Kat Eye Studio

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Fuel Your Creativity: New eCourse Open for Registration

It’s time for something new! Let’s ring in the New Year with a burst of creativity. From January 6 – 12, 2013, join me for Fuel Your Creativity, a one-week prompt class designed to get your creativity flowing.

We all love creating, don’t we? It’s fun and exciting, when things are flowing naturally. But they don’t always flow, do they. Creating does not always come easily. It takes fuel. The fuel for our creativity has two parts: raw material and energy. Every experience you’ve had, idea you’ve read, interaction you’ve experienced becomes raw material which helps fuel your creativity. In order to create, turn the raw material into something new, you need creative energy.

In this daily prompt class, you will focus on finding the fuel for your creativity, through awareness of your surroundings and awareness of yourself. Each day for seven days, you receive a simple exercise via email. Through the exercises you find raw materials in your everyday life and get your creative energy flowing.

Each day we’ll also come together in a discussion group, sharing our experiences and our creations, to further boost the fuel for your creativity. There is nothing like the group dynamic to enhance creativity, is there? This will be the only time this year I offer this course as an instructor-led group course, after this it will only be offered as individual self-study, so don’t miss out on this opportunity.

Doesn’t this sound like a fun way to start the New Year? Learn more and register here. I hope you’ll join me! I’m so excited to share this with you, I can’t wait to start the New Year this way.

If you’re a Kat Eye News subscriber, watch this Sunday’s newsletter for a special offer on this eCourse, just for you. And if you’re not a Kat Eye News subscriber, now is the time to sign up!

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The Power of the Portrait

There is power in a good portrait. When it’s done right, you can see into the soul of the sitter. You can see the beauty of who they are inside. It can change your perception of a person. It can change their perception of themselves. I was once again reminded of the power of the portrait at Saturday’s Help-Portrait event in Corvallis.

Saturday I was up early in the frosty morning with the other volunteers to set up for this year’s event. At 7am we met to haul all of the equipment up the steep flight of steps of the Corvallis Odd Fellows Hall: Photography gear, computers, printers, props, food and drinks. We turned the spacious hall into a temporary studio for three photographers, two hairstylists and hospitality space for the clients to wait. We had a separate room down the hall for the four of us who were doing graphic design, editing and printing the photos.

Over the course of the day, we served 139 people in 87 sittings. Each of them left with an 8×10 print and a CD of their images, to print more if they chose. They also left with a smile on their face after seeing the portraits printed on the page. We also printed one copy with the Help-Portrait logo, and asked that they share their story by writing on the portraits. You can see a few of the portraits pictured below.

This day could not have come off without the efforts of all of the volunteers, pictured below. This is a completely volunteer and self-funded event. While Help-Portrait is an international organization coordinating the day, purpose and marketing materials, they don’t provide funding for the individual events. Many thanks also go to the Corvallis Odd Fellows Hall for their donation of the space and the other sponsors of our day. The full list of sponsors is on Jones Oliver’s blog, here. Jones was our tireless leader, coordinating the event for the second year.

This is my second year participating and it was just as rewarding as the first. I can think of no better way to use my photography skills than to give back to the community like this.

Do you participate in Help-Portrait this year? How did your event go? If you didn’t participate this year but would like to know more for next year, visit the Help-Portrait website to find an event near you. Next year’s event will be December 7. Mark your calendar now!

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Affinity

Is it wrong to have a favorite tree? For some reason it feels a bit like saying you have a favorite child if you have more than one. Unfair to the other trees.

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But unfair or not, I do have an affinity for this tree. It’s just off the parking lot where I work and I’ve photographed it many times over the last couple of weeks. It has the most interesting branches, and a clear view behind it. I love those seed pod things (sorry, not a botanist) hanging in the top branches like a decoration. They seem a bit like tree jewelry to me. A little something extra that makes this tree unique.

So tell me: Do you have a favorite tree?

A quick reminder today… It’s the last day to link in to the Photo-Heart Connection for this month. I talked earlier this week about belonging, and if you are looking for connection and a place to belong, there could be no better place than with those participating in the Photo-Heart Connection. Such a lovely group of kindred spirits! I encourage you to visit and get to know them, if you haven’t already.

Have a lovely weekend!

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Winter Flowers

There has been an interesting development for me lately. After months of not participating in Paint Party Friday, suddenly it’s getting difficult to decide just what to share! Now that I am considering my digital artwork to be “paintings” I find that I am creating too many to share just one day a week. Before, with traditional painting, I was doing good to pick up the brush most weeks. I think I have finally found my painting medium.

I have discovered another thing, the ones I want to share for Paint Party Friday have become the ones where I’d like to share how I created the final piece. It must be the teacher in me, but I get questions on how I did something and I can’t help but want to share with you so you can try it too. So here I go… with this week’s painting: Winter Flowers.

Winter Flowers

The painting starts off, as always for me, with a photograph. This was captured with my iPhone5 using the Slow Shutter Cam app, which allows you to mimic a long shutter speed. You can get some cool blur effects this way. Be forewarned though: You will have to experiment and take a lot of images to get one or two usable ones, but it’s worth it!

This image has some of the softness I was going for, but I wanted to enhance it further. I pulled it into the Glaze app and tried different glazes. This was my favorite:

Do you see the subtle color shifts that happened, along with the painterly edges? It seemed to deepen the shadows and make for a more dimensional image. Very cool. I didn’t like the regular looking brushstrokes that happened along the petals though. Time to pull it into the Iris Photo Studio app, and blend it back with the original photo:

This adds a little bit more structure back into the lines and brightens things up, but it didn’t get rid of the regular looking brustrokes, so there was one more step. I opened the image in Pixlr Express PLUS and applied a texture. The great thing about this app, as opposed to the similar and simpler Pixlr-o-Matic from the same company, is that you can adjust the amount of the effect that is applied. So I toned down the texture a little bit to make it more subtle. Here’s the final image again:

Winter Flowers

I am really happy with how this one turned out! I am going to print it to see how it looks on paper. I hope you are enjoying these and starting to get some ideas for creating digital art this way. The possibilities are endless, and tons of fun!

Oh, and if you don’t have a smartphone to join in with all of this app fun, I’ve run into a couple of options online to play with editing your photos this way. Check out pixlr.com and psykopaint.com. Have fun!

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Finding the Time

It’s been one of those weeks. It’s Wednesday and I’m already tired. Lots of meetings in the evenings, lots of meetings in the mornings. Quite unusual for me. I like to keep my time free, so I’m not rushing around from place to place.

I’m discovering an interesting thing of late though: Even with my busy schedule, I find myself creating every day. More consistently than ever before. Almost every morning these days, you will find me stopping to take a photo or two. I’ve had to start leaving earlier to work, because who knows what I will find between my front door and the door of my workplace? A rainbow! A reflection in a puddle! A bare tree! Everything I see has so much possibility.

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Almost every evening, you will find me sitting down and playing with the new photos I’ve taken, even if only for a few minutes. I’m learning this new medium, exploring the possibilities. I have lots of experiments that no one will ever see. They are hideous. But that’s ok, because I’m also creating quite a few nice images that I love, too.

What’s changed for me? I’ve never been one for 365s or other time-based art projects, since I get too obsessive about meeting the goal and lose sight of the purpose. I know this about myself. Most of my creativity with photography has been in burst mode. All at once, capture a bunch of images, like when I travel. All at once, edit and play when I’m ready. It’s worked and I’ve loved that method of creating.

Somehow, with mobile photography, it’s becoming a daily practice, like my journaling and writing have been for a long time. Nothing I track obsessively to meet a goal, just something I do because I love to do it. Because I’m a happier, more grounded person when I do it.

With mobile photography, it’s always there, always available. It doesn’t take the forethought of bringing the “big” camera or hauling it out of the bag. It doesn’t take the time sitting at the computer to upload, edit, and share. I can do this all from a coffee shop or my comfy chair (even this blog post – from my iPad!). It feels like a daily practice should feel. Accessible. Natural.

I’m excited for this shift. Not only a new medium, but a new approach. A reminder that I can always change my methods as new possibilities come along. It doesn’t have to be painful or dramatic; it can be a natural, comfortable evolution.

It can be as simple as following my joy, and finding the time to create even when my calendar tells me I have none. It’s surprising what I can find when I want to.

Off to get ready for my morning meetings now… Have a great day!

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A Sense of Belonging

[F]itting in is one of the greatest barriers to belonging. Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be in order to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.
— Brené Brown in Daring Greatly

Are you trying to fit in anywhere? Have you noticed yourself shifting or adjusting, thinking, If I just do this, I’ll fit right in. I do it all the time. It seems to be my go-to thought process in any new situation. It’s like survival instinct, learned in junior high: Assess the situation and see what needs to happen to fit in.

In our world of always connecting and social media, it’s easy to want to fit in. I mean, it’s all right there in hard, cold numbers: Followers, Likes, Comments. It’s easy to get sucked into the vortex, using those numbers to feel accepted and valued. But if we drive ourselves for likes, comments, followers… are we trying to fit in or are we finding we belong? My thinking: Anytime we do something with the intent to get someone else’s approval, we are trying to fit in. When we do something for our own reasons, and then get some positive feedback and approval, we belong.

With joining Instagram I’ve gone through this full cycle all over again. A new platform, starting from zero. Hey, I’m a numbers girl. They attract me, and it’s easy to watch the numbers. The follower count. The number of likes. It’s easy to start to assess what gets the most likes and what doesn’t. To let that sway my creation.

But when I take a step back and ask: Do I create for others or do I create for me? The answer is always, unequivocally, for me. And when I do create for myself, and when I connect with people who like my work, it’s with a sense of belonging and not fitting in. Because I’ve put my real self out there, when I do find connection and acceptance, it’s much more meaningful. No more trying to fit in. Junior high is long over.

This lesson has come back to me so many times in the online world… From Facebook friends, to blog comments and hits, to followers on Twitter and Instagram. None of them matter. My worth is not wrapped up in a number. I have learned, over and over, that I would rather have 2 engaged and real connections than 20,000 likes. Maybe it’s not the smartest business or marketing thing to do, but it’s the only way I know to live with myself. It’s the only sustainable choice for me. And, at times, it’s scary as hell.

Brené Brown states it so very perfectly, this difference between fitting in and belonging. It makes me take a hard look and ask myself, “What am I trying to do?”

My answer is to sit up straighter, take a deep breath, and commit to being myself. Thanks for being here with me as I continually search and find the center of who I am through my creativity. I hope you feel that you belong here too.