Kat Eye Studio

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Ignoring the Looks

Do you ever feel self-conscious taking a photo? Most of us do, when we start out in photography. Maybe for a long, long time. That little voice in our says things like…
You probably shouldn’t be photographing here.
What will people think?
They are looking at me!
If we listen to it, that little voice can prevent us from taking photos in many situations. It can prevent us from following our heart, prevent us from capturing the image we were called to take.

Today’s market/wheels photo is no exception. It was taken just off Piazza del Duomo in Florence. This little snack cart also had bicycles for rental. As we walked around the duomo, I spotted it and spent a few minutes studying it with my camera, while the vendor of the stand looked critically on. Did it make me uncomfortable to have him there? Heck yeah. But I had a mission, to get a good market/wheels photo. I was struggling with this scene, but I knew I had a unique image here to capture. So I too a deep breath, ignored him, and moved around for a while, eventually finding this composition that worked. I love the depth of the image, looking down the street past the cart to the chair and the second bicycle.

I must be honest, if I had stopped, it would not have been the first time my resolve had withered under the gaze of a watcher. There have been countless times that I have noticed people watching me photograph, and stopped what I was doing. Why? Was I doing anything wrong? Being on the street, in a public area, absolutely not. There are no people, so neither was I violating anyone’s privacy by taking their photo when they didn’t want me to. And who knows what the vendor was really thinking. Probably, “Yes, a tourist! How much money can I get her to pay for an apple?” (I’ve never felt like I was a walking dollar sign anywhere in Italy more than I did in Florence. That town is tuned to squeeze every dollar it can out of tourists.)

So, how do you get over the gazes? The seemingly critical eye of people around you?

  • First, you have to want the shot. Want it more than you care about anything else. If you’re worried about how you look more than how the photograph looks, you will not overcome your discomfort.
  • Second, you have to be willing to look a little weird to the average person. Non-photographers will not understand what you are doing when you get down on the dirty ground to get that awesome angle. You will get looks. Accept that as a fact.
  • Know your rights, but also be respectful of others wishes. Are you on private property? Is there a sign that says “no photography?” Are you in a store and the owner asks you to stop photographing? On private property, the property owner sets the rules. Respect them. In public places, a little respect also goes a long way, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t photograph.
  • It happens rarely, but if someone asks you to stop photographing, politely apologize and move on. A little humility also goes a long way.
  • Realize that the quizzical looks you get are really just passing glances. People aren’t paying much attention to you. They are off in their own world. If they stop and watch you for a while, you can acknowledge them with a smile and a shrug of your shoulders, and get back to capturing your images.

I could have let the looks of the vendor scare me off here, but I’ve grown a thicker skin. The image I’m working toward is worth more than avoiding the looks I might get. If you get tripped up by this common feeling of worry about what other people are thinking as you take a photo, I encourage you to take a deep breath and continue. Do it once or twice, to push past the discomfort, and see how it goes. What’s the worst that can happen? You apologize and offer to delete the photo if someone asks you to stop. The best that can happen? You get an awesome image, and you have a little more confidence the next time you are photographing out and about.


Don’t miss the giveaway I have going on right now for some Evidence of Love! Visit here to see the details and enter. Today is the last day for entry – I’ll draw tomorrow morning!

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Time for a Giveaway!

While I continue sharing the new images for my Market/Wheels series, it’s also time for a giveaway! Read on to see what I have to giveaway today.

Today’s market/wheels image is from Padua, Italy. I spent one day here with my sister during our “Sister’s Tour of the Veneto” in late 2009. We had a fun few days of exploring the Veneto, the region that Venice used to control, and we visited this famous market square in the university town of Padua (Padova, in Italian). This image is a great capture of a moment between vendor and customer, with the inclusion of this customer’s fabulous red wheels. I want that bike!

I’m breaking with the market/wheels theme for the giveaway though, to give away some postcards from my Evidence of Love portfolio available in my RedBubble shop!

I love how these turned out! I want to get these sent off to someone (you??) so that you too can share the love for Valentine’s Day. All you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post to enter, one entry per person. I’ll draw and announce the winner on Tuesday morning, 7 February. It’s been a while since I’ve given anything away, so I’m excited to liberate these into the world. You can share the love, by helping me share the word on the giveaway too!

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A Stop at the Store

 
After spending the last week and a half either working hard at the computer to get my new ideas in place, or relaxing utterly by reading novels and watching the first season of Glee, I was ready to get out and photograph yesterday. While the day started with a tiny bit of sunshine, it was the kind that only lasts until the sun gets above the heavy cloud cover, so I needed to get out early. I tagged along with my husband on his morning errands, asking him to drop me off on the Oregon State University campus so that I could wander and take some photos. There is this metal shop building with fabulously textured (read: peeling paint) windows that we drive by often and I wanted to study it with my camera.

I had a great time photographing until the rain started. A little rain doesn’t usually bother me, I keep an umbrella in my camera bag, but this was cold, blowing rain. My fingers were going numb. I gave up and huddled in the bus shelter waiting for my husband to come back and pick me up. The bus route that goes near our house came by first, so I hopped on to get out of the cold. The bus doesn’t go right by our house, so I had several blocks of walking to get home after I got off. I opted to walk through the strip mall, using the protection of the overhang from the rain and wind. And then I saw it… the market/wheels picture! A very cute classic-looking bicycle, along on the bike rack in front of the grocery store. A completely serendipitous find, but making the sequence of photowalk-rain-bus-walk seem like a perfectly logical path to get a new image for my series. I can’t imagine getting here any other way.

A Stop at the Store

Don’t you love it when that happens?

Another synergistic happening yesterday… my photo “Window to the Heart” — the same image I shared on my blog yesterday as an example of a photo-heart connection — was chosen as the Photo of the Weekend by masteringphoto.com. It served to remind me that when I have a strong connection with an image, likely others will too. I would love to have you come by and show some comment love, if you have time. You might also spend a few moments to check out the site, run by Focal Press, publisher of many great photography books.

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A Bike and a Smile

I’ve been getting a lot of smiles on my bike ride to work lately. It’s been odd, people see me coming and they smile at me. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Why all the smiles? It turns out, they were smiling at me because I was smiling as I rode. 
You see, riding my Italian city bike makes me happy. It’s not as cool-looking as this bike I found in Pavia early on in my time in Italy, with its stylish zebra basket liner, but my bike still makes me happy. With it’s basket, fenders, chain cover, dropped bar and completely uncool kickstand it is a comfortable, functional bike. It is me.
I’ve had a lot of experience with bikes that were not me. You see, a long, long time ago I hated riding a bicycle. I taught myself to ride a bike at 8 years old. I never got that comfortable, like the other kids who had been riding since they were 5 and were jumping off curbs around the neighborhood. As a teen, I went to summer camp where one of the activities was cycling. They put everyone on 10-speeds, assuming we could ride them. I was nervous and scared on the 10-speed, all leaned over on a twitchy bike. I felt like I was going to crash, and eventually I did. So much for biking! 
And then… about a year after getting married, I mentioned I might like to try out mountain biking. The bikes looked more comfortable and it was the latest craze. My husband, an avid cyclist prior to our marriage, turned so fast into the parking lot of the bike shop it was almost illegal. Newly armed with biking gear I started to ride the trails with my husband and other friends from work. It was all guys, and I tried to become the cool biker chick. I tried to like mountain biking, I really did. But after a couple of years I decided that I just didn’t get why people would want to ride on these skinny dirt trails that you can easily ride off of. I didn’t get why people would want to ride on paths with obstacles like roots or rocks in the way intentionally. I made myself ride with the “must-have” clipless pedals for a year, to see if I would eventually like them. I hated them as much the day I took them off as the day I started with them. I forced myself to do all manner of things that didn’t seem to fit for me, in order to “become” a mountain biker. I tried to fit in with the mountain biking crowd, my husband and the guys I worked with. For years, I tried. It never worked.
What I did discover though, is that I liked biking to work. I liked the routine of getting out there, twice a day. Clearing my mind by working my body. Both getting somewhere and getting some exercise. Riding an exercise bike, nowhere? Ugh. Riding a bicycle to get somewhere? Perfect! 
One of the things I loved in Italy and Europe is that bicycling is not only a “sport” but a way to get around. A bicycle is an acceptable form of transportation. You don’t need snazzy gear and spandex to ride a bike. It opened my eyes to these bikes that were both comfortable and functional, with maybe a bit of style too.  I loved the look of the city bikes that were everywhere. I captured them with my camera but I think it was my heart speaking through the lens, reminding me this type of bicycling was for me. 
So, last summer I went out and found a city bike. It’s an amazingly huge and heavy bike, no worries about the lightness of frame here. I sit upright on a comfy seat. The bike has fenders, a chain cover, front and back racks, lights that run on a wheel generator, a kick-stand, wheel lock and a bell. It has the requisite drop bar in the front for riding in a skirt (although I’ve only done it that one time). I added a basket to the front rack, for even more functionality. I think I’m going to add some flowers to the front of the basket, that would make me even happier.
I look strange riding here in the US, among the mountain bikes on the bike path. There are more and more “city bikes” around but they still aren’t that common. My bike is giant and odd-looking. But I’m no longer trying to fit in, I’m just trying to fit me. Seeing as I’m smiling as I ride without even know it, I think I finally got it right. 

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What’s going on around The Kat Eye View of the World…

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From Where I Stand

I didn’t actually intend to blog today, I was kinda thinking of taking the weekend off, pondering how to bridge the gap. Then I took this cute picture to celebrate my first time going for a bike ride in a skirt, and I had to share. I’ve wanted to ride in skirt for quite a while, since seeing all of those European women riding around in their skirts so casually. No spandex there! The feet point of view is inspired by this week’s Picture Inspiration prompt and fellow Mortal Muse Holly (aka Soupatraveler), who takes these cute “where I stand” pictures every day. You can join in too, visit the Flickr group from where i stand or tweet with hashtag #fromwhereistand.

Where do you stand today?

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What’s going on around The Kat Eye View of the World…

  • The current Exploring with a Camera theme is Process of Elimination and we only have a few days left! Check out the post and explore with us. 
  • Do you want to deepen the connection between your heart and soul and your photography? Registration for the fall series of the Find Your Eye e-course is open! Visit here for more info.
  • You can subscribe to the Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the happenings.

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How are you Hard-Wired?

Each of us is hard-wired a certain way. And that hard-wiring insinuates itself into our work. That’s not a bad thing. Actually, it’s what the world expects from you. We want our artists to take the mundane materials of our lives, run it through their imaginations, and surprise us. If you are by nature a loner, a crusader, an outsider, a jester, a romantic, a melancholic, or any one of a dozen personalities, that quality will shine through in your work.
— Twyla Tharp in The Creative Habit

I ran across this quote while reading over the weekend and said a huge “YES!” It’s always amazing to me when I read the work of these famous, creative people and it basically restates what I’ve come to believe through my own experiences. This quote from Twyla Tharp in her book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life so completely expresses the idea behind my Find Your Eye classes: We all have a unique vision to share with the world, and it comes through in our work. We just have to look for it.
In my photography, I find that I typically like the scenes that show both details and context. Not the grand sweeping vistas so much or super close-up details, although you will see those on occasion. This one, a new one in my market/wheels series, is from Milan. A little scene of a market in the Brera district, the same market as my Orange Power shot but a different perspective capturing different details. Kind of typical of my work, don’t you think? Not just in this series, but in the selection of composition, subject, camera settings. How are you hard-wired in your art? Do you know? If you’re a photographer, I can help you find out in the Find Your Eye series of classes, and I’m so excited about that! Registration is open now if you’re interested.
I’m barely into reading The Creative Habit and it’s fantastic so far. It’s been great to get my back into my own creative habits of journaling, reading and blogging in the mornings since the move. Together, these habits are my personal recipe to keeping me grounded, aware and creatively charged. I look forward to reading more of Twyla’s wisdom in the coming days. You can expect me to share the bits and pieces I find interesting here! 

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