Kat Eye Studio

Archives for November 2011

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Window to the Morning

Window to the Morning

Window to the Morning

What can a window tell you about a person? This one tells me of someone who loves color. Someone who uses their only east-facing window to catch the morning light, nurturing as many plants as possible. It doesn’t matter that the view out the window has a cable running through it. It doesn’t matter that the building has a few flaws. Using what is there to the best effect, that is what matters.

I captured this image on my photo walk in Philomath on Friday. It caught my eye as this spot of bright color on an otherwise empty east-facing wall. I thought about cloning out the cable, but decided that’s part of the charm of this window. The color and life amidst the imperfection.

We all have views like this. Both the real and the figurative windows of our life look out on imperfections. This image reminds me, it’s what we do on the inside that matters, not the view we see. Do we use the light we have? Do we add color and life where we can? Do we create a view we want to see, while accepting the one we don’t?

Yep, windows can tell you a lot about a person. What would yours tell me about you?

Linked in to the Creative Exchange today.

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Texture Heaven

Heaven, I’m in heaven…

Yesterday was a glorious texture day! A couple of weeks ago my friend Julie emailed me, asking if I wanted to go for a photo walk. After coordinating a bit, we settled on yesterday morning. We got out early, just as the morning sun was burning off the fog, and headed to the small town of Philomath. This little town of 5 or 6 thousand is a couple of miles from where I live. We drive through it all the time to head to the Coast and I always say, “I need to come back here and photograph.” So glad I did!

I realized as we were walking around I’ve traded in the stone and stucco of Italy for the brick, wood and corrugated metal of small town USA, but it’s texture all the same. I’m still looking for the “real life still life” scenes that catch my eye. The image above of the bucket is my favorite of the day. The colors and textures are perfect, and that lovely morning light! Heaven.

Julie and I ended our photo walk with a coffee and a chai to warm up, and agreed we need to do this more often. It was so much fun to go out with another photographer! We can’t wait to share the photos and see what we each captured, the differences in our point of view. I loved capturing her in action as well. Oh, the things we photographers do.

But wait! There’s more! I have a bit of other news today, the winner of the set of “Texture” postcards from the Exploring with a Camera: Found Texture link up is… Dina of 4 Lettre Words! Dina is a regular participant in Exploring with a Camera and Ashley Sisk‘s Scavenger Hunt Sunday and I’m excited to send these to her. Thanks to all of you for your participation! Even though our link up on texture is over, I hope you continue to seek texture. You know I will!

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Exploring with a Camera: Opposing Lines

Watch your Steps, Chicago, Illinois

Watch your Steps

Lately I’ve been noticing lines in my photographs. Not just any lines, but lines that run in opposition to each other. In Today’s Exploring with a Camera, we are going to explore Opposing Lines. You can join in the exploration over the next two weeks, by adding your images to the link tool at the end of this post.

Lines are a fantastic tool to move the viewer’s eye through a photograph. When there is a dominant line, the eye wants to follow it through. We can use this to great effect in our compositions, drawing the eye to a specific point or subject by setting up leading lines. I’ve touched on this topic before, in Exploring with a Camera: Linear Perspective.

What happens when there is more than one line? If the lines converge to a point, there is a flow to the photograph, leading the viewer’s eye to the convergence point. If the lines are in opposition, however, there is a dynamic tension that is set up in the image. Your eye moves from one place, only to move back in the other direction. This tension is fascinating to me, and is what I’ve been exploring with Opposing Lines in my photographs.

The dynamic of opposing lines in an image first caught my eye with this image, from Old Colorado City, Colorado. The perspective in the mural leads you in one direction, from left to right in the photograph. The direction of the bricks, however, leads you in the opposite direction: right to left. This dynamic of opposing lines was set up by the angle of the shot. If it had been straight on, the bricks would have been straight and would have served as a backdrop rather than a key element as an opposing line.

Frontier Town Mural, Old Colorado City, Colorado

Mural Lines

In the image below, the lines of the brick wall and the lines of the shadows from a nearby tree are in opposition. How does your eye move through this photo? The perspective, again created by standing at an angle to the brick wall, creates the opposing lines. The lines make an otherwise simple image more interesting. The lead-in image, of the stairway and shadow, provides a similar dynamic of opposing lines using shadows.

Lines of Brick and Shadow, Corvallis, Oregon

Lines of Brick and Shadow

I loved the lines created by the architecture in Chicago, and this image of reflected buildings sets up an interesting opposing-line dynamic. Without the reflection, the image would be a simple repeating grid of windows. With the reflection, there is a strong diagonal created by the buildings along the lines of the side of the windows. That diagonal is opposed by the thicker lines of the bottom of the windows. I find the opposing lines in the image more interesting than a standard view of buildings against sky.

Reflecting Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Reflecting Chicago

Opposing lines aren’t just found on the outside of buildings, in this image from the Art Institute of Chicago, the reflection of the beam creates an opposing line. There is not as much tension in this image as those discussed previously, since the reflection serves to connect the two beams into a zig-zag. This leads your eye through from beam to beam. The opposing lines of the window panes makes a stronger dynamic, leading your eye back up to the top of the image after you zig-zag down.

Down and Up Again, Chicago, Illinois

Down and Up Again

Shadows, reflections and angled perspectives are all great ways to create opposing lines in your images. What other ways can you find to set up this dynamic? Take a look at your archives and go out exploring to find opposing lines. You can link up below, through 17 November. I can’t wait to see what you find!



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!

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A Textured Finish

Texture of the Sea, Newport, Oregon

Texture of the Sea

We finish up Exploring with a Camera: Found Texture today! There will be a new Exploring with a Camera posted tomorrow – I’m moving the series to Friday starting this week. You can link in your final texture images today, or just spend some time exploring the found texture from other participants. Lots of great texture has been shared!

As we went through this exploration over the last couple of weeks, I started thinking and noticing the difference between tactile texture and color texture. The image above, a side of a boat, is a perfect example. The surface of the boat is fairly smooth, you can see the reflected light that indicates the smoothness at the top, but the color is not even as you move toward the bottom. That variation in color and shine creates the appearance of more texture than there actually was. The bottom part in the image is still fairly smooth, but visually it shows up with more texture. An interesting study of how texture shows up in images. Color and tone can show as much texture as something physically bumpy!

I hope you enjoyed this exploration into Found Texture! I look forward to starting a new topic tomorrow. See you then!

Oh, and don’t forget the giveaway! If you link in you have a chance to win a set of my “Texture” postcards. I’ll draw and announce the winner on the weekend.
Texture Postcard Set



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!

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Back to Balance

Under the Bridge, Chicago, Illinois

Under the Bridge, Chicago, Illinois

For the last half of October, I’ve been focusing on balance in my life. It’s been an interesting period, because for each idea I had about achieving and maintaining balance, there was an asterisk attached to it. It was as if there was a little footnote added in my brain:

*After the website is launched.

Now that the website has been launched, there is this gap in my time. You know that gap, the one that happens after a big project? Where suddenly you have time on your hands and no big overriding goal to fill it? That gap is a critical time. It sets the stage for what is to come. Do you fill it with lots of little things or one new big goal? Normally, I would fill it with one big new goal, or maybe lots of little goals, but for now it’s time to put my plans for balance into practice.

Those plans include planned time for my own creativity and fun. Time for the activities that give me energy. It’s too easy for me to let my project “to do” list take over, which drains my energy. If there are items on the “to do” list, I feel like I should do those first instead of the fun. Before I know it, these wonderful mornings I created by going part time are used up. I know I’m not alone in this kind of work ethic. It’s time for me to change up the dynamic, and I’ll do that by setting some rules about my time. Setting a schedule for creative fun and for the “to do” list. It’s not spontaneous or random, and, damn, if it isn’t uncomfortable! But, it will get me back to that creative play that is so important to maintaining the rest of my creative spiral.

Along with that, I’ll be working to avoid overcommitting, the bane of people with too many ideas. I realized that much of my lack of balance came from commitments I made, mostly to myself, way back into April and May. Yikes! Six months later… here I am recuperating. Can I commit a little less into the future, and leave space for new and interesting things to develop? You bet.

For me, November is going to be a month of focusing on my own creativity and what gives me energy. Photography, blogging, teaching my classes… all of these give me energy. They are part of my core creative processes, so they stay.  Learning gives me energy, so studying Lightroom is on the schedule. Painting is just plain fun, so I need to make time for it. Other than that, I look forward to going with the flow.

It’s time to get back to balance, and see what develops. Want to join me? What things can you do to get back to balance into your life?

PS – Visit me over at Mortal Muses today, musing on some fantastic light.

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You’re Invited to see “The Nature of Oregon”

Kat Sloma Self-portrait with Nature of Oregon prints You’re invited to see an exhibit called “The Nature of Oregon” put on by the Willamette Valley PhotoArts Guild. The show runs November 2 – 30, 2011 at the Giustina Gallery in OSU LaSells Stewart Center (26th and Western, Corvallis). The artist’s reception is on Tuesday, November 8 from 6:30 to 8:30pm.

I have two images in the show, Delicious Color and Weathered by Work, shown in this self-portrait to give you an idea of the scale. Both are printed as 20x30in (51x76cm) canvas gallery wraps, and they came out great. This is the largest I’ve ever seen my work and I find I like it! One of my goals upon returning to the US was to figure out printing and presentation of my photographic work, so the timing of this exhibit was perfect. It will be fun to see them hanging on the wall! They are definitely some of the biggest and boldest images that will be in the show. I guess that’s just my style…

If you live nearby, I would love to meet you at the artist’s reception next Tuesday!

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