Kat Eye Studio

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The Mail Room Flowers

It’s no secret, I love photographing potted flowers! The flowers at the Glacier National Park lodges were fabulous, especially at the park administrative offices, off to the side of the Glacier Park Lodge on the east side of the park. I made a beeline for the flowers as soon as I glimpsed them. Heaven!

This mail room scene was especially interesting to me. I love how you can see a bit of what’s going on inside through the open window.

Glacier Park Lodge

I love the connections that come out of my photography. I chatted with someone who worked in the mail room, after he saw me taking pictures of the flowers, and he told me where I could find more beautiful arrangements. It was a nice exchange, adding a personal element to my memory of these flowers and this place.

Glacier Park Lodge

Have you found the same? Does photography open doors for you?

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Your Art Here

Walking along the street this weekend I came across an interesting antique shop. The empty frames propped up outside the door seemed to be saying, “Your art here.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about art on the wall. Since my exhibition ended, I’ve been moving around frames and hanging prints up in our house. I’ve also recently really dug into learning more about creating fine art prints of my own (more on that later). So it’s no wonder I saw the empty frames and thought about what I would put in them.

What art would you put in these frames? Would it be something you have created? Would it be a recent work, or an older favorite?

PS – I’ve also been playing around with creating presets in Lightroom. I’ve created a preset called “Your Art Here” which I used in the processing of these two images. If you would like to try it, you can click here to download.

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Tomorrow’s the Day!

The Photo-Heart Connection link up for April opens tomorrow! Plan some time to revisit your photos from April, to find your heart connection. I wonder what my heart connection will be this month… will it be an image like this, from Korkula? A city scene from San Francisco? I never know until I go through the process. You and I will both find out tomorrow!

If you haven’t participated before, all are welcome. You can join in once or every month – no expectations or commitments.

To participate, follow these easy steps:

  1. Choose your Photo. Review the photos you worked with in the last month, either new or archive, and find the one with the strongest connection to your heart. Not sure how? Read here.
  2. Write from your heart. Looking at this photo, start to write. See what comes from your heart. There is a message in the image for you, if you open yourself to it.
  3. Share online. Pair your photo and words somewhere online where others can read it, and learn from your experience.
  4. Link in. Visit my blog between the 1st and 7th of the month to link in your Photo-Heart Connection. Connect with other participants by visiting the links.

You will find a great community of kindred spirits, waiting to meet you in the Photo-Heart Connection. See you tomorrow!

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Lessons from Abroad: Letting Go of Expectations

[Started while living in Italy, the Lessons from Abroad series shares some of the life lessons I learned through my expatriate experience. Since moving back to the US, I’ve found the lessons from living abroad have not abated; just changed. This post continues the periodic series.]

Each of us has a different path through life. Each of us has our own choices to make. We should make the choices with our own hearts in mind, finding the best option for us in the moment. We should be watchful for where we might be choosing to live up to the expectations of others, rather than what’s right for us. This is an area I’ve done a lot of personal work, and feel stronger about ensuring that I’m not following someone else’s path for me. I’m not trying to live up to someone else’s expectations. That’s a good place to be.

The new problem, I’ve recently discovered, is that I’ve been full of my own expectations. Expectations I made for myself while in Italy, upon return home to the US. I returned with many “this is how it’s going to be” statements. I was so worried about losing the personal growth I found in my expatriate experience that I set a path for myself to follow. I made plans. And while I’ve followed those plans for the most part, it’s been with increasing struggle and frustration. I’ve come to realize why – the plans and expectations set for myself while in Italy (let’s call that version of me “Italy Kat”) were done with the best intentions, but without knowing the reality of the situation.

Only the version of me that exists now, in this place and this moment, knows the reality of the situation. Only I can choose what’s best and right for me now. But I’ve become increasingly aware of this little voice in my head as I make new plans, saying, “But you planned… expected… thought…” The voice is Italy Kat, and she’s constantly judging the decisions I make now against the plans I made then. She’s constantly on the lookout for places where I’m off the path she set for me. And she’s quick to make me feel as if I’m falling down on the job if things don’t turn out as she planned.

So I struggle. And I get frustrated. And I discover it’s due to nothing else but my own expectations.

I discover this because the last of my Italy Kat expectations are starting to fray. One by one, over the past months, I’ve had to unravel these expectations. I did have big plans for what life would be like upon moving home. I wonder if I wanted to recreate my Italy experience here. I know now, I can’t. We are in a different place, leading different lives, with different needs. My Italian experience was wonderful, beautiful and life-changing. But I can no longer live my life under the shadow of that experience, with the expectations I set for myself during that time. It’s time to hug Italy Kat, thank her for her only wanting only the best for me, and send her back to Italy where she belongs so that I can get on with the business of living my life the way it needs to be lived. Here. Today.

So I find myself learning another important Lesson from Abroad, almost ten months after repatriation: Living to please and follow the expectations of an older self is just as damaging as living to please others. If we live our lives to please others we only find ourselves empty and unhappy in the end. We lose who we are. It’s the same for our own selves, with the expectations set in another place and time. If we live the path we defined for ourselves in the past, we won’t grow. In trying to keep my Italy experience alive, I wasn’t allowing myself to grow into new experiences. I was starting to lose the very thing that was so important to me – the connection to my heart and soul. That connection must be ongoing, in the moment. It can’t live in the past.

I don’t think I’m alone in this. I think it’s only obvious to me because the dramatic differences in life that repatriation brought. Has this ever happened to you? Do you recognize yourself in my words? I’ve thought through some steps to help me move through this, and they may be helpful for you as well.

  • If you are struggling in an area, not feeling satisfied because it’s not turning out “as expected,” take a close look at where the expectations are coming from. Are they from a plan that you created for yourself in the past?
  • One you identify the expectation, acknowledge it. State the expectation, make it real. So often these are unspoken expectations, hiding in the background, and it takes acknowledging it to begin to deal with it.
  • Forgive your former self for setting the expectation. Acknowledge and thank her for having your best interests at heart.
  • Let the expectation go. A ceremony might be helpful here, in order to physically act out the letting go of expectations. I’m planning on writing all of Italy Kat’s expectations down on slips of paper and then burning them, letting the ashes blow away in the breeze. Even visualizing this has already helped me let them go.
  • From this clear state, look at the choices you need to make and decide which next steps you want to take on your path. This may take some time, as there is no longer a guiding expectation from the past. As you create a new plan, recognize that you are setting new expectations. Make these openly and with flexibility. Give yourself permission to adjust along the way.
  • Breathe deep, and take the first step on your new path, free and unburdened by the past.

I am still working through these steps for myself. I’ve recognized, acknowledged and let go the expectations set by Italy Kat. I have the blank slate in from of me now. I don’t know that the next step I take will be much different than the one that Italy Kat would have wanted me to take, but I know that I will be doing it for the right reasons now. I will be choosing with my whole heart and soul, in the moment, within the reality of now. That’s the best I can ever hope to do.

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Power of Ordinary People

Lasting changes and improvements are made through the cumulative effects of individual actions. Heroic figures grasp the opportunities of movements and perform in a way that catches the imagination of a civilization and mobilizes a collective response, be even these actions ultimately receive their power from the responses of ordinary people.
— Shaun McNiff in Trust the Process

“Ordinary people.” Hey, that’s us.
“Individual actions.” We do this every day.

Is there power in the individual actions of ordinary people? I believe there is. I believe that each of us, through what we create each day, bring something of value to the world. In countless tiny ways, we create the existence around us. Artistic creation is but one aspect of the lives we create each day.

A while ago I received this quote on my Yogi tea bag, “Our thoughts are forming the world.” I set it aside, I didn’t get it at the time. I mean really, the world is made up of things not thoughts, my logical mind protested. Sometime later I realized that all of these things around us, with the exception of nature, began as thoughts. Someone thought they could create a light bulb. Someone thought they could capture light with chemicals, and later with electronic circuits, to create a camera. Someone thought they would build a building, or a town, or a country. Our world is changed, formed, by thoughts which begin in the minds of individuals.

It’s not just the big invention-type thoughts that matter though, those are only tangible examples to show the concept that things start as thoughts. For everything we do, our actions start as thoughts. Our practice of creativity helps to form those thoughts, helps to link ideas in new ways. Our practice of creativity gives us power: new ideas lead to new actions which change the world within or around us in a million tiny ways.

“Every one of us has something distinct to offer to the all-encompassing process of creativity,” McNiff goes on to say later in the book. Do you see how it is true? McNiff wrote his book, I read it today and re-interpret it here, you read and re-interpret it again. You think about it, form your own opinion. Each connection, each thought, is part of the overall creative process.

A creative process which is available to ordinary people. Sparking change which begins and ends with ordinary people. People like you and me.

Consider your power, as an ordinary person taking individual action, no matter how big or small. How will you use it today?

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Exploring with a Camera: Silhouettes

Welcome to February’s installment of Exploring with a Camera! In this exploration we’re going to be looking at Silhouettes — how to capture and effectively use them in your photographs.

Lately, if I have my camera in my hand, it’s because I’m seeking the silhouettes of the trees against the early morning or late evening sky. Perhaps it’s because we’ve had an unusually clear winter here in Oregon, or maybe it’s just what I’m noticing now, but the shapes of the trees against the sky have been fascinating me. Have you ever noticed how different each type of tree looks in silhouette?

Silhouettes are all about shape. You take all dimension, all form, out of an object when captured in silhouette. This can be challenging, since you have to learn to see the shapes, and how they merge together, in order to compose your photograph. You may not realize how much information your brain infers from the knowledge of a 3D form until you distill it down into the 2D shapes using silhouettes. Not only that, but exposure when capturing silhouettes is not always straightforward. This makes exploring silhouettes a great learning opportunity!

Elements of an Effective Silhouette

Chances are, you achieve silhouettes in your images all the time without even thinking about it. There are a few elements that you need to create an effective silhouette in an image:

  • A light source behind your foreground object(s) in silhouette. The light source can range from back light to almost being side light, but the more directly behind the object the light is, the more of a silhouette you will achieve. The light doesn’t have to be particularly strong or directional, as shown in this example of my husband and son peering into an aquarium window.

    Even in side light, you can at times achieve a strong silhouette but some of your object may be highlighted. (See Exploring with a Camera: Rimmed with Light for an exploration of side light.) In this example below, even though it is full daylight and the light is a bit to the side, my son is a silhouette against the sky.

  • You need strong contrast between your object in silhouette and background. The background needs background to be lighter than the object in silhouette. The more contrast, the more the silhouette shape will pop. In this example, the tree is strongly contrasted against the morning fog. Converting to black and white increases the contrast, making the detail of the tree branches clearly visible.
    Reflections of light off of surfaces, like water or pavement, can enhance the contrast. The silhouette of this boat in the Venetian lagoon is created using water as the backdrop.
  • You need a recognizable shape. Unless you are working to create an abstract image, you have to pay close attention to the shapes of the object in your foreground. Multiple elements will blend together to get one shape when seen in silhouette. Being able to recognize how the shapes blend with each other and interact with the background is an important part of achieving a silhouette. In this moment of connection captured, it was important to ensure the figures weren’t merged so much as to not be recognizable. The space between their feet and the shadow helps keep the shape identifiable.

    A complex shape can be made more recognizable by effectively using any openings. In the case of the image below, the openings make the shipwreck on the Oregon coast an effective and recognizable silhouette.

Exposing for a Silhouette

Exposing to achieve a silhouette can be tricky. In-camera meters seek to achieve an average “mid-tone grey” exposure across the frame. When you have strong contrast of dark and light, as in the case of a silhouette, the camera will often choose settings that overexpose – making the background too light and capturing detail in the silhouetted object you may not want.

Since you want the contrast of black silhouette (with no detail) on light background (with most of the detail), you will want to underexpose relative to the camera’s meter reading. Depending on your lighting situation, you may need to underexpose 1 to 2 stops. If you manually choose your settings, this is straightforward. If you use the automated settings on your camera, there are a couple of ways to underexpose:

  • Use Auto-Exposure (*AE) Lock. With this feature, you aim your camera so that the background fills the viewfinder, lock the exposure, then recompose your image with the silhouette where you want it. When you press the shutter the camera focuses and takes the picture, but the exposure was set when you locked it. The exposure resets each time you take the picture.
  • Use Exposure Compensation (+/-Av). With this feature, you choose how much you want to underexpose your image, such as -2/3 or -1 stop. When you press the shutter button, the camera focuses and meters the exposure, then compensates the settings to underexpose as you instructed. This setting remains each time you take the picture, until you change it.

Revisit your camera manual to get the details on how to use these settings for your camera.

Capturing a stained-glass window, such as this gorgeous one found in Heidelberg, Germany, is the kind of situation where you will struggle if you rely on the camera’s automated settings. The camera’s attempt to get an average mid-tone grey across the frame would result in the window being completely “blown out,” or overexposed, with no detail. By underexposing relative to the camera’s meter, exposing for the windows only, you allow the dark areas to be black and you capture the detail of the windows.

You can also adjust your image in post-processing to increase the silhouette effect. If I still have detail in the dark areas, I will darken the shadows in order to increase the overall contrast. I may also lighten the background, but that can in turn begin to reveal detail in the silhouette you don’t want. It’s a give and take, so play around in your post-processing to see what you can do to create silhouettes. In the image below, taken in Salzburg, Austria, I exposed to achieve a silhouette in the towers against the sky, but still had some visible detail in the foreground next to the river. In post-processing, I increased my contrast by darkening the shadows, which created a more uniform black silhouette throughout the image.

Using Silhouettes

Silhouettes can be used as the subject of an image, as in the case of many of the examples already shared, or to set off other elements by their contrast. For example, in this image from the Amalfi Coast of Italy, the silhouette grounds the image and provides contrast for the interesting light in the sky and on the water.

In this image from Venice, the silhouette of the Bell Tower serves as a backdrop, enhancing the sense of place fo the lamp. It’s a simple image, yet it screams “Venice” to me due to the inclusion of the silhouette in the background.

There is something appealing to me about the simplicity of distilling an object down to its shape. I find the emotional impact is greater by the simplification a silhouette provides. The image of the couple in embrace becomes “love” or my son with his hands thrown wide becomes “joy.” A silhouette turns an object into a graphic representation, cutting to the essence and imparting a different meaning than if the object were seen in full light.

I hope after reading this you have become as fascinated by silhouettes as I have been lately. Look through your archive, or go out exploring with your camera to find new silhouettes and come back here to share. This link up will remain open through 24 February. I can’t wait to see your silhouettes!



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