The Kat Eye View of the World - Kat Eye Studio

April 19, 2011 by Kat

Seeking Beauty, Finding Contrast

As I was photographing the flowers under the trees last weekend, I started to notice the graffiti on the park wall. My goal became to adequately capture the contrast in the scene, between the natural beauty and the man-made creativity. This is very nicely executed, artistic graffiti, but it doesn’t belong in this setting. That makes it all the more interesting to me.

I also couldn’t help notice the irony of the signature and the copyright symbol. Here we have an artist seeking legal protection for an illegal act. Another contrast, layered within, that made me think. Do you think artistic protection of an illegal form of art would hold up in a court of law? An interesting conversation, for sure.

I found this after the “waiting to click” shot I envisioned, of a bicyclist riding the path through the flowers, just didn’t work out. There were no bicyclists coming by at the time I was in the park. Actually, there were a couple of men who rode by on mountain bikes, but I was looking for a dressed-up Italian woman on a city bike. Never happened. I gave up on waiting to click and went seeking something else to shoot, when I found this image.

Has your “waiting to click” shot worked out? It’s not too late to link in to Exploring with a Camera: Waiting to Click. Today is the last day to link in, and tomorrow I’ll share some new images from the Flickr pool.

Remember: If you don’t find the shot you are waiting for, that’s ok too. I’m sure you’ll find something else interesting to photograph. As this image reminds me, I always do. 🙂

April 18, 2011 by Kat

Looking Closer

A small reflection of the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) in Florence, reflected in a window of the Museum of the History of Science. At first glance, you might only see the window, the buildings and the river. You have to look closer to see the reflection of the bridge.

I haven’t shown you many pictures of our weekend in Florence, I’ve suddenly and completely been distracted by the flowers in the park. I must admit, I’m distracted by not only flowers, but a lot of other projects such as getting my newsletter launched, prepping for my next series of Find Your Eye courses, and putting the finishing touches on the Liberate Your Art postcard swap so I can announce the details. I can’t forget the time I spend on other things going on in my life, like planning out our move back to the US (plane reservations are made, final apartment walkthrough scheduled), and visiting Greece next week. Oh yeah, and the occasional soccer game with my son or with my nose buried in a book.

Sometimes I wonder where my “free” time goes, but then I look at the list – just a partial list – and I know. My time goes into things I love to do. The results of those things are not always as immediate and visible as promptly edited photos showing up on the blog, but they are real just the same. So while I don’t have a lot of photos from Florence to show you, I’m reminded today that sometimes I need to look beyond the visible and obvious marks of accomplishment. Sometimes I need to look a bit closer, maybe change my angle and see my time in reflection this way, to find that sense of achievement I seem to crave. And take a deep breath, because then it seems like a lot more than I thought at first glance.

How about you, do you like to be able to call something done, to check things off of the list? How do you personally count something as an accomplishment if it’s not clearly visible?

April 16, 2011 by Kat

Time to Blossom

Have a great weekend!

This image will be available as a download in my next newsletter. Come visit the blog to sign up if you haven’t already!

April 15, 2011 by Kat

Flowers Marking Time (Two Years in Italy)

April brings these lovely flowers to Parco di Monza. They carpet the forest under the trees, and never cease to make me smile. I watch the shoots as they start to push up through last year’s fallen leaves, growing tall and strong. Then the flower stems appear, the buds hinting at what is to come and suddenly, one day, they are all bursting open like fireworks, celebrating spring.

These flowers are a marker of time for me. Two years ago today, I arrived in Italy to start my assignment, and as I took possession of our apartment that first week these flowers were in bloom under the trees. I would drive by the park in those early days, see them and smile. I had the desire to walk under the trees and to capture the beauty of the flowers with my camera, but life was a blur of craziness at the time. Just figuring out where to find items in a grocery store was a major, energy-draining event.

One year ago, as the flowers started to bloom, I was able to capture their beauty. This time last year was an amazing time for me, having made it through that first year and settled comfortably into daily life, I was really moving on my creative journey. I was able to see the world with fresh eyes, to approach my photography with an unrepressed joy. I was discovering and uncovering the creative self, the artist, that had been lurking inside of me all along. The burst of creativity I felt in capturing the images of these flowers last year resulted in the first ever Exploring with a Camera post, From a Flower’s Point of View. You may recognize these flowers in the Exploring with a Camera button and page, they are the symbol of what “exploring” really means to me: coming to the world around us with wide open arms and hearts, and finding absolute joy in what is discovered there.

This week, I went into the park with my camera once again. I wanted to capture the beauty of these flowers, but I wondered how I could possibly top last year. The excitement and joy of that outing, and the love of those images, still stays with me a year later. But as always, my art reveals things about me I wasn’t expecting. With the passing of a year, I have changed and grown. I see differently. While I may have started my outing with the leftover vision of last year’s exploration, what I saw in the flowers this year was new and revealing.

This year, I noticed the shadows.

I discovered the beauty of the flowers, revealed in new way.

I saw the leaves as the canvas upon which light painted flowers.

I completely and utterly lost track of time, I was so engrossed in my exploration of light and shadow. I immersed myself in the rediscovery of these flowers, and along the way, had the sad realization that this is my last year of seeing them bloom. Two years in Italy are gone, a little over two months left. I shed a tear or two, there amongst the flowers, holding my camera.

How can I not be wistful, as I contemplate leaving a place that’s given me so much? I know it’s not Italy itself that has changed me, it has been my response and willingness to take every experience that comes my way, living life to the fullest and seeking growth. As I photographed the shadows of these flowers I realized: Italy is the canvas upon which life has painted me. It is here I learned to look closer, and I discovered myself in the light and shadow.

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