Kat Eye Studio

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Tied up in Knots

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.
— Anna Quindlen
I was surprised by the response to yesterday’s post. It seems that many of us feel that we are the loner much of the time, different and outside of normal. I thought it was just me. It is ironic that we may feel excluded by our differences, yet in our feelings we are experiencing the same thing.
My current morning reading, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown, speaks to the universal human desire for love and belonging. We want to be in the bucket, with the other flowers. The irony, she points out, is that we often strive to achieve love and belonging by fitting in and “hustling for worthiness” and acceptance. When we strive to fit in, acting like we think others want us to act, we no longer honor our authentic selves and we short circuit any true connection. She says, “… To fully experience love and belonging, we must believe we are worthy of love and belonging.”

In the light of that lone flower, we must each embrace our own differences and take them to heart. Stand alone with confidence in our own value and worthiness. When we say, “Here I am, with all of my quirks and differences, take it or leave it,” we are accepting ourselves as we are. From that grounded place, when we reach out to others and feel a connection, the connection is real. It is whole. It is sustainable, because there are no pretenses to keep up.

Have you ever tried to keep up pretenses in a situation? Yeah, it ties you up in knots. After a while, you don’t know which direction you are going. You don’t know where you are, in the midst of it all. It’s not sustainable.

I’m learning, again and again, how important it is to occasionally stand alone, in order to be myself. Whether it is in my art, sharing the photographs I love regardless of technical perfection or perceived photographic ideals, in my relationships, being honest about who I am and what I need, or even at my corporate job, sharing an opinion that may be contrary to the group, I have found the result of standing alone and embracing my differences is true connection. Instead of connection built on the unstable ground of insecurity, it is connection grounded in confident stability.

When I value myself for who I am, others value me too. Go figure.

To all of you who identified with that less-than-perfect lone flower I say: Congratulations. All you need to do now is untangle the knots and stand tall, confident in your uniqueness. Not an easy process, I know from ongoing experience, but so worth it. The reward I have found is connection, with people who are equally as unique, like you.

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What’s going on around Kat Eye Studio…

  • Did you recognize today’s photo as a triadic variation? The current Exploring with a Camera theme is The Color Wheel: Part 2. Check out the post and join in the exploration.
  • Are you ready to get your camera off of full auto and see what you can create? Registration is open for Digital Photography Basics! Class starts October 16. Visit here for the details.
  • Want to know what’s going on in the studio? You can subscribe to the Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the happenings.

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A New Day, A New Outlook

A new day has dawned, and my outlook has changed from fearful to ready to take on the world. Thank you all for the support and encouragement provided on yesterday’s post! It’s good to know that I am not alone, when those attacks of fear come along. So much wisdom and encouragement was shared yesterday, and I know it was meant for more than just me. The comments were filled with messages that we can all take to heart.

Here are just a few:

Diana said… I agree that fearlessness has to keep being relearned. (for me, too) Taking small steps takes energy and letting fear take over halts any progress forward.

Cheryl said… Fear does paralyze and then we begin to fade. Fortunately, we can reverse the fading and renew ourselves. New chapters in life mean new challenges and that is a wonderful process.

Gina said… Yep, you hit a chord here….being fearful is something we all have to fight. It does get easier as you age because you realize you want to make the most of the time left. Better to take the risk than live with regret. 

Gilly said… I think we all feel fear a lot of the time and about a lot of things, and we have this idea that there are all these successful, competent people out there who never feel that way. It isn’t true, of course, but often the scariest thing is simply to allow ourselves to be who we really are.

There are so many more too! You can read all of the comments here. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends online!

Today though, a break from crab pots! Even I, with my current love for them, can’t do three days in a row. I also found inspiration in this view of a fishing boat in Newport, capturing the reflected light, color and lines of the nautical world. While the paint was fresh and clean, the boat couldn’t hide the evidence of the effects of the sea. Textures abound. That’s my eye!

Do you know your eye? Find Your Eye registration is now open for the September-October series, if you want to find out. I think opening registration today has influenced my outlook for the better as well – I’m so excited to do this again! I am having so much fun with the current series going on right now.

Learning for today: Excitement and fun are great ways to overcome fear too.

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Afraid… We Fade

When did we, when did we get so careful?
When did we, when did we lose ourselves?
Afraid… we fade.
We fade out.

— Matt Nathanson in his song “Love Comes Tumbling Down”

This quote is from the bridge in my favorite song off Matt Nathanson’s new album, Modern Love. These words have just stuck with me… “Afraid… we fade.” 


So true, isn’t it? When we are afraid of something, we shrink back. Hide. We stick to the tried and true, which over time becomes the boring and predictable. And we slowly, bit by bit, disappear.

As I’ve worked through some of my feelings around moving back to Oregon, photography, creative inspiration and blogging, I’ve realized I’ve been afraid. Afraid I wouldn’t find photographic inspiration. Afraid I would lose my stream of creative ideas. Afraid I wouldn’t have anything interesting to write or show. Afraid I would lose my blog readers.

So today as I debated on whether or not to post another crab pot photo, as I heard in my head, “Who would want to see another photo of crab pots,” this song reminded me to just get over my silly fears and get on with it. Do what I love, write and share what interests me, as I always have. When did I get so careful? Why is this so hard? I seem to have to re-learn this concept over and over again.


“Afraid… we fade. We fade out.” 

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When a Plan Comes Together

Cheerful flowers and colorful paint make me smile!
Carbondale, Colorado

Guess what today is? Monday, yes. The middle of August, that too. It’s also the day I link in to Creative Every Day and the Creative Exchange. But it’s even bigger than that: Today is the first day of my part time work schedule. Woohoo!!

Last week everything was finalized and agreed, and as of today I will be working at my “day job” Monday through Friday ~11am to 5pm-ish. I am so excited. I have been working toward this change for a very long time.

For those of you who may be new around here, I fell in love with having my mornings as my personal time while in Italy. My work schedule was afternoons and evenings, due to the need to work with both the Italian and US folks on a daily basis, which left my personal time as the mornings. Some time ago, as part of a series called Lessons from Abroad, I wrote about how changing my schedule this way led to some great realizations for my creativity. Mornings are my creative time.

When I finalized my schedule and transition date with my new manager last week, I realized how long in coming this transition really was. It was almost a year ago, last October, when I first started talking to my former manager about going part time on my return to the US. It was before that, while writing the Lessons from Abroad series for Jenny Shih‘s newsletter and blog, that I identified the schedule change and aligning to my creative energy cycle as a key factor in my personal transformation. And it was part of writing the specific article, Change up Your Schedule, that I really started to think about how I could maintain my “mornings free” schedule upon my return.

So, over the last year I’ve been having periodic conversations with my husband, my management at work, and myself about how this could work. I’ve played with different schedule ideas, “trying them on” in my imagination to see what would fit for me personally and at work. The Monday-Friday/11-5 schedule is the one I settled on recently, and when I proposed it last week it was a win-win for everyone. My new manager likes that I will be there every day instead of taking a day off; I like that I have 5 more mornings a week for myself. Can’t beat that.

This is a great example of how long it can sometimes take an idea to come to fruition. The idea of part time/ mornings free was a seed planted a year ago. Nurtured, the seed grew into a plan that I took small steps on over time. It is a good reminder that if you stick with an idea, turn it into a plan and take baby steps toward it along the way, you can make it work. Things may not happen immediately, but with action, things do happen. Without action, it’s just daydreaming. Yes, I was nervous when I first started talking about part time at work. Yes, I was nervous to have the conversation on my schedule last week. But all of my groundwork and planning and patience paid off, and here I am this Monday morning, free.

What will I create today?

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Where in the World

Here is part two of yesterday’s little “Where in the World” quiz. I’m not going to give you the answer yet, but this is the opposite place. After seeing this image do you revise your answer on which image is from Europe and which is from the US? Tomorrow I’ll tell you which is which.

It’s an interesting comparison, isn’t it? I have enjoyed finding that my images are not as different as I would have thought between the two places. Sure, there are definitely differences in the details. That’s the fun of photographing places, finding those little things that make each place unique. But at the core, my “eye” remains the same, and I’m loving the discovery.

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Exploring with a Camera: Frame within a Frame (2nd Edition)

[Author’s Note: Through the summer months Exploring with a Camera will be “Second Edition” postings of previous explorations with some new images. You will find a new link up at the end of this post to share your photos, and your photos are also welcome in the Flickr pool for the opportunity to be featured here on the blog. I hope that you will join in!]

“Frame within a Frame” is a compositional technique that I’ve had on my mind to share here, but was waiting for the perfect “frame” shot to lead off with. I found it in this shot from Bologna, looking through a bridge window into the buildings and canal beyond. Now that I’m writing this post and reviewing my archives, however, I am seeing that I use this technique more than I thought!

Frame within a Frame works for a couple of reasons:

  • First, it serves to focus the eye of the viewer on a specific subject. When you look at a frame within a frame photograph, you are usually drawn directly to the frame and what is inside of it. Then you kind of visually take a step back and take in the whole of the image. In the photo above, you are immediately drawn to the jumble of windows and walls and the distant bridge within the frame. Then you back out and see that you are looking through a wall with graffiti.
  • Second, it provides context for the image. You are looking through one thing – the frame – into something else. You have a better feel for where you are, as the viewer. It places the viewer of the photograph into a slightly different role. Instead of just looking at the photograph, they are looking through the photograph, from the frame into what is beyond. They are immersed in the image more completely. 

The “frames” that are within photo don’t have to be windows, although these are used to good effect. Basically you are looking  for anything that serves to contain or frame the subject. The nice thing about a frame within a frame is that it doesn’t have to be a straight line! The edges of our photographs are typically straight lines, with rectangular or square shape. Compositional frames we can use within our photographs can be any shape, from natural or man made.

In this image the eye is immediately drawn to the subject framed in the “white” of the overexposed window, and from there you move into the room to get the context of the boy (my son) standing at this very large window.

In this image from Padova, the subject is the bookstore, but the context is provided by the frame of the store window at night. The person walking by serves to punctuate the fact that we are looking into the store from outside.

I find that I use arches all of the time in my photography to frame a subject. It helps that they are almost everywhere in Europe! An arch is a nice contrast to the rectangular shape of the photo, as shown in this image from Brescia.

And here is one from Marksburg Castle, in the Rhine River Valley of Germany. This arch frames both a near and far vista, looking down the Rhine. It shows the strategic view the castle had of the surrounding area.

Yet another, this time an arch internal to the building, at Casa Battlo, in Barcelona. This arch frames the beautiful lines of the staircase curving upward.

Don’t ignore the good old, square doorway though! This doorway serves as a frame, giving more depth to the alley beyond and leading your eye right to the window at the end.

Natural elements make great frames. I think you can probably conjure up images you’ve seen or captured looking through trees at a distant object or vista – the trees are the frame. The palm tree in the image below from Split, Croatia serves to frame the subject of the lighted building while also giving the context of where the photo was taken from, the waterfront promenade. I have photos of this building without the palm tree, and they are not as interesting as this one.

This may be a familiar photo to you, as I’ve used it in Exploring with a Camera before. The branches of the trees arching over and hanging down to the water, along with the reflections completing the the arch below, serve to frame the path and draw your eye right along it to the water beyond.

Finally, here is a more literally frame within a frame from Bologna. Instead of looking through the frame, you are looking at what is inside the frame. It takes the random jumble of advertising, ties it together and gives it context. It becomes street art on it’s own.

So, now that you’ve seen a few examples of frame within a frame, how can you use this compositional technique?

  1. The easiest place to start is to look for the obvious in our everyday lives – windows and doors. Look at these as frames. What do you see when you look through them? What do you see reflected in them? Consider the point of view from both sides of the frame – looking out and looking in.
  2. Expand beyond the obvious to look for other opportunities for frames in our everyday spaces – hallways, mirrors and furniture are a few places to start. What other ideas can you come up with?
  3. Look for frames in architecture. As with arches, architectural elements can make great frames for something beyond, as well as provide the context of where you are at when you take the picture.
  4. Look for frames in nature. Trees make great frames, what other natural elements can you use to highlight your subject?
  5. Try changing your focus point and exposure – focus on the frame as the subject, focus on the image beyond the frame as the subject. What works best? Why? For many of my Frame within a Frame images, I have done both and then picked the one that had the best feel.
Chances are you are already using this compositional principle without thought, as I was. The lead in photo, found in a back alley of Burano on my last trip to Venice, is a great example.

Take a look at your photos, and see where you have used frame within a frame and what effect it had. Keep an eye out, notice how it is used in the images you see around you everyday on the web, in print, in TV and movies. See where you’ve used it or go out and try it, and then link up below and share your photo in the Flickr pool. I’m sure we’ll have lots of creative frames!

FYI – Links will be moderated. Please use a permalink, ensure that your linked image is on topic, and include a link back to this site in your post through the Exploring with a Camera button (available here) or a text link. Thanks!

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