Kat Eye Studio

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The Same but Different

Farmer’s Markets all over the world are the same aren’t they? Tables with yummy fruit and vegetables, fresh from the farm, and people who are part of their growing are selling them. In a way, the markets bring us closer together. Closer to our food, without it just showing up magically in a supermarket in the refridgerated section under flourescent lights, you get a better idea of where it’s coming from. Who is growing it. They also bring us closer together culturally, it’s a familiar experience to visit a market and see the day’s wares available to sell. It’s an equalizer, every one has to eat. And that food comes from the same place – the land, the sea.

But you also get to see the little differences. Maybe a fruit or vegetable or flower you aren’t familiar with. Maybe it’s mostly fish instead of other types of meat. The signs for the names or currency are different. Or in the case of this market in Split, Croatia, you see that each woman has a little table for their fruit and vegetables, all lined up in a row, instead of the big truckload farm stands. You see the women who look like they have worked the land for most of their life. The people who, by their existence, would ensure we would eat well here in this country.

Bringing me just a little closer to the place we are visiting. Markets are amazing things.

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Abundance

As I was going through more photos from Split, Croatia yesterday, I came across this one from the market. It gave me such a feeling of abundance. Maybe it’s the color, such rich deep reds punctuated with the lighter colors. Maybe it’s the fact that they are laying there in a pile. I mean, how often do you just see a pile of flowers? A pile of roses? Roses are far too noble and revered a flower to just pile up, unless you have too many of them.

Isn’t it amazing and wonderful that such a simple thing, an image of a pile of flowers, can give a feeling of abundance? That means, it’s all in our outlook. Feelings of abundance are all in what we choose to see in our world, not just what we have. We can see the abundance in life around us, or the lack.

And think of all of the flower images I have, that I’ve shared here. Look at me, I’m rich! And I’m so happy to share my riches with you.

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Time to Bloom

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

I read this quote in three different, unrelated places in one 24-hour period a couple of days ago. On a blog I follow, in an online class I’m taking and in a book I’m reading. When something like that happens, you can’t ignore it. There is a message for me here… it’s time to bloom!

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Unexpected

Where do you think this picture was taken? Holland perhaps, in a display of how they make wooden shoes? No. It was taken in a flea market in Bergamo, Italy, a town about 30 minutes from where we live.

You never know what you are going to come across when you are out and about, you never know when you are going to run across the unexpected. That’s why I love to have my camera with me, to capture these little finds!

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Illumination

If I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t know this is a photo of Nice. But it is.

It’s a photo of the flower market. The “famous” Cours Saleya Flower Market, so the guidebooks say.

It’s a photo of the light in Nice. Light so wonderful that Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse spent much time here painting and creating.

It’s a photo of the flowers, so beautiful and just waiting for someone to take them home. I wish we had gone on Sunday, so we could have brought some back home with us.

It’s a photo of me. What caught my eye in that moment, on a short visit to the French Riviera. Me, enjoying the light on the flowers and capturing a certain look and feel in my photo.

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Market Still Life

This bright still life is from a market we ran into in Paris during our visit there in September. I loved the sun on this lemon, and the bright colors surrounding it. Why it was sitting there, all alone in its tray, who knows…

Tomorrow we leave for Paris, to go to Disneyland Paris for a few days. After a week at home being wonderfully lazy, I’m excited to go see someplace new, yet a bit familiar. I’m sure I’ll have lots of fun images to share after the trip, but in the next few days I’ll be posting some of my favorite shots from our first trip to Paris in September.