Kat Eye Studio

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Which way is up?

The trees know. The trees always know. It doesn’t matter how steep the slope, trees always know which way is up.

A new one for my Town Trees series, this one captures the hills of San Francisco along with the tree. There are lots of great trees lining the streets in San Francisco, but it’s hard to capture one without cars! I actually tried to eliminate the cars in this image, but realized that the cars add to it. It’s San Francisco through and through: the cars parked on a steep street along with the cable car lines. All I needed was a bay window in the building, but you can’t have everything, can you?

The March Photo-Heart Connection is still open and going strong! There are so many wonderful connections this month. It’s interesting to see the topics evolve as the year progresses. Earlier months had a very introspective feel, and as spring has blossomed there is a lightness and joy that is coming through in the heart connections. We are all connected to the cycle of life around us.

You can link in through tomorrow. I hope you will join us!

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Year Eleven

In this moment, eleven years ago, I was in labor with my son. I don’t remember much of that day, just flashes of images and feelings. I do remember it was a Thursday, like this year, because I remember watching Survivor in the evening while waiting to go in for a C-section after 21 or so hours of labor that didn’t progress. Isn’t it funny, that’s what I remember clearly? That’s about all you’ll get from me about the whole experience. While the birth experience seemed a big deal at the time, since then I’ve discovered it’s irrelevant in the whole. It’s the life experience that really matters for a child.

So here he is, eleven years old today. At times self-assured and confident in who he is, at times unsure and finding his way. On the verge of those teenage years, I see the mix of teen and child in him almost every day.

Brandon on the mosaic steps in San Francisco

He wants his independence but he still wants the comfort of his parents. He still asks me to snuggle before bed, enjoying the quiet time together. He will still grab our hand to hold when he’s not thinking about it. We don’t say anything when that happens, we just quietly enjoy it because sooner or later he will realize that he’s holding our hand and snatch it away. In his mind, he’s too old for that.

I see glimpses of who he is at his heart, and where he may struggle in life. There are some ways he is so similar to me or my husband, and we know how these traits have affected us. We know what we’ve had to overcome. How it affects him remains to be seen, I must remember. He is his own person.

Off on his own, reading while his parents enjoy the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

As I do every year on this day, I pause for a moment to reflect on what it means to be a parent. Parenting continues to be the most challenging and personal job I’ve experienced. It’s funny how it’s just assumed you will grow up, get married and have kids. As if it’s the easy path because most everyone does it. But it seems to me, being responsible for the growth of a young soul as a parent is possibly the most challenging path of all.

I want to do a good job, for my son. He deserves it.

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Abundance

Everywhere you look in Chinatown, the space is filled. There is little open space. Signs fill the streets, people fill the sidewalks, goods fill the shop windows and cram the shelves.

In some ways, it seems there is this amazing sense of abundance. There is so much of everything. I tried to capture it with my camera, filling the frame so that there was no beginning or end.

But in the end, the abundance rings hollow. It is not true abundance, the kind that fills your heart with lasting joy. It is only a lot of stuff, adding a momentary blip of gratification and then quickly forgotten.

Perhaps that’s why I like photographing places so much. I can create a memory of my experience in a place, with no “stuff” attached to fill my space. My photographs bring me lasting joy with a never-ending supply of new images to create. That’s true abundance.

My new class, A Sense of Place, starts this Sunday, April 8. Tomorrow is the last day to register. Visit here to learn more about the class and registration. I’d love to have you join me to discover your own Sense of Place.

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Crossing Cultures

Where to start on San Francisco? Without a doubt, my favorite part of the city was Chinatown. Wonderful alleys to wander, with infinite interesting details to frame.

The mixture of the common and the unusual was a delight. I loved the cross of the cultures to be found in Chinatown. Seeing the different languages made me feel as if I were traveling abroad, and I found myself surprised when I would enter a store or a restaurant and someone would speak to me in English. In the two years I lived in Italy, I developed some deep-rooted associations between traveling outside my culture and language: If it’s not my culture, they won’t speak my language. It was interesting to see this assumption tested so obviously in a US environment.

The sights, the sounds, the details, and the textures of Chinatown made it my kind of place. We found ourselves wandering here, for at least a little while, on most days of our trip. I just wanted to drink it all in with my camera.

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I Left My Heart

In San Francisco! We just got back from a wonderful Spring Break trip, exploring the beautiful and lively City by the Bay. It was so good to be back in a big, diverse city with all of the great energy that comes along with the hustle and bustle. We stayed near Fisherman’s Wharf and didn’t drive the car for a week, it was fabulous.

I’ll have lots of new things to show you over the next few days as I get settled in back home. San Francisco has so much to do and see! Scooter sightings and markets and textures and visits with friends, I was in my photographic element. Heaven.

But now I’m back and it’s time to visit those March Photo-Heart Connections. I can’t wait to see what’s connecting with you all this month!

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Photo-Heart Connection: March

I closed my eyes and asked: What does my heart have to say to me today?

My heart chose this photo.

A note found amongst the back alley texture and grunge. I was here, someone whispered through the handprints on the wall, Do you see me?

Yes, I answer, I see you. I document the moment with my camera. Arranging the shapes and lines and acknowledging the mark that someone else left. Perhaps some see the marks as defacing private property, but today I see a call for acknowledgement. See me, the handprints say.

How much, do I pass through my day, without seeing? How many people do I walk by, without acknowledging? It is easy for me to get focused, and miss the world around me. Miss the people who pass me every day.

See me, they whisper. I will try harder, I promise.

As I look for the Photo-Heart Connection, I am finding the message my photographs unlock inside of me depends on the day. I wrote from the heart with this same photograph earlier in the month, and the message was completely different.

I’m realizing that the process I am following to find my Photo-Heart Connection is not about the photos at all. It’s about opening the door to my heart, maybe just a crack, and seeing what comes out. The photos are the means, the conduit, to an end: The message from my heart.

What do you find your heart has to say this month? Share your Photo-Heart Connections below. The link up will be open from April 1 through 7.