Kat Eye Studio

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Cupcakes with a Cherry on Top

Did you know, that frosting doesn’t exist in Italy? At least not the yummy butter cream frosting we make in the US using lots of confectioner’s sugar. In most stores you only find small little packets of confectioner’s sugar, like the size of taco seasoning packets, for sprinkling a little bit on top of your sweets. So we were happy to find cupcakes with yummy frosting in England. We stopped into this tea room in the afternoon for a spot of tea and a sweet. Mmmmmm….

And today I have another “sweet” to share with you. Earlier this week my friend Karen gave me a Cherry on Top blog award. How sweet of her! I loved being honored in that way on her blog, and I want to continue the good vibes by fulfilling the requirements of the award myself.

First, thanks go to Karen! Stop by her blog and say hi. She is a wonderful photographer and a talented papercrafter. She is one of my longer-term online friends, we’ve been sharing our love of photography together since taking an ecourse in 2007.

Second, I am supposed to list three things I love about myself. Why is this so hard to do? Let’s see, I love my positive outlook on life, that I make the most of opportunities that come my way, and that I am a good learner. That last one has served me well over and over again in life.

Finally, pass the award along to bloggers you love. This is the very best part, because I’ve been wanting to share with you some of the amazing inspiration I see every day here in the blogosphere, and this has given me the motivation. I can’t list them all, but here are a few that have enjoyed reading on a regular basis.

Gina of Here and Now. I found Gina through the Creative Every Day challenge (which deserves a nod of its own) and have enjoyed getting to know her through her blog of photos and travels. It is her admitted love of chairs, and the fact that I enjoyed seeing her periodic chair pictures, that made me realize that others may not get bored if I post more than one window picture or doorstep picture. In fact, they may even like it. It doesn’t all have to be about variety, it’s ok to have a “theme” that you are inspired to capture and share. That realization has been part of my creative journey and finding my eye photographically. Thanks for that Gina!

Patty of Nomadic Notebook. I connected to Patty earlier this year through the Flying Lessons e-course, and I love the images and words she posts on her blog. Her words always remind me to live consciously, in the present, and her passion to help others connect with their true selves really resonates with me! I am inspired by what she is doing.

Veronika of Notes to Self. I think I’ve run into Veronika online in various venues, but I remember specifically finding Veronika’s blog because she was commenting on my Croatia photos. Croatia is her home country, and I wanted to see who this was commenting. I was captured by her illustration style and have fallen in love with the words that she adds to them. They add a twist on the image that never fails to captivate me!

While I normally don’t participate in chain letter-like emails or notes on Facebook, and this blog award is similar, I couldn’t pass up the reminder to say “thanks” to a few of the people who have inspired me with their art or their words.

I hope you all enjoy your cupcakes today, with a cherry on top.

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Exploring with a Camera: Spirals

Spirals are a beautiful shape. They have marvelous curves and convey energy and motion. Not only that, they are a truly efficient form used in nature, and we see them so many places in our every day lives!

While I have captured spirals with my camera countless times, the first place I truly became aware of the spiral form explicitly was in the Barcelona Science Museum. The exhibit on forms found in nature had this to say:

The spiral is a circumference that twists away on the plane that contains it. It is the best way of growing without occupying too much space. It is frequently found in animals when there exists the contradictory need for something massive, voluminous, broad or long that does not affect mobility (horns, tails, tongues, trunks, shells, etc.) and in plants to grow something that will subsequently be unrolled. If we unrolled all the spirals we have at home (kitchen and toilet paper, audio and video tapes, adhesive tape, records, springs….) we would be forced to leave the house, as we would not all fit.

Wow! I had never thought of it that way. The typical form in nature that comes to mind for me is the shell (above, from Barcelona Science Museum), but there are so many other places you will see it. Take this photo of a gardenia, for example, from my online friend Barbara:

So gorgeous! Mother nature really knows what she is doing in these things (and so does Barbara). 🙂

Our man-made world copies nature to use the function of spirals. I don’t personally have any photos of toilet paper, but the common spiral staircase, like this one in Verona, is a good example.

And I will spare you the countless spiral staircase photos I have of lighthouses on the Oregon coast! I can’t step into one without capturing the wonderful curves and lines of them. (In prepping for this post I learned that technically, this is not a spiral because it is not all on the same plane – it’s a helix. But you’ll forgive me if I claim artistic license here, won’t you?)

Even more than function, humans copy the form of spirals in our everyday world. The Romans used them, as I discovered in this floor mosaic in the British Museum:

The Greeks used them, in their ionic columns. (Thanks to my 9-year-old son, I’ve relearned which are Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Ionic have the spirals.) These columns are used all over in architecture, here’s just one example I caught in Bath:

And they are used all the time in wrought iron work, as I’ve noticed here in my travels in Europe. Here’s a light post in Bath:

My favorite wrought iron spiral of all time is this railing in Amsterdam. Talk about function following form! What graceful curves…

An architect who used spirals over and over in his work was Antoni Gaudí, in Barcelona. He took much of his inspiration from nature, and this ceiling detail is but one example.

We see spirals every day, even if you haven’t noticed it lately. I captured these two images of bus shelter advertisements in different cities on our recent trip to England. Spirals are used in graphic arts to denote natural beauty and to convey energy. They catch your eye and draw you in.

Keep your eye out for spirals around you. Here are a few ideas:
1. Look at home. All of those rolls of paper! And then there are spiral notebooks, springs, even toys (hello, Slinky!). What is there with spirals, sitting right next to you?
2. Look at nature. Flowers, ferns, vines, shells all show spirals. Water moves in spirals, think whirlpools and breaking waves. How can you capture them? What else can you find?
3. Look at architecture. Staircases and wrought iron are two I’ve mentioned, what others do you see?
4. Look at art and design. Artist have used spirals in their work for thousands of years, and the golden spiral or golden ratio is a fundamental compositional principle (see a short and helpful explanation here). What traditional and modern uses of spirals can you find?

I can’t wait to see your spirals! Join in and share them in the Flickr group.

PS – If you want to do more exploring with your camera, visit past posts here.

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Reflecting on Growth

Sometimes, something new comes along that shakes up your comfortable little world. Sometimes that something is “bad” – a crisis of some sort – but sometimes it’s “good.” Either one can shake things up. I’m experiencing a “good” shake up right now, with joining the Mortal Muses. I was working on my first post last night (to be posted tomorrow), and it was more challenging than I thought. It was a different way of working with photos and writing, it was uncomfortable, stretching me in different ways. It feels scary, putting myself out there to a new audience.

It made me realize that I have gotten comfortable here on my blog, with my photographs and words, with my routine every day. And that’s a great thing! There is a confidence and freedom that comes with knowing what I am going to do, how I want do it, and loving it each step of the way. But it is also good to stretch, to grow, to run up against those familiar old fears again and battle them down, to see things from a new angle. I can see that I need this new stretch, and it’s going to be good for me. We don’t grow by staying safe and comfortable.

I am reminded this morning that the right things always seem come along for me when I need them, when I am ready. I just have to be open to receiving their messages. Do you find that true for you too?

(Today’s photo from our hotel room in Bath, England. I love the multiple planes and angles that are visible in this image! Kind of looking inside out.)

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Mail Time!

Wouldn’t you love to get mail in a door like this? I know I would! I loved all of the door letter slots I saw Bath, adding to the door personality. The ones marked LETTERS are cool, but kind of humorous to me. What else would the slot be for? Milk delivery? I found it interesting that much in England is labeled or named. Many houses don’t just have an address, they have names like “Victoria House” and “Park View” etched in stone above the door. So I guess it’s only fair that the mail slot has equal labeling importance.

And today, it is important because it’s Postcard Drawing Day!  Many of you think that today is a holiday in the US because of Labor Day, but this is the real reason, so you can all be online to find out if you won, right away. Too bad I don’t speak enough Italian to convince the government here we need a day off for this momentous occasion as well. 🙂

And the winner is…. Lisa, of the White Cotton Tee photography blog, aka L Gordon on Flickr. There were 42 entries, after eliminating the duplicates and unidentifiable Anonymous “Happy Sunday” comment. And Lisa was number 6! Congrats Lisa, send me your snail mail address and the postcards will be on their way to you.

But, you are all winners, do you know why? Because if you commented to win, I will send you your very own postcard with a personal note. Just send me an email at kat[at]kateyeview[dot]com, identifying your comment and include your snail mail address. Who wouldn’t like some mail from Italy? I might even have to order more postcards, perhaps with a window theme as requested. Everyone deserves some happy mail! I enjoyed reading all of the comments and appreciate the participation in this first-ever giveaway of mine. (And don’t worry, I promise your personal information will never, ever be shared. I will send the postcards and delete all info!)

Another piece of great news I am excited to share today is that I’ve joined the Mortal Muses photography site as one of the nine muses. There is a post from one of the nine muses each day, with their photo on the current theme and one from the Flickr pool, where you can participate by uploading your photos for the next theme. I was so excited to see my photo selected a couple of weeks ago in the black and white theme, and now I get to wax poetic once every nine days and be part of this wonderful team of photographers! Come on over and start participating with us.

One final shout out today… My 9-year-old son and I are participating in the Wish.Play.Create playgroup in the wishstudio. You can still join in too! We just finished up the Week 1 project yesterday, Mixed Media Love by Shona Cole. We had fun together playing with paints and coming up with the poses to go with the artwork provided in the class. Brandon said I had to use my own pictures, I couldn’t use him, so I had to get in on the fun more than I had planned. I’m glad I did, because this finished card perfectly expresses how I’m feeling right now.

 Up, up and away, borne on the wind of creative dreams.

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Smile

I love this graffiti from a back alley in Bath. I don’t know that I’ve seen happy graffiti like this before. The words scribbled under it intrigue me too, “You might get hit by a bus tomorrow!” I’m not sure if the author of those words intends for you to smile because your life might be over soon or smile because you never know when life will end, but I prefer to interpret it as the latter myself. A reminder not to waste the life we have on frowns.

Happy smiley Sunday! I can’t wait to find out who is going to win the postcards tomorrow, can you? Today is the last day to enter.

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Symmetry and Conformity

“Georgian townhomes of Bath stone standing row upon row.” I wrote that in yesterday’s post on Door Personality, so today I thought I would show you what I meant with an image. There is wonderful symmetry in this place, the Circus in Bath. (Circus really just means “circle” for us American English speakers. No trapeze acts here.) A circle of houses, all built to the same design, using the local Bath stone. I originally tried converting this to black and white but you lose the warm color of the stone, so instead I just did some selective black and white to take out a tiny bit of distracting green from a few plants. I love the repeating patterns and lines along the curve of the street.

But in this place, there is no door personality. In this place, to maintain the original heritage of the site, the doors are all the same white, with very little room for personalization. This was a high end area (“posh” to use the British term) in it’s day, and still is now. Isn’t it interesting, that when you get to higher end neighborhoods, even in the USA, they are protected by covenants and rules and regulations to keep the look of them the same but also that reduces the opportunity for public expression. Granted, that is nice when you are a home owner and want the value of your property to remain high, but it’s also limiting.

So while I really love the lines and geometry of this place as art, it doesn’t give me the same heart-warming feel as yesterday’s door. I’ll add personality and non-conformity to the list of things that inspire me, like texture and peeling paint and imperfection. One more ray of light shed upon my soul through my photos.

PS – I forgot to mention on my Postcard Giveaway that I will be selecting the winner via random drawing. I am enjoying all of the convincing appeals that are coming through with the comments, however! You can still enter to win here until Sunday 5-Sep.

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