Kat Eye Studio

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Boy in the Morning

My boy, early in the morning.

As we snuggled on the couch this morning to keep warm, the soft light and shadows inspired me to grab my camera and convince him to sit still for a moment or two. This doesn’t happen often these days. When he was little, he was my main subject but at some point he got tired of the mamarazzi and put his foot down. He was done having his picture taken. That’s when I began to explore other subjects to improve my photography skills, opening up a new and different world. The world you see most of the time around here.

That doesn’t mean I don’t want to capture him. His growth, who he is. He’s at the cusp of teenager-hood, making his own choices. Listening obsessively to pop music, growing his hair out (my one condition: he must keep it clean) and playing computer games.

But… he’s still my boy, for this brief moment, early in the morning.

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Beautifully Backlit Boy

Occasionally, when I look through photos from a trip, something just jumps out at me. Something different, striking and wholly of my own vision. The Kat Eye View.

This photo of Brandon at the bottom of Pozzo di San Patrizio (St. Patrick’s Well) in Orvieto is one of those photos. A new favorite. I saw the light, I saw the opportunity, I asked Brandon to pause for a moment and… magic. To me, this photo is magic.

When all of the elements of your art come together in a new, creative way you just have to enjoy the moment. Of the thousands of photos I take in the course of the year, I might only get a couple of these moments. I’m happy to share this one with you today.

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Happy Birthday Brandon!

My beautiful blue eyed little boy is 9 years old today! While this photo is almost a year old, it still captures much of what I love about him. He clear, inquisitive blue eyes and the fun little boy freckles. Eight was such a wonderful age, full of creativity and fun. I hope Nine is even better!

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The Stories Pictures Tell

Usually I don’t have my camera on me when I walk Brandon to school. This day, because I was going to go take pictures of the park in the snow after I dropped him off, I did. I love this picture of Brandon, because of the story it tells. The story of a boy, 8 years old, walking to school. The story of our morning walks on this road to school with no sidewalk, small Italian cars zooming by and other kids on their way to school. The story of where we live right now, with the bell tower in the distance and Italian cross-walk sign. The story of this morning, where it snowed in March and I decided to enjoy it creatively instead of being annoyed by it. All of those stories in one photograph. Amazing.

I have been thinking of the stories of my photos because I’ve found this fun website, Creative Every Day, which has a year long challenge. The theme for March is stories. I’m finding it interesting to participate and think about my art and creativity in light of this month’s theme, and to see what others are doing. If you are similarly interested, check it out!

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Walking through Time

Brandon walking on a Roman road in Nice, France. Two thousand years ago, other kids walked on this same road. People came and went on their daily lives. So many people, so many stories, so much time.

There is such a different concept of time and history here in Italy and Europe. When we see and experience things like this road first hand, it makes me feel like we are such babies in the US in a historical sense. Makes me wonder what will last of our country and culture that we have today. The Romans were such a mighty empire, and now all that is left is the remnants and rocks. When you think about it, we wouldn’t even have that much left of our everyday lives. Our building materials are much less permanent. The knowledge that has been gained through generations of human history could easily be lost completely, if some gigantic natural or human disaster occurred across the globe.

We are but a blink in the eye of time. Isn’t it interesting, what a different perspective just walking on an ancient rode can give?

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Patterns

Everywhere there are patterns. In our behaviors, our preferences and in the world around us. This is one thing I’ve always loved about engineering, finding the patterns so that you can solve the problem.

This kind of brickwork is a very common European pattern. I love how the individual squares are used to create these arcs. This image is of Patrick and Brandon’s shadows on a street in Bolzano.

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