on-location workshop

April 30, 2013 by Kat

The Workshop Report: Las Vegas

Sunny skies. Palm trees. A group of photographers gathered. Lots of interesting things to photograph. Is there a better way to spend a Saturday? I’m not sure if I can think of one! On April 13, I spent the day with five wonderful photographers at Selah {an art salon} in Las Vegas, Nevada for my one-day A Sense of Place workshop.

First off, Selah is in a gorgeous, refurbished old house near downtown Las Vegas. The light, the architectural touches, and the colors just make this space a great environment to enjoy a creative discussion. Walking in to the house, you feel soothed and refreshed. Ready to learn!

We started the day in the classroom, talking about the concepts of Photography of Place. We explored our individual philosophies and the kind of things that make up our unique sense of place. We looked at the ways to photograph places, from icons to small details. My workshops are very much a small group, discussion type of workshop. I don’t stand up and present material from a powerpoint presentation on a projector. We sit around a table and talk about the material. Everyone has something valuable to share.

Photo by Sabrina Cofield of Selah

Before heading out for the day, we had an amazing lunch! Fantastic, healthy food was catered for us, to fuel us up for the photowalk.

Photo by Daria Riley of Selah

After sitting inside and talking for the morning, we were ready to head out into the gorgeous sunshine and explore downtown Las Vegas. What an interesting place! Downtown Vegas is being revitalized so there is a lot of construction going on. Wandering around, you find a little bit of everything to photograph. There is something for everyone, regardless of your photographic interests.

We found vintage neon signs…

Photo by Rainie Martinez

… and interesting modern architecture. (Channeling my inner Brenda here!)

We could photograph close ups of desert plants…

… and wonderful little scenes that are unique to this place.

We encouraged each other to find interesting angles and explore new subjects.

It’s always interesting to take people who live in a place on a photowalk around their own city. Most of the places we walked, the locals had never been! It reminds me that we don’t need to travel a long way to explore someplace new, we just need to get out and explore our own area. No matter where we are, we photograph with our own sense of place. The more we cultivate our sense of place close to home, the better our experience will be in new places. And our photographs will be truly our photographs, not a replication of what others have seen and experienced in the place before.

After a pause at a coffeeshop for a cool drink, we photographed our way back to Selah and wrapped up our day. It was a truly wonderful experience to meet and talk photography with these lovely women! Joining me for the day were Rainie (who travelled with me from Oregon), Erin and Trisha from Las Vegas, Cindy from Arizona and Daria, one of the Selah owners.

Right to Left: Rainie, Erin, Trisha, Kat and Cindy. (Photo by Daria Riley of Selah)

A huge thank you to Daria and Sabrina of Selah for inviting me to bring this workshop to Las Vegas. They were wonderful hosts and I hope to go back and teach there again!

And when I do, I hope you will join me there too.

The weekend also included a night photography walk on Friday evening. More on that tomorrow!

April 25, 2013 by Kat

Want to learn Smartphone Art?

Since I started to explore mobile photography and app processing, almost immediately I heard the question: “Kat, are you going to teach a class? I would love one!”

“Not yet,” I would answer, “I’m still learning myself.”

That worked for a while. Now, I am still learning for myself, but the teacher in me just can’t be suppressed. When I love something, I want to share it! So there are a couple of ways I’m reaching out to teach what I’m calling “Smartphone Art.”

As a regular contributor on the Seek Your Course blog this year, I’ll be providing tutorials on Smartphone Art. The first one, Smartphone Art I: Getting good photographs with your smartphone, is available today! You can get a short introduction to taking great photographs with your mobile device.

But, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t squeeze all of the info into a few blog posts, so I’ve got a new workshop in the works!

Smartphone Art will be a one day, on location workshop first held here in Corvallis, Oregon on August 10. You can get all of the details on the workshop here and register here. In the one day, hands-on workshop, we will start with the basics of getting a great photograph using the camera on your mobile device, and by the end of the day you will be combining apps to create unique works of art. Sound fun? Yeah, I think so too. I absolutely can’t wait!! If you don’t live close by, don’t worry, I’m sure this material will eventually makes its way into an eCourse, but I’m inspired to teach it on location first. Contact me to talk about bringing it to your local area.

I’ll also be teaching A Sense of Place as a two-day workshop here in the local area this summer! Join me June 8 and 9 to explore your sense of place through photography. I’m running this workshop a little bit differently since I’m not travelling, with the classroom instruction portion on Saturday morning and then an image review and discussion on Sunday afternoon. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning will be on your own, “homework” time. It will provide a really great opportunity to learn, practice and integrate the material. You can get all of the details on the workshop here and register here.

As I mentioned yesterday, these workshops are part of my shift to “local” that’s been going on over the last year. I look forward to meeting more of you close to home!

January 16, 2013 by Kat

Join me in Vegas this Spring!

So, have you been wanting to dedicate a weekend to photography? Maybe get away for a day or two? I’m coming to Las Vegas this spring, and I want YOU to join me!

Selah {an art salon} is opening in Las Vegas and they’ve invited me to bring the 1-day workshop A Sense of Place to their creative studio. I’ll be teaching there on Saturday, April 13th. Yay! You can find out the details on their blog here.

But wait, there’s more…

You can get inexpensive flights to Vegas from anywhere in the country, so it’s the perfect place for a weekend getaway. Let’s make a weekend of it! Register for the A Sense of Place workshop at Selah, get yourself to Vegas, and then let’s add some fun activities and make it a Kat Eye Studio weekend from April 12 to 14. Here’s what I have in mind:

Friday Night: Evening Photowalk. Hello, Night Photography! Could there be any better place to capture the lights of night than Vegas? Let’s have some fun!
Saturday: A Sense of Place workshop at Selah, 9am to 5pm
Saturday Evening: No-host Dinner. Let’s relax after our workshop day and have a great dinner together! I bet we have a lot to talk about…
Sunday Morning: Coffee and Critique. We’ll meet for our morning coffee or chai, and talk about what makes a good photograph. Bring a print of your work!
Sunday Afternoon: A visit to a gallery or art museum? Another photowalk? What do you think we should do? I’m open to ideas!

I will let you know when registration opens on Selah site and will keep you posted on the weekend details as they firm up.

So, what do you say? Want to join me in Vegas???

A quick note – Today is the last day to register for the Find Your Eye: Journey of Fascination eCourse series. Class starts January 20.

October 17, 2012 by Kat

The Workshop Report: Hampstead

The forecast was bleak. Just the day before the Hampstead run of my A Sense of Place Workshop, it showed rain, rain, rain. Everyone was supposed to be prepared for the weather, but I knew a lot of rain would cut our afternoon photowalk short. So imagine the delightful surprise, waking up to a day of blue sky and sun!

Saturday 8th October proved to be a great day for a photowalk. With the same format as the Hebden Bridge workshop, on this day four participants gathered at The Oak Studio in Hampstead for the morning classroom portion session and then a photowalk in the afternoon.

It was a great morning, getting to know everyone as we talked Photography of Place. We discussed our personal philosophies and approach on photography, and how that figured into our individual sense of place. We looked at whether we tend toward capturing the big picture, landscapes and cityscapes, or the little details. We talked about creating images that convey our experience of a place.

And then we went out to practice! Our walk began as we took the underground from Hampstead to Brick Lane, although we spent more time chatting with each other than photographing on this part of the journey.

Using the converging lines on the tube station to capture a fun portrait of Fiona

We arrived at Brick Lane with cameras in hand and blue skies above. What a lively place! It was a fantastic opportunity to capture everything from grungy urban texture to vibrant graffiti to vintage looks. It was amazing the different views and details we could choose from in the walk through these few streets. What we all see and choose to photograph is so different! The variety is evident in the images from the participants:

Photo by Elissa

Photo by Becs

Photo by Barbara

Photo by Justine

Photo by Kat

During the walk we chatted and mingled as we photographed. It’s always fun to be with other photographers, because you understand each other. You aren’t hurried along, and you don’t get weird looks from each other about what you choose to photograph.

Elissa and I, enjoying a joint self-portrait

Being in a group photographers can embolden you, and help you photograph in situations you normally don’t. One thing I heard both at the workshop and when I went on photowalks with other friends during this trip was how brave I was, taking pictures of anything. Me? Brave? I don’t see myself that way. But the comments made me realize I have become more comfortable just capturing things that interest me, regardless of who is around. If I can help others feel more empowered to capture what they want to capture, then hey, I guess I’ve done my job as an instructor.

Photo by Becs

We wandered our way to a fence of love locks, where Justine left us for the day. Unfortunately I thought of getting the group photo just after she left, so this isn’t quite the full class group.

The participants: Fiona, Elissa, Barbara, Becs and Justine (not pictured)

I can’t tell you how fabulous it was to meet these lovely photographers in person. Since they all had been in my online classes at one time or another, we’ve interacted before, but it was a great way to get to know each other in a new way. To hear about their lives beyond the computer, along with our shared interest in photography. I hope that the connections made on this day continue well into the future.

I’ve always believed that taking workshops is a fantastic way to get us out of our regular patterns, and to learn something new that can help us continue our growth as artists. I take the approach that if I get even one new idea from a workshop that I can put into practice, it was time well spent.

Becs checking out a different perspective.

What I’ve known for a while is that teaching workshops ratchets it up a notch from there. It can be daunting and scary to put yourself in place as the teacher, but ultimately, the experience of thinking through the concepts, creating the content and then seeing it put to use by others is immensely satisfying.

What I learned from these workshops: I enjoy it just as much so in person as online. I think I was made for this.

Want to see more images and hear more about the Hampstead workshop? Check out these blog posts from the participants:
A Workshop and A Photowalk by Becs
Photography Down the Lane by Elissa
A Sense of Place by Barbara
a sense of place by Justine
Sense of Place with Kat Sloma from Kat Eye Studio by Fiona

October 16, 2012 by Kat

The Workshop Report: Hebden Bridge

After months of planning, weeks of busy preparation, and days of travel and jet lag, the moment of truth had arrived. Saturday, 29 September was the first Kat Eye Studio on-location workshop: A Sense of Place in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England.

My impression: I couldn’t have asked for a better day!

A lovely group of five class participants gathered on a partly-cloudy Saturday morning at my friend and PR consultant Fiona Pattison‘s flat in Hebden Bridge. Some participants were local, some had driven for a couple of hours, and one had come all the way from Holland via Scotland to be there. Some I had met before, some I knew from my courses online, and one participant was completely new to me and my photography. I was honored and excited that they all chose to join me on this day.

We started our morning with the classroom discussion. We talked about my philosophy of the Photography of Place, and how we all have our own unique “sense of place.” We talked about how we each develop that sense of place, and how to better express it in our photographs. We learned a little bit more about each person as we discussed what inspires us and draws our eye in the Photography of Place. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we were so busy and engaged with the workshop discussion that I have no photographs of the morning workshop portion of the day!

After a hearty lunch of soup, bread and jacket potatoes (aka “baked potatoes,” for those of us from the US), courtesy of Fiona’s wonderful cooking, we headed out to explore the countryside of Hebden Bridge. We lucked out on the weather! After torrential rains across Yorkshire earlier in the week, we had a partly cloudy day with some sun and minimal showers.

The participants: Amanda, Maki, Bernice, Carolyn and Rhiannon

We had a lovely walk along the stream, capturing the natural beauty of the area as we practiced the concepts discussed in the morning session. The great thing about being with a group of photographers is that you understand there is no hurry. The group spread out as each one of us stopped to capture what caught our eye. We mixed and mingled and chatted with each other along the way.

Maki finding something interesting across the stream.

Here is a sampling of the the details, textures, lines and moments that were captured by the participants on this day.

Photos by Rhiannon

Photo by Bernice

'a sense of place' workshop - Woodland walk

Photo by Maki

Photo by Carolyn

Our walk upstream was rewarded with a visit to Gibson’s Mill. The reflections in the mill pond were stunning! The different perspectives of these wonderful reflections and buildings serves to show how we will each have a different interpretation of the same place.

'a sense of place' workshop - mill at Hardcastle Crags

Photo by Maki

Photo by Bernice

Photo by Rhiannon

Photo by Carolyn

Photo by Kat

Our day together was warm and wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for a better group to help me launch my on location workshops. I enjoyed every minute of the day, and appreciated the understanding the participants had for the little glitches that came up along the way. Sharing my love of photography and my belief that we all have a unique and worthy vision of the world with like-minded people was fantastic. I want to do more of these!

You can read more about the experiences of the Hebden Bridge workshop participants in their own words in these blog posts:
a sense of place by Maki
A Sense of Hardcastle Crags by Carolyn
Sense of Place with Kat Sloma from Kat Eye Studio by Fiona

Stay tuned tomorrow for The Workshop Report: Hampstead.

August 28, 2012 by Kat

Organic Growth (+ The Winners)

I’ve been thinking a lot about “organic growth” and no, I’m not talking about growing food here. I mention it a couple of times in an interview I recently recorded to promote my on-location A Sense of Place workshops coming up in England in September and October. In the interview (below), I talk about how I learned photography organically. By that I mean naturally and slowly, growing and evolving over the last twelve years. It wasn’t like I set out one day and decided, “I am going to become a photographer!” and take a course of study at a university. I started by creating a few good photographs. Wondering how I could create them more consistently. Buying a new camera. Taking a class. Practicing a lot. Reading a book or two. Taking another class. Taking more photographs. Writing about my photographs. Falling in love with photography. All this over a period of years.

There were some times of dramatic growth, like when I took an online course called Photography 101 in 2007. It covered the basics I had already learned — aperture, shutter speed, etc. — but for some reason this time it really clicked at a deeper level. Even then, it wasn’t a light switch change. It was an evolution over the 8 week course and beyond. Now I can look back on that as a significant “moment” but it really occurred over months.

I think this is an important thing to remember. Growth does not happen overnight. At least natural, sustainable growth doesn’t. Most of the time, it’s a day-by-day journey of growing by millimeters. It’s the sustained growth over long periods of time that gets us to a new place. Like this fantastic rusty mailbox scene found in Astoria… It didn’t appear overnight. It took years for the mailbox to rust, for the ivy to grow. It took years of someone letting this little spot alone to grow.

That’s what organic growth is. Slow, sustainable growth. This applies to photography or business or even personal growth in life. Sometimes, we look at someone we admire, and we want to be where they are now. We want to be that fantastic photographer. We want to be that successful business owner. We want to have that kind of confidence in ourselves. But we can’t get there by leapfrogging all of the work it takes to get to that place. Sure, we can make it easier on ourselves. We can learn from others how they got there. There is so much wonderful information available. We have books and classes and articles and videos all at our fingertips here on the web. But it still takes our own action. It takes practice, and moving ahead, that little step at a time, to get where we want to go.

I think organic growth is the best kind of growth. At least, I’ve discovered that it is for me. It’s the kind of growth that lets me adapt to my environment. It’s the kind of growth that lets me try something out and change course if I need to. It’s the kind of growth that doesn’t commit me to too much, getting into overwhelm. It’s the kind of growth that integrates what I’m learning into a stable foundation, so that each time I take a step up or out of my normal zone the world doesn’t collapse beneath me.

I tell you all this today so that you can be encouraged. That goal you have? The place you want to go? You can absolutely get there. Just don’t try to do it overnight. Give yourself time to grow.

PS – That lovely voice with the English accent you hear in all of my interviews is my dear friend and PR consultant in England, Fiona Pattison. You probably can’t tell because she edited it so beautifully, but we were laughing like crazy as we recorded this interview, over very silly mistakes. Fiona has definitely been an important part of the organic growth of Kat Eye Studio!

And the giveaway winners are…

Out of 107 entries…
#28 Marji of Sun Breaks in the Forecast
#89 Nadine

I’m so excited to liberate these postcards to the lucky winners! Thanks to all of you who entered. I was surprised about all of the nice things you said to me as you entered, that was an unexpected bonus. Thank you for your lovely comments and your ongoing support! More giveaways are definitely to come. Giving things away is so much fun! 🙂

And the giveaway winners are…

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