Archives for November 2013

November 28, 2013 by Kat

Giving Thanks

Today, in the US, we are pausing to give thanks. At this moment I’m giving thanks for my son snuggled up next to me under the quilt, for sunshine, and for creating art. My list will change throughout the day.

For those of you in the US, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends. For those of you outside the US, I hope you can take a moment today and give thanks for what is good in your life, what makes you happy, and the beauty of the work around you.

And for the US expats, my heart is with you today. I remember the feeling of going to work, having a regular old week day, while my home nation was celebrating my favorite holiday. But I’m also a little envious, because I look back fondly on all of the work it took to make Thanksgiving in Italy happen, and I see how much more I cherished the holiday, even if celebrated two days late.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, wherever you are. I am giving thanks for you today, too.

November 26, 2013 by Kat

Five Things That Make Me Happy

Sometimes you just need to take stock of where you are and look at the things that make you happy. This morning I came up with a list of five things that make me feel happy today. Tomorrow it might be different…

Subtle Color Variation

Oooh, there is nothing more wonderful lately than achieving a subtle color variation in my art! All of my favorites from the last month have some sort of subtle color variation along the spectrum. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I achieve it…

And the trees, with their fading leaves make me happy, of course!

Kid President

This kid cracks me up! If you want to smile, check out the feel-good Kid President videos on YouTube. Friday night my son and I watched them to our hearts content. Here’s the latest one:

Finishing a Project

I know you fellow achiever-types out there will appreciate this one! There is nothing as good as finishing a project, especially a big one, and checking it off your list.

This weekend I finished up the work to offer my Find Your Eye series of eCourses as On Demand. Yay! All three eCourses updated, scheduled and ready for registration. I’m especially excited to be able to offer the full series, in sequence, as one long, inspiring eCourse. They build upon each other, from Journey of Recognition to Journey of Inspiration to Journey of Fascination, in a way I did not intentionally plan.

It feels great to both get this project done and make the material available to people whenever they come across it. I was surprised at how happy this one thing made me!

Svaroopa Yoga

This is not your usual type of yoga. No sun salutations here! It’s a very slow-paced and supported type of yoga which is incredibly restorative. It’s like yoga for everybody, not just the strong and flexible. I started going in May when my shoulder was hurting me, and my body has been thanking me since.

It’s actually the perfect antidote to the over-achiever within me: Calming, centering and bringing me from my forever-busy head into my body. It allows me to just be for a while. Since that feeling is what I want to translate into my art, it’s a good thing. A quiet, happy thing. Something I do just for me.

If you have this style of yoga available near you, I encourage you to try it out. Maybe it will bring you some happiness too.

Sunshine

It seems so simple, but it makes me happy to see the sun. I am amazingly content to sit in a sunbeam and feel that natural warmth heating me up. It’s like a hug from the universe. I feel good at a cellular level.

We’ve had a lot of sun this fall and I’m soaking up as much as I can!

What makes YOU happy today? Take a moment to think about it. I predict a smile will grow on your face and you will feel better, just for the thinking of it.

November 21, 2013 by Kat

Inviting Inspiration

Hey, do you know my friend Inspiration? She’s great fun. When she comes to visit we have an amazing time.

Were a good team, she and I. We are amazingly productive together when she shows up, always creating new work like crazy, generating wonderful ideas, and moving in new directions. I love the feeling of having her around. She makes me bold and confident, not caring what’s going on in the world around me. Could there be a better friend?

There’s one problem with Inspiration though, and it’s a big one. She’s flighty and unpredictable. She doesn’t show up when it’s convenient and she’ll leave suddenly without warning. No matter how much you beg or plead, when she’s ready to go, she’s gone.

If she wasn’t so much fun to have around when she came to visit, I’d probably end my friendship with her. I mean, who really wants a friend so fickle? But I know what she does is not intentional. It’s as much me as it is her.

You see, if I don’t give her my attention, she’ll move on. If I think I can delay her departure by saying, “I can’t right now, hang on until tomorrow,” I’m deluding myself. She doesn’t have time for that, she’s got other people to inspire. If I don’t drop everything and take what she has to give, I can’t expect her to hang around indefinitely.

But I often do just that. Inspiration comes to visit and I say, “No thanks, not right now. I’ve got other things on my plate.” I forget what a great team we are, how much fun we have. I forget that I may not see her for a while, if I say no.

I forget that it’s my choice, in the end, whether Inspiration comes to visit. I might not have any control in when she shows up, how long she stays, or what we do while she’s here. But being open and willing and inviting her through the door… That’s all me.

She’s gone from here for the moment. Hopefully she’s having a grand time with you right now, since she’s not with me. I miss her, but her absence helps me realize that next time, I can’t put her off. I’ll rearrange my schedule and invite Inspiration in.

November 19, 2013 by Kat

From $7 to $700: 7 Gifts for the Mobile Photographer

It must be getting close to the holidays… because I’m getting more emails asking for opinions on which this or that I would recommend. Happens every year! So this year I thought I would help more folks out and share a few of my favorite gift ideas for the mobile photographer here on my blog.

I don’t think of myself as a gadget person, but there are definitely accessories and items that spark my creativity or improve my workflow. All of the items on this list have been personally purchased and consistently used by me, so they have the Kat Eye Studio seal of approval. All you need to do from here is send a link of this post to your loving family and say: “I want item number whatever on this list, please!” How easy is that?

So… ordered from lowest price to highest… here we go!

#1: Case Star Cellphone Tripod

This little Case Star Tripod works wonderfully. I have a variation on this tripod and what I love about it is the tripod mount. It’s super easy to load your smartphone on and off, yet the phone is very stable once attached. The whole tripod is small and can easily be tucked into a back pocket or purse/bag. The bonus part is that the tripod mount can be removed and used on any big-camera tripod. Cool, huh? It would be a great stocking stuffer at $7.56.

#2: Chromo Stylus

For doing detailed editing work on your smartphone or tablet, your finger tip is just not going to cut it! A stylus is a requirement. There are lots of expensive versions of the stylus out there, but I can guarantee you are going to lose or misplace your stylus at some point so you might as well go inexpensive. There are also lots of cheap stylus’ that don’t work well, so watch out for that. I use the Chromo Stylus – an inexpensive stylus that works great and relieves me of any worry about misplacing it. I leave them all over the house, in the car, in my bags… At $8.99 for a 12-pack, you can be generous, giving them away to everyone you know with a tablet or smartphone.

#3: Gift Cards

There is nothing a mobile photographer would love more than new apps to play with! But if the mobile photographer is anything like me, there is always guilt associated with buying new apps when you have sooooo many on your device already. Give guilt-free app purchasing by giving iTunes or Google Play gift cards. How much? Your choice, anywhere from $10 to $50 or more. You can buy these almost anywhere that gift cards are sold.

#4: Decal Girl Custom Case

There is nothing like being able to use your own artwork in new and different ways! A custom case from Decal Girl is not only fun to carry around, it’s a great, unobtrusive marketing tool for your work. I mentioned the Decal Girl case I made (at left) a while back, and after several months of use, I love it. I have the clip case which both feels great and fits my iPhone 5 wonderfully, keeping the profile of my iPhone small and streamlined while still protected. The clip case is $29.99 and it’s only one of several case options. Be sure to sign up for Decal Girl newsletter and for a discount on your first order. Oh, and one of the most fun things? It comes packaged in a box that makes it look like you bought it off the shelf of the store. It was pretty darn cool to see my work looking like this!

#5: Olloclip 3-in-1 Lens

I love the simplicity of the iPhone, but sometimes I miss my SLR lenses! The Olloclip 3-in-1 Lens is a solution for that yearning, with a macro, wide angle and fish eye lens in one small package. After trying another lens system, I’ve switched to Olloclip and I won’t go back. The design of this lens system is wonderful – everything stays together in one small package. The quality of the glass and construction is great too. And for ~$60, it’s much less expensive than a single lens for my SLR, much less three! Olloclip also makes a Telephoto + Circular Polarizing Lens. I haven’t tried this one yet, it’s on my wish list!

#6: Optrix Waterproof Case

Before going on vacation this summer, I got this very fun Optrix Waterproof Case case for my iPhone. It comes with a waterproof housing, a wide angle lens and some different mounting options which lead to all sorts of crazy adventure photography fun! I used the case while at water parks, capturing family fun throughout the day without worry about damage to my camera. The wide angle lens is great, and not only did I get a lot of use out of the camera, I also used it for the phone features. Since I was the only one with a phone in the pool, we were able to easily connect up with family members who came later and my sister was able to text some critical info to the person covering for her at work back at home. Very handy! It was fun to get out of the normal routine and play around in the water with my iPhone. I highly recommend this case for water play or other adventure uses. It goes for around $130 for the basic case I purchased, but I found they have a kit with multiple lenses for just a little more. I’d love to try those too…

#7: A New Device

OK, what else could be on the $700 end of things but a new mobile device? I get questions all the time asking me for my thoughts on the right mobile device. So here’s what I always tell people…

Regardless of the type of device, don’t get less than 64GB of storage. Between apps and music, I have ~32GB filled on my iPhone and iPad. Surprisingly, the photos aren’t what takes up the most space! If I didn’t have a 64GB device I would constantly have to manage the storage space, deleting items to add new apps or take more photos. Having lived in that sort of limited-storage world a long time ago on an 8GB iPod Touch, I’ve decided that spending a bit more money up front to avoid the ongoing headache of managing storage space is worth it. (Oh, and if you like to download video, you might consider a 128GB…)

If you’re looking to try out mobile photography without the commitment of a monthly cell phone data plan, an iPod Touch or an iPad Mini is a great place to start. The camera is not as good, 5MP vs. the iPhone 5/5S 8MP, but either will work great to get you started into mobile photography with a mobile camera and apps. The iPod Touch would be a better size to carry around, but the iPad Mini would be a compromise that provides a larger screen for editing.

While we’re on the topic of larger screens, I highly recommend a full size iPad for editing. I find it hard to see and edit detail in photographs on a small device screen. I just upgraded to the new iPad Air and for the same size screen as my old iPad 3, it’s lighter, smaller and definitely faster. I was surprised at how much faster some of the photography apps are on the iPad Air.

While it’s definitely worth it to have a full size tablet in your arsenal of mobile devices, I would consider an iPad a second choice to a smartphone for portability. My iPad stays at home; my iPhone is always with me. If you want to dive into the world of the smartphone, either the iPhone 5 or 5S is a great way to go. I’m still in love with my iPhone 5 and have decided not to upgrade to the 5S; It’s just not different enough camera-wise to justify the expense of the upgrade. (I’ve got my fingers crossed for a bigger camera upgrade in the next iPhone revision…)

And if you want any advice on Android… I can’t help you there. A lot of people like to tell me that other phones have better cameras, and I don’t doubt there is some truth to that. But no other operating system comes close to have the number and quality of apps for editing photographs as iOS. And because there is such a great user base for iOS devices, there are more aftermarket accessories like those I’ve shared here, along with resources like photography books, websites and classes. It’s great to have such a great ecosystem to tap into!

Happy Holidays Mobile Photographers!

So there you have them… my gift ideas for the mobile photographer. This is the first time I’ve done a post like this, so let me know if you liked it and thought it was useful. I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled Kat programming later this week! See you then.

Note: In the interest of full disclosure, all links to Amazon.com in this post are affiliate links. If you buy from Amazon, I’d love to get a little credit, but I really don’t care if or where you buy any of these items. 🙂

November 14, 2013 by Kat

Leaf Dance (A Mobile Tutorial)

I was standing on the front lawn, waiting for a friend to pick me up. Rather than wait in the house, I decided to take the few minutes I had to capture the fading leaves of the trees along my street. It was windy and partly cloudy, the sun dancing in and out of the clouds and the leaves dancing in the breeze. Stalking the trees for a few graceful branches against an open sky, I finally found the right scene.

This edit, Leaf Dance, feels nostalgic to me. Vintage memories of autumn, from a year that already seems long gone. Capturing the leaves in transition is already poignant, but vintage processing can make it even more so. I thought I would share this edit as a mobile tutorial, so you can see the challenges and phases an image goes through along the way. I usually can’t see where it will end up. I just have an idea of the next step I should take at each phase.

Lets’s start with the original image. I really liked these reaching branches, but was impossible to get them with a blank sky. The trees of the neighborhood were too close. So I endeavored to frame the branches against the clouds with some space between any other trees. Did I mention it was windy? I probably have 10 shots of the same scene because the branches were moving around. This was the best one.

The next step was to remove the distractions of the other neighborhood trees. If there is a gap between the distraction and subject of interest, it is much easier to accomplish. I used the Retouch feature of Handy Photo to remove the trees, crop in closer, and the remove a few of the branches in the background. Here’s the next phase:

Because of the lighting, the leaves and branches look like a silhouette but I want to pull out more detail. In Snapseed, I start with a global adjustment for brightness, but that didn’t do quite enough for the leaves, so I add a selective adjust to increase the brightness only on the leaves. By doing this, I pull out the details in the leaves, both color and texture, but don’t adjust the sky any further. I want the clouds as is. It looks very odd at this point, my eye can tell it’s wrong, but since I know it’s a transition step I don’t worry about it. Things sometimes have to look worse before they look better.

Next step is through Snapseed’s Grunge filter. I dialed the texture way back and scrolled through the options to see what colors felt right for the image. Purpleish-pink! I also played with the center spot and adjusted the location and radius to make sure the focal point of the image was clear, while the less important corners were darkened and fogged.

Time for some texture! I pulled the image into Pic Grunger to see what I could do. This app can overwhelm images with its default settings, but if you play with dialing it back a bit you can often find a great aged texture effect.

It is almost there. I’d like to pull the focus more tightly in on the branch, minimizing the pull if the brighter sky in the upper left. I pull the image into XnView FX and play with some of my favorite textures. These textures often give just the subtle effect I’m looking for, and this time was no exception. It darkened much of the sky but left the brightness where I wanted it – under the branch. This provides great contrast to pull your eye right to the intended area of focus.

Both the color and processing of the final image leaves me with a romantic, vintage feel. Exactly what I was looking for! Unlike most of my mobile tutorials, there was no blending in this edit. It’s just an image, a couple of apps and the willingness to imagine and experiment. That’s all you need to create mobile art!

November 12, 2013 by Kat

Repeating Myself

I’m on a roll these days. A roll creating imagery filled with delicate branches and fading leaves. It’s my own personal quest… Can I create just one more? Can I convey the grace and beauty of this transitory time? Can I create another piece that touches my soul? Maybe touches another’s?

What do you think?

Sometimes the thought pops into my head, I shouldn’t share yet another image like this. People will get bored. I remember feeling that last year with my bare trees too. But out of that came a body of work, Treescapes. Out of that came a more cohesive vision than I’ve had before in my photography.

So… maybe a fascination with something is really needed to develop vision. The desire to try to create just one more piece with a specific subject, a specific technique, a specific feeling isn’t so wrong.

I only need to look to the great masters, painters like Picasso and Van Gogh, to see they repeated themselves. They would often paint and repaint the same subject and scene, varying things slightly to see what happened. Why do I feel I shouldn’t do the same?

Maybe I’ll reframe it… I’m not repeating myself, I’m exploring the theme. I’m seeing how far I can take it. And when I get bored with it, I’ll move on. Until then, there are still branches with leaves to capture, for a little while yet. Then there are branches without leaves, too. Oh yes, I’ve noticed them. Their time will come.

What about you? Do you worry about repeating yourself, or do you follow your fancy even if it leads to the same place every time? Where do you think this idea that we must create something “novel” every time comes from?

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