Kat Eye Studio

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Today, in Color (+ a Giveaway!)

After sharing the dramatic black and white landscapes from Avalanche Lake yesterday, I thought I would share what the lake looked like in color. Aren’t those shades of green just amazing? I loved the subtle complementary color contrast of the greenery with the reddish lake bottom, visible through that amazingly clear water. The reflections are nice too!

With all of the postcards flying around the world for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap right now, I’ve been inspired to liberate some of my own art! I’m giving away a set of “Classic Italian Transportation” postcards to TWO lucky winners.

You can enter up to five times! You are eligible for one entry for each of the following:
1. Just because! Everyone can enter at least once.
2. You are a Kat Eye News subscriber
3. You follow me on Facebook
4. You follow me on twitter
5. You follow me on Google+
Please leave a separate comment on this post for each entry by the end of the day Monday, 27 August. Drawing will be done randomly from all comments on Tuesday morning, 28 August.

Yay! I can’t wait to give these babies away! Liberating art always feels good.

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Going to the Sun

The best known attraction in Glacier National Park — besides the glaciers — is Going to the Sun Road. This road is a scenic 50-mile drive on a highway first built in the 1920’s to connect one side of the park to the other.

It was built in difficult terrain for a different generation of vehicle (read: narrower) so it is not an easy road to navigate. Add in the traffic, the road construction to restore the road, and at times the weather, and it becomes a challenging drive.

Going to the Sun Road

It’s also challenging for photography. There are very few vehicle pull-outs, none at the upper part of the road going over Logan Pass (the highest point), so it’s catch-as-you-can for photographs. It’s a practice in quick composition: Photographing out the window of a moving vehicle, between trees and other obstructions to get a good view. I love this photo of my sister and I with our cameras pointing out the truck windows. It just captures it all – the scenery, the road, the photography experience.

Going to the Sun Road

Landscape photography isn’t typically my “thing” anyway, but it was fun to see what I could capture. Here are a few of my favorites from our various trips over the road. We traveled it 4 times during our week-long visit to Glacier, so I had ample opportunity to practice.

I like how this image shows the road, the traffic and the dropoff. It gives you a sense of the experience.

Going to the Sun Road

The light and shadow on the mountainside caught my eye here.

Going to the Sun Road

We even captured wildlife on the move. This was the only mountain goat we saw during our visit. He just happened to turn his head and look as we drove by.

Going to the Sun Road

Capturing another sort of “wildlife” — tourists — was fun too. I love the way they are all photographing different directions out of the top of the bus. The buses were pulled over and stopped, but we were moving on the road across the valley.

This is my absolute favorite of the bunch! Maybe not a classic “landscape,” but I love the shades of green and the layers of the hills created by the haze in the atmosphere.

Going to the Sun Road

Photographing out of a moving vehicle is not as hard as you might think. You want a fast shutter speed to reduce motion blur and it works best if you don’t have elements very near to the vehicle, as that’s where most of the blur will come from. You get a lot of “throw-away” shots but with practice you can get some good images. Give it a try sometime!

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Reflected in my Work

When we create a work of art, we put a little piece of ourselves out in the world. Creation is expression of self; a reflection of self. As photographers, we often capture reflections of ourselves without intending to. Here is one such case for me… I loved the texture of the door and lock in this empty old theater in Astoria, Oregon. In the first image I captured, I was reflected in the door window. I noticed and moved to get another shot without my reflection, but in the end, it was the one with my reflected silhouette I liked best.

When I saw the image, it was a visual reminder that we are reflected in our work. The way we see the world, the things we choose to photograph, even the way we frame them are unique to us. Over time, we create a body of work that is an expression of who we are. We can also see our change and growth over time. It’s pretty darn cool to have that epiphany and discover yourself in your artwork.

I don’t know what my love of capturing old textured buildings and door locks says about me, but I know it does reflect a part of me. Maybe some day I’ll figure out what exactly that part is trying to say.

In The Picture

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Where Land and Sea and Sky Meet

I spent the last week at the edge of the continent, where the land and sea and sky meet. We had family come from Colorado and we camped out at the coast, enjoying the rugged beauty of the Pacific Ocean along the Oregon coastline. After growing up landlocked in Colorado, I will never tire of living so close to the ocean. There is a power and a peace that can be found no other place.

So after a week of sand and salt water, today it’s back to the routine. I’m getting caught up on emails and everything that piles when you unplug for a week, but I had to pull out this one photo to share with you today, taken on an early morning clamming trip at low tide. Whoever made up the “rule” that the horizon shouldn’t be in the center of the photo must have never come across a scene like this, where the sea meets the sky; becomes the sky. The horizon could be no other place.

Ah, the beauty and peace of it. I am still there.

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Head on the Table

Do you ever have moments of weariness, where you just want to put your head down on the table? Where you just can’t do anything else… you don’t have the capacity for more activity, more engagement, more anything. You just need rest. These moments come from many places… it could be relationship or job stress, or situations outside of our control. They don’t happen often to me, but they do happen.

Friday night was one of those moments for me. We’ve got a couple of big issues going on at my corporate job and Thursday and Friday of last week were long, intense days. They were the kind of days where I come home completely drained because I’ve used up all of my creative energy on managing work. Believe me, it takes a lot for that to happen. By Friday night, I couldn’t do anything more than sit and read a book. And not any book, but a light romance because I couldn’t read anything that took concentration. The feeling quickly passed and I’m back to normal, even though the issues continue and there is more work to do. I’m pretty resilient and adaptable when it comes to this kind of stuff.

When I saw the {in the picture} theme, Facedown, I scratched my head quizzically. I wasn’t really into the idea of lying facedown on the ground for a self-portrait. So here’s my version of “facedown” for this month. That bone-weary, lots going on, head on the table kind of facedown that I was feeling at the end of last week. We all feel this way, once in a while.

In The Picture

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Ouch

When I took this picture, I wondered why someone would write OUCH on an empty shop window. I liked the reflections of the double-paned glass and thought processing it would be fun, even as I wondered what I would ever use it for.

Apparently, I took the photo for today. As I sit in my achy body and sip my tea to soothe an achy throat and I wonder if I should make a doctor’s appointment for this achy ear of mine, I share the OUCH since that’s how I feel.

I sincerely hope you all are feeling better than me today!

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