The Kat Eye View of the World - Kat Eye Studio

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?

November 7, 2013 by Kat

Photographer by Choice

How many of us have heard the phrase uttered one place or another: Photography is not art. I have, many times in the past. Surprisingly, most often from others who consider themselves artists.

Or if it’s not explicitly stated, the non-art of photography is implied in some way. Even by the photographers themselves: I can’t draw a straight line, but I can photograph. As if photography is the also-ran art form, what you turn to when you have otherwise no artistic talent. I can imagine an ad: Don’t worry if you can’t paint or draw, you can be a photographer!

Those of us who practice photography know these statements are not true. Photography is art and photographers are artists. I’m not going to belabor or try to prove the point here. Whether you believe it or you don’t, that’s your concern.

But what I want to point out is that being a photographer, being an artist who practices photography, is a choice. It’s a first choice.

It’s not a runner-up choice. It’s not what you do if you can’t paint or draw. It’s not what you do because it’s easier, or cleaner, or cheaper, or more accessible than your first choice art form.

Photography is what you do when you can help but see the details of the world. It’s what you do when the beauty of the lines around you takes your breath away. It’s what you do when you realize that you can frame things, things that everyone else might walk by everyday, and express yourself through them.

A photographer is an artist who can’t help but speak through the visual language of the lens. We are compelled to see and share the world this way. Those of us who have a deep heart and soul connection to the medium know this. There is no need to prove or justify it to anyone else.

I am a photographer by choice. It’s a choice I make, every day, as I continue to pick up my camera and seek to express myself. It’s a choice I make, as I continue to learn and grow my artistic vision.

But there are moments….

Moments I wonder if I don’t have it the wrong way around.

Moments when the need to create and communicate through a photograph is so powerful, I ask myself…

Did photography choose me?

November 5, 2013 by Kat

Out of the Blue

Do you ever come out on the other side of a funk, not really recognizing you were in the midst of it until it clears? You don’t even notice you were feeling blue until suddenly, one day, you feel as if you can breathe easier, your outlook is happier, you have a smile on your face again? Yeah, that’s just happened to me. I’ve come out of the “blue” in the last week and I’m looking back at the last few weeks saying, Wow, how did I miss that?

I’ve been in the “Finishing” mode of the creative spiral, which always leads to tension and stress, and that’s part of it. I haven’t talked about the Spiral of Creativity in a long, long time but I often personally reference it to find my bearing in the sometimes-tumultuous sea of creativity. Once I figure out what part of the spiral I’m in, I can often relax and say, “Oh yeah, I know this part. That’s why I’m feeling this way. Keep moving on.” Each part of the spiral has different challenges and feelings attached to it, and moving from one to the other is not always easy.

With Fall Festival and Philomath Open Studios I’ve been in “Finishing” mode for quite a long while. But the things I’ve been finishing have been different than previous projects and I didn’t recognize it as such. Along with the finishing of the photographic work – finalizing my Treescapes body of work, working on presentation, preparing for the events – I’ve also been transitioning how I interact with the world and my art. It’s been a slow transition from online-only in 2010 and 2011, to more and more in-person today. So that’s all part of it.

There is also the part of transition which is what I’m creating and for whom. My images have always been for me, so that has not changed, but there is significant amount of my creative energy that’s been applied to helping others too. Between writing ongoing series for my blog, creating and teaching classes, I’ve invested a lot of energy in the education of others. Which I love. I absolutely love.

But…

This year I’ve also realized that I’ve given a bit too much of myself. My time, over the last two years, has become more focused outward in the realm of educating others and less inward on what I personally need to do to grow and stay healthy – physically, mentally, artistically. So earlier this year I began to pare back. First, I put Exploring with a Camera on hiatus and restructured my newsletter. Next, I took the summer off of online classes and reduced my blog frequency. Finally, I decided to reduce the online classes to 2 or 3 per year and make my interaction more sustainable. And through it all I’ve felt guilt, because I feel like I have so much to share, I should be doing more. Others are asking for more. And I’ve felt loss, because if I’m not doing this, what the heck am I doing here at Kat Eye Studio? Where am I going?

And that’s the true source of the blue… I knew I needed to make some shifts, but didn’t have a clear idea of where I wanted to go in the grand scheme of my art and my business. While I was in the “Finishing” phase of the spiral on exhibition projects, and in the “Practicing” phase with creating my art, I was in the “Processing” phase on the bigger picture. With everyone else going on, I didn’t even recognize that this processing and developing a new plan was in progress, until things started to come together within the last week.

The funny thing is, the direction doesn’t really change much from what I already had in the works. It’s just that I’m clear on it now. And being clear, I can finally share it with you all. Here’s what’s in the works for the next six months to a year:

Photo-Heart Connection will continue, and I’d like to expand it to reach more people. I have found this practice to bring so much to me personally, I would really love to see greater participation. I have some ideas about how to do that, but I’d love to hear any ideas you might have too. How can I get it out there?
Smartphone Art will be an eCourse in 2014. Right now I’m thinking that it will be in April-May, which gives me enough time to put it all together. In the meantime, reference my Mobile Resources page to keep you going.
Mobile Tutorials will probably continue at least once a month. I think these will be even more useful once folks have taken the Smartphone Art eCourse, because there will be more background instruction on the “how to” of the apps included in the eCourse.
Liberate Your Art will be early in 2014, finishing up BEFORE Spring Break this year so I can leave on vacation with my family with a clean slate. I already can’t wait for the fourth year of this swap!
As for my other eCourses, I will play it by ear what I will offer as Instructor-Led beyond Smartphone Art in 2014. The Find Your Eye series will be available in the next month as On Demand, and then all of my eCourses will all be available at any time. I truly believe this material is just as useful and valuable when learned on your own as with a group. You don’t always need a group for artistic growth. If you have ideas of places I can advertise or better get the word out on these available On-Demand eCourses, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Marketing and advertising is my least favorite thing to do.
And the biggie, for my personal art, is that I’m going to work toward participating in juried art fairs. This has probably been the area of the most underlying angst for me: Beyond this blog and online sharing, how do I want to get my art out into the greater world? It’s been an open question for a while. I used to think that I just wanted to create for myself and teach, but not sell my work. I have learned though — there is something to be said for actually putting my work out there. It needs to be part of my artistic journey. But… Did I want an online shop? Did I want to pursue the gallery/exhibition route? Did I want to do art fairs? I’ve started and stopped down the path of all three now, because I just wasn’t sure. Participating in Philomath Open Studios the last couple of weekends really sealed the deal for me. I want to share my work, in person, with the people who will buy it. I want to create it with my hands, and have the people take it from my hands and have it in their home. So that’s what I’m going to try next, and we’ll see where it leads.

All of my stepping back from online this past year has made space for something new to come in. In the back of my mind, I knew it would, but I didn’t recognize how. I also hadn’t quite figured out what I wanted to continue to do online.

November 1, 2013 by Kat

Photo-Heart Connection: October

There is beauty in autumn. And no, this time I don’t mean the vivid colors that some trees and plants use to herald their demise. I mean the quiet beauty of transition.

The beauty of a graceful exit.

I love the lines of the bare trees of winter, that is no secret. But as this fall has progressed, I’ve enjoyed the emerging lines which are accentuated with the receding leaves. Some leaves go out in a blaze of glory, falling from the tree en mass in their bright colors, still flexible and pliant until days on the ground. One day the tree is full, the next it is bare. It’s startling. But other leaves age in place, slowly and quietly making their transition, losing a bit of themselves here and there with a whisper until one day they are all gone.

It’s these leaves I’m noticing. They speak to me of tenacity. Of a will to continue, even with the inevitability of the end. And wow, aren’t they beautiful? In their demise, they are so graceful. They accentuate the beauty of the bare tree beneath, rather than covering it, as the summer leaves do. It’s almost as if this is their finest hour, their greatest contribution. This is when the tree and leaf are truly one. They tell me that a tree is not either/or, bare or full, it’s both. I can see both seasons, appreciate both, together in this brief moment. These leaves chastise me in my wishing for one or the other; in my desire to hurry or slow time. They remind me there is only this moment. Can I not see?

This time, as any other, I look to the trees for lessons. This season’s lesson for me: How to appreciate the transition. Regardless of what is coming, it can be approached and experienced in the moment, with grace.

“Graceful” is a word that keeps coming to me, over and over, to describe the lines that I want to capture in my photographs. The way I want to live my life. Lately, I see grace all the time in the lines around me, whether it’s in the trees or the sand or extension of a human hand. This month it’s been especially clear to me in the transition of the seasons, as my Photo-Heart Connection expresses. It seems so dramatic to say this, but I ache for the beauty of it all. I do. I am deeply touched by the grace I see in the face of inevitability. I want to have that kind of stoic strength in my approach to the transitions of life. I observe it, I photograph it, and I know I fall short. But I keep going, hanging on, working toward that kind of being. I wonder: Do you have to first see, before you can be?

What is your Photo-Heart Connection this month? Do you see deep longings or light playfulness in your photographs? Your heart is telling you something. Explore the message. Share it with us here.

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