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July 31, 2014 by Kat

Beauty in Repetition

As I photographed these flowers on my hike the other morning, I realized how much nature repeats itself. Just look at this field of flowers… Not one, not two, but flowers over and over again.

Field Flowers Corvallis Oregon Bald Hill Kat Sloma Mobile Photography

A field of flowers, repeated. Every year, at the same time. Every morning, the sun comes up again, repeating the cycle of night and day. It’s predictable, but always just a little bit different, and always beautiful.

So why do I, so much of the time, feel like I shouldn’t be repeating myself? The themes I write about, the subjects I photograph. There are times I think I should vary them more. That I’m not creative if it’s not entirely new every time.

But look at nature, it repeats. We rely on it.

It made me stop and realize: It’s a beautiful thing, when you repeat. If we did not repeat ourselves as artists, how would we find a voice and a style? If we did not revisit the same themes that inspire us, varying things a little bit every time, could we build a body of work that is cohesive? I’m not sure we could.

After spending the weekend at the art fair with my winter trees, I’ve started to create new work with summer trees. They are similar, yet different. I’m repeating myself, yet I’m not. It all works together.

Beauty in repetition. If nature can do it, so can I.


Tomorrow is the Photo-Heart Connection! Won’t you join us in finding your photograph with the strongest heart connection in July?

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: body of work, creativity, field, flower, repetition

November 7, 2012 by Kat

Repeating Myself

It’s a quiet morning in my brain today. Not so much to say. Rather than repeat myself with words, I’ll just share an image with some repetition from the Brick Lane photowalk I did as part of the Hampstead workshop last month. I can’t believe my England trip was a month ago already!

Also, today is the last day to link into this month’s Photo-Heart Connection. Don’t miss it! Have a great Wednesday.

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: black and white, Brick Lane, England, London, repetition

August 24, 2012 by Kat

The Replicator

We close out Exploring with a Camera: Repetition today. It’s been a fun one! It’s been interesting to see how repetition can be both obvious and subtle. After this exploration, I will be more aware of the subtle repetitions that can really a tie a composition together. How about you?

To finish up our study of repetition, I picked this image from San Francisco. There are two repeating elements in this, both the poster repeated and the repetition of the horizontal lines across the frame. Even with the repetition, there is great contrast in this image too: Triadic color contrast of the purple and green, the vertical lines of the pipes breaking the horizontal lines, and the weeds adding a bit of nature in the urban environment. The combination of repetition and contrast makes an interesting image to me. It wasn’t until after I had chosen the photo that I realized the title on the poster, The Replicator, fits perfectly with the theme of repetition. I love it when that happens!

Today is the last day you can link in and share your study of repetition. You are invited to join us! Take a few moments of your time and visit those who have linked in as well, there are some wonderful examples here. It is always good to see multiple points of view!


Have a great weekend! I'll be off looking for repetition myself, in the form of hot air balloons at the Northwest Art & Air Festival.

PS - Don't forget to enter the giveaway I have going on right now. You have until the end of the day on Monday, 27 August to enter.

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: California, Exploring with a Camera, green, purple, repetition, San Francisco, sign, triadic color

August 17, 2012 by Kat

Burst of Flavor

We continue to investigate Repetition in Exploring with a Camera this week. I was trying to decide what image to share when I realized I had the perfect repetition image staring me in the face! I have this image from a Venice market stall matted, framed and sitting in my dining room, ready to drop off to an exhibition. This image is all about repetition – with repeating shape, subject and color.

If you’re around Eugene, Oregon, you’ll be able to see this “Burst of Flavor” in the Taste and Flavor: Spicy exhibition at the David Joyce Gallery in Lane Community College from August 29 through January 1.

If not, you can enjoy it here along with some wonderful images featuring repetition from our participants. Visit them below, and link your exploration of repetition in too. We’d love to see how you repeat yourself!


Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: food, green, Italy, market, red, repetition, Venice

August 10, 2012 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: Repetition

Welcome to August’s Exploring with a Camera! This month I’m playing around with Repetition. I’m defining repetition as using repeated elements throughout the frame to tie a composition together. You’ll note the use of “elements” here… Effective repetition is not just about repeating objects, but any design element like object, shape, color, line, form, light and even information, that helps create a cohesive whole in our photographs.

vintage bicycle, schwinn

Repetition of Object and Shape

While repetition plays into some past Exploring with a Camera topics, such as Repeating Patterns, Linear Perspective and Group of Three, it is a broader concept than any of these past topics. Let’s explore different ways to use repetition to create interesting photographs.


Repetition of Object

It is easy to focus in on repetition of the physical objects in our photographs, so I’ll start here. The bicycle photograph above, captured on my recent trip to Montana, is a good example of repetition of object. The bicycle is repeated three times, each time with an almost identical shape. It’s also in a very linear composition, with the repetition at regular intervals receding toward the wall.

Contrast this with another image that is primarily repetition of object, below. In this image, the newspaper boxes are the repeated object, yet they are all different sizes and shapes.

newspaper boxes, brick wall

The object, peppers, is repeated in the image below, but there is not much else repeating. Color, shape, and orientation of the peppers is all different. This image emphasizes variety over sameness.

With these lucky cats, the effect of repeating the object is much different than the peppers. This image emphasizes sameness over variety. Shape, color and orientation are all repeated, while there is variation only in the size of the objects.


Repetition of Shape

Repetition of object and shape are often intermixed, as in the bicycle example above, but they don’t have to be. In this image, the oval shape is repeated multiple times by different objects: Mirror, bowl, lamp shade and lamp base. I love how the repeated shape works together to make this image feel complete.

Even when there are multiple elements repeating, there is usually a dominant element forming a primary repetition. In the image below, the object of the bicycle is repeated but I see the repetition as primarily of shape due to the framing. All of the circles created by the layered wheels, hubs and chainrings tie this image together.


Repetition of Color

Since color, especially bright color, catches our eye it can be an effective element to repeat. You can pull completely unrelated elements together within the frame through the repetition of color. In this scooter scene found in Sicily, the red ties the scooter, the niche and the potted flowers together into a cohesive whole. It creates a stronger visual relationship between disparate elements than proximity alone.

Repetition of the color blue ties this port scene from Greece together.

The same happens with this image of a row of potted plants in Korkula. The repetition is made stronger by the repeated color along with object.


Repetition of Line

Lines are easily used as elements of repetition, often because our man-made world is made up of regular and repeating lines. In this image, repetition is created not only by the lines of the pillars, but the lines of the shadows and even the lines of the black deposits on the inside of the pillars repeat the outline of the pillar itself.

Repetition of lines can be used to support the primary elements in a photograph. Even though the lines of this staircase are primarily diagonal, the repetition of the lines in the railing and steps work together to echo the diagonal lines.

Here is another example of lines, where the regular repetition of the trees creates lines that echo the converging lines of the path. You can begin to see how Repetition and Linear Perspective are related: Repeat an element regularly into the distance, and you are working with linear perspective.

Parco di Monza, linear perspective, path, tree, morning


Repetition of Message

Repetition of message is used in the real world to get important ideas across. This image from San Francisco takes advantage of that, capturing the repeated messages of “danger” and “no parking” along with the repeating elements of object and shape.

You can convey messages in your photographs as well, by repeating elements that all lead to the same conclusion. The image below shouts “LONDON” through the repeating elements of phonebooth, flag and signs.


Repetition of Light

Light is everything in our photographs, and variations in light can become an element on their own for repetition. The warm light of the candles is repeated on the faces of the girls and reflected in the painting, pulling the scene together to tell a story.


Combining Elements

In many of the examples above, you find more than one of the elements repeating. Whenever you combine multiple elements in the repetition, you create emphasis. In this example of the flower pots, there is repetition of not only object, but color, shape, texture and line. This creates a very harmonious image, and the repetition not only ties the elements together but almost becomes the subject of the image itself.


Wow! Did you realize there were so many ways to use repetition to create a cohesive photograph? I didn’t realize it myself, until I started to explore this topic over the last few weeks. It’s been fun to discover how I use repetition in my archive, and to look for opportunities to use repetition as I create new photographs.

Now it’s your turn! Take a look at your archives and then go out and explore the world with repetition in mind. What do you find? Share it with us here!


Filed Under: Exploring with a Camera, The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: bicycle, Exploring with a Camera, Montana, repetition

April 12, 2012 by Kat

Hangin’ with the Crew

To me, scooters have personality. You’ve got your cute scooters, your functional scooters, and then there are the eccentric scooters. We ran across a whole store just for scooters in San Francisco, how cool is that?

This crew was parked outside on the street, waiting for new owners. These guys definitely have personality. They’ve lived interesting lives, scootered in interesting places, had interesting owners. They might be a bit beat up, but that’s what gives them personality, just like humans. They are just hanging out for now, waiting for the next adventure to start. And you know there will be adventures, because any scooter with personality like this isn’t going to end up with the “average” owner. Any predictions on their futures?

Tomorrow is a new Exploring with a Camera! Be sure to stop by and see what we’ll be exploring this month. It will be dynamic and fun!

Filed Under: The Kat Eye View of the World Tagged With: California, personality, repetition, row, San Francisco, scooter, scooter sighting

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