Kat Eye Studio

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Bye, Bye Blogger

Exit of a Chicago el train station

Come Monday, The Kat Eye View of the World will have a new home! It’s time to move the blog and everything else located here to a new location, integrated into my new website: www.kateyestudio.com. Over the weekend I’ll be doing all of the final work to launch the new site and the blog in its new location on Monday. I’m so excited to share it with you all!!

If I do everything correctly with the changes and redirects, this should be fairly transparent to everyone. Not being a full-time web person however, there are likely to be a couple of bumps along the way. You can’t make a change as big as this one without going through some growing pains. I hope you’ll stick with me as I learn the ropes and settle in.

I thought I might be a bit sad, leaving this cozy little place on Blogger that I created over time. But since the words and images go with me, and the new site fits so much better (room to breathe!), the sadness hasn’t materialized. I just feel excitement and a smidge of nervousness for the transition, hoping it all goes ok.

Time to head out! See you on the other side.

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Exploring Texture

Does this image have texture? I think so. Maybe on a larger scale than we normally think of texture, but it is on the surface and brings more interest to the painting of the coffee cup painted on the side of this Florence, Oregon building.

We have finished up the first with of Exploring with a Camera: Found Texture, and as usual, you all have shown how much wonderful texture there is to capture with our cameras. We still have another week with this wonderful topic! Keep looking for texture, and link in below.

Take a few moments to look at the links others have shared, see what types of textures appeal to you. Look at how light and color all work together, when photographing texture. There is so much to learn, when we open our eyes to see. Thanks for joining me!

(And don’t forget, there is a giveaway this time. You enter to win the postcards by linking in!)

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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At the Threshold of Balance

It’s no secret that over the last two weeks, since returning home from Chicago, I’ve been thinking about balance. I started out by diving into a plan of how to achieve it, but realized that there is a bigger question that has to be answered: What does balance mean to me anyway? I can’t develop a plan for balance if I don’t have a target of what balance looks like for my life.

For me, balance does not mean focusing on any one thing to the exclusion of others. My life is a dance, moving from side to side of the dance floor. Each side has something different to offer, something different it needs. It encompasses so much more than one “thing.” I don’t think there is one word that can capture all of this: Photographer/Teacher/Writer/Engineer/Mother/Wife/Friend. There is no all or nothing.

In my photography, balance starts with deciding what is in and out of the frame before I take the picture. But it doesn’t stop there, it continues as I play around with different compositions and views. I need to remember I’m doing the same in life – experimenting and playing with the elements that make up my life to create a balanced whole. There is no realistic expectation that says we will get it all right and perfect on the first try.  There is no realistic expectation that we will get it all right and perfect, ever. Maybe perfection happens for a brief moment in time, but life is subject to change.

I’m at the threshold of balance right now. Deciding what is in and out of the frame of life. From there I’ll experiment with the details and see how to make things fit in a balanced way. It feels much simpler and freer to think of it as an experiment, where I’m testing to see the outcome, than as a commitment where I “fail” if I don’t get it right.

What does balance mean to you? How do you manage this ever-changing process of achieving balance in your life?

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Chicago & Me

Chicago & Me
We danced a little dance
of lines and curves.
Looking up, up up,
I forgot to look down,
and saw inside instead.
Saw that life
is play
and art
and travel
and friends.
Life is joy
in the moment,
seized.
A camera,
an orange umbrella
are all I need
to be happy.
City of lines and curves,
of light reflected back,
I see Me.
Forgive the random poetry, I’m reading a book of poetry right now and was inspired by the snippets of ideas strung together. These photos were taken at the Cloud Gate sculpture, aka “The Bean,” in Millenium park in Chicago. It was quite empty as I walked past on my way to the Art Institute, and I couldn’t resist a few self portraits with my orange umbrella. The moment just made me happy.

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Paint the Music

Can you imagine a world without music? I can’t. As much as I love the visual arts, I love music too. What a fun combination of music + painting I found a couple of months ago, in a window in downtown Corvallis. Bringing colors and sounds together, in one place. I had fun composing this shot with all of the bits and pieces of violins visible.

Music is on my mind today, because we saw Matt Nathanson in concert last night in Portland. Hearing great music live is a favorite thing of mine. Whether a symphony orchestra at La Scala in Milan or Matt in the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, there is a different experience of hearing music live. You feel it in deep in your body, you can’t help but move. And when the whole audience loves the music and is singing along? Wow, what an energy! Music is another soul language, it short cuts the brain and connects right to your soul.

Matt is a great musician, and a fantastic entertainer. His live shows do not disappoint. This was Brandon’s first concert (that he was awake for – he slept through a Matchbox 20 concert a number of years ago), and he was so excited. As we headed home, he said his favorite song, Faster, was even “catchier” live. I think he’s got my live music bug. Maybe some will consider us irresponsible parents for taking a 10 year old to a concert on a school night, but I can’t help but believe that learning to love music is an important part of his life education too.

We had another great side benefit, being introduced to Scars on 45, the opening band. They are from England and are definitely worth a listen. I’ll leave you with a song from them today.

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Back to Bologna

Yesterday as I was writing yesterday’s Exploring with a Camera: Found Texture post I rediscovered an image for my market/wheels series. Taken over a year ago, this street scene in Bologna captured my interest for the texture, the scooter and the bustling street market. It was taken before I “discovered” my market/wheels series early last year. How many more images for this series do I have, hidden in my archives? I hope to find out.

As part of my goal to seek balance, I want to go back and sort through the thousands of images from my time in Italy. Seek a balance of working with the old and the new. Some of these images have been reviewed, edited and shared, but many, many more have not. I know I will learn more and see more with this review, both about myself and my photography. And hey, I can learn how to categorize and edit even more in Lightroom too, at the same time. Perfect.

I hope you all have a great weekend planned! I’ll be working on my website, getting it ready to launch very shortly. I would love to have you to visit me in a few places, while I’m busy working…
– Musing on “home” at Mortal Muses, with a story of quilts, handmade with love.
– An interview on the Seek Your Course blog with me.
– Today I am the “Sparkling Sponsor” for the World’s Biggest Summit. Yay! Welcome to all coming by! You can still sign up and join in this great, free class.