Kat Eye Studio

by

Where Fiats Retire

Through the whole region around the Bay of Naples and the Amalfi Coast, we were amazed at the number of old Fiats that were still driving around. They are only seen rarely in the north of Italy, but here they were everywhere! We decided that this is where Fiats go to retire – southern Italy. Kind of like VW bugs in Mexico.

The Fiat 500 or Cinquecento (pronounced chink-quah-chen-toh) pictured above is the most common version, and it holds a special place in the hearts of Italians because it was so prevalent years ago. The less-commonly-spotted Fiat 600 or Seicento (say-chen-toh) holds a special place in our hearts, because we have one waiting for us in the US. It’s a 1960 Fiat 600 “Convertible” and it needs some work to be driveable. It will be our little piece of Italy when we get home, thanks to our good friend Jack.

The top photo of the Fiat 500 in Sorrento just seemed to need a bit of vintage treatment. Here are the details of what I did in Photoshop Elements:
1. Pioneer Woman “Seventies” Action (these are free actions, available here)
2. Levels layer to brighten and increase contrast
3. Hue/Saturation layer with saturation set to +11 to boost the color of the car, and make it stand out a bit more against the more neutral background.

One final reminder, don’t miss out on the Mortal Muses 9 Muses Musing holiday celebration, starting tomorrow through January 1! Each day, on the Mortal Muses blog, we will be announcing a special holiday prompt word as your daily photo/creativity assignment, along with a giveaway. Just link up your blog or a Flickr photo for that day’s assignment to be entered to win. A fun, free, no pressure way to stay creative during the holiday season! I hope to see you there.

by

Are you ready to Find Your Eye?

(For info on how I processed this photo, see end of post.)

I am so, so excited to tell you that registration for my Find Your Eye: A photo course with heart and soul is up on wishstudio.com!  You can read the description of the course and get the registration details here. Instead of repeating the course description, today I want to share with you the story of what’s behind this course, where it came from, and why I’m doing it now.

For those of you who have read my blog for a while, you know what an amazing creative journey I have had during my time in Italy. (If you’re new here, you can get a sense of it from my About Me page.) I have come in to my creative, artistic self through my photography and experiences, and I’ve chronicled each little step and realization along with way here. Being able to say my mantra has taken a lot of personal work: I am an artist, my medium is photography, and I have a unique vision to show the world.


Along the way of realizing this truth for myself, I’ve realized that this is true for everyone. We all have a  unique vision to show the world. Every one of us, whether we realize it or not. Whether we are able to see it and own it, or not. With that realization, came the growing feeling that I might have a way to help others interested in photography learn to see their unique vision, by tapping in to my experiences. I could help others to gain the confidence and freedom that has come for me, as I have found my eye.

This feeling started to grow on me, and I would jot down notes here and there. Ideas would come randomly during my walks or the shower – you know how creative ideas happen when you least expect them. I started to carry notebooks every where with me to capture these ideas so that they would leave me alone. After a while those ideas started to build themselves into a framework for the class. But not now, I would say to myself, I’ll wait until I move back home, to Oregon. 


The ideas didn’t leave me alone. I call it my “creative nag.” All of the excuses I would come up with for not doing this now, my creative nag would slowly dispel them. Until finally, I relented. Six months ago, I sent an email to Mindy at wishstudio with this crazy idea of doing a photo course that was not like most photo courses out there, from a completely unknown quantity (me), and donating the proceeds to charity. Surprise of all surprises, Mindy was interested and even excited to see the proposal. You can see the result, it’s all coming together now…

I have been given a gift, with this experience of mine in Italy. I have been given a gift, by seeing how I can help others find their eye too. It is time to give that gift back to the world, and that is what the course is about. It’s not the usual digital photography course. Yes, there will be some on aperture and shutter speed and things like that – more to ensure that everyone has a foundation than to teach these in depth. That’s not what I really want to share with you.  The core of the course is giving you tools and exercises that help you learn to develop, recognize and find your eye. Gain confidence in your unique vision of the world, the way you express your heart and soul in photography.

Are you ready to Find Your Eye? I hope so, because the world needs your unique vision too.

+ + + + + + + + 
Many thanks to Liv Lane of Choosing Beauty for featuring me as one of her Monday Mavens today with the announcement of my e-course! Stop by and say hi to Liv for me, and look around her wonderful, inspiring site.
Today is the last day to enter the giveaway I have going on for the Burano Color postcard set! All you have to do is leave a comment on last Thursday’s post to enter. I will randomly draw the winner and announce here tomorrow morning.
And on today’s photo… it is from one of my favorite places – Burano of course!  You’ve seen a lot of this tiny, colorful island recently. I wanted to share a bit about the processing on this photo, since it’s not a straight color photo with minimal editing like mine usually are. I really wanted that blue to pop amidst the colors of the other buildings so I started by using a “color bleach” action in Photoshop Elements to desaturate the colors. I didn’t want to go completely black and white with the image, I wanted the pink hues to come through on the other buildings. Then, I carefully erased the effects of the action over the blue of the building using a layer mask, so the original bright blue color would show through. It’s a fun effect, and makes for a unique image. 
There are many, many different ways to do selective processing like this. Search “layer masks” or “selective processing” for your photo editing software to find some tutorials on the web.
Oh, and Happy Monday to you all! 🙂

by

I Colori di Burano / The Colors of Burano

I mentioned that on this latest trip to Burano I was attracted to color for color’s sake, and this little mosaic captures a few of those images, to show you what I meant. Such interesting colors, broken only by texture and a few forms and shadows. Even more interesting, when grouped together, to show the variety of it all! Burano is a candy store for photographers who love color.

When I finished this mosaic, my brain immediately saw a cover page to something, although that wasn’t the intent when I started. Maybe a calendar? I made a mental note on this as a project for next year, when I return to the US. For now, there are too many images to capture in Europe!

Along with this mosaic I must give a little thanks to Kim Klassen for the square mosaic template, which she posted in the Photoshop Test Kitchen. I am loving the Test Kitchen! It’s a membership site that I joined because I liked the idea of a place where tutorials and things were posted on a regular basis, so I could pop in and learn something new when I had time rather than commit to weeks-long classes. I love Kim’s videos, they are bite-sized mini-classes on using Photoshop.  This weekend I watched a couple and learned some tips on making a (better) blog button, and using the high pass filter for sharpening. Along with downloading this mosaic template, I downloaded all of her past freebie textures, which she offered up to members. Fantastic! If you are interested in learning more about Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (which I use), I highly recommend visiting Kim’s site and checking out her Photoshop Test Kitchen.

Apparently I had time to play this weekend because yesterday, after posting this photo on my blog, I decided that it would look good with some textures. Again, reaching into my toolbox from Kim, I used some of her textures and created this version. I like this one – it conveys the mood and the age of this place better than the original. The “recipe” I used (textures and blending modes) can be found here.

I hope you had time this weekend to play too!

by

First Signs of Fall

The trees haven’t started turning much yet in Italy, but in Paris they are already colorful. I liked this glimpse of Notre Dame through the leaves, and it was perfect for some experimentation with textures. I used two Kim Klassen textures in Photoshop Elements 8, “Cinnamon” texture with Overlay blending mode followed by “Break Free” texture with Soft Light blending mode. I liked how they really emphasized the changing leaves. The original is below for comparison. Which do you like best?

You can stop by the Kim Klassen Cafe to see more of her textures and sign up for her Texture Lovin’ List for some freebies. It’s fun to experiment!

Upcoming Events