Kat Eye Studio

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Lessons from Abroad: Focus your Thoughts, Focus your Energy

[Over a year ago I wrote the original Lessons from Abroad series. Since moving back to the US, I’ve found the lessons from living abroad have not abated; just changed. I’ve decided to continue this series with a periodic post on the new lessons as they crystallize for me.]

Venice, Italy

What’s on your mind? Have you thought about where your thoughts are spent? Maybe this Monday morning it’s planning out your week, or revisiting some great moment of the weekend. Maybe you are already into your workday, and your thoughts are on the job. Wherever your thoughts are going, that’s your focus. And wherever you focus, that’s where your energy goes.

This important concept is not new or novel, but it’s one that has been brought home to me in new ways since living in Italy and moving back to the US. I discovered there is nothing like removing yourself from your regular routine for an extended period of time, and then putting yourself back into that routine, to show you where you’ve been spending your thoughts, and consequently, your energy. While in Italy, I had the opportunity to change my thought patterns in unexpected ways. I stopped worrying about some things that had filled my thoughts on (I realize now) a regular basis, such as my weight and money, and created space for new thoughts to arrive. Thoughts about creativity, and photography. Thoughts that have fundamentally shifted my approach to life, and consequently, my focus and energy.

I’ll give a very personal example, that perhaps many of you will identify with: my weight. Since my high school years, I have thought and worried, and at times obsessed, about my weight. Watching what I ate, comparing my body to some unrealistic ideal, always falling short. Dieting, exercising, always keeping my eye on that number on the scale, the size of the clothes. If it was high, I would berate myself. If it was low, I would be full of happiness. The happiness only lasted for the moment… maybe days or months, until the number crept up again.

Then I moved to Italy. My weight had slowly been increasing for years before the move, a stressful job at work, and then preparing for an international move had triggered my stressful eating behaviors. So as we moved to Italy, I packed my “skinny clothes” with the intent to focus on losing weight after the move. I can remember the moment, early on in my time in Italy, when I consciously decided to not worry about it. I looked at those skinny clothes, and said, “To hell with it.” I was not going to spend my time in Italy worrying about what I ate, or my weight. I instinctively knew this would adversely affect my experience. I wanted to experience my life and travels during my time in Italy unfettered. Without the stress and baggage that losing weight would represent. So I put the skinny clothes on a top, unreachable shelf in the wardrobe and put the scale away.

For the first time in over twenty years, I lived without the constant thoughts about my weight. For the first time, my self-worth was not affected by the number on the scale. Sure, my weight increased a bit over the two years but it eventually plateaued. What I gained was so much more than a few pounds though. I gained the space in my thoughts to think of other things… to explore my experience deeply, to discover the call of art and creativity and to see myself in a new way – as an artist. I discovered an almost limitless energy available to me when I focused my thoughts in alignment with my heart. I found an energetic creativity that has touched everything I do, since.

I did not clearly recognize this relationship between my thoughts and my energy until I moved back to the US. You see, in Italy, there was so much going on, it was hard to sort out all of the influences that led to my personal creative renaissance. I had held off the thoughts around weight and other topics by telling myself I would deal with them when I returned home. So guess what happened when I returned home… they came back. Funny thing about thoughts like this coming up after a long absence: you notice them. They are obvious and clear, and felt so out of place in my “new” self. For a time, I succumbed to them. It was easy, part of my “living in Oregon” routine. Then at some point, in those first few months back I stopped and faced those uncomfortable thoughts and said, “I don’t want you anymore. I’ve lived without you for two years, and now I see I don’t need you.” The problem was, I didn’t have the wonderful distraction of living abroad to keep them at bay. This time, I had to deal with them at a fundamental level.

So, I’ve slowly but surely been figuring out ways to deal with these topics as they come up. I’ve had to face each one and find strategies to change my thought patterns. My experience in Italy helped, because I knew the value of letting those thoughts go. I now recognized that these thoughts were draining my energy. It hasn’t been easy though, to define new ways to think while living back here in the old place and routine. Behavior and thought pattern change is hard.

It is also worth it. Because I have learned that were I focus my thoughts, my energy will follow. I want my energy focused on creative things. I want my energy focused on art and photography and empowerment and connection. Things that bring value to my life and to those around me. I imagine you want those same things too.

As with all of my Lessons from Abroad, I hope that you will be able to learn from this lesson along with me. Here are a few ideas, to help you along:

  • Consider where you focus your thoughts.  Do you have any thought patterns that routinely come back to you? For me, a couple of trigger topics have always been weight and money.
  • Notice your thought patterns around a trigger topic you identify. How often are you thinking about this topic? What kind of thoughts come up, are they positive or negative? Can you see how they may be stealing your energy?
  • Try an experiment: For a few weeks tell yourself you are taking a break from this thought pattern. Give yourself a deadline. Then, set the thoughts aside and see what other things arise in that time frame. (You really can trick yourself into doing this, I know, because I did it for two years in Italy.) After your self-imposed deadline, see what happens. Do the thoughts come back? How do they feel to you? How did you feel during that hiatus period, without them?
  • Get help where you need it. Let’s face it, changing thought patterns is difficult and we may not be able to change some of these thought patterns on our own. They involve the people around us, and our interaction with society as a whole. Use all the resources available to you – books, friends, counselors, whatever. For my weight issues, I’ve discovered Intuitive Eating “>Intuitive Eating as a great fit for what I learned in Italy, so I’ve been reading and taking classes to consciously integrate a new approach to eating and weight.
  • Be clear on where you do want to focus your thoughts and your energy. It is much easier to say “no” to the thoughts you don’t want when you have thoughts you very much want to say “yes” to. For me, creativity and photography are so important to me, I don’t want any of these other thoughts diluting my energy. It makes it easier to deal with them. Changing my thoughts is no longer about being someone I think I should be, it’s about who I want to be. It’s a conscious and deliberate choice.

At the end of the day, all the matters is that each and everyone of us align our thoughts and our energy to our hearts. Imagine what our world would be like, if everyone did that. Right now, rather than changing the world, I’ll just settle for imagining my own life in this way.

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How Connection Happens

My first Find Your Eye class of the year starts Sunday, and I’m so ready! It’s a full class, and the Flickr group is open and everyone is starting to introduce themselves. It’s so exciting to begin the process of connecting.

I was pondering how connection happens this morning, especially in the online world. It certainly takes effort on both parts, yours and mine, for us to connect. It’s not like in the “real” world, where circumstances could put us together in work or social environments, to help that connection along. We have to choose to be here. That’s the first step, but it’s not enough is it?

There has to be something more, to make a connection. There has to be an human, or emotional, sharing and response. If you visit a website, and get factual or useful information, do you feel a connection? I don’t. If there’s no personality involved, no sharing of self, there is no connection for me. Connection starts to happen when one person shares a little bit of themselves, along with whatever info they are sharing. It could be the sense of humor that comes through in their words, or a little about their lives or personal philosophy. Whatever that special something is, it’s important to start the connection.

Hidden Window in Bologna

That’s important to me, maybe because it’s what I do here every day, share bits and pieces of me through my photos and words. Today I share this window in Bologna: Partially hidden, partially revealed by the vines, but completely blocked off to light. I wonder, why is the window hidden and blocked off? Isn’t the point of a window to let in light, and air? This image makes me feel somewhat sad, and anxious. What windows do I still have inside me, hidden and blocked off like this? I know they are there, I stumble across them from time to time. Perhaps that’s why I’m anxious, worried about what window I will need to open next. It’s always hard to open a blocked window within our soul.

So I share, and I learn something about myself in the process. The next part of connection is up to you. It’s how you respond. Not everyone will feel a response to what I write, the images I share. For some, they will take away only the factual and useful information. Others will have a response, an emotional connection, with what I’ve shared. You may see yourself reflected in my words. You may see things entirely differently. Either way, that’s where the connection begins to happen in online interactions. One shares, the other feels. The recipient feels connected.

Connection is deepened, the cycle of connection is completed, when there is a response. That could be a comment, an email, an interaction that somehow closes the loop. It could even be signing up for a newsletter or a class. Something that tells me, the person who originally shared, the message was received. And valued. It’s weird sometimes in the online world, because there is the potential to connect with so many people by putting information out there, but you don’t always know who and where it’s being received. You only see numbers. I greatly value the connection I have with those of you who respond, even once in a while to say, “Message received.” It turns the numbers into real people, real connections.

Regular interaction over time, sharing a little bit of the “self” from both parties, becomes a real two-way connection. As real as any connections I make face-to-face, maybe even deeper, because with these interactions we’ve connected on something very, very important to me. Likely, to both of us.

That’s what life is all about, isn’t it? The connections. Of ourselves to the moment, and to the world around us. Our connections to other people.

What do you think? What does it take for you to feel a connection in the online world, and make a connection back? Close the connection and let us all know what it takes for you.

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Looking Back, Looking Forward

I debated on doing the obligatory end-of-year post. In the last week I wrote down a list of all that has happened this year, with the idea I would summarize it here. It turns out, just writing it in my journal was enough, I don’t need to publish a list for effect. It was enough to show me I had an amazing year. A year of transition, of endings and beginnings. A year of wonderful opportunities. In some ways, I’m sad to see 2011 go. As we roll over into the new year, it will be in a year I didn’t live in Italy. 2009, 2010 and 2011 will forever hold that special designation. 2012 will be the year “after Italy.”

Window in Bologna, Italy

But then again, maybe 2012 will earn itself a different designation. As I look at the coming year, I see lots of opportunity. I have some goals, but am leaving space for new ideas to form. I find myself drawn to the concepts of empowerment and connection, and I can feel things shifting to align with these ideas. Stay tuned, there are some new things to come I’ll talk about in the coming days. I’m sure there will be more as the year progresses. That’s the fun of looking forward, you never know what the future will bring. I find myself comfortable, even excited, with that delicious uncertainty.

Window in Ashland, Oregon

Happy New Year to all! Enjoy the last hurrah of 2011 today and the transition into 2012 tomorrow. It’s going to be a very good year, I can feel it!

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Exploring with a Camera: Creative Lights

Holiday time = long, dark nights + lots of lights, at least in the northern hemisphere. It’s the perfect time to explore! We’re continuing the recent “lights” theme of Exploring with a Camera with Creative Lights. I’m hoping that at least one, if not all, of these creative techniques will be new to you and will keep you exploring the lights at night for the remainder of the holiday season.

Let’s jump right in!

Layered Lights

Take a look at the lead in photograph, it’s a little bit unusual. It’s a composite of two images, one in-focus and one out-of-focus, creating a neat effect I am calling “Layered Lights.” I discovered this technique on my own last year, when I was looking for new ways to capture the lights in Monza. Seeing the out-of-focus and in-focus images side by side on the computer, I wondered what it would look like to combine them. Layered Lights was the result!

You will need a photo editing software that allows you to blend layers to do this, I use Photoshop Elements (PSE). I’ll show you how to created Layered Lights using this example image from Madrid, Spain. I think it looks great when you have a bit of architecture and lights, since the architecture grounds the image in a dreamy version of reality.

First, open the out-of-focus photo. That becomes your base image. Here’s the out of focus photo I used:

Next, open the in-focus photo and pull it into a layer above the out of focus photo. Here’s my in focus photo:

Now, play with blending modes and opacity of the top layer. Soft light and Overlay blending modes work particularly well. Unless you used a tripod when you captured the images, you may also have to transform (rotate, enlarge, reduce) your in-focus image to overlay the lights and the other elements in the correct locations on the out-of-focus image. It takes a bit of playing around, and I’ve discovered I like the in-focus photo slightly offset from the out-of-focus photo for a dreamier effect.

In the case of this photo example, the out-of-focus lights were also too bright – I couldn’t easily see the in-focus lights when I blended the layers, so I reduce the opacity of the out-of-focus layer and added a 50% grey layer underneath to get the final image:

Here’s what the layers look like in PSE:

Here’s a second example, of a really tall Christmas tree in the Madrid pedestrian zone, and the resulting layers in PSE:

Fun, huh? There are so many different ways you can play with this type of image blending… add more photos or layers, change the underlying layer, change the processing with other effects. Endless possibilities! If you don’t have your own images to try this with, feel free to download the out-of-focus and in-focus images I’ve shared above (right click and then “Save as…”) to play around with this technique. Just be sure to give photo credit and link back here if you share anywhere!

Zoom Lights

Can you tell what this is?

It looks like some really cool fireworks, or I had one friend tell me it looked like something out of the movie Tron. 🙂 This was captured by zooming (changing my focal distance) during a long exposure. Here are the actual lights I photographed:

To get this effect, you will need a zoom on your camera and the ability to set a long shutter speed. I found a shutter speed of 1 second worked very well. Set up your shot by starting zoomed in, fitting the lights just inside the frame. As you press the shutter, start zooming out (making the lights smaller) and keep the zoom moving through the exposure. The more you move the zoom during the exposure, the longer the lines of light will be. If you are shooting handheld, you will see some wiggle in the lines of lights. With practice and steadiness, you can minimize the wiggle or you can always use a tripod to get absolutely straight lines.

One tip to keep obvious “joggles” at the start or end of the lines, start your zooming motion just before you press the shutter and keep it going smoothly until after the shutter closes.

Have fun experimenting! As I’ve shared before, I find it especially interesting to capture people, I think it gives a cool time travel effect.

Hologram Lights

A couple of years ago we won a prize for the “worst white elephant gift” at a holiday party. The prize was well worth it, it was two pairs of these cool holiday hologram glasses, modeled here by my son.

What’s so cool about these? They change any point light source into a holographic image when you look through them. OR, when you photograph through them! The glasses shown in this example are the “Christmas Star” version, and here’s what our tree looks like, when photographed through the film of the glasses:

I love it! Someone could probably tell me how to do this with post processing, but all I did was hold the film of glasses right up to the lens, and shoot. So simple! You have to move the glasses around a little bit to get the best coverage of the lens since the opening in the glasses is smaller than the lens, but the paper around the edges gives a nice vignetting effect. If you are shooting up closer, I’ve found you need to focus on the lights to get the hologram effect, as I did here:

If you focus on another object, as I did with this ornament, the lights become blurry and you lose the hologram effect.

This doesn’t only work for Christmas lights, it will work for any point light source. Car headlights, streetlights, etc. become point light sources when viewed from far enough away. Lots of exploration fun! A quick google search for “Holographic Christmas Glasses” yielded a number of options. Here’s a link to a set of glasses with different hologram images on Amazon. I think I may have to get the set myself to play around some more, since they are so inexpensive and so very fun.

Also consider other films you can photograph through, for interesting effects. I can imagine that the thin, colored cellophane that gift baskets come in would give cool effects too!

So, what do you think, are you ready to go exploring Creative Lights? I’m excited already to see what you link in. I love how I can throw this information out there and get even more creative interpretations coming back from all of you. You can link in below or share in the Flickr pool. Happy light hunting!



FYI - Links will be moderated. Please use a permalink, ensure that your linked image is on topic, and include a link back to this site in your post through the Exploring with a Camera button (available on the sidebar here) or a text link. Thanks!

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Magical Lights

I must admit, as we’ve gone through Exploring with a Camera: Holiday Lights, I’ve found myself desparately missing Italy and Europe. This has been the hardest period since we’ve moved home from Italy in July, and it’s caught me by surprise.

You see, holiday time is magical in Europe. The city centers come alive with light displays, like this one on Via Dante in Milan last year. Remember my lead-in photo in the Holiday Lights post? It was from the same street, a year earlier. I find myself wondering what the lights look like this year.

And the markets, oh, the holiday markets! Every town, small or large, has a holiday market with interesting goods and special foods to sell. They are always hustling, bustling places in the pedestrian zones. Regardless of the weather, the vendors and the shoppers can be found there.

Each city has their own unique lights, it’s a point of pride. Here’s ceiling of the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele in Milan, where last year the crest of Milan could be found. The city’s lights seem to be saying, “Here we are, we are Milan.” I wonder if they have a dedicated light designer working year round to create their special displays. I would not be surprised! The more we explored, the more interesting and unique lights we found.

I so miss the holiday lights. I miss the pedestrian zones and the piazzas, the places where the town is alive. I miss the store displays. I miss the holiday markets. I miss the magic.

Thank you to those of you who have shared your Holiday Lights in the link up. They’ve been a bright spot in my otherwise wistful holiday season. You can still link up today! And tomorrow, a new Exploring with a Camera begins. I’ll share a few creative ways to explore lights any time of year, beyond what you’ve seen here and in other places. Don’t miss it!


Today's Many Muses Musing prompt is MAGIC. Tomorrow's prompt is BELIEVE. Come on over and join in!

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Italy in my Pocket

A Walk on Time, Ravenna, Italy

A Walk on Time, Ravenna, Italy

I’ve been thinking a lot about Italy lately. I find little pieces of evidence of my time in Italy various places. In my wool coat, out for the winter, I have found a few pieces of Italian memorabilia. A couple of Milan Metro tickets, a British penny, some pistachio shells. I feel them there. I take them out and look at them, and then put them back. Yes, crazily enough, even the pistachio shells. I put them back.

They all have memories for me. The pistachio shells remind me of the winter night we all went into Milan and wandered around, Brandon hounding us for a snack until we stopped at a kiosk and bought the pistachios. Then, what to do with the shells… We would collect them up in pockets as we walked around and then drop them in a trash can. Apparently I forgot a few, lingering in my pocket. In my pocket they will stay.

The Metro tickets may have been from the same night, or some other time. We used the Metro all the time when we wanted to go into Milan. The tickets were stuck everywhere… they became bookmarks and notes. My son has piles of them saved up. I have two in my coat pocket now. Where I slip my hand in and remind myself I lived in Italy for a while.

The British penny must be from my visit to London last winter, where I met up with my fellow muse Kirstin and had a fabulous weekend wandering around with my camera. What a joy that was, to connect with her and her family in person. I’ll keep that memory safely tucked away in my pocket too.

We find our lives are filled with these little memories, tucked away to be discovered again and again or in plain sight to remind us often. Our house is a veritable story book, the items “before Italy” and “from Italy” blending in to this “after Italy.” The physical space we live in has changed as we shift the elements in our lives to encompass our experience. My style of clothes has changed. My photographs have changed. It’s all a reflection of the personal changes that living abroad has brought. They are the concrete reminders that we did live in Italy. Our time there was real.

If it weren’t for the contents of my pocket, I’m not sure I would believe it anymore.