I have been toying with selling my 100 mm macro lens. Not having had much success or fun with macros (I think I drink too much coffee and shake too much), I decided to give it one last try and play with it as a regular old portrait lens. I do like the results.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

The green eyes of envy

05 Monday Jul 2010

Posted by QPB in Black and whites, Cats

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

black and white, Cats

Old Green Eyes

Sometimes the best of friends in one’s life are furry.

This is Festie, and I so enjoy photographing him. I don’t ever remember taking a bad picture of this fellow, which is not to say I’m a good photographer. He’s just very photogenic. He actually poses, almost always looking cool and serene. As if waiting on cue for someone to shout, “Make-up! Lights, camera….ACTION!”

On this particular photo shoot, Festie and I sojourned down to the creek. Its about a quarter mile from the house and, if I do not want him to follow me, I have to sneak down the hill. Otherwise, my little 10 pound pussycat shows off the labrador retriever I am certain is part of his mix. He complains all the way down the hill and all the way out to creek: “Meow, meow, meow”… translates to “slow down, slow down, slow down”. So I let him catch up to me, and off we go again. He jumped up on to a fallen tree here, posing and peering intently across the meandering creek waters.

My BFF. 🙂

Cattails

02 Saturday May 2009

Posted by QPB in Cats, Humor, Nature

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cat, Humor, Nature, sepia

: Cattail in a pond

Oh, were you expecting something else? I didn’t realize they floated!

Have a super Saturday.

Good to be loved

22 Wednesday Apr 2009

Posted by QPB in Black and whites, Cats, Furkids, Humor

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

black and white, Cats, Essay, Humor

Festie the watch cat

This picture just makes me smile.

My cat, Festie, who believes he is a dog. He follows me wherever he can when I am outside. I have to sneak by if I want to hike in the woods below our house without him. I’ve often started out, only to hear him loudly meowing as I am half way down the trail, seemingly offended because I left without him.

He is sitting on my lap right now, getting mad because I am typing instead of giving him my undivided attention.

I have just finished receiving my nightly bath. This consists of approximately five or six sandpaper licks across my forehead, the rubbing of his cheeks across my face, followed by the soft, affectionate biting of my nose. He then repeats with a few more licks and at least one more gentle bite. He is purring the whole time. This means he’s having fun. I, on the other hand, now have about one thousand cat hairs electrically stuck to my face which I will, over the course of the next half hour, ingest one by one. “Extra roughage,” my husband assures me. “Not to worry.” No consolation when I am coughing up the hairball at 2 am.

Festie has a nickname. I’m not sure if I am allowed to share it here, seeing as though this is a blog and others can read it–but I’ll take a chance. It’s “Shitty Pants”. Yes, that’s right: Mr. Shitty Pants.

He’s earned this nickname time and again. Festie, you see, does not like car rides. Nowadays, however, the veterinarian does not make house calls. And when we travel, the kennel we use is thirty minutes away. Every time–yes, every time I’ve had to take this beautiful, wonderful, affectionate creature for shots or to the kennel, he takes a huge and odiferous dump in the car. A monsterous, eye-watering, gagging poop. Sometimes twice.

The first time, I was caught off guard. We had taken him to the vet and were, I’m not kidding, no more than a half mile from our driveway. He started to cry and fuss and then, wham–all over me (yes, he was in my lap). Once in the driveway, my husband did not even bother to turn off the ignition before leaping out and away from the smelly mess that was me.

We now take a litter box in the car with us and, politely, Festie uses it. It is still horrendous, but I crack the windows all the way to kennel.

My husband rides in the other car with the dogs.

It’s good to be loved 🙂

The standoff

07 Tuesday Apr 2009

Posted by QPB in Black and whites, Cats, Furkids

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Animals, Black and whites, Cats, Nature, pets

Standoff

I’m an outside woman. When I have a few free moments, I love to be outside. Such was the occasion a few days ago, before the weather turned cold enough to drop a few inches of snow on our greening grasses.

My cat and I were hanging out in the yard, looking for photo ops (Clarification: I was taking photos–he was hunting squirrels and chipmunks.). Neither of us was having much luck, so we took to laying in the grass, taking in the softness of the afternoon.

Our peace was disrupted by the appearance of the neighbor’s Black cat. Festivus went into full alert. Black cat appeared nonchalant. The stand-off had begun. So had my photo op session.

Festivus began moving forward and, eventually, so did Black cat. I prepared. I metered. I set to continuous shooting. I had my aperture and my shutter speed just where I wanted it when the stand off came to its climax. I was ready for action.

The two slowly crept toward one another, coming face to face after a slow and cautious approach to the pending battle. They touched noses (finger on the camera, ready to shoot)–and then, just like that, Black cat turned abruptly, as if he were offended by something unknown. Off he marched to conduct whatever other business a cat conducts on a lazy, anti-climatic Saturday afternoon.

We returned to our cuddling in the grass. Come to think of it, purrs are way better than battle cries.

(Editor’s note: Given my love for my furchildren, no animals would have been allowed to actually engage in battle–as much as I love my camera, I would have dropped it like a hot potato at the first hiss…just fyi 🙂 )