vintage

June 13, 2014 by Kat

Back in Time

There is something about being with family that sends you back in time. Visiting my grandmother’s house in Ohio, along with my Mom, brother and sister, was one of those experiences.

It made me remember who I am, where I come from, but also who I am not.

It reminded me that I am my father’s daughter, and I have much in common with the family on his side. The homebody part of me. The introspective, thinking part of me. The part that wants solitude and time in the woods.

It also reminded me how much I am my own person, how much I’ve changed since childhood, but how easy it is to slip into expected roles. It’s as if we all step into our scripted places, when together. We aren’t always our real selves. It’s too hard to be, with so little time with each other.

But it was a reminder, of who I was, where I came from, and who I am now. A beautiful, poignant reminder.

All images are from my Grandmother’s house in Holmes County, Ohio, and processed using the Vintage Photo app.

April 17, 2013 by Kat

Stay a While

Let’s take a trip back in time, shall we?

Let’s jump into the convertible, donning our cat eye sunglasses and wrapping our beehives up in scarves, and drive to Vegas.

I know a place our two we could stay.

Let’s splurge for a room with a color TV and air conditioning.

After a few days, we’ll head home. Sunburned and less a few dollars in our pockets. But smiling all the way.

We stayed in downtown Las Vegas at the El Cortez Hotel, now on the national historic register as it’s the oldest casino still standing, since 1941.

I loved being in the older part of the city. I could not get over these hotels that looked like just like something out of the 60’s, complete with their neon signs and some still advertising RCA color TVs. Every image just screams for vintage processing, doesn’t it?

I could also not get over the light. Even in the morning, there is an intensity to it like nothing I’ve ever seen. Some of the images I captured look more like they were lighted by flash than the sun.

Downtown Las Vegas was a great place to be, considering I wasn’t interested in gambling or shopping. I was happy to wander around the streets and capture these hints of the Las Vegas of 50 years ago.

February 24, 2013 by Kat

A Changing View

The sun is shining, I had great creative photography excursion yesterday and last week’s pause is at an end. I have a great view today, but it’s a changing view. I’ve come through the other side of my little break but not without making some important discoveries.

You see, there was more to the pause than my Mom visiting for a week. Underlying the feeling was a growing sense of dissatisfaction with some elements of my creative life. It was as if I was seeing through a dirty window but could sense something more on the other side. After journaling about it the last few days and making some mental shifts and decisions, I want to share them here.

For a little while now, I’ve felt as if I’m not using my creative time on what I want to be using it for. Here I’ve arranged my whole schedule, working part time at my corporate job and all, to give myself more creative time. And yet I’ve filled it with my “to do” list. Always more to do, isn’t there?

So I’ve taken a look at what I want to be doing with my time and what I have been doing with my time to see what is causing the tension. Based on that, I will be making some changes to create the space I feel I need to continue to grow.

What I want to be doing…

I want to continue to develop my art. I want to spend more time in developing my own aesthetic through study, creation of new work and exploration of print. How I do that is ever-changing and up in the air at the moment, but it requires time.

I want to be hiking in the forest regularly, for my mental and physical health. There is something about being among the trees that brings me peace and makes me feel alive. I want to do more of it, several mornings a week at least.

I want to continue to connect with other artists, both in person and online. The connection and inspiration I find through running my eCourses, my blog, Photo-Heart Connection, the Liberate Your Art postcard swap and interacting with local photography friends are all important and valuable to me, and I can see the value to others as well. I need time to develop these meaningful relationships.

What I have been doing…

I have been spending a lot of time with writing things that aren’t necessarily aligned with my personal goals listed above. Things like trying to blog daily, send a newsletter twice a month, and the Exploring with a Camera blog series. All are things that have been an important part of my creative journey in the past, but they don’t seem to fit the same way they once did.

My intention in the future is to blog when I have something meaningful to say, rather than as a daily routine or weekly/monthly schedule. I think the quality of what I share will improve, even if the frequency lessens. The one schedule thing that you can be sure of: Photo-Heart Connection will continue on the first of each month. Beyond that, I could be here 5 days a week or 1 day a week; we’ll just see what happens.

Exploring with a Camera is going on hiatus for a while. While I love this series and have never written one exploration I didn’t fully enjoy, as I look to the future I’m not sure I still have the inspiration to continue. At least, as I look at my personal schedule for the next few months, I feel overwhelmed when I think of this series rather than enthused. Beyond a few months, I’ll see how I feel. In addition to my own personal reservations for coming months, participation has been steadily declining over time, so I wonder if there is still interest out there. What I spend my time sharing needs to be valuable to both me and others, or there is no point in spending all of the time it takes to write if it’s not useful.

My newsletter will go to once a month for a while, too. I love being able to connect with more people through this method of communication, but it takes a lot more of my time than I’ve wanted to acknowledge. I also have to admit I’ve been overwhelmed by all that comes to my email inbox of late and I think about that for all of my subscribers too. I want any email I send you to be important and useful, not just because it’s on a twice-a-month schedule. Going down to once a month saves me the time of creating the newsletter and the burden on all of your email inboxes, while still keeping in touch in this great way.

I will also be changing my class schedule to give myself some more time off over the summer. Summer is gorgeous, but too short, in Oregon. I need to spend more time outside and less on the computer. It doesn’t affect any eCourses in progress or A Sense of Place (planned for April-May – registration opens VERY soon), but it will affect the schedule for the rest of 2013 beyond May. As I sort it out and finalize dates I will keep you informed through my blog, website and newsletter.

I feel good about these decisions and know they will allow me the time and the space for new things to grow. I’m seeing a little more clearly now, thanks to the pause and the needed introspection. I found out what was on the other side of that murky window I was looking through last week. It’s looking pretty interesting, too!

Admitting some of these feelings to myself and deciding to make these changes has been an internal struggle. Many of these decisions run counter-intuitive to the common wisdom of running an online business, much of which advises regular interaction on a high frequency through as many channels as possible. The changes also mean mixing up things that have clearly worked for me in the past, and that’s always uncomfortable.

My heart is telling me to throw that common wisdom out the window and that it’s time for a new way of doing things. If I’m not spending the time I need to grow myself creatively — in the direction my heart tells me — then I’m not going to add anything useful to the conversation. And more than anything, I want to add something useful to the conversation of art, creativity and photography. For myself and for all of you.

September 24, 2012 by Kat

The Journey Continues

Camera. Italy. Me.

These things together may not have been the very start of my creative journey, but they certainly were the things that launched me high speed down the path. Somehow in the last few days I came across this photo in my archives and my heart leapt. There it is, laid out in a picture… cameras, Italia and me. Taken in the Alinari Museum of Photography in Florence in 2011, somehow this image speaks volumes to me about my time in Italy. My creative journey with the camera.

I’ve been back from Italy for over a year and my journey with the camera continues. The Corvallis Fall Festival this weekend was another step along the way. It was a successful weekend for me. Not just in sales (although that part went surprisingly well), but in learning, in getting to know my fellow members of the PhotoArts Guild, and in pushing through my fears of having my work “out there” in the public.

I learned a ton… preparing my photographs for sale, how to set up a booth, different ways of display… the list will continue on. While this was my first year participating in the PhotoArts Guild booth, for the four other photographers it was their second year. They had learned a lot and made substantial improvements to the booth to make it bright, open and accessible. Not bad for what could be begged, borrowed and bought used! We were also lucky to have beautiful weather the whole weekend, which always helps a festival like this.

I also learned that you cannot predict the public reaction to anything. There were certain photos that many people would spend a long time studying, but no one ever bought them. There were photos that generated a lot of interest in the form of conversation and questions, but no one ever bought them. In previous years, cards were the big money maker they told me, but this year fewer cards were sold and more prints were sold. Go figure.

So, how do you know what people want? You don’t. How do you predict and prepare? I’m not sure you can, other than to have a variety of options to offer. Sometimes people come to the festival with an agenda, something specific they are searching for. Sometimes people come to the festival as a way to get out and do something for the weekend, with no intent to buy. Sometimes people connect with the art you have to offer, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they have money to spend, sometimes they don’t. Responses to art are subjective. There are too many variables to predict an outcome.

After all of this, you are probably wondering: Will I do it again? Yes. It’s the next step on my journey. And now that I’ve taken the first step, gotten over the initial fears and investment, I’ll continue to move forward down this path to see where it leads. Not at a sprint, mind you, but at the pace that works for me. It was fun!

August 8, 2012 by Kat

A Classic Experience

The USA is a young country. We’re babies in the timeline of countries throughout world history. We talk about having a “history,” but more often than not we are happy to bulldoze or junk our history to make way for the new. “Progress” we call. I used to feel the same way, until living abroad. It was in Europe I realized what we lose when we indiscriminantly move toward the future. If we don’t love and save our history, who will?

So I love it when pieces of our history, like these touring buses found in Glacier National Park, are restored.

Throughout Glacier National Park you’ll see these “Red Jammers” carrying tourists about.

Original built in the 1930’s, they were restored by Ford in the early 2000’s to continue to give visitors a classic experience. They now run on eco-friendly propane and are quieter than they once were.

They are a classic all the same. We didn’t take a tour on them, but I certainly loved photographing these beauties! Aren’t they pretty?

These images were all processed with my “Red Buddy” Lightroom preset, which I’ll share in my next newsletter. Be sure to sign up if you want to download the preset. And, in the name of progress, I’m upgrading to Lightroom 4 today. Yay! I look forward to playing around with this new revision. Have you upgraded yet? What’s your favorite new feature? Let me know!

February 25, 2012 by Kat

Thrill of Discovery

There is a thrill of discovery that sometimes happens when you go out exploring. On our excursion last weekend (yes, the one with the grumpy pre-teen in the back seat), we happened past this awesome hot dog stand in the middle of nowhere.

“Stop! Turn around!” I exclaimed to my husband, “I need to photograph that.” I couldn’t resist the red, yellow and black and the vintage car. There were so many cool details in this little place! It’s too bad it wasn’t open, they serve Chicago-style hot dogs which are my husband’s favorite. We’ll just have to go back again! I’m sure there is another photograph or two to be captured.

I hope you have a chance to get out this weekend, maybe experience a little thrill of discovery of your own.

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