Kat Eye Studio

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Night Scenes

Here is Bolzano, at night. It was an pretty town, but amazingly quiet as soon as the stores closed. Very few restaurants open past 8 or 8:30pm. It’s like it’s not even Italy! Things are barely getting starting in restaurants around Milan at that time. My colleagues told me that this region is “not really Italy” but I guess I had to live it myself to believe it. It also shows how much we’ve gotten used to “Italian time” and come to expect certain things to be a certain way. It was a little reminder that’s not true! That’s what travel does for you, keeps you from getting complacent in how you think the world “is” – you realize that things in the world are a lot more relative than you had come to believe.

I’ve gotten much more into night photography lately, as this photo attests. Part of it has been the time change, we are out a lot more at night. When we travel in the summer and the days are soooo long – we barely make it to dark and we’re done. We aren’t wandering at midnight with an 8 year old in tow. 🙂 So, in winter, I find that I’ve gotten to enjoy taking photos at night of more places. It’s cold, but it’s nothing some warm clothes and a periodic hot chocolate can’t solve.

The other part of the increase in night photography has been this wonderful new 35mm lens I got in December, which has an aperture of a whopping 1.4 and allows me to just get more light into the camera. It has extended the range of light I can use to take photos while still hand holding the camera. It’s enough that I tote around my big lenses (2 now!), I’m not interested in carrying a tripod and then setting it up, etc. So this lens does a fabulous job of extending my range at night while still keeping me mobile. It’s like a whole new world to photograph!

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Back to Amsterdam

I’ve had this photo of Amsterdam stuck in my head lately, so this weekend I went and found it to share. This photo to me says “Amsterdam” maybe in a way that no other does. It’s the bike, the architecture. But not only that, I love that the bike is personalized. In a place with so many bicycles, a few people went a little step beyond to make theirs recognizable. With flowers, ribbon, special paint jobs. Bicycle as transportation, but also as a means of personal expression. I love it!

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To the Sea

This weekend we went to Genova (aka Genoa), on the Mediterranean Sea, about 2 hours from here. It was an interesting port town, with a large medieval and rennaisance historic city center. This image is from Boccadasse, a small fishing hamlet down the coast from the city center. It was an interesting little village with colored buidings, narrow alleys up and down the steep hills leading to the sea. Going to a place like this is such a delight, when you have no preconceived ideas and never know what you might find. Things are often much better without expectations, don’t you think?

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Sometimes it’s just Pretty

That’s what I think of this photo of Bellagio on Lake Como. Just pretty. Pretty day, pretty flowers, pretty mountains, pretty town. It’s nice to just appreciate something pretty, so today here is my gift to you – this image!

There is a note on a 3×5 card on my magnet board I’ve had there for a while – “There is one action I can take for my creativity daily. What is it for today?” It’s a reminder that even when life is overwhelming, work is totally busy, I’m not having a lot of personal time for stuff I would like to do… there is one thing I can do each day for my creativity. And if I do that one thing, however small, I remain more centered, happy and true to myself because expressing my creativity is something that is a need for me in my life.

What I’ve realized in the last few days is that this photo a day effort has become this “one thing” for me in a lot of ways. Every day, I’m picking out a photo and reflecting on it a bit. I enjoy that, because it’s amazing what surprising things sometimes come out by just writing about an image. I get to share it with whoever reads this blog, which I enjoy as well. And it inspires me in other ways – to do a painting of an image that strikes me, to look for more pictures to share, to keep taking photos as we go on our adventures, to refine my eye as I progress in my photography.

So, thanks for being part of my little creative adventure here! I hope that you can also find one little thing today that inspires you.

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Quiet Evening

This photo is from Bergamo alta citta (high city), a beautiful town about 30 minutes away from here. The old part of the city, alta citta, is on a hill and goes back to Roman days. It has its own architecture and personality and it’s not very touristy, it’s one of my favorite cities in Italy so far. This was a rainy evening we visited with my Mom, sister and cousin when they first arrived. I loved all of the reflections of the window light on the paving stones, and the umbrellas.