Kat Eye Studio

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A Deep Breath

It’s funny, I feel as if I am surfacing for air today. After being pulled down into the Spiral of Creativity with A Sense of Place I am able to take a breath after the launch of registration. I’m always amazed at how this spiral works. How it catches me up sometimes in the currents of creativity, and how much effort and focus it takes to complete something. I’m not done, but I’m in a calm pool for the moment, floating along and catching my breath.

Today’s photo is what I needed to pause for calm, to catch my breath. The color, the simplicity, a frame of beauty found in an alleyway. A respite in the spiral, before I dive back in. Do you ever get pulled into the Spiral of Creativity? How do you catch your breath when that happens?

Today is the last day for linking in to February’s Photo-Heart Connection. I can’t believe it’s been 7 days already! There are such beautiful connections this month. Thank you so much for sharing them, and for visiting each other and connecting at a heart level. I love seeing these heart connections form. There is still room for you to join in today.

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Power of Ordinary People

Lasting changes and improvements are made through the cumulative effects of individual actions. Heroic figures grasp the opportunities of movements and perform in a way that catches the imagination of a civilization and mobilizes a collective response, be even these actions ultimately receive their power from the responses of ordinary people.
— Shaun McNiff in Trust the Process

“Ordinary people.” Hey, that’s us.
“Individual actions.” We do this every day.

Is there power in the individual actions of ordinary people? I believe there is. I believe that each of us, through what we create each day, bring something of value to the world. In countless tiny ways, we create the existence around us. Artistic creation is but one aspect of the lives we create each day.

A while ago I received this quote on my Yogi tea bag, “Our thoughts are forming the world.” I set it aside, I didn’t get it at the time. I mean really, the world is made up of things not thoughts, my logical mind protested. Sometime later I realized that all of these things around us, with the exception of nature, began as thoughts. Someone thought they could create a light bulb. Someone thought they could capture light with chemicals, and later with electronic circuits, to create a camera. Someone thought they would build a building, or a town, or a country. Our world is changed, formed, by thoughts which begin in the minds of individuals.

It’s not just the big invention-type thoughts that matter though, those are only tangible examples to show the concept that things start as thoughts. For everything we do, our actions start as thoughts. Our practice of creativity helps to form those thoughts, helps to link ideas in new ways. Our practice of creativity gives us power: new ideas lead to new actions which change the world within or around us in a million tiny ways.

“Every one of us has something distinct to offer to the all-encompassing process of creativity,” McNiff goes on to say later in the book. Do you see how it is true? McNiff wrote his book, I read it today and re-interpret it here, you read and re-interpret it again. You think about it, form your own opinion. Each connection, each thought, is part of the overall creative process.

A creative process which is available to ordinary people. Sparking change which begins and ends with ordinary people. People like you and me.

Consider your power, as an ordinary person taking individual action, no matter how big or small. How will you use it today?

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Energy from Outside the Zone

If you tend toward order in you daily actions, experiment with the expressive chaos and imbalance. If you are generally impulsive in your habitual ways, focus for a wile on orderly and calculated movements. Try to access unfamiliar roles. There is tremendous energy in whatever is antithetical to the norm.
— Shaun McNiff in Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go

Have you ever noticed this? That sometimes, when you do something that is opposite to your normal routine or nature, you get a burst of energy. While it can be uncomfortable, it can also be fun and liberating.

It takes a bit of a reminder at times, a push to get out of our comfort zones. The participants in my Find Your Eye: Journey of Recognition class are doing it right now, so this quote resonated when I read it today.

And it made me think. Have I been outside of my comfort zone lately? Maybe a little. This expansive landscape shot is different than my usual city scene. But it’s not that far out of my comfort zone. Not really. I need to challenge myself to step out a bit further to get that boost of energy that comes from trying something new.

How about you? Have you stepped outside of your comfort zone lately?

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Exploring with a Camera: Silhouettes

Welcome to February’s installment of Exploring with a Camera! In this exploration we’re going to be looking at Silhouettes — how to capture and effectively use them in your photographs.

Lately, if I have my camera in my hand, it’s because I’m seeking the silhouettes of the trees against the early morning or late evening sky. Perhaps it’s because we’ve had an unusually clear winter here in Oregon, or maybe it’s just what I’m noticing now, but the shapes of the trees against the sky have been fascinating me. Have you ever noticed how different each type of tree looks in silhouette?

Silhouettes are all about shape. You take all dimension, all form, out of an object when captured in silhouette. This can be challenging, since you have to learn to see the shapes, and how they merge together, in order to compose your photograph. You may not realize how much information your brain infers from the knowledge of a 3D form until you distill it down into the 2D shapes using silhouettes. Not only that, but exposure when capturing silhouettes is not always straightforward. This makes exploring silhouettes a great learning opportunity!

Elements of an Effective Silhouette

Chances are, you achieve silhouettes in your images all the time without even thinking about it. There are a few elements that you need to create an effective silhouette in an image:

  • A light source behind your foreground object(s) in silhouette. The light source can range from back light to almost being side light, but the more directly behind the object the light is, the more of a silhouette you will achieve. The light doesn’t have to be particularly strong or directional, as shown in this example of my husband and son peering into an aquarium window.

    Even in side light, you can at times achieve a strong silhouette but some of your object may be highlighted. (See Exploring with a Camera: Rimmed with Light for an exploration of side light.) In this example below, even though it is full daylight and the light is a bit to the side, my son is a silhouette against the sky.

  • You need strong contrast between your object in silhouette and background. The background needs background to be lighter than the object in silhouette. The more contrast, the more the silhouette shape will pop. In this example, the tree is strongly contrasted against the morning fog. Converting to black and white increases the contrast, making the detail of the tree branches clearly visible.
    Reflections of light off of surfaces, like water or pavement, can enhance the contrast. The silhouette of this boat in the Venetian lagoon is created using water as the backdrop.
  • You need a recognizable shape. Unless you are working to create an abstract image, you have to pay close attention to the shapes of the object in your foreground. Multiple elements will blend together to get one shape when seen in silhouette. Being able to recognize how the shapes blend with each other and interact with the background is an important part of achieving a silhouette. In this moment of connection captured, it was important to ensure the figures weren’t merged so much as to not be recognizable. The space between their feet and the shadow helps keep the shape identifiable.

    A complex shape can be made more recognizable by effectively using any openings. In the case of the image below, the openings make the shipwreck on the Oregon coast an effective and recognizable silhouette.

Exposing for a Silhouette

Exposing to achieve a silhouette can be tricky. In-camera meters seek to achieve an average “mid-tone grey” exposure across the frame. When you have strong contrast of dark and light, as in the case of a silhouette, the camera will often choose settings that overexpose – making the background too light and capturing detail in the silhouetted object you may not want.

Since you want the contrast of black silhouette (with no detail) on light background (with most of the detail), you will want to underexpose relative to the camera’s meter reading. Depending on your lighting situation, you may need to underexpose 1 to 2 stops. If you manually choose your settings, this is straightforward. If you use the automated settings on your camera, there are a couple of ways to underexpose:

  • Use Auto-Exposure (*AE) Lock. With this feature, you aim your camera so that the background fills the viewfinder, lock the exposure, then recompose your image with the silhouette where you want it. When you press the shutter the camera focuses and takes the picture, but the exposure was set when you locked it. The exposure resets each time you take the picture.
  • Use Exposure Compensation (+/-Av). With this feature, you choose how much you want to underexpose your image, such as -2/3 or -1 stop. When you press the shutter button, the camera focuses and meters the exposure, then compensates the settings to underexpose as you instructed. This setting remains each time you take the picture, until you change it.

Revisit your camera manual to get the details on how to use these settings for your camera.

Capturing a stained-glass window, such as this gorgeous one found in Heidelberg, Germany, is the kind of situation where you will struggle if you rely on the camera’s automated settings. The camera’s attempt to get an average mid-tone grey across the frame would result in the window being completely “blown out,” or overexposed, with no detail. By underexposing relative to the camera’s meter, exposing for the windows only, you allow the dark areas to be black and you capture the detail of the windows.

You can also adjust your image in post-processing to increase the silhouette effect. If I still have detail in the dark areas, I will darken the shadows in order to increase the overall contrast. I may also lighten the background, but that can in turn begin to reveal detail in the silhouette you don’t want. It’s a give and take, so play around in your post-processing to see what you can do to create silhouettes. In the image below, taken in Salzburg, Austria, I exposed to achieve a silhouette in the towers against the sky, but still had some visible detail in the foreground next to the river. In post-processing, I increased my contrast by darkening the shadows, which created a more uniform black silhouette throughout the image.

Using Silhouettes

Silhouettes can be used as the subject of an image, as in the case of many of the examples already shared, or to set off other elements by their contrast. For example, in this image from the Amalfi Coast of Italy, the silhouette grounds the image and provides contrast for the interesting light in the sky and on the water.

In this image from Venice, the silhouette of the Bell Tower serves as a backdrop, enhancing the sense of place fo the lamp. It’s a simple image, yet it screams “Venice” to me due to the inclusion of the silhouette in the background.

There is something appealing to me about the simplicity of distilling an object down to its shape. I find the emotional impact is greater by the simplification a silhouette provides. The image of the couple in embrace becomes “love” or my son with his hands thrown wide becomes “joy.” A silhouette turns an object into a graphic representation, cutting to the essence and imparting a different meaning than if the object were seen in full light.

I hope after reading this you have become as fascinated by silhouettes as I have been lately. Look through your archive, or go out exploring with your camera to find new silhouettes and come back here to share. This link up will remain open through 24 February. I can’t wait to see your silhouettes!



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The Tao of Photography

I’m a bit sad this morning, because I finished a good book, Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing. I enjoy my contemplative reading in the morning, with a cup of Hot Cinnamon Spice tea. It’s even better when it’s an inspirational book related to photography like this one. I hated to see it end.

The book equated what the authors call “conscious camerawork” with the principles of the Taoist philosophies of Chuang-Tzu. While I have not studied these principles before, I have found that my approach to photography fits much of what they describe: Photography as a way to be more conscious in the world; a way to be in the moment, even a form of meditation.

I’ve thought of photography as meditation before. I’ve tried traditional meditation once or twice, attempted to sit and clear my mind of thoughts, but did not have much success. Yet when I am in the moment with my camera, my mind is clear. My presence is wholly there. I see things differently. Ordinary can become extraordinary.

Case in point, this image showing the detail of a painted newspaper box contrasted with a tile wall. It took working the scene with my camera to notice the details of the handpainting. To see the contrast of the color, the lines and the textures. A moment of meditation, finding an amazing detail in the every day world. How had I not seen this before? I had walked by here many times.

For me, photography is more about process than end result. I hesitate to admit the number of photos I take and don’t review. Or if I review, I don’t edit. Why? Because I got what I needed from the process at the time of capture. A brief moment of intentional consciousness, provided by the process of photography. That I get some wonderful images out of that process is a huge bonus, but not always the goal.

Tao of Photography talks a little bit about this, near the end:

Shocking as it may sound at first, the art of living and the meaning of life both lie in the sheer experience of beingness, and can be reached by simply allowing oneself to be and to relax into the ceaseless process of life. When a photographer comes to experience the intrinsic existential richness and beauty of life by practicing conscious camerawork, the goals of achieving artistic “perfection” and “immortality” may lose some of their appeal.

Maybe this is part of what I’m looking for with the photo-heart connection. It’s not about the end result, a perfect image, but the way I feel all the way through.

What about you? Is photography about process or end result for you?

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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.