Kat Eye Studio

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A Round of Thanks

Colorful flowers and pots in the Corvallis, Oregon farmer's market

Farmer's Market Flowers in Corvallis, Oregon

Now that the website has launched and I can breathe easier, I have a few people to thank for their help in getting me to this point. This was not a solo project in the least!

My graphic/web designer, Eric Zempol of Thick Widget, was fantastic! He was able to take the site I had living in my head, create it and make it even better. While I needed his web design expertise to make the site, his graphic design skills were what I appreciated most. He helped make the site visually pleasing, easy to navigate, updated my logo and educated me in the process. Not only that, he made me laugh along the way. You’ve got to love a sense of humor in the people you work with! I would highly recommend Eric if you are looking for someone to create a WordPress site for you. Thanks go to my fellow muse Holly, aka soupatraveler, for connecting me to Eric.

My husband Patrick deserves recognition for the 350+ blog posts he helped manually edit. Moving from Blogger to WordPress is a daunting task with 715 posts to import! Even with researching and reading and following the best instructions I could find, the posts didn’t import well in terms of formatting. For a while nothing was readable with text and words all overlapping, and an html edit was needed to at least half of the posts to fix the problem. Enter Patrick, who saved the day and edited the html so I could focus on the rest of the content needed to get the site ready. I wouldn’t have been able to launch this weekend without him!

Thanks also go to my friend, writer Munk Davis, for his review of my text and feedback on the writing. I’ve learned the value of editing, working with Munk over time on my class texts, and my writing has improved. He’s a busy guy, so I value the time spent on review of my content. I always appreciate his feedback!

I also must thank graphic designer Renee Rodriguez of Renee Rodriguez Designs. I started the whole website journey by talking to her after I saw a beautiful website she created using the Big Black Bag site. While it turned out that Big Black Bag didn’t have all of the functionality I wanted and Renee and I didn’t work together, she was instrumental in helping me to think about and plan what I wanted in a site. The discussion and pre-work I did with Renee was incredibly valuable as I started working with Eric.

I wanted to take this moment to pause and say thanks to the people who have helped me on this website journey. I couldn’t have completed this project without great people helping me along the way!

Now, it’s time to get focused again on photography. I think I have a few photos to edit and new software to learn around here somewhere…

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The Loner

One lone flower, tossed aside. 
It makes me ask, can an image of a “thing” evoke emotion? As a “thing” photographer, I would answer yes. This image speaks to me through the isolation of the flower, discarded for not being perfect. The flower is not even in the bunch with the other discarded flowers, it is off on its own. Truly alone. But in its isolation, the remaining beauty of the flower can be seen. The gorgeous color and the shape, jump out at me against the concrete in a way that would be lost in the group.
It seems there is a message here, that can be brought into my life. It’s ok to be less than perfect. It’s ok to be out there, on my own once in a while. Once in a while, being outside the group can help me shine my unique beauty. My unique view on the world.
What do you take away from this image?  Does it speak to you too?

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What’s going on around Kat Eye Studio…

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Expectations Lost, Happiness Found

What is it about photography, that makes me happy? I’ve noticed lately, that whenever I go out and photograph, even if it’s just for a walk around the block in the rain, that I return in a good mood. I am smiling and there is a spring in my step. I feel buoyant. The sheer act of capturing photographs, whether they end up good or not, makes me grin.

Thinking more on why photography makes me happy this morning, I found that photography is one area of my life where I don’t have huge expectations or plans. I’ve learned to embrace the fun of letting myself be surprised. I follow my intuition and interests, as they pull me along in new directions. I find great joy in discovering what catches my eye on any given day. Amazing things have resulted as I follow those internal nudges – in photography, writing and my study of art in general.

Take Saturday’s photowalk visit to the Farmer’s Market, for example. Of course I photographed the colorful vegetables, but what really interested me were the flowers on the ground as the vendors sorted and tossed and created beautiful bouquets. Normally I would be attracted to the finished bouquets, but at this moment I was captured by the haphazard nature of the flowers scattered on the concrete and in the buckets. To me, on this specific Saturday morning, these images were the most interesting to explore and compose. These were the images that held a story. Next Saturday, in the same place, it will be completely different.

This gets to the “heart and soul” aspects of photography, or any art. Creating has the power to change how we feel. When we let go of expectations or plans, wonderful things can result. There is an interesting parallel here to the rest of my life I’ve needed to focus on as well: Letting go of control and expectation. It’s something that I am slowly, and surely, learning to do. It’s been a long road, but I am lucky to have something like photography to show me the way, with a smile on my face. 

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What’s going on around Kat Eye Studio… 

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Authentic Imagery

In my type of wandering photography, I have a general rule that I follow: Find the beauty in what already exists in the place. I look for scenes that are there, capturing them as they are presented to me. I see my job as the photographer as capturing the beauty without interference. My challenge is to frame the image so that you can see it too, without being distracted by whatever else may be going on around.

I wandered by this lovely display of flowers on Saturday in Hood River, Oregon. Tucked back behind a table along the sidewalk, the texture of this pot, the pop of color and the interesting contrast of the sea shells and succulent plants caught my eye. Much to my son’s chagrin (Mom, can we go yet?),  I studied it for a while with my camera trying to find the best way to capture it. This early image is one of my favorites.

After playing with it for a while from different angles, I did something I normally don’t do… I actually moved the pot slightly. I straightened it up and moved it back so I could get the purple flower along the blue of the wood. You know what? In viewing my images, the ones where the pot had been straightened fall flat. They’ve lost their “found” charm. Their authenticity.

Maybe it is just me, but I find that this is one of my values in photography and in life: Authenticity. I have had strong negative reactions in the past to images that I find inauthentic. Particularly fashion photography, where reality is not the goal. For each artist, there is a different view and a different goal. Each artist brings different values to what they create. My reactions are not saying any type of photography is “bad,” but they help me to zero in on what I value.

I like to find the beauty in reality, with all of its imperfections. The beauty that exists in the everyday, tucked along the sidewalks of the towns we live in. The beauty that exists in the hearts of each and every one of us imperfect beings. It doesn’t matter if we don’t live up to our culture’s narrow definition of beauty, as prescribed by the mass media. It only matters that we are ourselves, and that we are sharing ourselves authentically.

Oh, look, I’ve found myself hidden amongst my photography again. Funny how that always takes me by surprise.

Yes son, we can move on now.

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What’s going on around The Kat Eye View of the World…

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Fascinations, Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, one of my latest fascinations is mail boxes! (“Letter boxes” for those of you in the UK.) These are disappearing around the US too, just like parking meters. Replaced by safer and more efficient shared post boxes, these are a bit of life that is going away. I remember the excitement as a child, of putting up that flag when the box had mail and seeing it down later in the day after the postman had come. I would run to see what had arrived in the mail. It’s sad, I don’t even have one in front of my house now. We walk up the street with a key to see what arrived, and it’s usually junk. Bills don’t even come anymore, they are sent via email.

Mail boxes are a symbol of so much else disappearing too, personal mail and the written letter. We all love to get mail but how often do we send it? Not so often. That’s why the Liberate Your Art postcard swap was so much fun for many of us. For a little while, we got fun mail!

In honor of little-used mail boxes everywhere, let’s all send a postcard or a letter or a note to someone we care about today. I’ve got my pen out now! Won’t you join me?

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What’s going on around The Kat Eye View of the World…

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Finding Color and Space

From scooter love yesterday to Burano love today. I am sharing “color” today, in honor of the wonderful Rachael Taylor who has featured me on her blog. Rachael is a surface pattern designer I met at the Do What You Love Retreat in May. Her work is beautiful and simple, and she loves bright colors, just like me. Stop by and visit her blog here to see me featured, and stick around to see her work. You will find something you love, I guarantee it. My favorite is this orange bag, which I brought home with me from the retreat. I’m so excited that it arrived with my goods from Italy, and I can start using it again. Orange Power!

I’m celebrating negative space on Mortal Muses today, so thought I would share some “space” here too. Have you stopped by and visited Mortal Muses lately? There’s been a lot of change! We celebrated our first year at the beginning of August and now have five lovely new muses bringing their beautiful images and words your way. I have always loved how having nine different people working together creates a place of such beauty and diversity, and that has not changed. I hope you will join us there.

PS – Don’t miss the giveaway on yesterday’s post, there is still time to enter.