Kat Eye Studio

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News Flash – Postcard Swap, Birds for Japan and Superheros

I interrupt today’s regularly scheduled blog post to bring you some interesting news. What do postcards, birds and superheros have in common? They are all on my blog today – read on to find out why!

Introducing the Liberate your Art Postcard Swap


Today I’m announcing the “Liberate your Art” Postcard Swap I’ll be hosting this summer! Many of us have an artistic practice – whether it be photography, mixed media, painting, beading, papercrafting, ceramics, you name it – but we don’t always share our craft with the rest of the world in a physical form. So I’m going to encourage you to “Liberate your Art” from the online world through a postcard swap! Is there anything better than getting artistic, creative snail mail in your post box? I don’t think so!

Here’s how it will work:
1. Have five postcard prints made of your original artwork. These could be photographs you’ve taken, prints of your painted or mixed media work, or images of 3D artwork. You can use five different images or five of the same image. The only requirement is that they be postcard-size prints of your original work (no layered or 3D artwork as part of this swap).
2. Mail the postcards to me in the US along with your address and return postage in July. (Signup and mailing details will be provided later, along with how non-US participants can provide return postage.)
3. You will receive five postcards back in the mail from other artists from around the world.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Though the swap won’t take place until July after I return to the US, I’m telling you this now so that you can get started on your postcard prints. You may want to create them yourself at home, or you may want to order them from an online source. I’ve had great luck with moo.com and have a 20% off discount code for new customers if you order by 30 March – that’s tomorrow (use this code: BK67DT). There are many other options for printing postcards, let me know what services you recommend and if you come across any discounts I’ll share them in future updates.

More details and sign up will be available in the near future. Until then, start planning your postcards and get ready to Liberate your Art this summer!


Help Japan 1000 Birds Project

UK-based Japanese ceramics artist Makiko Hastings has a wonderful project going on to help Japan. She is creating and selling one thousand of these delightful little ceramic birds to raise money. All are unique, numbered and handmade by Maki. You can find out how to participate and help her help Japan on her blog, shin shin.
I have a special connection to Maki, since I had the opportunity to meet her when we visited England last summer. We met for breakfast and both were a bit nervous to meet someone from the online world. It seemed a bit weird at first, but we knew we had a love of art in common and quickly fell into conversation. I enjoyed talking with Maki and hearing the story of how she came to England from Japan and her dreams of being a ceramic artist. Since then, I’ve enjoyed following her adventures and her beautiful artwork on her blog.
Maki and me at the “posh” Betty’s Tea Room in York
I hope you’ll support Maki’s efforts to help Japan. We have three of these special little birds winging their way to us in Italy – I can see a group of three photo in my mind’s eye already!
Are you a Superhero?

If you are ready to put on your cape and change the world with your creative ideas, my friend Jenny Shih is here to help you. She’s a business coach for creative entrepreneurs, and I can’t begin to express to you how enthusiastic she is about this job! Even though I haven’t ever been “officially” coached by her, she’s given me more helpful ideas than I can count, just in casual conversation. She’s got it all – great ideas, great strategies and great heart. 
If you have a creative idea and are looking for some help to make your business a reality, or to help your existing business grow, she’s the woman to help you become the superhero you were meant to be. Take a look at her fun video below and then stop by her site, jennyshih.com, to see how she can help you with your plans to change the world.


Put on Your Cape, It’s Time to Save the World from Jenny Shih on Vimeo.

(Today’s image is from a back alley in Dubrovnik, Croatia.)

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The Final Fog, and a Winner!

I’m sure this won’t be the last fog photo to ever grace my blog, but it might just be one of the final fog photos of this year. Our days have turned sunny and warmer and the fog has been mist more often than not on my morning walks. Spring is coming! Enjoy this last little bit of the fog, knowing that the change of season is coming soon.

Who won the postcards, from the Exploring with a Camera: Fog link in? My dear friend Mosey of mosey along. Mosey, these will be in the mail to you soon!

Thank you ALL so much for linking in with your wonderful fog photos. I loved seeing them. Join me tomorrow for a brand new Exploring with a Camera topic, I’ve got a fun one planned and I can’t wait to share it with you. See you then!

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Share Your View: Fog

Yesterday I took my camera and spent time noticing the details of Parco di Monza as fog hid the greater world. I saw new things, like the moss and roots of this tree, because I was looking closer. I almost felt done with the fog this year, but I reviewed my images from yesterday’s photowalk and I’ve fallen in love with fog all over again.

Have you seen fog this last week? Did you find a favorite fog photo in your archives? It’s not too late to share your view! Even though I opened the linky in last week’s Exploring with a Camera post on Fog, you can still link up for another week. Come by the blog to see who’s already joined in. Visit some of these sites, there are some wonderful and creative fog photos included already.

Don’t forget there’s a giveaway of postcards too – I’ll draw a winner from those who link up. One lucky person will win a set of my Black and White postcards this week! I can’t wait to find out who it will be.

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Exploring with a Camera: Fog

Winter brings fog, one of the most wonderful weather patterns for photography. I know I’ve said it before here on the blog, but I love fog!  Because you can only see what is right in front of you, there is a delicious sense of mystery, of things slowly revealed.

Fog forms when there is high humidity along with a temperature that is very close to the dew point, it is essentially a low lying clound. You can read more about the science of fog here. It will form readily near bodies of water, like lakes and rivers, and in cooler temperatures. That’s why you often find fog early in the morning, dissipating as the weather warms up.

I’ve had the good luck to live two places now where fog is common: Oregon and northern Italy. It forms frequently here at my house in Italy, since we are right near the large Parco di Monza through which the Lambro River runs. A large, natural open space is a great source of fog – temperatures are always cooler in the park and the moisture is abundant from the landscape.

How can you use fog as an element in your photography? Here are a few ideas…

Fog provides a great backdrop, to capture a single element. A distracting background can be completely hidden in the fog. I use this feature to capture silhouettes, like the lead-in image of the post and this image below. The detail is highlighted by the blank backdrop. I also converted both of these to black and white, to heighten the contrast. One thing to be careful of with fog is underexposure, because the light white background will dominate your camera’s meter readings. Play around with overexposing your images just a little bit to compensate.

As you move closer to a object, fog slowly reveals. Vary your distance to a subject to create a different effect and feel in your images. The two images below are of the same tree on the same day, but taken at different distances. The first one,  farther away from the camera, creates that sense of mystery I was talking about earlier.

For both of these images, I again converted to black and white to heighten the contrast. Fog desaturates colors and your images can look almost black and white straight out of the camera, but converting to black and white can keep the focus on the shapes and tones rather than what little color remains.
You can use fog to get a sense of depth in your photo. While photographers often manipulate the depth of field through aperture, you can also create depth using the atmosphere. Fog creates depth by successively lightening the objects in the background as you move away from the foreground. You can see this effect in the image of the trees below.
Light fog can give a subtle effect, as in the next example. Along with placement, focus and color, the sense of the largest tree as the focal point is enhanced by the fading trees behind.
Heavy fog can make depth obvious, even at short distances. This image of a tree shows the effect of a heavy fog, the back of the tree already fading significantly compared to the front.
All of these examples so far are from farther away, what happens when you get up close? You can see condensation on the surfaces. Get in close to see what I call “beads of fog” on the smaller objects around you.
I’ve talked about what is revealed as you move through the fog, but also consider what is revealed as the fog is lifting. This image, taken looking up through the fog, shows the blue sky peeking through as the fog is burned away by the sun.

In this image, you can see how interesting it can be to capture the sun through the fog. This was an unusual day, because the fog seemed to be disappearing from the bottom up rather than the top down.

Finally, don’t forget about capturing the world in fog at night. You know I love night! Fog seems to amplify the artificial lights of night, creating a warm glow that is unlike any other night effect. I did no color or exposure correction on these, I liked them as they came out of the camera.

I know many of us are anxiously awaiting summer for the warmth and light of the sun. Instead of focusing on what you don’t have right now, take a moment to celebrate fog, one of the delightful gifts of winter.

Today I am going to try something different! As a welcome to the participants in the Scavenger Hunt from Ashley Sisk’s Ramblings and Photos, I’m going to open the linky today and keep it open for two weeks. (If you are in a blog reader, come over to the blog to see the link tool.) I’ll still post the linky next Thursday for Share Your View as usual, if you want some time to capture the fog or look through your archive.

In addition, I’m going to give away a set of my Black and White postcards by random drawing to one person who links in a fog photo. I haven’t given away a set of these yet on my blog, and since this set includes the foggy tree image it is the perfect time to give these away.

Thanks for sticking with me! Good luck with your fog photos, I look forward to seeing what you capture. You can find the code to copy and paste the Exploring with a Camera button on your blog here.

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Transitions

Today I am feeling a bit deflated… things are in transition. I had so much fun in the quest for Thanksgiving, and now the day is in the past. The Mortal Muse blog hop is over, and my postcard drawing is done. I always love the anticipation of seeing who will win them! I think I’m addicted to giveaways. My big announcement of the Find Your Eye e-course is out in the world, with all of the initial excitement that brings.

What’s next? Oh yeah, the hard work. I’m not done with the work on my projects by a long shot. Transition from excitement to real life. My November goal of KaNoJoMo was a big success in terms of keeping me focused on what needed to get done and not playing around. Time for round two… *sigh*

So today, here are some pretty flowers from Bath, to sit and enjoy. Because flowers always make me happier, and I feel lighter just looking at them. I hope you will too!

And the winner of the postcards is…
Cate of Moments of Whimsy, all the way in New Zealand! Thanks so much for coming by my blog Cate, I hope you enjoy the postcards.

And guess what… for everyone else… you are winners too because I’ll send you a postcard from Italy if you email me your snail mail address! I did this once before and it was so nice to connect with people. I promise I will send the postcard and delete your address, just like last time, so there are no worries about your personal information in my hands. Email me: kat -at- kateyeview.com.

Hey, that made me feel lighter too. Funny thing, there are always things to lighten the load, if we just take a deep breath and look around. Flowers and sending postcards for me today, what is it for you?

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Thankful for YOU!

Yes, you. No, don’t look behind you. If you are reading this, I’m talking to you. I want to thank you for joining me here. Thank you for reading my words, commenting on the blog, dropping me a note via email, visiting me on Mortal Muses, liking me on Facebook. Even the lurkers who read via feed – I see my stats, I know you are there. And I’m thankful for you. The stats are not just numbers, they are connections. Each time I post, each time you visit, we connect. Thank you!

This blog and the interactions with you all in the online world have brought me so many wonderful things – it truly has been an amazing journey. Today I want to not only share my image and words, but a little something “real” with you too. To thank you I’m going to giveaway some of my new postcards, the Burano Color set. To win, leave a comment here on the blog through Monday. I know it’s a holiday weekend in the US, so I’m giving you some extra time! I’ll do a random drawing and announce it on Tuesday.

(You can find more info on the photos I used for the Burano Color postcard set in the following posts: Color is Like Music, Be Still My Heart, What do these colors make you think of?, Complimentary Color, Color and Texture)

Now it’s time to Hop! Link your blog in below, and join us in visiting blogs from all over the world. (If you want to display the link tool on your blog too, grab the code here.)

Oh, and by the way, thank you!

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