“A” Challenge: Artwork

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birthing a meditation
a natural pain reliever
artwork
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Do you meditate?  Meditation, as many people interpret it, is a struggle for me.  I have tried different methods and nothing clicked, until I learned that artwork, like photography, painting, sketching, digital art, photomanipulation, crafts, etc., is a type of meditation because they are things I can “get lost in” and become “oblivious to everything else around me.”  I can even become oblivious to some of the chronic pain I live with.  I am on a long healing journey and artwork has recently become an important healing activity for me.

I am often in our yard with my camera in hand, and this morning was no exception.  We live in a wooded area surrounded mostly by scrub oak.  It’s very shady, which makes getting sharp wildlife photos more challenging, but just in a 15 minute period, I saw and immersed myself in photographing the following:

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Nature and landscape photography are my favorite types of photographic artwork.  On rare occasions, my patience with nature photography is surprisingly rewarded by a dragonfly allowing me to stroke its body and wings, and even offering up a few cute poses (as I wrote about in a previous posting)!  Sometimes, a bird will unexpectedly land very close to me, providing a nice photo opportunity, and one time a deer found me to be a curious creature and came in for a closer look.  We’ll be seeing Bambis quite regularly in our yard now, since this is the time of year they are born.

I continued my artwork today by assembling the above images in Photoshop Elements.  I would love to be a skilled photographer or artist but just working on these activities regardless of my skill level, and using nature to assist, are very healing.  For me, what could be more meditative than that!

This is for the letter “A” story challenge by Frizztext, to share a short story or reflection, even an aphorism using a word tagged with each letter of the alphabet.
Also linking up with Texture Tuesday, Windows on Wildlife, Our World Tuesday, Nature Notes and World Bird Wednesday. 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret

Pals, a photo by Fergiemoto on Flickr.  (Click on image to enlarge).
Linking up with Camera Critters

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The language of pals
So different yet very close
Warnings leave no doubt!
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Muttsy (pup):  “Can we play more?  I want to play.”
Bandit (cat):  “I’ve had enough.  Come any closer and you’ll regret it!”

(I turned this photo into a black and white, and added a texture to make it look much older than it is.)  I saw a cute exchange of playfulness between these two pals when Muttsy was a pup.  Yep, cats and dogs can be pals.  But when cats have had enough, they make it known, at least ours did.  She was flicking her tail sharply and her front paw was about to swat.  Bandit was clearly the boss here!

C! Challenge: Cat Empress

Cat Queen, a photo by Fergiemoto on Flickr.  (Click on image to enlarge).
Also linking up with Camera Critters and Creative Exchange

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A queen among queens
We fed her well, she fed us
Contented feline
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I’m posting this for the “C” photo challenge by FrizzText (“C” is for Cat).  This is an old photo that I recently scanned from a negative.  Doesn’t she look like a queen, so poised and proud!  This cat was one of my favorites.  She was a stray (among many) who found us when she was a small kitten.  We named her “Bandit” but she was a sweetheart.