Kat Eye Studio

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Welcome Home

I love to wander neighborhoods, photographing an interesting chair on a front porch, a bunch of flowers on textured steps, or a colorful front door. You get a glimpse of the personalities that live inside in those welcoming spaces.

But my porch? Not so interesting. I mean, I know what goes on inside the house, so there is no mystery there. The architecture is nothing exciting, being a mid-90’s vintage. Sure, there is often a flower or two planted, but it wouldn’t catch a photographer’s eye. 

Until last weekend, when I walked out my front door, leaving it open for my husband to follow, then looked back. Oh my goodness, there was a photograph there! 
  

What suddenly made it special? It’s the combination of our flowers and plants, partially there by planning and partially there to protect them from being eaten by a certain orange cat in our family. It’s the freshly painted red door, and the harmonious scene inside. It’s the texture of the wet concrete steps, the spots of color in the flowers, and the scattered leaves on the door mat. It’s lived in and loved and wholly ours. Wait long enough, and you will see my husband or son coming out the door. Maybe a cat tentatively peeking around the corner, until we chase him back inside.

It brings home something I realized in my travels around Europe. Early on, I thought the beautiful flowers on doorsteps I would see around quaint little towns were for the tourists. But when I would find flowers in a hidden back alley courtyard, or see a farm house on a lonely country road bursting with blooms on every window sill, I knew it was for a different reason. It was for the enjoyment of the people who live there, pure and simple. It’s a little personal message to the family, whispering “come back soon” when departing and “welcome home” at the end of a long day. It’s evidence of life, thoroughly loved and well-lived, inside. 

I know, because I have that kind of front porch. Took me a while to see it.

Have you ever wondered how or why I came to use only my iPhone for photography? I’m sharing my reasons over on the f4 studio blog right now. Come visit!

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Spaces & Places

I’ve got places and spaces on the brain this morning! This morning I started the “Creating with the Environment” chapter in Trust the Process by Shaun McNiff. He talks about our physical spaces and response to places in the creative process. I love this line:

We create together with our physical environments and don’t always appreciate how their qualities contribute to our expression.

True for any type of artist, but even more so for photographers. For many of us, the physical environment is the raw material of our creation. We capture and compose from the environment. Like today’s photo… While the owner of the house created this beautiful space on the porch to sit and relax, I captured it to share the idea of cheery relaxation with all of you. Someone else created the place, but I create with it too. So very fun.

Since I love to explore and photograph places, my environment has become my creative fuel. We really explored the concepts behind creating with places in A Sense of Place, the 8-week course that just wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. It was awesome! I love how much I learn by organizing my thoughts into a class and sharing them with a group. I am in awe of how much I gain from the discussion and interaction with the course participants. This week I read the feedback from the class participants, as they shared their impressions of the class. I get a little giddy sometimes, realizing that these ideas of mine have made an impression on someone else too. You can read a few of the comments, newly added to my class information page here. Pretty darn cool that I can do something I love so much and have it resonate with others too! How lucky am I?

I can’t wait to run A Sense of Place again, in spring of 2013. Until then, I’ll continue exploring the spaces and places around me. They are the fuel of my creative expression. What fuels you?

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