Kat Eye Studio

by

Meet Me in London

I’m coming to London at the end of the month, want to meet up with me? My fellow Mortal Muse Kirstin and I have planned a photowalk and we would love for you to come and join us! Meet us at 10:30am on Sunday 30-January at the Greenwich train station. We’ll be the ones holding the cameras and laughing.

If you need details on the meeting place, you can contact Kirstin: kirstin [at] pobox.com. For other general questions, drop me a note: kat [at] kateyeview.com.

I can’t wait! I would love to meet some of you who’ve I’ve gotten to know online, and meet some new people too. There is something really wonderful about meeting our online friends in person. It’s a fabulous to make a face-to-face connection along with the digital. Even if you’re not a photographer, come and hang out with us. I hope to see you there!

by

Visual Music

I am so happy to get reacquainted with this stairway today. This lovely spot is in Cascais, Portugal, a little coast town that is a 30 minute train ride from Lisbon. This stairway takes you from the sea up to the town. I loved the texture of the peeling paint and the exposure to the sea air. Looking at this photo today, I am reminded of music. A treble clef to start the line, and notes ascending. A beautiful melody of line and color and texture to see and hear. In my mind, the percussion of the sea is in the background, to support and tie it all together.

I have been thinking of the creative process this morning, as I am reading The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. My creative process is a combination of regular practice, along with some little rituals. When I work at the computer, either writing or with photos, I love to have my cup of tea. That signals my brain, “It’s time to create.” When I’m writing or have something I need to really focus on, I also turn on classical music. I love classical music, but I save it for my personal creative time. The cup of tea and the music help me move quickly into a state of flow. It’s amazing what happens from there.

Do you have any rituals that help you get into the creative zone? What is your creative process?

by

A Store for Joy

New Year’s Day has got to be one of the most quiet days in any European city. Here is a shopping district in Madrid, midday on the first of January. Wow. Great for my street photography, since I like these empty places, but a bit surreal. The only people we saw wandering around the city on this day were other tourists.

This sign caught my eye – notice it says “Joyeria.” In Italy, many store descriptions end in “-eria.” Gelateria, pizzeria, cartoleria to name a few. I know that “joyeria” in this case means jewelry store (gioielleria in Italian), but I loved the idea of a store for joy. If you’re a little short on joy, having a bad day, you can stop in and get a boost. Maybe find the perfect gift for a friend going through a rough patch. Kind of a fun idea, don’t you think? What would your Joyeria have for sale?

Today I also want to give a quick shout out for the Creative Every Day 2011 Challenge. This is a low pressure, open ended challenge for any type of art and creativity. There are monthly themes, but they are totally optional. I love the idea behind it – it’s not about having some BIG CREATIVE GOAL, it’s about just being creative every day in some way. For me, that could be taking a photo, or writing a blog post, or reviewing old photos. There is a link up every Monday and you will find artists of all kinds participating – writers, photographers, painters, paper crafters, poets, musicians. I have found many interesting blogs and people through participating last year, and am continuing this year. I thought you all might find it interesting too.

by

A Room with a View

Our hotel in Madrid was in a wonderful location, right on Gran Via and a block from the Callao subway stop. Not only was the location great, but we had a wonderful view. We were right on the corner of the building with a wraparound balcony. How cool is that? I loved being able to capture this bustling street at night, from above. Car lights, holiday lights, store lights. Night is when this town comes alive. The streets are crowded, the stores are open late, and the restaurants are hopping. Restaurants don’t even open until 8:30pm for dinner. And we thought things started late in Italy!

Staying up late is not my normal mode of operation, although I’ve stretched from turning into a pumpkin at 10pm to around midnight since we’ve moved to Italy. My work schedule, and the culture, required a shift. It’s been good for me, seeing more of the world at night. I would have completely missed out on the energy and light at night without this experience. I’m so grateful!

by

A Scene from the City

A scene from Madrid, shot from the top of a City Sightseeing bus. We like riding these sightseeing busses, we get a little bit of history with the audio commentary and see parts of the city we wouldn’t otherwise see on foot. We aren’t stuck on them all day, since we can get off and on anytime we want. They are the best when the weather is nice and you can sit on the open top for a really good view. We first rode one at Brandon’s request but now we all agree on riding them when time is available and the weather cooperates.

Even though these busses are fun, but they make taking photographs challenging. With the movement and angle and obstructions of people and bars and whatever is on the street, I rarely get a good photo. But today, I found a good one. There are so many things I like about today’s photograph – the clear focus on the sign and the woman coming out of the metro compared to the out of focus crowd. The odd angle and blurring show spontaneity and motion. There are also many elements of place in this photo – the clearly readable metro sign, the streetlight, taxi sign, and crowd at the crosswalk. Add in the graffiti, buildings and sidewalk in the background. They all scream “city.” And not just any city, but big city, European city and probably even Spanish city if you recognize the language.

Do you get all of that from the photograph too? Or am I just adding the context I have in my head? I’d be interested to know what this photograph says to you.

by

Exploring with a Camera: Linear Perspective

I am so excited to share a new Exploring with a Camera today! The topic of Linear Perspective has been rolling around in my head since December for a new exploration, and I’m happy to let it free this morning.

Perspective is such a cool compositional concept! It takes advantage of how we see, the optical effects of lines over a distance. I remember learning the concept of perspective way back in my early art classes: Lines, when viewed across a distance, will converge to a vanishing point. Below is an example, from the Barcelona subway. If you were to continue all of the light lines in this photo, they would all meet somewhere at the edge of the tunnel. The perspective of the converging lines brings your eye right through the photo toward the vanishing point in this case.

When drawing, you need to make sure that your lines converge correctly or the drawing will look odd to the eye. In photography, we don’t have to worry about “making” the lines converge – they do that already – we can just take advantage of the effect. I’ll give you a few examples and variations on how to use linear perspective in your photographs.

Distance


To use perspective bring a sense of depth, include a long distance in the photograph so that the lines can converge more dramatically. This often means using a wide angle (smaller focal length, i.e. 24mm) instead of a zoom (longer focal length, i.e. 100mm), so that you capture the length of the diminishing lines. In the photo below from the Italian Alps, the diminishing lines of the fence give a sense of dramatic depth even though my depth of field (how much is in focus) is actually quite shallow. If I were zoomed in on the fence without the long lines moving into the distance, the photo would have a completely different feel.

Orientation


The orientation of your photograph, horizontal (landscape) versus vertical (portrait), will change how perspective effects the image. In the two examples below from Parco di Monza, note how the horizontal image emphasize the lines of the path while the vertical image emphasizes the height of the trees. Both use the diminishing perspective of the path and the trees, but in different ways. Placing a figure just about in the vanishing point makes for an interesting place for your eye to rest as it moves through the photo.

Composition


You can use linear perspective in so many different ways to get good composition – this is the really fun part! You can move the vanishing point in a photo to get dramatically different effects. Look closely at the examples above and below to see how the diminishing lines are used compositionally.

The photo below is from the Royal Palace in Madrid. The composition is very symmetric, with the lines converging in the center between the left and right. It is not symmetric from top to bottom, however. The focal point of the end of the hall is around the bottom third of the photo.

Here is another photo, this time from Amsterdam, with a left to right symmetry of the linear perspective.

This image from Parco di Monza is interesting – the perspective is symmetric left to right, but the leaf (the real subject) is not centered. The perspective here is not the focal point of the photo, it’s the backdrop for the leaf, but it certainly makes the photograph more interesting.

While a symmetric perspective can certainly bring a sense of peace and order to a photograph, linear perspective certainly doesn’t have to be used symmetrically. This image from the Berrardo museum in Lisbon, Portugal is more asymmetric in it’s lines.

Putting the vanishing point at the edge or corner of an image can make it very dynamic. I love the way all of the lines converge in the corner of this photo from Paris. The contrast of the repeating pattern of the fence provides an interesting counterpoint to the linear perspective. I’ve noticed in many of my photographs using perspective I also use repeating patterns, a topic I covered in an earlier Exploring with a Camera post.

You can also vary the point of view and effectively use converging lines. The lead in photograph of windows in Madrid or the skyscraper from Barcelona below are two examples of linear perspective looking up. The skyscraper below has an asymmetric composition while the Madrid window image at the top of the post is symmetric left to right. (I seem to like that composition!)

Isn’t this fun? Take a look at the world and your photos this next week with an eye toward linear perspective. You can come back next Thursday to link in and Share Your View. I can’t wait to see what you find!

If you would like a button to put on your blog to show your participation, you can find the code to copy and paste here. If you are participating in a 365 or 52 project, I hope you will also share Exploring with a Camera in these groups. A little creative inspiration can really help in a long haul project over the course of the year.

See you all soon!