forest

September 5, 2013 by Kat

Carleidoscopes

I never thought I would see the day. I really didn’t.

I never thought I would see the day my son asked me about photography, wanting to learn seriously. But it happened. Last weekend I found myself supplying him with my old camera body, a starter lens, camera bag and manuals. After reading for a while he asked, “What’s ISO?” and out comes my Digital Photography Basics eBook. Fun.

Sunday when my son suggested a drive to go take pictures, I couldn’t say no, could I? Not only for the photography, but I was dying to drive my just-purchased car a little bit. I wanted to see how my dog Zoey would do riding in the hatch back, since she was a good part of the reason I switched cars in the first place. Turns out regular hiking + exuberant dog + sedan with cloth seats = a giant mess of a car no one wants to ride in, no matter how hard I’ve tried to protect the back seat.

So off we went… Brandon, Zoey and I. With no real destination, we drove for a while, stopping for a break in the woods to let Zoey out a bit and to photograph. And what did we photograph? The new car, of course.

Brandon is obsessed with the show Top Gear lately, so he worked on getting some of the interesting camera angles they always use on the show. (The show has quite good photography, if you’ve never seen it.) I played around with capturing some abstracts of the forest reflections in the shiny red body. Carleidoscopes, I call them.

A sunny afternoon, a beautiful drive, a happy dog, sharing time and something I love with my son, and a few interesting photographs. Does it get any better? Why yes, it does. There was no dirty, panting dog at my shoulder, mucking up the back seat. Absolutely lovely!

August 23, 2013 by Kat

A Sea of Green

Sometimes in the forest, I look up and feel as though I am under the surface. I can see where the term “canopy” in a forest comes from, because it feels as if there is a layer between me and the sky, sheltering me from the sun and rain. Who needs an umbrella or sunscreen? Not I.

For this piece, I wanted the leaves to be somewhat indistinct, forming a sea of green. All the better to highlight the shape of the trunk and the lines of the limbs, that gorgeous light sparkling through the canopy, and the feeling of being below the surface.

It’s been a while since I participated in Paint Party Friday, so I thought this would be a great one to share. I’m wishing you all a fun and creative weekend!

August 1, 2013 by Kat

Photo-Heart Connection: July

Good morning, Sunshine. It’s nice to see you.

Most of the year, I’m up before the sun. Don’t hate me, but I’m a morning person. I don’t even set an alarm anymore, I let my body tell me when it’s time to get up.

I love my mornings, when all is silent in the house. I journal or read or create in the quiet. While the world slowly lightens outside, I sit in my comfy chair and am in my own world. To be honest, I rarely notice the light coming on, or see the sun come up. I’m too busy in my internal world.

Until now.

Now I am still up early, but instead of reading and journaling, I am going out first, to hike. Just as I love the quiet of the early morning house, I love the silence of the early morning forest. I love being the first car to the trailhead, knowing the paths are my own. Just me and my dog and my iPhone, exploring the world. I knew I would enjoy the solitude. I knew I would enjoy the movement of my body. I knew I would enjoy the time in nature.

What I didn’t know I would enjoy so much: Greeting the sun.

It’s not just being in the sunshine, although that is wonderful after Oregon’s long, grey winters. It’s not just about the golden hour light, which is a photographer’s dream. It’s that I love to be there when the sun first touches the land. There is something special about being in that place and that time and seeing the long rays of light waking up the earth for the day. Me and the sun and the earth, together for the first touch of light. There is a beauty and a peace and a reverence in it I can’t quite explain. As if I’m part of something special, an ancient ritual that is repeated every day.

The sun and the earth don’t care if I am there, they will greet each other just the same. But when I am there to witness it, to capture it… I get to acknowledge and honor it. I say, Thank you, Sunshine, for bringing warmth and light to my day. I say, Thank you, Earth, for carrying me along the way. It reminds me that I am a small part of something much, much bigger.

I need that reminder. It’s all too easy for me to get wrapped up in my own internal world, living inside my mind. So while I miss my journaling and reading and creating time, I relish in what being outside to greet the sun brings me.

Each and every day.

July was not a prolific month for my photography. As I was mourning the loss of the month earlier this week, in the back of my head I was worriedly thinking, Will I be able to find a Photo-Heart Connection this month?? I had to dig deeper than ever before, but it was there. Finding the photo that made my heart sing, and writing the words that came along with it, makes me see that July is not a lost month. Getting out — being on vacation, gathering with family, going on hikes — and living was the important part of July. I need to exist and experience in the external world in order to fuel the creativity of my internal world. It all works together.

What is your Photo-Heart Connection this month? Did you have to dig deep or was it right there, waiting for you? Either way, the messages our heart has for us are important. I hope you’ll take the time to listen and join in.

An InLinkz Link-up

July 30, 2013 by Kat

Losing Time

Hey, have you seen the month of July? I seem to have misplaced it. I know it is somewhere around here, in between two weeks of vacation and a new job at work and a “To Do” list a mile long. I just wish I could find July before it’s August. I don’t like losing time like this, discovering the summer days are getting shorter all of a sudden. On my hikes, I’m now out before the sun hits the hillsides and I watch it slowly illuminate the trees. It won’t be too much longer before I’m leaving the house in the dark. I’m not ready for that.

Unfortunately, I recognize July is a lost month at this point, and it’s driving me nuts. I have this feeling of time rushing by without accomplishing anything for July. That’s not really true, of course. I’ve done a lot in July, I just haven’t had a lot of time to create new images of the type I want to create. And so I feel I haven’t accomplished anything. Silly, isn’t it, to measure myself against ONE aspect, when real life includes so many different aspects that come and go, ebb and flow.

So I’m trying to remember that as July slips away. And to figure out how to not lose August too!

A few bits and pieces to update you on…

Registration is open for Find Your Eye: Journey of Fascination. It will run this fall from September 8 through October 11. I asked which Find Your Eye journey you wanted, and the most recent course, Journey of Fascination, was the overwhelming response. If you want to take an Instructor Led Find Your Eye course, don’t miss this opportunity. With my shift to On Demand courses, it may be a while before this one is offered as Instructor Led again. Register here.

The Smartphone Art workshop here in Corvallis is coming up soon on August 10. I’m so excited about this workshop! The course materials are coming together wonderfully and we are going to have a good time. My only worry is that there is too much material for the one day course, and making sure I fit in the important bits to get everyone to where they can enjoy this fun process. The course is filling up, but there are still a few spaces available. Register here.

You can now get this blog via email! Look for the orange sign up box at the top of the blog sidebar. If you can’t get over to check every day, this will help you keep in touch. You don’t have to worry about being overwhelmed with emails — I’ll be creating new posts no more than 2 or 3 times a week going forward. You can also sign up for the Kat Eye News, which includes a “Best of the Blog” roundup via the monthly email.

The July Photo-Heart Connection link up is opening in just two days on August 1. Be sure to plan some time to participate this month. Knowing this is coming up is contributing to my feeling of lost time… I haven’t even had a chance to visit last month’s participants, so how can it be time again? But I’m hopeful a review of July’s photos will help me put my creative accomplishments in a different light. See you Thursday!

See, I tell myself, you have done a lot in July!

June 26, 2013 by Kat

Possibility in my Pocket

Three days a week I get up in the half-bright morning, slip my iPhone in my pocket, tie my hiking boots on my feet, clip the leash on the dog and head out.

Every time I get out onto the trail, as my body and brain begin to wake up, I think, I’m not going to photograph anything today. I’m just going to walk. And every time, at some point, I reach into my pocket for my iPhone to take a photograph.

You see, like a child collects stones or leaves or twigs along the path, I collect photographs. Even with no intention to do so, inevitably something comes into my awareness that needs to be collected. I need to pause and revere the scene, the moment, as I frame an image.

Why does a child collect the stones or leaves or twigs? I’m not sure I know. Maybe because they are pretty or interesting. Or maybe because each one is different. “Look at this one, Mommy,” he says, holding out his hand. Look at this one, I say, taking a photograph.

Each one is a marker, a reminder, a special moment to later be pulled out and cherished. Each one has the possibility to be compared, contrasted, transformed into something new. Or, as is the case most times, to be filed away, like so many child’s rocks pushed into the corner of a drawer. Coming across them later I might think, Huh, why did I collect that?

Even so, I capture them and I keep them. I can’t seem to stop. I don’t want to stop. They are my collection, the possibility that I keep in my pocket, just in case.

June 6, 2013 by Kat

Among the Aspens

“I want to go for a hike,” I told my brother, “I want to get into a stand of aspens.”

We were sitting at my nephew’s graduation party with my aunt and uncle. The party was going to end soon and we had the rest of the afternoon free. After some debate between my brother and uncle of where to go, I had them both talked into the idea.

It was a gorgeous spring day. Perfect Colorado-blue skies and comfortable in summer clothes even at 9000 feet. The aspens were gorgeous with their new-leaf green and the mountains in the distance still had some snow.

We don’t have aspens in Oregon, and I miss them. There is something special about aspens. It may be the way the seem to shimmer as the light comes through their leaves.

Or maybe it’s the gentle rustling sound they make as the breeze dances through the tree tops. Or the seemingly endless white trunks reaching into that deep blue sky.

Or maybe it’s that there are the trees of my childhood forest. I camped with my family under these trees. Hiked with my friends. Saw the cycle of green to golden yellow to bare to new leaves again too many times to count.

Whatever the reason, aspen trees hold a special place in my heart.

It was a short hike, seeing as I didn’t have the right shoes and I’m not ready for serious hiking at high altitude. I’m a sea-level girl now, much as it pains me to admit it.

But no matter the length, it was time well spent. Seeing the Colorado forest again, so different from the forests of Oregon, was a joy. Enjoying the sunshine and moving my body, after all of the sitting of travel and graduation and parties, felt wonderful. And most of all, connecting to my brother and especially my uncle, who is usually very quiet and reserved at social events, in an environment we all love.

It doesn’t get better than this.

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