The Shadow Chaser

Yesterday late afternoon, just before evening set in, I was in my room trying to read but being distracted by my cat, Lulu, who was basking in the last bits of sunlight on my bed. She is so photogenic that I had to get my camera and take some pictures of her.

Lulu captured in the late afternoon sun

Lulu says, "Enough with the computer! Pay attention to me!"

As the minutes progressed, and the sun lowered in the sky, the shadows began to stretch out onto the wall at the foot of my bed, highlighted by the sunlight. The shadows were cast long, stretching the leaves and branches of the trees outside into gigantic grey proportion against the yellow backdrop.

There is a fair amount of bird activity in my back yard and Lulu was staring at the wall, mesmerized by the slightly shifting shadows and the occasional rapid movements of birds as they darted around, taking care of everything that needed to get done before the night set in. The funny thing was that every once in a while she would be overcome with an urge to hunt and she would stretch her body up the wall, batting at the shadows with her paws. I found it both interesting and amusing that she did not turn around and look out the window at the actual birds and squirrels but found it more intriguing or stimulating to face a wall and focus on their exaggerated shadows.

The shadow chaser in action

Little Beast

I love shadows. I love taking photos of shadows from different angles to see how different the same image can look depending upon how it is framed. I love long, grey shadows that distort and stretch images- dark, short shadows that hold stark contrast to their surroundings- and everything in between those two.

Lulu turned into a shadow, herself!