Kat Eye Studio

Archives for May 2012

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Spring Cleaning!

Have you ever looked around and said, “Hmmmm, how did this place get so dirty?” Yeah. That’s my studio. I have all sorts of piles in all sorts of places. They’ve been accumulating for months in some cases and it’s time to dig through and organize them. Shake the dust out of the rugs and clean up the surfaces and generally make things spic and span.

There’s nothing like a clean space to sit and relax in, after all that work is done, don’t you think? I look forward to that feeling later today or tomorrow when this cleaning project is done. This image of a courtyard in Dubrovnik, Croatia gives me a preview of that feeling. I can imagine myself sitting under the umbrella by those potted plants with the scent of sun-drying sheets in the air. Nice.

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Lose the Weight (Visual Weight, that is)

When I was visiting San Francisco, I played around with composing images that look “flat.” My goal with these images was to create a collage effect within the frame with elements that are were not in the same plane of view in the camera. As we discussed Exploring with a Camera: Visual Weight this last week, I realized one of the ways I was creating a “flat” image was by not having a dramatic visual weight difference between the elements.

This image of signs in Chinatown is an example. While there are some differences in visual weight of the elements, due to colors and size of the type, they are quite minimized on the whole. To me, the overlapping elements flatten and you don’t perceive the true distance you are looking through in the image at first glance. It looks like a collage of shapes overlaid within the frame. I could have emphasized that effect by converting to monochromatic, as I did with this image I shared last week.

It’s interesting to discover how visual weight in my images can work for me in more than one way. If I want to enhance a subject and create a clear focal point for the eye, I can use the principles of visual weight to make the subject the “weightiest” part of the composition. If I want to create an image without a clear focal point, I can use the principles of visual weight to even out the elements within the frame.

What are you discovering with Visual Weight as we explore? Please share!


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Focus on the Good

“Focus on what’s good,” is the motto of the principal of my son’s new school next year. Last night we went to a parent’s open house at the middle school for next year’s sixth graders. First off, it brought home that my son is getting older. Call me crazy, but tears welled up with my son heading into the world of lockers and changing classes. I’m not typically one to hang on to any stage of childhood, I love to watch my son grow, but ack. Middle school!

But I digress… I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and positive energy that came from the teachers and students of the school. A couple of times it was mentioned how the principal is the fourth one in four years, and how much they like him. It was mentioned that in a time of budget cuts and all kinds of financial craziness, the principal’s motto has been, “Focus on what’s good.” It’s clearly rubbed off. I don’t think you can fake the kind of positive, caring energy I saw in the school last night.

It is a good reminder of a truth I’ve learned time and time again: What we focus on, we get more of. As Christine Kane puts, “Energy flows where attention goes.” If we focus on the good, the positive, the healthy… we’ll align our actions and get more of that. If we focus on the bad, the negative, the damaging… we get more of that too.

As I was thinking about this today, I realized it’s really the underlying philosophy for my Find Your Eye classes. It’s amazing how we look at ourselves or our artistic work and can so easily see what we need to do better. Participants say, “I need to learn more of this” or “I should be trying that.” But what I think matters most, in our photography and in our lives, is to build on the things that are already going well and working for us. Somehow in life we got this idea that we need to be “well-rounded” people. Good and strong at everything. If you believe this, I have news for you. No one can be good at everything. Let me say that again:

No one can be good at everything.

Not me. Not you. We look at other people, compare ourselves and see our own short-comings. What we should do more of is looking at ourselves and seeing where we are strong. Take pride and confidence in those things, and build on them. We do that with your photography in Find Your Eye, but the concept goes well beyond art and into life.

I’m very pleased to have my son heading into a school with this philosophy. In the face of all sorts of challenges, it’s a great attitude and can change the whole environment. It will create great opportunities for conversations between he and I, and will help cement this truth for me as well.

“Focus on the good.” See what’s good in your life and in your art. Build on that.

Today’s image is another market/wheels image from San Francisco. There was a Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building the day I met my photo friends. I was a little early and made a great use of my time. I’m still working on this one, I’m not sure if the cropping is quite right. I love the soft light and the angle on the cart with the crates. I’ll focus on the good in the image as I continue to work with it.

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Balancing on the Diagonal

I thought I’d continue my San Francisco Market/Wheels theme started yesterday and share another recent addition to the series. I love the diagonals in this one. The lines of the awning are in opposition to the lines of the light and shadow, creating nice movement within the frame. It’s fun to see those dynamic diagonals at play!

Since returning home from Arizona last week life has been really busy for me. There is a big issue I’m working on in my corporate job and much of my energy is focused on that. It’s interesting to observe what is going on in light of my quest for a peaceful, joyful balance. While I’m busy with work I don’t have as much time for other things, but I’m not pushing them. I’m going with the flow. It’s working out well so far.

I imagine it as standing on the apex of a seesaw. I am not completely still. I have to be continually moving fluidly to keep my balance. If I were completely still and perfectly balanced there at the peak, I would be in a precarious position. One big gust of wind would knock me off completely. But if I’m moving, adjusting as things come along, I can better respond to what comes my way and keep my balance.

So, right now I might be tilted a bit more than usual but I’m still finding myself in balance. I know I will even things out when this issue is resolved. My peaceful, joyful balance hasn’t disappeared even in the face of changing conditions, and that feels pretty darn good.

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Continuing the Search

My Market/Wheels exhibition came down a week and a half ago, but my quest for Market/Wheels images is not over. This has become an ongoing project for me. It’s a way for me to find a thread of similarity in disparate places around the globe. We’re discussing “Seeking Differences, Finding Similarities” this week in A Sense of Place, and this project comes to mind.

This image from San Francisco is a great addition to the series. What a wonderful scene it was! The painted brick trying to hide the graffiti, the broom and dustpan and the haphazard signs all make this a “real life still life” with some serious place personality.

I found the urban environment of San Francisco a perfect place to get Market/Wheels images, since the markets are often rolled out onto the street every morning and rolled back into the store at night. Revisiting this image reminds me that market season is gearing up here in my agricultural valley and it’s time for me to get out and seek new Market/Wheels images near home.

Do you have an ongoing project you are working on? It’s fun to have something to seek, and oh so satisfying when you find a new image for the series!

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Thirty Minutes

Can you spare thirty minutes for me? I bet if I called you and asked you for thirty minutes of your time, you would give it to me.

What about sparing thirty minutes for you? If you wanted to do something, all for you, would you create thirty minutes to do it? Maybe, maybe not. We all have a long list of “things to do” don’t we? We couldn’t possibly spare ourselves thirty minutes, we wouldn’t get everything on that “to do” list done.

Yet I’ve been realizing just how much you can do with only thirty minutes a day. In late January I started to learn to play guitar. I have one thirty minute lesson per week, and I practice somewhere around thirty minutes almost every day.

Less than four months later, I have callouses on my fingers and I can actually play a song or two. They still aren’t perfect, and there’s no way I can sing and play at the same time, but the songs are recognizable. And I’m so excited. I can play the guitar, and I love it.

Five months ago I would have told you I have no time to learn to play the guitar. Are you crazy? On everything else I have to do? But I did. And it didn’t mess up any other commitments or items on the “to do” list. It didn’t stress me out in any way. Because I’m doing it with thirty minutes a day.

Turns out, I can easily spare thirty minutes. It’s starting to make me wonder what else I might be able to do, when I think of it this way.

How about you, is there something you want to do? Is there something you think will take a vast amount of time to learn? Maybe it’s learning to use Lightroom. Maybe it’s starting an exercise routine. Maybe it’s creating in an art form you love. I imagine there are many things on your wish list of items to learn and do.

Can you spare thirty minutes? Think about it seriously. I bet you can. And then, you can decide: What you will do with your thirty minutes a day?

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