Kat Eye Studio

by

What a Scooter Sighting can teach about the Process of Elimination

Oh, how heavenly it was, to be back in the land of scooters! I didn’t spot any scooters in my excursions around Yorkshire, but London had a nice selection of scooters to photograph. I’ve come to realize that my little scooter photography obsession is as much about place as it is about scooters. Usually when I’m capturing a scooter sighting, I try to find out if I can find an interesting composition that tells you about the place the scooter was parked, through the context I choose to include. Interesting scooters and interesting places, a perfect combination!

When I have a scooter sighting, it’s the perfect opportunity to use the Process of Elimination, which we’re studying this month in Exploring with a Camera. This wonderful scooter was spotted on the Hampstead workshop photowalk, just off Brick Lane. I thought it might be interesting to share my Process of Elimination for this image. All of the images shared are straight out of the camera except for the final edit.

The first sighting was from walking down the sidewalk behind the scooter. It’s an interesting scooter, not your usually cute one, but I thought the chairs would be great to include. It wasn’t a busy street (thankfully) so I stepped out across/into the street to explore the scene. The first shot I tried was vertical, going with the lines of the scooter.

The vertical orientation doesn’t include enough of the chairs, which really add interest to the scene. The background becomes more of a distraction with this framing, with bits and pieces of too many things. So, the next step was to try horizontal.

Better! Got the chairs, the interesting window with the reflections, the graffiti. But the scooter is too high in the frame. The foreground of the road is doing nothing for this image. I want more of the interesting background. As I framed up the next image, this guy walked buy. Quick, catch him in a good spot!

OK, I like where he is in the frame but this image is not really what I was looking for in the scooter sighting. He’s a distraction. So I capture essentially the same frame without the guy.

You will note that I included the car on the right in the frame. That was intentional. I had the framing mostly the way I wanted it, but including a little extra would give me the most to work with later for cropping since I didn’t have time to work the scene further. I needed to move on, as the rest of the participants in the class had moved way up the street and I was lucky I hadn’t been run over by a car by this time.

Into Lightroom for crop and edit when I got back home, and here’s the final image again:

An interesting scooter in an interesting place — I couldn’t ask for more in a scooter sighting! I’m going into scooter withdrawal now that I’m home. The only one I see is in my garage, and believe me, that’s not a place you want to see! If you sight a scooter, please share it with me on Instagram or Twitter using #scootersighting. I need to get my fix one way or another. 🙂

Have you been thinking about the Process of Elimination this last week? How has the idea of eliminating what is not essential to your message affected your capture or edit of images? Please share with us! You can link your exploration into the comments on the original post here. There are a couple of folks already linked in, so be sure to visit to see what they’ve found. And how do you like the process of linking into the comments? Would you rather have a linky? Let me know! I’m on the fence myself. I kind of miss the linky.

PS – I’m off to the Vancouver Gathering with David duChemin this weekend. Yay! I’ll be away from the blog for a few days, but I’ll tell you all about it next week!

by

Sit a While

The lodges in National Parks I’ve visited are always similar… rugged timber construction, fabulous locations and a place to sit and enjoy the view. There is always a row of chairs, rocking or otherwise, placed where you can sit and just be. Notice how they are empty? Not so many people take the time to do that. We keep busy. Have to see this, do that. Fill up our time.

I am struck by these images of inviting but empty chairs. Where are all the people? They were certainly around, but not sitting. I wasn’t sitting. The empty chairs perfectly highlight what I just read in The Practice of Contemplative Photography this morning:

[W]hy can’t we relax when we have nothing to do and enjoy a little bit of space in our lives? The problem is we are afraid of our own hearts. There are many, many things we haven’t wanted to look at. The heart is so sensitive, so ready to resonate with the world, that we keep it covered, fearing we won’t be able to stand being touched. It might be too intense. We might be overwhelmed. We can’t affort to open up, because who knows what we might feel. It seems safer to armor the heart, even if that shields us from the vitality of life… When you have nothing to do, whatever accumulated agitation, restlessness, or existential anxiety you might have begins to surface. You become aware of feelings that are normally submerged. Boredom is the forerunner of this distress and a signal that you should seek some diversion to hold your heart at bay.

This rings true… it’s hard to sit a while and just be. It’s hard to open that channel to our hearts. We don’t know what we might feel, so it’s better to keep it wrapped up safely and covered with all of our busy-ness. That’s why the Photo-Heart Connection has become so important to me and many others. It may not be sitting quietly with our selves while looking at a fabulous view, but it is a process that allows the heart to open. It allows us to feel the messages that are there for us, just under the armor we’ve created by filling our lives with things to do.

Today is the last day to link in to the Photo-Heart Connection for July. I invite you to sit a while today. Enjoy the view. Connect with your heart, and the hearts of others in some way. Join us.

by

Photo-Heart Connection: June

The spare chair.

It beckons.

It doesn’t look comfortable, nor especially pretty. But for some reason, it invites me to come and sit down for a while. It begs for a friend to sit across from me. Sipping a cup of tea, and watching the world go by on the sidewalk beyond.

I can feel myself on this chair. Sitting forward on the edge. My feet on the lower rail, wrapping ankles around the leg. My elbows on the table, my hands around my cup. Looking intently at my companion, as she talks.

I can feel myself shifting the chair, the sound of metal scraping on concrete, to turn the chair out from the table. Leaning against the hard back, legs crossed, as I quietly watch the busy street. Cars going by, pedestrians moving in and out of shops. Snippets of conversation and laughter float by.

The world moving around me as I sit. And watch. And listen. And observe.

The spare chair beckons. I think I’ll sit for a while.

My Photo-Heart Connection seems to be about rest this month. It’s about pausing for a moment to just watch the world around me. Instead of charging ahead, moving forward, always being the one with a plan. But maybe not cushy rest… the spare chair invites me to active rest. Observation as part of the environment. It is fitting, as I head away on vacation for a week, to be reminded of what I need to do. Watch. Observe. Listen. I am so anxious to get to a new place with my camera, to explore again. This has been a month full of creativity with my painting and my printing but not in the way of quiet observation that so calls to me in photography. The spare chair reminds me of what I need to do this week.

I’ll be away from the computer much of the week, but I will be coming by when I can to visit all of your Photo-Heart Connections. Don’t be surprised if I’m late this month. I hope that those of you participating will pick up my slack and visit each other. As powerful as seeking your own Photo-Heart Connection is, there is power in witnessing the heart connections of others. We learn to see deeper, to see differently, from each other. We may find our kindred spirits on this journey through life. I’ll see you back here on the blog in a week or so.


by

Spaces & Places

I’ve got places and spaces on the brain this morning! This morning I started the “Creating with the Environment” chapter in Trust the Process by Shaun McNiff. He talks about our physical spaces and response to places in the creative process. I love this line:

We create together with our physical environments and don’t always appreciate how their qualities contribute to our expression.

True for any type of artist, but even more so for photographers. For many of us, the physical environment is the raw material of our creation. We capture and compose from the environment. Like today’s photo… While the owner of the house created this beautiful space on the porch to sit and relax, I captured it to share the idea of cheery relaxation with all of you. Someone else created the place, but I create with it too. So very fun.

Since I love to explore and photograph places, my environment has become my creative fuel. We really explored the concepts behind creating with places in A Sense of Place, the 8-week course that just wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. It was awesome! I love how much I learn by organizing my thoughts into a class and sharing them with a group. I am in awe of how much I gain from the discussion and interaction with the course participants. This week I read the feedback from the class participants, as they shared their impressions of the class. I get a little giddy sometimes, realizing that these ideas of mine have made an impression on someone else too. You can read a few of the comments, newly added to my class information page here. Pretty darn cool that I can do something I love so much and have it resonate with others too! How lucky am I?

I can’t wait to run A Sense of Place again, in spring of 2013. Until then, I’ll continue exploring the spaces and places around me. They are the fuel of my creative expression. What fuels you?

by

Find Your Voice

The last thing we need is more homogeny in the world of art. Once you’ve found your vision, find your voice, but make sure it’s your own. That takes courage.
— David duChemin in the conclusion of Photographically Speaking

I’m in a contemplative mood this morning, having finally just finished David duChemin’s latest book, Photographically Speaking. While I’m a voracious reader of fiction, I’m not a fast reader when it comes to books on art, creativity or spirituality. I like to take my time, sip my tea, and contemplate. It didn’t help that this book has only a two-week checkout at the library. I’ve had to put it on hold and check it out three times. Now that I’ve finished, I’ve decided I need to buy the darn book already!

But the quote above really resonated with me this morning. He talks about finding your voice in photography, which I call “finding your eye.” It does take courage to be yourself in your art. To learn from others and then step to the side, sometimes discarding what you have learned. To say, “This is me. Here I am, take it or leave it.” We get worried about the “leave it” part of that statement. But the fact is… we can’t make everyone happy, with our art or otherwise. And we can’t be anyone other than who we are. So we might as well take a deep breath and work to create our own unique vision and voice.

This is probably catching my interest because we’re about to start a new session of Find Your Eye this next Sunday. Registration closes tomorrow, and later this week a new group will begin to gather to start their journey. I love these journeys. The anticipation and uncertainty at the beginning which gives way to confidence and strength by the end.

David’s right: “The last thing we need is more homogeny in the world of art.” Each of us has something new, different and fresh to add. Isn’t that a wonderful thought to contemplate today?

by

I’ve Found my Eye, how about you?

Here it is, a quintessentially Kat image. It’s got color, texture and is a scene that shares the spirit of place. It’s the beauty that exists in the everyday world around us with no intervention. This image is from the port of Fira, on Santorini island in Greece. It’s at the bottom of the long path that the donkeys and their handlers take, carrying people up and down the steep hillside between the town and the port. It’s where the handlers sit and chat, but they were elsewhere at this moment. Perfect for me.

So many good things have come out of my time in Italy, and one of the absolute best has been finding my “eye” or photographic style. I was never so empowered as when I finally cried, “Yes, this is me!” I realized I am an artist, I have a voice and a vision to share with the world through my photographs.

I believe we all have a voice and unique vision to share with the world in our photography, and I want to help you find yours. I’ve developed the Find Your Eye class series to do just that! Registration for the next class series will start in early July and the first course will start late July. Today I’m giving you the details on the first two classes below, and the same information is available here. If you want to be notified when registration opens, I’ll announce it here on the blog or you can sign up for my newsletter to have it direct to your inbox. I hope you’ll join me in taking the next step in your photography, to Find Your Eye. (And if you’re not interested, no worries! My blog, Exploring with a Camera and all of my normal stuff will continue on as usual. The Kat Eye View of the World will not become a forum for incessant advertising for my classes. I have too much other good stuff to share!)

The Journey to Find Your Eye
Maybe you’ve been photographing for a while and you love it, but you wonder if you have a “style” to your photography. Maybe you see glimpses of your “eye” in your images, but find it elusive. You read interviews with photographers saying you have to find your own style. But how? The Find Your Eye: Journey is here to help! Instead of teaching you the technical basics of your camera or photo processing, this course series enhances the personal expression and creative connection you find in your artistic practice with photography.
We start the series off with the two week Starting the Journey foundation class where I’ll introduce you to the basic tools and exercises used throughout the course series. You’ll set up the tools of photojournal and inspiration file, then use them for the photojournal prompts and eye development exercises which help you look within as well as explore the world around you. By the end of this short course, you’ll have a good start on recognizing your eye and you’ll have the foundation you need to take any of the other courses in the series. Starting the Journey is a low time and money commitment, why not try it out and see if you want to continue the journey to Find Your Eye?
Find Your Eye: Starting the Journey
Duration: 2 weeks
Dates: July 24 – August 6, 2011
Lesson Frequency: 2 per week
Cost: $29
Registration will open in early July. See FAQ for logistics information.

Once you’ve started the journey, you are ready to explore new horizons and deepen the understanding of your style. The four week Find Your Eye: Journey of Recognition class continues with photojournal prompts and eye development exercises, all designed to help you dive more deeply into experiencing the environment around you as well as understanding what calls to you. By the end of the four weeks you will have developed a much greater sense of your own unique photographic style. Along the way you’ll have a fun, nurturing community of classmates from around the world to help you learn, share and grow your creative expression. 
Find Your Eye: Journey of Recognition
Duration: 4 weeks
Dates: August 14 – September 10, 2011
Lesson Frequency: 2 per week
Prerequisite: Starting the Journey
Cost: $69
Registration will open in early July. See FAQ for logistics information.
You will be able to register for both Starting the Journey and Journey of Recognition together for $83. That’s a 15% savings over registering for each course individually.
Your registration gives back! 10% of all registration fees will be donated to a great cause. I’m excited to once again support Nest, which has the wonderful mission of helping women in countries around the world make a living wage through traditional arts and crafts. Not only do you get to learn something new, you get to support others. How great is that!

Have questions? Drop me a note kat [at] kateyestudio.com and I’ll answer them for you.

Here’s what past students, just like you, have said about the Find Your Eye course:
I really enjoyed this course so much! There was a convivial, friendly tone that made it easy to feel a part of the group and to share photos, knowing there would be no negative judgment. Instead, there was such kind, positive support. In addition to your photographic expertise, […] what stands out for me in this course is your accessibility and personal interest in each of your students.– Christianna Pierce
I felt like I was face-to-face even though we were all miles apart. Your course was of high quality and you engaged with your participants so we were encouraged to participate and could learn from each other. It was a like a real classroom not online material we had to muddle through on our own. — Terrill Welch  
It’s a fantastic, amazing, beautiful, enlightening process… [The photojournal prompts] gave me a lot to think about in regards to my work. I loved the eye development exercises. They really broadened my view of what I see through the lens and life in general. — Annie Kelleher
I loved the photojournal prompt section. It was enjoyable looking at everyone’s different perspectives and styles and made me think more about why I take photos and what I look for when I aim my camera. The eye development exercises were a great opportunity to consider the way I see the world through my lens. I liked that I could work through exercises at my own pace and alter them however I want to.– Stephanie Sadler
[The photojournal prompts are] not something I would have done on my own, but now it’s something I look forward to doing. I think journaling and writing is an important part of learning about ourselves as artists. I liked how [the eye development exercises] got us looking at different things and trying new subjects. I can tell a lot of effort went into this on your end. It was well thought out and well structured. — Marji T.
My favorite thing about the course was seeing the photos and reading the words of teacher and participants. It was helpful to see different styles, interests, perspectives… and to know a bit about the photographer (at this time in her life/photo journey). I felt encouraged… never ignored… even though my experience was limited and my equipment less advanced than others. — Sharon B.
Sign up for the blog newsletter (on the sidebar) to be the first notified when registration opens! 

Upcoming Events