Taking the Time to Be-Still

I'm excited to have signed up for an online class with Kim Klassen. The class is entitled Be Still-52 and has well over a hundred students from all over the world in the class. Each week we will be given a assignment or topic with a tutorial to inspire each of us in words and photographs around the weekly theme. This class will give me the opportunity to pull back a bit from my portrait photography to see things around me that I find daily however declare myself too busy to slow down and actually photograph.

I have deer daily bed down in my yard only feet from my front door. They usually arrive at night and seem to enjoy a pile of dirt that was delivered as a yard of dirt for a garden project but over the years it has eroded to a small mound. I think it must hold heat from the sun during the day and be perfect to rest on at night.

Yesterday afternoon this handsome, and rather worldly looking, young buck came into my yard and laid down only feet from my front door. I recognized him by the scaring on his face and realized I had seen him up the street several times a couple weeks ago. Inspired by my "Be Still" class I not only took the time to stop and watch him but grabbed my camera and photographed him. The afternoon light was lovely, as it is this time of year in the Pacific Northwest, and it reflected on and showed off the texture of his antlers. Counting the points led me to believe he is perhaps two and I pondered how tough his life is surviving in an area with so many coyotes, dogs and traffic. To take a few moments to just stand and watch him only feet from my front door was magical. 

Thinking of Adopting? Visit the Port Townsend Shelter.