Kat Eye Studio

Archives for November 2011

by

Registration Opens with a Special Offer!

Yay! Today is the day! Registration opens for the January-February series of Find Your Eye today. Starting the Journey runs January 8 – 18, 2012 and Journey of Recognition follows from January 29 – February 24, 2012. I’ve got the gift-giving bug, so I’ve whipped up a special holiday offer too! Visit this page to register and learn more about the classes and the special offer.

I’m always excited when a new class starts, who will I meet? What will their journey be like? Each journey is unique to a person, just like our photographs. I love that!

If you’ve been considering taking the course, I hope you will join in this time. I’ll leave you with a few recent comments from Find Your Eye participants. Their words always speak much more eloquently than mine!

Kat has thought through the goals of the course, and each lesson contributes to moving the class along the journey of discovery and development. We can go at our own speed, learning through our own experience, and learning from our classmates, through their work and commentary. Kat creates an learning environment of encouragement, discovery and risk taking – so we can grow as photographers and artists. I love the sense of community that comes with doing this course in a group setting..That’s one of my favourite things.

This course made me think, made me look at what I am doing with my camera and why. I have a better understanding of why photography appeals to me because of this. I can honestly say that now when I carry my camera I’m more intentional about what I want to capture, rather than just taking a bunch of photos as fast as I can (which was kind of what I’ve been doing).

The process is very individual – meeting me where I was and moving me deeper. I like the sense of having the answers within and being guided to find them for myself. I appreciated the interaction among students and feedback received, especially from the instructor.

I learned so much from going through the same exercises with such a wide variety of photographers – women who all had different experiences, different photographic interests, different viewpoints.

These courses really helped me to figure out more about my style – likes and dislikes, how I shoot and why, etc. – and encouraged me to continue to look as I continue on my photographic journey. Thank you!

by

Not the Only One

It seems I’m not the only one who is not ready to let go of fall yet. Not only did I receive a lot of comments here yesterday in agreement, but I heard it from my family as well. We set up the Christmas tree last night and none of us felt ready. It’s very odd, normally it’s a day-after-Thanksgiving tradition to excitedly decorate for Christmas in our house. I wonder what’s going on?

In the meantime, while I search for an answer to that question, I’ll keep sharing my fall images from the weekend. I loved these leaves, all piled up next to a lightpost, in Ashland, Oregon. The colors are great, as are the shapes – they are dry! Where I live in Oregon, you don’t see these kind of leaves too often. They are usually all wet and glued together from the rain. They are still pretty, just not perky like these leaves. I love how the strong color peeks out here and there.

You can visit me over at Mortal Muses today, writing on gratitude. Come see what I am most grateful for!

by

Not Quite Done…

After a delightful Thanksgiving with friends, we packed up our trailer for a weekend away. As we explored a few of the small towns in Southern Oregon this weekend, I started to capture the holiday lights and the Christmas displays. But when I looked at my photos this morning, I decided I’m not quite done with fall. Not just yet. So today you get this happy grinning scarecrow, to extend autumn just a bit longer.

Happy Monday!

by

Aspect Ratio Revisited

So, have you finished your holiday shopping yet? Have you ordered any photo gifts to give to your family and friends? If not, there is still plenty of time! You can avoid all of the Black Friday craziness and order a few photo gifts online. There is also plenty of time for you to investigate Exploring with a Camera: Printed Aspect Ratios as you order those gifts.

Today I want to point you to Deborah’s contribution to our current exploration. For her image, the 4:5 crop (for an 8×10) worked great. My image today doesn’t work so great as an 8×10, too much would be cut off:

That’s why you need to play around with cropping your images, to figure out what aspect ratio works for both your images and your printing options. I would love to see your results, you are welcome to link in below or share them in the Flickr pool. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I’ll be back online Monday!



FYI – Links will be moderated. Please use a permalink, ensure that your linked image is on topic, and include a link back to this site in your post through the Exploring with a Camera button (available here) or a text link. Thanks!

by

Grateful

I am grateful for the abundance I see in life.
An abundance of leaves and light.
An abundance of beauty that exists around us, everywhere, every day.
An abundance of connections, sharing friendship and love.

I am grateful that I can capture this abundant beauty with my camera, and that it helps me connect with all of you. Regardless of where you are in the world and whether you celebrate this US holiday or not, I am wishing all of you a day of beauty, abundance and gratitude. Thank you for being here.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

by

Happy Endings

You cannot have a happy ending to an unhappy journey.
–Abraham-Hicks

Wow. Those words are so simple and profound. I read them in one of those daily inspirational emails this morning, and they struck me to stillness.

We are all on a different journey in our lives. Each journey is unique in its challenges and our responses. But there is a universal truth in the quote above: How we approach our journey affects the outcome. Do we approach it openly, with a willingness to learn? Do we feel gratitude for what comes our way? Or do we rail against the unfairness of the universe, wishing things were different and trying to shape things to our liking?

There is a different energy that comes when we force or control than when we accept and learn, don’t you think? Whether a journey is unhappy or happy depends mostly on us, on our attitude, regardless of the circumstance.

Happiness is a choice. Gratitude is a choice. As we head into the holiday season, with all of the potential stresses and joys, I’m going to remember this. I’m going for the happy ending by choosing to be happy on the journey. I hope you will too!

Upcoming Events