Kat Eye Studio

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You’ve written a book. Now what??

When you write a book, it feels like you liberate all you know. You distill it down to the essential topics. You think hard about how to present the concepts. You spend hours pulling together the right words, finding the best images, creating the right screen shots. You edit and correct, correct and edit.

And then it goes off into the world. And you think… Now what? My big challenge of learning, teaching, consolidating, writing about my iPhone art process is done. What comes next?

For me, that means it’s time to learn something new. It’s time to read all of those iPhone photography books I avoided, so they wouldn’t influence me too much. It’s time to take a course or two.

And so I came across the iPhoneography with Bob Weil online course. I was attracted to his art and thought, Hey, that collage stuff looks interesting! I’m going to try that.

Here’s one of my first successful collages I created using the techniques Bob teaches, from photographs I’ve taken in various places over the last couple of years:

We the People

We the People

It’s not my normal way of creating, which typically requires a single, carefully composed photograph, in combination with backgrounds or textures. This technique requires multiple source images that you can combine together into a single piece. It’s more conceptual. It’s been a challenging and interesting change of pace to create this way but I find I like the feeling of being a beginner again. It’s fun to be learning something new.

I normally don’t do a lot of promotion, but I have enjoyed the material and find it very complementary to my Art with an iPhone book and process, so I want to recommend it to you.

Bob has generously offered a great discount to my followers on his course, over 40% off of the regular price. The online course contains over 40 videos as well as some great extras like textures. (You can never have enough textures!) Plus, Bob has thrown in two short courses by Nicki Fitz-Gerald and Susan Tuttle, normally an extra charge, as a bonus for you. Very nice of him!

You can learn more about the course and register here. Let me know what you think!

Note: This special offer is only available through July 17.

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A Night at La Scala (An iPhoneographic Essay)

A warm summer evening. A ticket to see the orchestra in Milan. A last item checked off of the “To Do” list.

Last night, I made my second visit to Teatro all Scala, the world famous opera house, to listen to the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, they performed Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 in B flat min. Op. 23 with Alexander Toradze on piano, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in B flat maj. Op. 100.
I stressed a bit about what to wear, even though I know people show up in everything from jeans to floor length formal gowns. I settled on a skirt, digging out some nylons and my spikiest of heels. It is Milan, after all.
I found my seat on the main floor, fifth row, on the right.
I watched the boxes slowly fill, and captured some of the details of this historic opera house.
As the orchestra took the stage, I watched as they chatted and warmed up. But when the conductor and the soloist arrived, that’s when I put my camera away and closed my eyes.
I traveled with the music, letting it take me where it willed. From colored ribbons of music that dance together to images of something real, I felt the music resonate in my body and let it guide my imagery. I saw a sunrise, a stormy sea, a stream dancing through a beautiful glade. I soared to great heights over a landscape, and watched dancers swirling around at a fancy ball. This is how I experience music. When my eyes are open, I get easily distracted with watching and thinking. When my eyes are closed, I am fully in the moment. The amazing experience of live orchestral music, and how I respond, is something I have discovered during my time in Italy. One more beautiful thing to take home with me.
The orchestra completed, and after much applause, the patrons spilled out into the warm summer night. I looked around, trying to take it all in. Already a beautiful memory, the evening for me at La Scala. 
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I’m linking in to Creative Every Day, The Creative Exchange and Phoneography this week. Thanks for coming by!

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