Kat Eye Studio

Archives for February 2010

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Happy Valentine’s Day


We are in the states this week, our “Home Leave” in Corvallis, so starting with Valentine’s Day today I thought I would post a few pics of various hearts I’ve collected in my photos.

This photo is one of my early favorites from our time here in Italy, from Bergamo. I actually didn’t see the graffiti heart at all when I took the picture, but when I was reviewing on the screen it just popped out at me. This is a time I’m sure that my inner eye saw something that my conscious brain didn’t even register. These types of images are what make me trust my instincts in my photography.

So enjoy this heart today, and a Valentine’s wish from me!

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Italian Design

Ooooh, what is this beautifully wrapped box? Dont’t you just love the colors? The idea of “Made in Italy”? Don’t you just want to keep the box all neatly wrapped? I certainly do.

This is a gift from Brandon and Patrick, a bit early for Valentine’s Day. I have found this Italian company, Campo Marzio Design, that creates professional, office-type items – folders, bags, pens in bright colors and fun designs. So much of what is available here is available in the US that it is fun to find a company that is pretty unique and not gigantic and well known yet.

I had wanted to get a pen but didn’t want to spend the money, just told them it was a gift idea for someday. Probably less than two weeks later, they came home with this box. They wanted me to open it right away but I couldn’t. I had to wait and take some pictures first. 🙂 The packaging is so pretty!
The little scroll inside tells about the craftmanship of the pens, refills, etc. It has both Italian and English, the funny part about it is that the English is a very literal translation of the Italian, which of course is quite awkward. I love it.Patrick and Brandon did a great job of picking out a pen design that I love. Patrick was a bit disappointed that I didn’t want to rip open the packaging and use it right away, but it’s because I needed to savor and enjoy the whole package. It magnified the gift, it’s so pretty! So, to Patrick and Brandon I say:

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Color is like Music

“Color is like music, it uses [a] shorter way to come to our senses, to awake[n] our emotions.” I quite can’t read the name of the quote’s author in this photo, but I loved the quote and the color of this house in Burano. I’m sure every tourist that walks by it takes a photo of this. It captures your eye.

But, fun picture aside, I agree with the quote. I have been toying with this idea that there is a “soul language” that each of us has, a language that is a shortcuts our brain circuitry to our heart and soul. It gets past all of our outer layers of shoulds and shouldn’ts, our learned responses and expectations from our family, our friends, our culture, whatever. To a place where your response is truly you.

My soul language is visual imagery. Whether it be color, composition, light… It’s one of the reasons I love photography and painting and any other type of visual art. It speaks to me.

A while ago, I was reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and feeling guilty. She loves the Italian language just for it’s sound. Came to Italy to live and learn and experience the language (ok, and the food). There are lots of people who do this, so my brain was asking me, “Why aren’t you so excited about learning Italian? Here you are in Italy for two years, every opportunity to immerse yourself, but you aren’t taking advantage of it!” Complete guilt mode. Then I realized – that’s not my soul language. Elizabeth Gilbert is a writer, words and language are probably her soul language, not mine.

I can immerse myself in the art and visual beauty of Italy and get just as much out of the experience, because it’s my soul language. What’s yours?

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Night Scenes

Here is Bolzano, at night. It was an pretty town, but amazingly quiet as soon as the stores closed. Very few restaurants open past 8 or 8:30pm. It’s like it’s not even Italy! Things are barely getting starting in restaurants around Milan at that time. My colleagues told me that this region is “not really Italy” but I guess I had to live it myself to believe it. It also shows how much we’ve gotten used to “Italian time” and come to expect certain things to be a certain way. It was a little reminder that’s not true! That’s what travel does for you, keeps you from getting complacent in how you think the world “is” – you realize that things in the world are a lot more relative than you had come to believe.

I’ve gotten much more into night photography lately, as this photo attests. Part of it has been the time change, we are out a lot more at night. When we travel in the summer and the days are soooo long – we barely make it to dark and we’re done. We aren’t wandering at midnight with an 8 year old in tow. 🙂 So, in winter, I find that I’ve gotten to enjoy taking photos at night of more places. It’s cold, but it’s nothing some warm clothes and a periodic hot chocolate can’t solve.

The other part of the increase in night photography has been this wonderful new 35mm lens I got in December, which has an aperture of a whopping 1.4 and allows me to just get more light into the camera. It has extended the range of light I can use to take photos while still hand holding the camera. It’s enough that I tote around my big lenses (2 now!), I’m not interested in carrying a tripod and then setting it up, etc. So this lens does a fabulous job of extending my range at night while still keeping me mobile. It’s like a whole new world to photograph!

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Into the Distance

I love this image from Alpe di Siusi for the light, the shape and the hint of where it was taken in the distance. I have another version with much more in focus, but it doesn’t have the “feel” that this one does. I thought about why not, and I think it’s because this image isn’t as obvious. It’s not saying “See, look at me, I’m in the Alps!” Instead it says, “Hey look at me, I’m this fence in the snow. Look the snow is deep and it’s a beautiful sunny day. Oh, and by the way, follow this fence out into the distance, there’s a hint of something there, maybe some snow covered mountains. Don’t you wonder where I am?” The secrets aren’t all revealed at once, they invite the viewer in to share and speculate.

As I write this I am reminded of a great blog post by Jenny on RisingSunCoaching.com that I read this week. Our life journeys don’t have everything laid out for us all the time. It’s like this photograph, you have to discover things one piece (or “crumb” as she puts it) at a time.

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