Vintage Photo: Kublai and Moses, Home Office, June, 1993
Just three years after I moved in here, and two precious kitties, a real time capsule. Kublai and Moses loved that side window where the sun still comes in every morning. The casements are slightly open—this is what the big north window looked like before I replaced it with the current casement—the sun is bright, the trees are green, the cats are gathering around me, especially my main man Kublai, and precious Moses. It’s one of the types of mornings I daydreamed about working at home while I was still working a day job.
Kublai was ready for a day of supervising me, as he settled in the sun, moving to my lap or my drafting table as the sun moved off. Moses soaked up the sun and went off to find another sunny spot, then found a soft spot somewhere for an all day nap. On warm days she would usually stay in the room with me. Later the windows would be wide open for the warm June air. Look at the old phone! And I still use that Rolodex. (As you see, I was also still a smoker, and smoked in the house! I can’t imagine that now. I quit smoking in the house soon after this, but it was years before I would quit for good.)
This was while I was still working a day job, all those years ago, but not for long, but that’s another story. At this point there was no computer, no peripherals, no spaghetti of wires, no filing cabinets, but my cats, a small desk and my drafting table, and bookcases of books. It was probably a weekend and I was working on a portrait. I don’t remember any other details about this particular morning, but just the moment itself symbolizes so much about what I loved and looked forward to at that time.
As I began considering composition in my photographs, I had begun taking several photos of each scene if I had the chance to. Getting back a roll of photos weeks after you’d taken them to see you didn’t capture what you’d wanted was a real disappointment, so to be sure I took several at different angles and distances. The rest of this roll of film holds several other moments in time, among them the reference photos for “A Warm Bath” and others I’d planned to sketch or paint, already turning my eye toward “my cats in the sun”.
Photos From the Archives and Vintage Photos
Photos pulled “From the Archives” were taken by one or another digital camera of mine between 2002 and, well, yesterday, but usually they are older than that, and I had never had the chance to feature them. Vintage Photos are from my film archives back to 1983 when I purchased my Pentax K-1000 camera. They’re a fun way to “introduce” other members of my feline family who came and went before I began blogging, and to illustrate my feline family in general from days gone by.
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This photograph was taken in 1983, when I first got my camera and began photographing with black and white film. Kublai, the kitty who rescued me in college and truly began my life as an animal artist, was only about two years old. Read more and purchase.
Copyright
All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals 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.
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Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
I’ve been weeded through the thousands (tens of thousands) of photos on my laptop, and it’s amazing how many shots we take to nab a good one…especially when one doesn’t know how to use their camera settings! DO’H! I hate deleting any photos of cats who are no longer on Earth, but when I find 15 photos of a black cat in too low light, they’ve got to go. A photographer co-worker just sat down with me a little while ago, and she showed me a few touch-up tricks I can do with my photos, such as erasing a bird poop on the deck, in an otherwise terrific photo of The PO’M. I learn every day.