Kat Eye Studio

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The Happiest Monday

And why is this the happiest Monday, you ask? Because I feel better! Woohoo! It’s amazing how happy you are for the little things, like getting up early on a Monday morning, when you’ve been feeling a bit under the weather. The four day weekend was just what I needed to recuperate.

You know how I could tell when I was on the mend? Creativity started flowing again. I sat down with my iPad this weekend and some photos I took with my brand new iPhone 5 last week and created a couple of new pieces of digital art. Well, more than a couple, but I’ll share my favorite two with you here.

Tree, Squared

I am still having so much fun with this whole mobile photography/digital art stuff! My excitement for getting the new iPhone last week was a bit damped by all of the coughing and sniffling going on at the time, but after playing with the images this weekend I am so happy to have this higher resolution tool for image capture. And of course, it’s just plain fun to enter the world of the smartphone, although I really wanted it mainly for the camera.

Reaching

I used my other favorite new tool, my printer, to print and hang a few of my recent creations in my hallway from the entry to the kitchen. You can see them there, in the center. (I found the square shadowbox frames at IKEA, if you were wondering.)

From capture to creation to wall, all in a couple of days! I love it. See, it’s a happy Monday!

PS – Don’t miss the giveaway of the Spark & Inspire eBook I have going on this week.

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Spark & Inspire: A Giveaway

Today I want to introduce you to a project I recently had the opportunity to participate in. Spark and Inspire: 30 Days of Meaningful Insight to Spark Your Business and Inspire Your Soul is an ebook, the brainchild of Robin Norgren. I first met Robin in Kelly Rae Robert’s first Flying Lessons course, back in 2010. It’s been fun to follow her progress since the class. She is a wonderfully upbeat person and full of amazing energy, so it’s no wonder she created this great project.

Robin had this idea of sharing the insight and inspiration of creative entrepreneurs with those who are just starting out. She interviewed 41 creative entrepreneurs (I’m one!) with different questions, and has compiled their answers into an ebook. And not just a book to read, but a book to help you think about the questions for yourself and your business. Each question has the answers of at least 8 of the artists, and then a page is provided for you to write your own answer to the question. Answer one question a day over 30 days, and you will have some amazing insights and the start of your own plans. For me personally, participating has been a great experience, because it brought clarity to me as I answered the questions and had to think about what I would share with others. I’ve learned a lot from reading the responses of the other entrepreneurs too.

If you’ve been thinking about starting a creative business, whether it’s selling your art or any other creative idea is stuck in your brain, this ebook might be a good resource for you. I know many of you have thoughts along these lines, because I get questions and comments from you here and there via email. Imagine having 41 artists experiences to draw from and 30 questions answered. Where else can you get this kind of access and insight? I can’t think of any other place.

And guess what? You can win a PDF copy of the book here this week! Just leave a comment below by the end of the day 30 November to be eligible for the drawing.

Within these pages you will find the voices of over 40 creative entrepreneurs who run their businesses both online and in brick and mortar stores, who run workshops and sell in shows, who have a range of experiences and have been in business from 1 year to more than 25 years and who offer you no nonsense information on their processes and how they have been able to keep moving in tough economic times and how they have found a way to let good ideas go when the money was not in line with the dream. We are talking on a range of topics from collaborations to big leaps that did (and did not) come together as planned. We are talking about how to get at the soul of your business and how to stay excited about the work you offer the world.

Details:

  • 237 pages sent to your inbox
  • Comprehensive insight from soulful creative entrepreneurs
  • 41 artists
  • 30 questions
  • Each question offers insight from AT LEAST 8 artists

Available in PDF Format here.
Available in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.com
(disclosure: affiliate links)

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Time for Contrast

I did a little bit of time travel last weekend. I went back in time in my photos to find some German pretzels for an exhibition submission (the theme is Taste and Flavor: Salty) and I ran into this gem of an image:

A perfect fit for Exploring with a Camera: Chiaroscuro! I love it when that happens. I had visions of creating some self-portraits with dramatic light for this week’s Exploring with a Camera post, but with being sick and having visitors that did not happen. Luckily this image came along and presented itself to me.

The original image was already a good example of strong light/dark contrast, but I edited it to increase the contrast. I also moved the clarity slider in Lightroom to the left instead of the right, to give it a softer feel. I think the result is a bit mysterious, making me travel back in time. Don’t you want to know the story of this pocket watch? If you like the look, I’ll be sharing this Lightroom Preset in the newsletter tomorrow.

Thanks to all of you who have been linking in! I love that you are getting out of your comfort zone and trying a new type of lighting in your images. Stop by and visit those who have been linking in, below. The images are gorgeous! The link up remains open through 30 November.

Also, stop by and visit me on the An Attitude of Gratitude blog today, where I’m talking about what photography means to me.



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The Best Laid Plans

I had plans last week. Plans to be creative and get started on some new projects. Early in the week I wrote my blog posts ahead, which I rarely do, so I could have extended time to write on Thursday and Friday morning. And then…

I got sick.

20121121-081525.jpg

Not horribly sick or anything. Just enough to use that extra writing time I had freed up for sleep. Not sick enough to stay in bed all day but enough to have no creative energy. For those of you who create through chronic illness, I salute you. All I’ve wanted to do for the last week is sit in my comfy chair, cuddled up under a quilt with a book and a mug of tea.

And here I am, a week later, feeling much the same. So I’m surrendering to it. I managed to get the Digital Photography Basic eBook done and out, but that’s it for this week. It’s time to sink into my comfy chair and get better, so I can enjoy Thanksgiving tomorrow with my in-laws who are visiting from out of state.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I’ll see you back here when I’m feeling better.

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The Digital Photography Basics eBook is here… and it’s FREE!

Do you ever have those moments where an idea comes along, and it’s so perfect, you know that it’s what you’ve been waiting for? I got one of those ideas in the shower, the morning after the workshop with David duChemin in Vancouver last month. It was like it came out of no where and smacked me in the head, making me think, Of course! Why didn’t I think of that sooner!

The idea was to give away the Digital Photography Basics course material as an eBook, free.

So that’s what I’m doing, starting today. No strings attached. No requirement that you sign up for my newsletter. No bonus if you sign up for one of my classes. It’s a gift. Completely and totally free.

All you need to do is go here to the Digital Photography Basics page here on my site and download your copy.

And then, if you like it, please share it. Share with anyone who is starting out in photography, and needs access to the basics. Share it with anyone who is getting back into photography, and needs a refresher. This information was meant to be out there, helping others learn the basics so they can develop the technical skills to move toward photography as an expression of heart and soul. This was the realization that made me do a little happy dance in the shower that morning.

And here’s why…

I had been trying to figure out what to do with this material. I wrote it in late 2010, as part of the first Find Your Eye eCourse I taught in early 2011. At the time, it seemed important to include this technical information with the Find Your Eye journey, because understanding how to use the tools of photography to get the image you want is the very first step to finding your eye. If you can’t consistently create images you love with the tools at hand, it is going to be hard to have a style.

I discovered in that first course it was way too much to include this material with the Find Your Eye material. There were three lessons a week and the participants could barely keep up. Not only that, many of the participants already knew these technical basics, and didn’t need the information. So after that first run I decided to pull the technical material out, and created Digital Photography Basics as a standalone eCourse. I ran it in late 2011 on its own for the first time, with great reviews. I modified it to be an On Demand eCourse in early 2012 so that the material was always available, because who wants to wait months to take a course when you just got a new camera? So I thought I was set. My plan was to run Digital Photography Basics once a year as an instructor-led eCourse with the On Demand course available anytime.

Only I discovered, earlier this year, that I didn’t want to teach it as an instructor-led eCourse anymore. I learned last fall, as part of my quest for balance, that I could reasonably run only one eCourse at a time. And my schedule was filling up. If I wanted to add more creative eCourses, which I have plans to do, I didn’t have room for this course in my schedule anymore. So, what to do with the material?

It seemed a logical choice: morph it into an eBook. The material was all there, ready to go, I just needed to repackage and sell it. Sell it for how much? I wanted the information to be reasonably priced, for anyone who needed it. Maybe I would add it as a bonus for my classes. I debated and dithered for months, not making any movement forward, until the idea in the shower.

The day before that idea came to me, at the conclusion of the Vancouver Gathering workshop, David duChemin encouraged us to give away our art. “Art is a gift,” he said, and talked about inexpensive ways to give our art away. I already believe strongly that our art should be liberated into the world, that it does us good to create it but does even more good when we share it. Where I hadn’t made the connection before was that my eCourses are my art, as much as photography. And here was the Digital Photography Basics material, which I had been trying to figure out what to do with, ready and waiting to be shared.

For the last four weeks, since the moment in the shower, I have had a singular purpose to get this eBook completed so that I can give it away. So that I can move to creating the next things… I have eCourses waiting to be born and other projects that need to be finished.

Here it is! A gift, for anyone who needs it. I hope that it gets out there and goes viral. Not because I expect any payback from it, but because photography has been the most beautiful gift for me, and I hope this can help others just starting out get over the learning curve and find the same. I hope you’ll help me make this happen, by using the eBook yourself and sharing it with others.

Knowing I could help even one person would be the best gift back, ever.

Digital Photography Basics

PS – You can use this button code on your blog sidebar or in a post to help me get the word out!

PPS – A big thank you goes to my volunteer proofreaders, who answered my call on Facebook and Twitter and helped me get the eBook ready to share: Chris, Judy and Beth. You are all awesome! Thank you so much!

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Into the Light

We continue our Exploring with a Camera topic of Chiaroscuro this week, with a look at walking into the light. You can get some great strong light/dark contrast when you are indoors and look out into the light. In this situation, instead of having the subject illuminated against a dark background, the subject is dark against a light background.

This image was taken at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. After a while I was overwhelmed by the museum’s vast and varied collection, so I began wandering the museum looking more at the architecture than the artifacts. I stopped at an overlook above the main doors and photographed the movement of people in and out. There was an ebb and flow to the motion. It made me wonder where all of these people are coming from, and going to. I wondered where this woman was headed with such purpose. The strong light/dark contrast, the focus and her isolation from other elements highlights her as the subject.

How is your exploration of chiaroscuro going? Have you found examples in your archives? Have you experimented yet? Share your results with us here! The link up is open until November 30, so you have plenty of time to explore.