Kat Eye Studio

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A Classic Experience

The USA is a young country. We’re babies in the timeline of countries throughout world history. We talk about having a “history,” but more often than not we are happy to bulldoze or junk our history to make way for the new. “Progress” we call. I used to feel the same way, until living abroad. It was in Europe I realized what we lose when we indiscriminantly move toward the future. If we don’t love and save our history, who will?

So I love it when pieces of our history, like these touring buses found in Glacier National Park, are restored.

Throughout Glacier National Park you’ll see these “Red Jammers” carrying tourists about.

Original built in the 1930’s, they were restored by Ford in the early 2000’s to continue to give visitors a classic experience. They now run on eco-friendly propane and are quieter than they once were.

They are a classic all the same. We didn’t take a tour on them, but I certainly loved photographing these beauties! Aren’t they pretty?

These images were all processed with my “Red Buddy” Lightroom preset, which I’ll share in my next newsletter. Be sure to sign up if you want to download the preset. And, in the name of progress, I’m upgrading to Lightroom 4 today. Yay! I look forward to playing around with this new revision. Have you upgraded yet? What’s your favorite new feature? Let me know!

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Sit a While

The lodges in National Parks I’ve visited are always similar… rugged timber construction, fabulous locations and a place to sit and enjoy the view. There is always a row of chairs, rocking or otherwise, placed where you can sit and just be. Notice how they are empty? Not so many people take the time to do that. We keep busy. Have to see this, do that. Fill up our time.

I am struck by these images of inviting but empty chairs. Where are all the people? They were certainly around, but not sitting. I wasn’t sitting. The empty chairs perfectly highlight what I just read in The Practice of Contemplative Photography this morning:

[W]hy can’t we relax when we have nothing to do and enjoy a little bit of space in our lives? The problem is we are afraid of our own hearts. There are many, many things we haven’t wanted to look at. The heart is so sensitive, so ready to resonate with the world, that we keep it covered, fearing we won’t be able to stand being touched. It might be too intense. We might be overwhelmed. We can’t affort to open up, because who knows what we might feel. It seems safer to armor the heart, even if that shields us from the vitality of life… When you have nothing to do, whatever accumulated agitation, restlessness, or existential anxiety you might have begins to surface. You become aware of feelings that are normally submerged. Boredom is the forerunner of this distress and a signal that you should seek some diversion to hold your heart at bay.

This rings true… it’s hard to sit a while and just be. It’s hard to open that channel to our hearts. We don’t know what we might feel, so it’s better to keep it wrapped up safely and covered with all of our busy-ness. That’s why the Photo-Heart Connection has become so important to me and many others. It may not be sitting quietly with our selves while looking at a fabulous view, but it is a process that allows the heart to open. It allows us to feel the messages that are there for us, just under the armor we’ve created by filling our lives with things to do.

Today is the last day to link in to the Photo-Heart Connection for July. I invite you to sit a while today. Enjoy the view. Connect with your heart, and the hearts of others in some way. Join us.

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Carved by Ice and Time

I’m back! We returned this weekend from a week spent in northern Montana, exploring Glacier National Park.

Signs in Polebridge, Glacier National Park

To The Park

My husband has been wanting to go there for years, before the glaciers all disappear. There were 150 in the park when it was first explored, and now there are 25 left. Even these have dramatically shrunk when you see the pictures of long ago compared to today.

What’s left is the rocks, the trees and the water. A land carved by ice and by time. And it’s gorgeous…

Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park

Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park

Nature is not my usual subject, and it took a while to get into a groove with my photography. It took a while to get into the groove of this kind of vacation, to be honest. This trip didn’t yield new discoveries, but rediscoveries. The joy of being out in the woods on a trail, hiking. The fun of being in the water on a canoe as a family. The capture of tiny bits of beauty that have been scattered by nature’s hand.

Wildflowers, Glacier National Park

After a few days of walking and looking with my camera in hand, I began to see the colors of the forest. The patterns found in the trees. The lines of the mountains. I found that new perspective I was looking for. It’s always there, when I settle in and give myself a chance to see. I’ll share it with you over the next week or two.

The Photo-Heart Connection link up for July is still open through tomorrow. Come join us!

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Photo-Heart Connection: July

Well, hello there little plant. Look at you, outgrowing your pot and reaching for the sky. Growing upward without regard to your limitations.

I caught a glimpse of blue and orange, down a path behind a school. It called to me, so I wandered back to see what was there. A bench in beautifully textured blue sat in the green summer grass. A tiny orange pot, with it’s awkward plant, contrasted against a white wall.

As I look on this plant, I see a forgotten school project that someone forgot to take home at the end of the year. But the plant doesn’t know. It keeps growing.

I see a plant that’s getting too big for it’s little orange pot. But the plant doesn’t know. It keeps growing.

I see a plant that’s lonely, sitting there by itself in the back of the school. But the plant doesn’t know. It keeps growing.

Maybe, come fall, this plant will bear some fruit despite the odds stacked against it. We know the odds of survival, the plant doesn’t. The plant does what it is meant to do: Grow. Take the light and the rain and the soil and grow.

There is a lesson for me here, in this little lonely plant at the back of a school. I need to continue to do what I’m meant to do. Ignore perceived limitations. Ignore perceived odds.

Just grow.

My Photo-Heart Connection speaks to all of us this month, I think. We need to stop limiting ourselves. It’s easy to place boundaries around what we say we can and can’t do. Often those boundaries are completely in our head. If we ignore them, what can we achieve? Like this little plant, we may grow and change in ways that don’t seem possible for the container we were planted in or the care we received. Our spirits our stronger than we think.

I was caught by the glimpse of orange and blue. I was captivated by the textures and the color contrasts, that’s why I carefully framed this image. But it’s the message from the little plant that speaks to my heart today. That’s the power of the Photo-Heart Connection. There are messages that our heart has for us. Our photos can share them with us if we pause and listen.

What is your heart message this month? You can link in here August 1 through 7. Spend some time visiting the participants too. You can learn from their Photo-Heart Connections as well.


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A Favorite Sign

Today we wrap up July’s Exploring with a Camera: Signs. It’s been quite fun to investigate how signs crop up in my photographs and to see yours too.

I’ll leave this exploration with a favorite sign of mine, from Venice. All over the island of Venice are printed signs saying “Per San Marco” or “Per Rialto.” Since Venice is such a warren of walkways, bridges and canals, it is very easy to get lost. Often we found ourselves wandering and the only way to figure out where we were was to go back to Piazza San Marco or the Rialto bridge and start again, so these signs became a lifeline. My favorite sign image is this hand-painted sign, found off the beaten path in a back alley. There were none of the “official” signs around, so someone took matters into their own hands and created this one. They were probably tired of the tourists asking for directions. 🙂

You can still link in today with your sign images. I’d love to see how you use signs in your photography! Do share.