Kat Eye Studio

Archives for November 2010

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Transitions

Today I am feeling a bit deflated… things are in transition. I had so much fun in the quest for Thanksgiving, and now the day is in the past. The Mortal Muse blog hop is over, and my postcard drawing is done. I always love the anticipation of seeing who will win them! I think I’m addicted to giveaways. My big announcement of the Find Your Eye e-course is out in the world, with all of the initial excitement that brings.

What’s next? Oh yeah, the hard work. I’m not done with the work on my projects by a long shot. Transition from excitement to real life. My November goal of KaNoJoMo was a big success in terms of keeping me focused on what needed to get done and not playing around. Time for round two… *sigh*

So today, here are some pretty flowers from Bath, to sit and enjoy. Because flowers always make me happier, and I feel lighter just looking at them. I hope you will too!

And the winner of the postcards is…
Cate of Moments of Whimsy, all the way in New Zealand! Thanks so much for coming by my blog Cate, I hope you enjoy the postcards.

And guess what… for everyone else… you are winners too because I’ll send you a postcard from Italy if you email me your snail mail address! I did this once before and it was so nice to connect with people. I promise I will send the postcard and delete your address, just like last time, so there are no worries about your personal information in my hands. Email me: kat -at- kateyeview.com.

Hey, that made me feel lighter too. Funny thing, there are always things to lighten the load, if we just take a deep breath and look around. Flowers and sending postcards for me today, what is it for you?

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Are you ready to Find Your Eye?

(For info on how I processed this photo, see end of post.)

I am so, so excited to tell you that registration for my Find Your Eye: A photo course with heart and soul is up on wishstudio.com!  You can read the description of the course and get the registration details here. Instead of repeating the course description, today I want to share with you the story of what’s behind this course, where it came from, and why I’m doing it now.

For those of you who have read my blog for a while, you know what an amazing creative journey I have had during my time in Italy. (If you’re new here, you can get a sense of it from my About Me page.) I have come in to my creative, artistic self through my photography and experiences, and I’ve chronicled each little step and realization along with way here. Being able to say my mantra has taken a lot of personal work: I am an artist, my medium is photography, and I have a unique vision to show the world.


Along the way of realizing this truth for myself, I’ve realized that this is true for everyone. We all have a  unique vision to show the world. Every one of us, whether we realize it or not. Whether we are able to see it and own it, or not. With that realization, came the growing feeling that I might have a way to help others interested in photography learn to see their unique vision, by tapping in to my experiences. I could help others to gain the confidence and freedom that has come for me, as I have found my eye.

This feeling started to grow on me, and I would jot down notes here and there. Ideas would come randomly during my walks or the shower – you know how creative ideas happen when you least expect them. I started to carry notebooks every where with me to capture these ideas so that they would leave me alone. After a while those ideas started to build themselves into a framework for the class. But not now, I would say to myself, I’ll wait until I move back home, to Oregon. 


The ideas didn’t leave me alone. I call it my “creative nag.” All of the excuses I would come up with for not doing this now, my creative nag would slowly dispel them. Until finally, I relented. Six months ago, I sent an email to Mindy at wishstudio with this crazy idea of doing a photo course that was not like most photo courses out there, from a completely unknown quantity (me), and donating the proceeds to charity. Surprise of all surprises, Mindy was interested and even excited to see the proposal. You can see the result, it’s all coming together now…

I have been given a gift, with this experience of mine in Italy. I have been given a gift, by seeing how I can help others find their eye too. It is time to give that gift back to the world, and that is what the course is about. It’s not the usual digital photography course. Yes, there will be some on aperture and shutter speed and things like that – more to ensure that everyone has a foundation than to teach these in depth. That’s not what I really want to share with you.  The core of the course is giving you tools and exercises that help you learn to develop, recognize and find your eye. Gain confidence in your unique vision of the world, the way you express your heart and soul in photography.

Are you ready to Find Your Eye? I hope so, because the world needs your unique vision too.

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Many thanks to Liv Lane of Choosing Beauty for featuring me as one of her Monday Mavens today with the announcement of my e-course! Stop by and say hi to Liv for me, and look around her wonderful, inspiring site.
Today is the last day to enter the giveaway I have going on for the Burano Color postcard set! All you have to do is leave a comment on last Thursday’s post to enter. I will randomly draw the winner and announce here tomorrow morning.
And on today’s photo… it is from one of my favorite places – Burano of course!  You’ve seen a lot of this tiny, colorful island recently. I wanted to share a bit about the processing on this photo, since it’s not a straight color photo with minimal editing like mine usually are. I really wanted that blue to pop amidst the colors of the other buildings so I started by using a “color bleach” action in Photoshop Elements to desaturate the colors. I didn’t want to go completely black and white with the image, I wanted the pink hues to come through on the other buildings. Then, I carefully erased the effects of the action over the blue of the building using a layer mask, so the original bright blue color would show through. It’s a fun effect, and makes for a unique image. 
There are many, many different ways to do selective processing like this. Search “layer masks” or “selective processing” for your photo editing software to find some tutorials on the web.
Oh, and Happy Monday to you all! 🙂

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Improvising Thanksgiving in Italy

Yesterday we had a wonderful “Thanksgiving Day” here in Italy, only a couple of days late as compared to all of our family and friends back home. With 10 people in our apartment, we pulled out the kitchen table to the dining room and every chair in the house was put to use. What a fun time it was! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, along with Fourth of July, and is uniquely American. A holiday that is all about getting together with family and friends, enjoying the company and focusing on the good things that we have in life. The reminder to be thankful that goes bone deep for our culture, if only for a day.

Not only was the day a great time, the days and weeks leading up to Thanksgiving were a lot of fun too. Putting on Thanksgiving in Italy is a challenge. It takes a lot of advance planning and quite a bit of last minute improvisation. Finding all of the ingredients, as well as making a lot more of the food from scratch, takes advance legwork but the result of a successful day make it so well worth it. And because it’s so rare, and took so much effort, we value it a lot more than if we ran down to the store to pick everything up the day before.

Here’s a little bit of the challenges and improvisation that we deal with here…

Turkey – You can’t just run to the grocery store and buy a frozen turkey. At most you’ll find a turkey breast in the butcher’s case. Last year on our first Thanksgiving quest we learned that the only way to get a whole turkey was to order it from the local macelleria (butcher shop). This year we ordered the Turkey a couple of weeks in advance and picked it up Friday, freshly butchered for us (although a few pin feathers had to be removed – ever done that before?). The smallest one they could get was 6.5kg – about 14.3lbs. We couldn’t have fit a bigger one in our small oven!

Cranberries – Cranberry sauce made from fresh berries is an important part of Thanksgiving dinner, a must have for me. Last year we discovered that cranberries don’t exist in Italy – there isn’t even an Italian word for them! Try describing a cranberry to someone who has never even seen or tasted one. Good luck with that. We’ve had them “imported” by visitors in November the last two years. We lucked out in the timing and the fact that we remembered to ask them to bring them for us in advance. So fresh cranberry sauce and cranberry relish was available this day.

Stuffing – A basic staple, this is one of the easier things to find ingredients for. A couple of twists were thrown in though… I put “sage” on the grocery list for the stuffing recipe I use and my husband bought fresh sage. Great, except the recipe called for dried sage. An internet search later, and I had a stuffing recipe with fresh sage and parsley. A quick run to the store for the parsley, and I was in business. (Thank goodness for the Internet, and that it wasn’t a holiday in Italy – the store was open!) As I was making the stuffing I realized the bread cubes, instead of being unseasoned, were flavored with olive oil and salt. OK then, just a bit more Italian flavor. The stuffing came out great, rave reviews especially from my son… I want to use fresh sage every time now!

Mashed Potatoes – Yes, there are lots of potatoes in Italy. But not a lot of sour cream. Our friend Mike was making the potatoes this year and wanted some sour cream for the recipe he was making (not a low calorie feast here!). Here in Italy, not every store has the same things. You might find sour cream in one store out of ten. And that store may not have it in all locations, or all the time. It’s crazy to us Americans! But my husband has found a good, consistent source of sour cream, so he bought some and delivered it to Mike a few days before Thanksgiving. It takes a village to make a Thanksgiving dinner.

Pumpkin Pie – I usually don’t like pumpkin pie but this year I got it in my head that we needed to add this traditional dish. Pumpkin is not a hugely popular food here, you can’t find canned pumpkin in the grocery store nor are fresh pumpkins readily available. I had a coworker who travelled here for work in November bring a few cans of pumpkin puree for me. So pumpkin in hand, I needed to make a pie.

OK – first off, crust. Hmmm, I could make crust from scratch but where to find shortening here? Is there such a thing as a pre-made crust? My husband sleuthed around at several stores, asked moms at school, and discovered a pre-made crust but it wasn’t frozen and didn’t come in pie tins. Our pie tins are in storage in the US, so we had to buy a couple of pans. The closest he could find were torta pans, which are sort of pie shaped, more like a cross between a shallow cake and a pie, and were bigger – 11 inches in diameter vs. the normal 9 inches.

Second, the pie filling itself. The recipe on the can said evaporated milk. Yeah, that was going to be impossible. So searching on the internet I found you could substitute regular milk with no problems. I was set. I started to make the pies Friday night. Cinnamon, check. Nutmeg, check. Ginger… no ginger. Hmmm, well I had Allspice. I figured a teaspoon of that wouldn’t hurt. So by the time I was done I had two huge pumpkin pies (it took the filling recipe for three pies to fill these babies) that didn’t really follow a recipe. After about 1.5 hours of baking (two very large pies in a very small oven = longer time), our house was filled with the delicious smell of pumpkin pies.

For whipped cream, we had to buy heavy cream and actually whip it ourselves. That was an experience too! I must admit, they turned out very tasty. Much better than a storebought pie, I think I actually like pumpkin pie now. And it only took one giant pie to feed our 10 people, so now I have to figure out what to do with this second giant pie… to work I think! My Italians colleagues could use exposure to this American treat.

In addition to all of that food, we had a yummy spinach casserole, brownies and blondies, salsa and guacamole, hummus and pita… all brought by our guests. And the perfect complement was the Italian prosecco (like champagne) and red wine we enjoyed. I think that tradition of Italian beverages must go home with us.

Our second and last Thanksgiving in Italy was a success. It was a truly authentic, American feast with great friends. The only thing missing was the long weekend….

Where ever you are in the world, however you celebrate being thankful, I wish you the same feeling of gratitude and togetherness that Thanksgiving brings to me. Happy Thanksgiving from Italy.

(Don’t miss the “We are Thankful” blog hop and my postcard giveaway – both are still going on! And I’m musing on “Down Low” over at Mortal Muses today. Come by and say hi if you have a chance.)

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Random Radishes

This morning I came to the blog… and had no idea what to write. So I just looked through my photos and picked this one of radishes. Kind of random, but I love radishes. Both the taste (the stronger the better) and the pop of color they provide. This bunch was spotted outside a fruit and vegetable market in Bologna. There is something so wonderful about a storefront lined with boxes of fruits and veggies. As if there is so much abundance it has to spill out onto the street and get in the way of passers-by.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! There is still time to join the giveaway and blog hop that started yesterday. Come on by!

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Thankful for YOU!

Yes, you. No, don’t look behind you. If you are reading this, I’m talking to you. I want to thank you for joining me here. Thank you for reading my words, commenting on the blog, dropping me a note via email, visiting me on Mortal Muses, liking me on Facebook. Even the lurkers who read via feed – I see my stats, I know you are there. And I’m thankful for you. The stats are not just numbers, they are connections. Each time I post, each time you visit, we connect. Thank you!

This blog and the interactions with you all in the online world have brought me so many wonderful things – it truly has been an amazing journey. Today I want to not only share my image and words, but a little something “real” with you too. To thank you I’m going to giveaway some of my new postcards, the Burano Color set. To win, leave a comment here on the blog through Monday. I know it’s a holiday weekend in the US, so I’m giving you some extra time! I’ll do a random drawing and announce it on Tuesday.

(You can find more info on the photos I used for the Burano Color postcard set in the following posts: Color is Like Music, Be Still My Heart, What do these colors make you think of?, Complimentary Color, Color and Texture)

Now it’s time to Hop! Link your blog in below, and join us in visiting blogs from all over the world. (If you want to display the link tool on your blog too, grab the code here.)

Oh, and by the way, thank you!

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Seeing History

Through the Ages

After all of the color lately, here is a little relief for your eyes. A scene right out of history, you can practically go back in time. Can you just imagine, the Venice of old? It is such a unique place, I think it’s easier here to lose myself in history than almost any where else, especially in black and white. Removing the color minimizes the distracting modern details, like the scaffolding on the building or the tourist’s clothes in the gondola. It becomes a photo of place and not of time.

A bit of contrast as compared to yesterday, no? When I took yesterday’s photo I was thinking of a title something like, “So Bright it Hurts.” Heehee.

Is everyone ready for tomorrow? It’s not only Thanksgiving in the USA, it’s the Mortal Muses “We are Thankful” blog hop! Join us from wherever you are in the world, as we hop around and visit blogs to see the reasons you are thankful. I’ve got a special surprise for you here too, so please come by!

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