Kat Eye Studio

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Back to Bologna

Yesterday as I was writing yesterday’s Exploring with a Camera: Found Texture post I rediscovered an image for my market/wheels series. Taken over a year ago, this street scene in Bologna captured my interest for the texture, the scooter and the bustling street market. It was taken before I “discovered” my market/wheels series early last year. How many more images for this series do I have, hidden in my archives? I hope to find out.

As part of my goal to seek balance, I want to go back and sort through the thousands of images from my time in Italy. Seek a balance of working with the old and the new. Some of these images have been reviewed, edited and shared, but many, many more have not. I know I will learn more and see more with this review, both about myself and my photography. And hey, I can learn how to categorize and edit even more in Lightroom too, at the same time. Perfect.

I hope you all have a great weekend planned! I’ll be working on my website, getting it ready to launch very shortly. I would love to have you to visit me in a few places, while I’m busy working…
– Musing on “home” at Mortal Muses, with a story of quilts, handmade with love.
– An interview on the Seek Your Course blog with me.
– Today I am the “Sparkling Sponsor” for the World’s Biggest Summit. Yay! Welcome to all coming by! You can still sign up and join in this great, free class.

 

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A Bike and a Smile

I’ve been getting a lot of smiles on my bike ride to work lately. It’s been odd, people see me coming and they smile at me. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Why all the smiles? It turns out, they were smiling at me because I was smiling as I rode. 
You see, riding my Italian city bike makes me happy. It’s not as cool-looking as this bike I found in Pavia early on in my time in Italy, with its stylish zebra basket liner, but my bike still makes me happy. With it’s basket, fenders, chain cover, dropped bar and completely uncool kickstand it is a comfortable, functional bike. It is me.
I’ve had a lot of experience with bikes that were not me. You see, a long, long time ago I hated riding a bicycle. I taught myself to ride a bike at 8 years old. I never got that comfortable, like the other kids who had been riding since they were 5 and were jumping off curbs around the neighborhood. As a teen, I went to summer camp where one of the activities was cycling. They put everyone on 10-speeds, assuming we could ride them. I was nervous and scared on the 10-speed, all leaned over on a twitchy bike. I felt like I was going to crash, and eventually I did. So much for biking! 
And then… about a year after getting married, I mentioned I might like to try out mountain biking. The bikes looked more comfortable and it was the latest craze. My husband, an avid cyclist prior to our marriage, turned so fast into the parking lot of the bike shop it was almost illegal. Newly armed with biking gear I started to ride the trails with my husband and other friends from work. It was all guys, and I tried to become the cool biker chick. I tried to like mountain biking, I really did. But after a couple of years I decided that I just didn’t get why people would want to ride on these skinny dirt trails that you can easily ride off of. I didn’t get why people would want to ride on paths with obstacles like roots or rocks in the way intentionally. I made myself ride with the “must-have” clipless pedals for a year, to see if I would eventually like them. I hated them as much the day I took them off as the day I started with them. I forced myself to do all manner of things that didn’t seem to fit for me, in order to “become” a mountain biker. I tried to fit in with the mountain biking crowd, my husband and the guys I worked with. For years, I tried. It never worked.
What I did discover though, is that I liked biking to work. I liked the routine of getting out there, twice a day. Clearing my mind by working my body. Both getting somewhere and getting some exercise. Riding an exercise bike, nowhere? Ugh. Riding a bicycle to get somewhere? Perfect! 
One of the things I loved in Italy and Europe is that bicycling is not only a “sport” but a way to get around. A bicycle is an acceptable form of transportation. You don’t need snazzy gear and spandex to ride a bike. It opened my eyes to these bikes that were both comfortable and functional, with maybe a bit of style too.  I loved the look of the city bikes that were everywhere. I captured them with my camera but I think it was my heart speaking through the lens, reminding me this type of bicycling was for me. 
So, last summer I went out and found a city bike. It’s an amazingly huge and heavy bike, no worries about the lightness of frame here. I sit upright on a comfy seat. The bike has fenders, a chain cover, front and back racks, lights that run on a wheel generator, a kick-stand, wheel lock and a bell. It has the requisite drop bar in the front for riding in a skirt (although I’ve only done it that one time). I added a basket to the front rack, for even more functionality. I think I’m going to add some flowers to the front of the basket, that would make me even happier.
I look strange riding here in the US, among the mountain bikes on the bike path. There are more and more “city bikes” around but they still aren’t that common. My bike is giant and odd-looking. But I’m no longer trying to fit in, I’m just trying to fit me. Seeing as I’m smiling as I ride without even know it, I think I finally got it right. 

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

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So Far Away

I’ve been thinking a bit more about Italy lately. Missing it a bit more. I’m happy to be back, it’s been a whirlwind of moving and excitement. It is good to be back, so good, but there are still things that I miss. I miss my walks in Parco di Monza. I miss the idea of Venice being three hours away. I miss being in the same time zone as my European friends, or even a time zone that I could easily chat online with my East Coast friends. Pacific Standard Time seems like it is at the edge of the world.
I’m finishing Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea right now. A beautiful, short book, full of much wisdom. I was reading it in Italy, but it got lost in the shuffle of moving. On going from her island writing retreat back to her life in Connecticut, she writes:

For the natural selectivity of the island I will have to substitute a conscious selectivity based on another sense of values–a sense of values I have become more aware of here.

I feel like that’s what I’ve done with my time in Italy, found a set of values that guide my creative life. Distilled them down and brought them back. It’s worked well.

For all that planning, it can never change the physical difference. It doesn’t change the yearning I feel when I look at photos from my time in Italy. These feelings are something that probably only time and space will help with. Nothing can diminish the personal changes that I made while in Italy, but that only helps so far on a day when I realize I’m now living far, far away.

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

  • The current Exploring with a Camera theme is Process of Elimination. Today is the last day to share! Check out the post and explore with us. 
  • Do you want to deepen the connection between your heart and soul and your photography? Registration for the fall series of the Find Your Eye e-course is open! Visit here for more info.
  • You can subscribe to the Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the happenings.

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Message from your Heart

Your heart has a message for you. It says, “Stop running around. Do something you love.”


You can link in this weekend with the Mortal Muses on negative space. If you are looking for peaceful images that give you space to breathe, check these out. There is something so calming about negative space in photos.

This stoplight is real, the heart is not a figment of my imagination created in Photoshop. It could be found a few blocks from our apartment in Italy. We lived near a hospital, and one of the intersections near the research buildings had this stoplight. Very cool, huh? I tried photographing it numerous ways, but it turns out negative space, stoplight and sky, was the way to go. 

I hope you’ll heed this message over the weekend. Stop with the “to do” list for a little while and do something you love. Your heart will thank you!

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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.

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Playing with Night

Since we’re exploring Night Photography right now, I had a couple of photos from my recent trip to Venice open to edit. Usually for night photos I do very little editing – cropping and a tiny bit of levels adjustment. I like the light of night as is. Looking at this one though, I started to see some “vintage” opportunities. There is just so much going on here, the store windows, the alleyway, the signs… not to mention the interesting light — it’s very well illuminated for night. I played around with some conversions and really like this one using Pioneer Woman’s Heartland action. Couldn’t this be from the 60’s? With the exception of a couple of modern details, I bet it could. I liked the photo before, I love, love, love it now.

It’s so much fun to do this type of play! I hope you are out exploring with your camera this weekend, staying up late and catching the night light. Maybe playing around with some edits, to see what happens. It’s all fun! Tomorrow the Night Photography Camera Companion will be sent in my newsletter too – yay! I’m so excited to send this, and I hope it helps you get some great night shots. Keep exploring the night!

PS – If you don’t know what a Camera Companion is, you can visit this post or sign up for the newsletter here – you’ll get the Basic Composition Camera Companion as a gift for signing up.