Kat Eye Studio

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What Inspires You?

Maybe it’s light coming in through the window, maybe it’s color, maybe it’s a wonderful quote. What is it that makes you want to perfect your craft, become a better person, explore new things? We all have different sources of inspiration. I was inspired a few weeks ago by this random composition in my window after I was done playing around with capturing the plant shadows. Lines and light and plants peeking out, it was interesting to me.

Today I’m musing on inspiration over at Mortal Muses. We’re in the second day of 9 Days of Inspiration, with lots of giveaways – every day! Come on over and comment to enter. Also visit our More Musing site, where today’s post of Muse University – a repost of this week’s Exploring with a Camera on Rain – has an awesome giveaway for rainy day photography! Every day for the next 9 (well, now 8) days you will see inspiring posts from amazing women around the internet on the More Musing site in addition to the usual daily inspiration from Mortal Muses. Hope to see you all over there.

Today’s update on the piles: Thanks for all of the advice yesterday, last night I took it easy and just talked to a friend, then put my feet up and watched a movie and read for a while. Today the piles are slowly disappearing as I work through the house, but I’ve also made pancakes with my son and done some other organizing, so it’s all been good. In the words of one commenter: What needs to get done, will get done, with plenty of time. 🙂

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Sweet Relief

Isn’t it funny, how you can totally love something, but you can sometimes get too much of it? That’s how I feel about night photos right now. Bring on the sun! I captured this one in my living room last weekend, a nice break. Just a plant and a shadow and the sun. Simple pleasures.

This weekend we’re heading to Oktoberfest in Munich. Should be fun to see this crazy, big, famous festival. Lots of photo opportunities, and a Radler or two. (For those of you who don’t know, a Radler is half beer, half lemonade, and pretty darn good!)

I also wanted to announce that I’m planning a Photowalk in Portland, Oregon when I head back to the US for a business trip next month.  Mark your calendars – Sunday October 10th at 10am. Please email me (kat [at] kateyeview.com) if you are interested, and I’ll send you the details on meeting place when they are finalized. Many thanks to Jenny C in Portland for helping me to get this together. Come and join us, rain or shine!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Making Ideas Real

Flowers in pots on doorsteps or windowsills are favorite subjects of mine. I love the angles of the architecture as a backdrop for the curves of the plants and the pots. There is often interesting contrast in textures and colors of ground, wall, door, pot and plant. I love the care that the inhabitants take in creating the little scene on their doorstep or windowsill. Each one is different, unique, like the people who create them. So I keep being inspired by them; I keep photographing them and sharing them here.

This morning in reading Simple Abundance, one of my favorite books at the moment, I came across this thought from the author Sarah Ban Breathnach, “…While you are offered many dizzying opportunities in a lifetime, Spirit only comes once for each Work seeking creative expression through you, then moves on. The bottom line is that the Work must be brought forth. If you don’t do it, someone else will.”

Interesting thought to ponder… that these ideas that come along to us are only “ours” as long as we do something with them, make them real. If we don’t, someone else will get the opportunity to be inspired by the same idea, and we’ll be left in the dust saying, “Hey, I had that idea first.” Which, as we all know, doesn’t count for anything.

So the “work” I’m doing with my art and the creative inspiration I receive for this blog – whether it’s sharing the art of doorstep gardens, the little everyday details I see as we travel around, the ideas that come to me for my Exploring with a Camera series, or the insights into my creative process – are only “mine” as long as I actually use the ideas. Make them into something real.

There is a a saying I love in Italian, “Tra dire e fare c’è di mezzo il mare,” which translates roughly to “between saying and doing there lies the sea.” I want to be on a boat, crossing that sea, as much as possible. I don’t want to lose out on all of these wonderful opportunities that inspiration brings along, even if it’s as small sharing the image of a few potted plants on a doorstep. Thanks for joining me along this journey to turn these ideas into something real.

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Bonne Journee!

Wouldn’t you love to see this every morning on your way to work? Some one wishing you “Have a good day” in such a wonderful way? I would! I loved this florist display in Lausanne, in the French region of Switzerland, for it’s cheerful message and abundance of flowers and plants. It just fills me with a positive happy feeling and I can’t help but smiling. (And wondering how long it takes them to set all of those plants out each morning!)

So to you all today I say Bonne Journee, or maybe more appropriately for where I live, Buona Giornata!

PS – This was the post I was planning to write yesterday morning when the muse struck, and my heart told me I had a different message to share for the day. What an amazing experience that was, both in how it came together and with the response. Thanks so much for all of the wonderful comments, it is so awesome to connect in that way.

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The Zebra in Switzerland

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” – Diane Arbus

Perhaps you were thinking that upon my return from Switzerland, you would see grand vistas of the alps? Snow capped peaks and high alpine meadows? Yes, those are somewhere in my pile of files. But what I wanted to share first is the zebra bench. This is something that stuck in my head. I loved this bench, and the plants around it, that I found wandering in Unterseen and Interlaken. I had a great time photographing it, studying it from different angles and compositions while Patrick and Brandon waited for me. There is nothing like a scene like this to give me a wonderful creative burst, and I knew I would love at least one of the photos I took.

But almost as interesting, is the conversation I had afterward with Patrick. I mentioned something about loving the zebra bench, and he said, “What zebra bench?” He hadn’t even seen it. Wow. I spent 10 minutes photographing something that someone else didn’t even see. Now, I doubt that I’m the only person to have photographed this little scene, I’m sure there are many others who have done the same. But the idea that there are many more that didn’t see it at all, makes me realize, once again, that I have something to share with the world. I can show people what I see, from the Kat Eye View.

“The camera doesn’t make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE.” – Ernst Haas

So, so true.

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Why Windows?

An attractive set of windows in Dubrovnik caught my eye. As I was editing this photo and others from this day I wondered, why windows? Why do they catch my eye so? Especially ones with plants and flowers in them. Ones like this, with interesting bars to cover them too.

Maybe it’s because of the individuality of each of them. Each window is different, unique, has a history of its own. The decorations reflect the individuality of the owners, no two are alike. They are an outward display of the lives inside. So much of peoples lives is closed inside here in Europe – inside the shuttered windows and big solid doors – that this is a little glimpse that there is someone living in there. And someone there who cares to make their place look pretty on the outside, even if the only way to do that is to decorate the window. Not for the tourists, but for themselves and their neighbors, the people who will enjoy it every day.

And I get to enjoy these windows, to photograph them, and to share them with you. Thanks to all of these anonymous people, who make my images possible. They are the true artists here!

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