Kat Eye Studio

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Warning Signs (& New Music)

In our wanderings of San Francisco I came across this gate. Think someone needs a warning or two? It makes me chuckle, wondering what has gone on here in the past to warrant so many warnings.

I’ve got a busy morning so a short post today. As an added bonus I’m sharing a fun stop motion video of a new favorite song, Come Back Down by Greg Laswell. If you are feeling at all stuck in some emotion, just listen to this song and it will kick you in gear.

It’s the free single of the week on iTunes, so if you like it, snap it up!

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Studying those Diagonals

It’s been an interesting week so far, studying all of these diagonal lines in our photographs! Exploring with a Camera: Dynamic Diagonals has got me thinking and observing how our eye moves in the frame.

How does your eye move through this image? The diagonals are integral to the image, yet they are not part of the main subject, the city sky line. The view through the fence creates a feeling of separation, but the crazy diagonals of the fence give more energy and life. It doesn’t feel like a stiff separation to me. What’s your response?

I’ve also been pondering the whole idea of the eye primarily “left to right” through the frame. I have seen many situations in the linked exploration where my eye does not move this way. I think the subject itself, along with our own perceptions and experiences, have a strong impact on how our eye moves through the frame. “We always read photographs left to right” is too much of a generalization.

For example, in this image my eye moves from the upper left to the lower right. All of the branches are along this diagonal, with varying angles. It feels as if I am following gravity this way, so it is a comfortable flow. Gravity is pulling the branches toward the ground; my eye follows.

I have noticed in images oriented vertically I tend to follow the diagonal top-to-bottom more than left-to-right. That is how I read the staircase image in my original post, top-to-bottom. Many others, however, followed the staircase UP, bottom-to-top. That is in direct opposition to both the premise that we will read a photograph left-to-right, or even my new idea of top-to-bottom in vertical photos.

As another example, I’ve noticed converging lines along a path or a road have a stronger impact on how I follow a diagonal than the expected “left-to-right” reading. My eye is going to want to follow the path to its conclusion, regardless of the orientation within the frame. In this case, my personal experience of walking down a path or road outweighs the other factors that might influence how my eye moves through the diagonal.

Without a doubt, I’m seeing that diagonals are a dynamic and powerful force in our photographs. How we read them, however, may have more to do with our personal experiences and perceptions than any compositional generalizations.

What are you seeing so far? Share with us today.


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Which way is up?

The trees know. The trees always know. It doesn’t matter how steep the slope, trees always know which way is up.

A new one for my Town Trees series, this one captures the hills of San Francisco along with the tree. There are lots of great trees lining the streets in San Francisco, but it’s hard to capture one without cars! I actually tried to eliminate the cars in this image, but realized that the cars add to it. It’s San Francisco through and through: the cars parked on a steep street along with the cable car lines. All I needed was a bay window in the building, but you can’t have everything, can you?

The March Photo-Heart Connection is still open and going strong! There are so many wonderful connections this month. It’s interesting to see the topics evolve as the year progresses. Earlier months had a very introspective feel, and as spring has blossomed there is a lightness and joy that is coming through in the heart connections. We are all connected to the cycle of life around us.

You can link in through tomorrow. I hope you will join us!

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Year Eleven

In this moment, eleven years ago, I was in labor with my son. I don’t remember much of that day, just flashes of images and feelings. I do remember it was a Thursday, like this year, because I remember watching Survivor in the evening while waiting to go in for a C-section after 21 or so hours of labor that didn’t progress. Isn’t it funny, that’s what I remember clearly? That’s about all you’ll get from me about the whole experience. While the birth experience seemed a big deal at the time, since then I’ve discovered it’s irrelevant in the whole. It’s the life experience that really matters for a child.

So here he is, eleven years old today. At times self-assured and confident in who he is, at times unsure and finding his way. On the verge of those teenage years, I see the mix of teen and child in him almost every day.

Brandon on the mosaic steps in San Francisco

He wants his independence but he still wants the comfort of his parents. He still asks me to snuggle before bed, enjoying the quiet time together. He will still grab our hand to hold when he’s not thinking about it. We don’t say anything when that happens, we just quietly enjoy it because sooner or later he will realize that he’s holding our hand and snatch it away. In his mind, he’s too old for that.

I see glimpses of who he is at his heart, and where he may struggle in life. There are some ways he is so similar to me or my husband, and we know how these traits have affected us. We know what we’ve had to overcome. How it affects him remains to be seen, I must remember. He is his own person.

Off on his own, reading while his parents enjoy the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

As I do every year on this day, I pause for a moment to reflect on what it means to be a parent. Parenting continues to be the most challenging and personal job I’ve experienced. It’s funny how it’s just assumed you will grow up, get married and have kids. As if it’s the easy path because most everyone does it. But it seems to me, being responsible for the growth of a young soul as a parent is possibly the most challenging path of all.

I want to do a good job, for my son. He deserves it.

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Choosing the Arrangement

Learning to anticipate the translation of three-dimensional scenes into two-dimensional images begins with recognizing that each element gets flattened and becomes … a series of lines and tones that can be rearranged, balanced and played against each other as we play with optics and angles. We arrange those lines and tones within the constraints of the frame.
— David duChemin in Photographically Speaking

Do you see it? The flattening of the frame, the objects as lines and tones. Can you see the basic shapes, and how they are balanced with each other?

If you don’t see it, try it in black and white. Blur your eyes. Do you see the shapes yet? How they balance?

While I am attracted to the complementary color contrast of the yellow and purple in the original image, the balance of shapes works in black and white as well.

I started reading David duChemin’s latest book this morning, and as always his words resonate with me. The quote at the top of the post was especially striking, with my recent fascination, discussed in Exploring with a Camera: Balancing Shapes. This is an important concept to grasp – that the elements in a photograph are not really the “things” you are photographing, but the are lines and tones and shapes arranged within the frame. And, the most exciting part, we as the photographers get to choose that arrangement. We choose what to include and exclude.

Do you see it yet? Does it excite you as much as it does me?

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Black and White with Shades of Grey

To color or not to color, that is the question. No, I’m not talking about photography, although it’s easy to get caught up in the color vs. black and white debate there. I’m talking about… hair.

This silly little question has taken up way too much of my brain space since returning from Italy. Not too long after moving from Italy I remember looking around a meeting at my corporate job and realizing that of the women in the room, all my age and older, I was the only one with any grey hair. There was lots of distinguished grey among the men in our similar age range, but not the women. Now, I know that’s not natural. I was the only one not coloring my hair.

So my brain starting working. Debating. Is it time to color? Do I need to color? What does it take to color? Would I feel better about myself if I no longer had grey hair? The arguments “against” are strong to my practical nature: Once I start coloring, I’m going to want to continue. It’s an added expense and activity that will go on and on. If I decide later I don’t want the color anymore, I’ll have to go through that horrible “growing out grey” phase.

But the arguments “for” are enticing. Coloring my hair would be another fashion choice. Something I could change on a whim, even more readily than my clothes. I could experiment. I would look younger.

I haven’t decided the outcome of the debate yet, as this self-portrait will attest. Or maybe I have. I hold out on color because of the commitment, but I also think there is more to it for me than that. I think I’m worried I might lose track of me, somewhere in the color. Lose track of some essence that says, “Hey, Kat, you are ok just as you are, hair and all.” If I’m not willing to accept a few grey hairs, a natural part of life, what other things will I want to change? Most things about me can’t be revised so easily.

So here I stay. In black and white with shades of grey. What’s you take on the color debate?

In The Picture

This month’s {in the picture} theme is “black and white.” All of my self-portraits in this project so far have been black and white, so the theme was not a stretch. The subject matter, however — me — is the stretch. I continue to be delightfully surprised at my growing ability to think of a concept for the self-portrait and then execute on it. This method of photography is different from my usual mode of operation, where I’m exploring my environment and finding compositions with my camera. I’m enjoying myself so far.

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