll find Namir mentioned in plenty of articles on The Creative Cat, and don’t forget to look at the header image, which features him in another of his contemplative moments in the sun.
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Unless I have linked the photo to something else, which is rare with daily photos, you can click the photo to see a larger version. I save them at 1000 pixels maximum dimension, and at that size the photos are nearly twice the dimension and you can see more detail in many of the photos I post. Please remember if you download or share, my name and the link back to the original photo should always appear with it.
To see more daily photos go to “Daily Images” in the menu and choose “All Photos” or any other category.
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 purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
Sally Sitting in Speckles, a Vintage Photo
Posted: March 23, 2012 Filed under: cat photographs, cats, daily photo, deaf cat, kelly, my household of felines, photographs, sally, tortoiseshell cats, vintage photo, white cat | Tags: pet photography, photography 6 Comments
Sally Sitting in Speckles, 1993.
Time to break the feline color trend with daily photos with a vintage photo from tortie or black—to pure white!
This is my white cat, “pet quality” Angora, the wild woman Sally. She was deaf as a post and sweet as sugar as long as you weren’t trying to do something dastardly like clip claws or trim the knots from her fur. We got along fine as soon as I quit thinking I knew what was best for her, though I did manage to sneak up on her and clip here and there now and then at great risk to the quality of my own skin.
Sally was so much fun to live with, not caring a thing for being deaf she would race around the house at top speed just for the joy of running, litter-ally running over any other cat in her path, then reporting back to me, landing like thistle down on a table or shelf near me and mumbling happily to herself and purring, her nose and ears brilliant pink and eyes bright pea green, wanting love and kisses.
Here, though, she fell asleep in the late-day spring sunshine, sitting in the middle of the floor. She lived in a very happy little world entirely of her own making.
I chose this photo for today because it was taken just about exactly 20 years ago, in March 1993 when Sally was about 10, and the light coming in the dining room window reminded me of this and a few other photos. But we needed a white cat for once!
This article tells a little more about Sally and her deafness: My First “Less Adoptable” Kitty.
Read more about Sally here.
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Unless I have linked the photo to something else, which is rare with daily photos, you can click the photo to see a larger version. I save them at 1000 pixels maximum dimension, and at that size the photos are nearly twice the dimension and you can see more detail in many of the photos I post. Please remember if you download or share, my name and the link back to the original photo should always appear with it.
To see more daily photos go to “Daily Images” in the menu and choose “All Photos” or any other category.
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 purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
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