A Sense of Place

July 12, 2013 by Kat

A Sense of Place: Guest Post by Lynne Foerster

A few weeks ago we wrapped up the Instructor-Led version of the A Sense of Place eCourse. To encourage the participants to follow through and complete a final project, I offered up guest post slots on my blog. The content was wide open, whatever they were inspired by from the eCourse. I’ve enjoyed sharing the posts from class participants this week, and today is the last. Please leave lots of comment love for the guest authors!

A Sense of Place: Mesa Verde

The Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings in Colorado are some of the most intriguing places I’ve visited. Viewing and wandering around in these ancient dwellings gives one the sense of how this group of people lived from 500 BC to 1200 BC, how difficult life was, how challenging each day might have been for them. One stands in the midst of the ruins that have survived for thousands of years and marvels at the genius of the builders, to have their creations survive for so long in the elements. It’s truly an awe-inspiring place.

You can find more of Lynne Foerster’s work on her Flickr photostream.

Would you like to share an A Sense of Place guest post? You can too! The only requirement is that you’ve taken the eCourse, either the Instructor Led version or the new On Demand version that is now available. Contact Kat for the rest of the details.

July 10, 2013 by Kat

A Sense of Place: Guest Post by Carolyn Phillips

A few weeks ago we wrapped up the Instructor-Led version of the A Sense of Place eCourse. To encourage the participants to follow through and complete a final project, I offered up guest post slots on my blog. The content was wide open, whatever they were inspired by from the eCourse. I’m excited to share the posts from class participants this week. Please leave lots of comment love for the guest authors!

Influenced by A Sense of Place

I have always said that photography was not only a hobby, but was inspirational for my textile, felt and mixed media work; however until recently I would have been hard put to provide concrete examples. It wasn’t that this wasn’t true, just that whilst I knew the connection was there, it was rather nebulous. It has also been clear for a long time that my favourite subjects for photography are nature and architecture, and I have slowly dawned to the realisation that I am drawn to taking photographs that are about odd little details; close up or different angle shots; vignettes; or whole subject; rather than landscape or postcard images. I felt that Kat’s ‘A Sense of Place’ course would not only encourage me to develop my own style and interests in place, but would challenge me to look deeper and see how I could use that to approach those things, like the aforementioned landscape, that I find much harder. I also hoped that I would start to see a stronger and less tenuous link to my other creative work.

A Sense of Place got me thinking much more about the images I take and why I take that particular image as opposed to a different one. It encouraged me to try different ways of looking at a subject, but to follow my heart and instinct. It also made me think much more about themes and similarities between photographs taken in different places or at different times. This has inspired me to go and take more thoughtful photographs and ones that have meaning for me. Kat is excellent at making us think, at bringing creativity rather than a technicality to photography and this is what inspires me. I think that often there has to be meaning to an image, layers of possibility, the hint of a back story, the element of mystery or a sense of a pause in time for an image to become something more and to ‘grab’ me and I feel this is where creativity comes in.

For our final project Kat asked us to take on a ‘pulling it all together’ project, taking a series of photographs and thinking about the whole series and how it was to be put together. She mentioned photo books, videos, slideshows, blogs, and exhibitions amongst other ideas. This came at a crucial time for me as the day before I read the final lesson I had been taking part in an art fair. During this I spoke to lots of people about my textile and mixed media work. Later that day I then spoke to some friends about where I wanted to go next and was pushed to widen my vision! When I read Kat’s email and pdf the two suddenly jumped together and made a much bigger whole, and I saw a project that is much bigger than anything I have ever attempted and both exciting and frightening at the same time.

I have been taking a series of photographs that look at derelict and decaying buildings, both in rural and urban settings. There are still a few places I want to visit and photograph, although my ‘decay inspiration’ file of edited photographs currently has 65 images in it. These are all currently feeding into some planned textile and felting work which is at sketchbook and test piece stage. I want to end up with a selection of 24 printed and mounted images each named with a haiku. These will fit alongside a series of 2D and 3D mixed media and felt pieces, such as this test piece…

The art work for the project is all inspired by the colours, textures and themes I am seeing in the photographs. Themes of rejection and abandonment, revelation and reclamation and much more. This is not going to be a project that can be finished in a month. I suspect that it won’t be finished in 3 months. It is very much still in the planning stage, although the photographs are the first step and some of them are the ones I have included here.

Carolyn blogs at Mess, Muddle and Fun the title of which sums up her attitude to creativity. She is an everyday creative, a felter, an artist who still feels odd using that term, and believes that everyone has a creative seed somewhere inside and the best thing to do with it is enjoy it – covered in paint if possible.

July 8, 2013 by Kat

A Sense of Place: Guest Post by Ghita Katz Olsen

A few weeks ago we wrapped up the Instructor-Led version of the A Sense of Place eCourse. To encourage the participants to follow through and complete a final project, I offered up guest post slots on my blog. The content was wide open, whatever they were inspired by from the eCourse. I’m excited to share the posts from class participants this week, and today is the first. Please leave lots of comment love for the guest authors!

A Sense of Place: Sorø Abbey Church

Kat Sloma has generously suggested her participants in the wonderful class A Sense of Place to make their final project into a blog post on her blog. The idea inspired me to go deeper with a bunch of photos from a certain place and try to put together the knowledge and inspiration, I’ve got from the class.

Recently I visited Sorø Abbey Church and was impressed by it’s beauty and age. Sorø Abbey Church is one of the largest medieval churches in Denmark. It was built by the Cistercians in the last part of the 1100s. The church remains an excellent example of early brick Gothic architecture.

Walking around on my own with my camera, I was drawn into the atmosphere and the presence of history. Three Danish kings are buried here. For centuries it has been a center for the influential noble White-family, including the famous Bishop Absalon. He was engaged in the building of the church, but died in 1201, the same year the church was finished. Of course he is also buried here.

My attention was especially drawn to the choir seats. They put a smile to my face, because they are full of engraved names and images dating hundreds of years back. I can imagine bored pupils and monks making the graffiti of that time. Guys like Jacob and Sveno Mathhiae from 1694 suddenly felt very present.

Experiencing a place like this through the lens always make me look for small details, a fact the class clarified for me. And this huge church is a haven of details. For instance I noticed angels in several places. Below are some from the altar and another one on a very old carved wood door, quite similar in style.

The fact that this church has been here for more than 800 years is awe-inspiring. It has experienced the transition from a Catholic abbey church to a Lutheran parish church. There is a timeless feel to many of the objects, which I tried to pass on in the images.

I actually visited this church some years ago, but had no memory of the place. Bringing a camera this time made a huge difference. I had a deeper connection with the place and explored the place in a much more focused way, allowing myself to be drawn to all kind of images, I’m sure will stay with me.

My name is Ghita Katz Olsen. Since 2011 I’m head over heels in love with photography. I live in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, Europe. You can view more of my work on my Flickr photostream.

April 30, 2013 by Kat

The Workshop Report: Las Vegas

Sunny skies. Palm trees. A group of photographers gathered. Lots of interesting things to photograph. Is there a better way to spend a Saturday? I’m not sure if I can think of one! On April 13, I spent the day with five wonderful photographers at Selah {an art salon} in Las Vegas, Nevada for my one-day A Sense of Place workshop.

First off, Selah is in a gorgeous, refurbished old house near downtown Las Vegas. The light, the architectural touches, and the colors just make this space a great environment to enjoy a creative discussion. Walking in to the house, you feel soothed and refreshed. Ready to learn!

We started the day in the classroom, talking about the concepts of Photography of Place. We explored our individual philosophies and the kind of things that make up our unique sense of place. We looked at the ways to photograph places, from icons to small details. My workshops are very much a small group, discussion type of workshop. I don’t stand up and present material from a powerpoint presentation on a projector. We sit around a table and talk about the material. Everyone has something valuable to share.

Photo by Sabrina Cofield of Selah

Before heading out for the day, we had an amazing lunch! Fantastic, healthy food was catered for us, to fuel us up for the photowalk.

Photo by Daria Riley of Selah

After sitting inside and talking for the morning, we were ready to head out into the gorgeous sunshine and explore downtown Las Vegas. What an interesting place! Downtown Vegas is being revitalized so there is a lot of construction going on. Wandering around, you find a little bit of everything to photograph. There is something for everyone, regardless of your photographic interests.

We found vintage neon signs…

Photo by Rainie Martinez

… and interesting modern architecture. (Channeling my inner Brenda here!)

We could photograph close ups of desert plants…

… and wonderful little scenes that are unique to this place.

We encouraged each other to find interesting angles and explore new subjects.

It’s always interesting to take people who live in a place on a photowalk around their own city. Most of the places we walked, the locals had never been! It reminds me that we don’t need to travel a long way to explore someplace new, we just need to get out and explore our own area. No matter where we are, we photograph with our own sense of place. The more we cultivate our sense of place close to home, the better our experience will be in new places. And our photographs will be truly our photographs, not a replication of what others have seen and experienced in the place before.

After a pause at a coffeeshop for a cool drink, we photographed our way back to Selah and wrapped up our day. It was a truly wonderful experience to meet and talk photography with these lovely women! Joining me for the day were Rainie (who travelled with me from Oregon), Erin and Trisha from Las Vegas, Cindy from Arizona and Daria, one of the Selah owners.

Right to Left: Rainie, Erin, Trisha, Kat and Cindy. (Photo by Daria Riley of Selah)

A huge thank you to Daria and Sabrina of Selah for inviting me to bring this workshop to Las Vegas. They were wonderful hosts and I hope to go back and teach there again!

And when I do, I hope you will join me there too.

The weekend also included a night photography walk on Friday evening. More on that tomorrow!

October 17, 2012 by Kat

The Workshop Report: Hampstead

The forecast was bleak. Just the day before the Hampstead run of my A Sense of Place Workshop, it showed rain, rain, rain. Everyone was supposed to be prepared for the weather, but I knew a lot of rain would cut our afternoon photowalk short. So imagine the delightful surprise, waking up to a day of blue sky and sun!

Saturday 8th October proved to be a great day for a photowalk. With the same format as the Hebden Bridge workshop, on this day four participants gathered at The Oak Studio in Hampstead for the morning classroom portion session and then a photowalk in the afternoon.

It was a great morning, getting to know everyone as we talked Photography of Place. We discussed our personal philosophies and approach on photography, and how that figured into our individual sense of place. We looked at whether we tend toward capturing the big picture, landscapes and cityscapes, or the little details. We talked about creating images that convey our experience of a place.

And then we went out to practice! Our walk began as we took the underground from Hampstead to Brick Lane, although we spent more time chatting with each other than photographing on this part of the journey.

Using the converging lines on the tube station to capture a fun portrait of Fiona

We arrived at Brick Lane with cameras in hand and blue skies above. What a lively place! It was a fantastic opportunity to capture everything from grungy urban texture to vibrant graffiti to vintage looks. It was amazing the different views and details we could choose from in the walk through these few streets. What we all see and choose to photograph is so different! The variety is evident in the images from the participants:

Photo by Elissa

Photo by Becs

Photo by Barbara

Photo by Justine

Photo by Kat

During the walk we chatted and mingled as we photographed. It’s always fun to be with other photographers, because you understand each other. You aren’t hurried along, and you don’t get weird looks from each other about what you choose to photograph.

Elissa and I, enjoying a joint self-portrait

Being in a group photographers can embolden you, and help you photograph in situations you normally don’t. One thing I heard both at the workshop and when I went on photowalks with other friends during this trip was how brave I was, taking pictures of anything. Me? Brave? I don’t see myself that way. But the comments made me realize I have become more comfortable just capturing things that interest me, regardless of who is around. If I can help others feel more empowered to capture what they want to capture, then hey, I guess I’ve done my job as an instructor.

Photo by Becs

We wandered our way to a fence of love locks, where Justine left us for the day. Unfortunately I thought of getting the group photo just after she left, so this isn’t quite the full class group.

The participants: Fiona, Elissa, Barbara, Becs and Justine (not pictured)

I can’t tell you how fabulous it was to meet these lovely photographers in person. Since they all had been in my online classes at one time or another, we’ve interacted before, but it was a great way to get to know each other in a new way. To hear about their lives beyond the computer, along with our shared interest in photography. I hope that the connections made on this day continue well into the future.

I’ve always believed that taking workshops is a fantastic way to get us out of our regular patterns, and to learn something new that can help us continue our growth as artists. I take the approach that if I get even one new idea from a workshop that I can put into practice, it was time well spent.

Becs checking out a different perspective.

What I’ve known for a while is that teaching workshops ratchets it up a notch from there. It can be daunting and scary to put yourself in place as the teacher, but ultimately, the experience of thinking through the concepts, creating the content and then seeing it put to use by others is immensely satisfying.

What I learned from these workshops: I enjoy it just as much so in person as online. I think I was made for this.

Want to see more images and hear more about the Hampstead workshop? Check out these blog posts from the participants:
A Workshop and A Photowalk by Becs
Photography Down the Lane by Elissa
A Sense of Place by Barbara
a sense of place by Justine
Sense of Place with Kat Sloma from Kat Eye Studio by Fiona

October 16, 2012 by Kat

The Workshop Report: Hebden Bridge

After months of planning, weeks of busy preparation, and days of travel and jet lag, the moment of truth had arrived. Saturday, 29 September was the first Kat Eye Studio on-location workshop: A Sense of Place in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England.

My impression: I couldn’t have asked for a better day!

A lovely group of five class participants gathered on a partly-cloudy Saturday morning at my friend and PR consultant Fiona Pattison‘s flat in Hebden Bridge. Some participants were local, some had driven for a couple of hours, and one had come all the way from Holland via Scotland to be there. Some I had met before, some I knew from my courses online, and one participant was completely new to me and my photography. I was honored and excited that they all chose to join me on this day.

We started our morning with the classroom discussion. We talked about my philosophy of the Photography of Place, and how we all have our own unique “sense of place.” We talked about how we each develop that sense of place, and how to better express it in our photographs. We learned a little bit more about each person as we discussed what inspires us and draws our eye in the Photography of Place. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we were so busy and engaged with the workshop discussion that I have no photographs of the morning workshop portion of the day!

After a hearty lunch of soup, bread and jacket potatoes (aka “baked potatoes,” for those of us from the US), courtesy of Fiona’s wonderful cooking, we headed out to explore the countryside of Hebden Bridge. We lucked out on the weather! After torrential rains across Yorkshire earlier in the week, we had a partly cloudy day with some sun and minimal showers.

The participants: Amanda, Maki, Bernice, Carolyn and Rhiannon

We had a lovely walk along the stream, capturing the natural beauty of the area as we practiced the concepts discussed in the morning session. The great thing about being with a group of photographers is that you understand there is no hurry. The group spread out as each one of us stopped to capture what caught our eye. We mixed and mingled and chatted with each other along the way.

Maki finding something interesting across the stream.

Here is a sampling of the the details, textures, lines and moments that were captured by the participants on this day.

Photos by Rhiannon

Photo by Bernice

'a sense of place' workshop - Woodland walk

Photo by Maki

Photo by Carolyn

Our walk upstream was rewarded with a visit to Gibson’s Mill. The reflections in the mill pond were stunning! The different perspectives of these wonderful reflections and buildings serves to show how we will each have a different interpretation of the same place.

'a sense of place' workshop - mill at Hardcastle Crags

Photo by Maki

Photo by Bernice

Photo by Rhiannon

Photo by Carolyn

Photo by Kat

Our day together was warm and wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for a better group to help me launch my on location workshops. I enjoyed every minute of the day, and appreciated the understanding the participants had for the little glitches that came up along the way. Sharing my love of photography and my belief that we all have a unique and worthy vision of the world with like-minded people was fantastic. I want to do more of these!

You can read more about the experiences of the Hebden Bridge workshop participants in their own words in these blog posts:
a sense of place by Maki
A Sense of Hardcastle Crags by Carolyn
Sense of Place with Kat Sloma from Kat Eye Studio by Fiona

Stay tuned tomorrow for The Workshop Report: Hampstead.

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