Kat Eye Studio

by

Two of my Favorite Things

Sing along, to the tune of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music:

Cute vintage scooters and red wine with dinner…

That’s all I have written so far, but these are two of my favorite things from Italy. Found here in one photo! Today’s market/wheels photo is from Pavia, a smaller town just outside of Milan. We visited this town for a day trip in 2009, early in our two years in Italy. It’s so fun to look back and see this early capture of two things I came to absolutely love later.

It’s also the perfect image to share today, for our Mosaic Muse link up at Mortal Muses. We are finishing the theme Looking Out, Looking In. I love the texture and depth that is added to this photo by the reflections in the window I am looking through. Another cool thing – if you look closely, the graffiti that is reflected in the window is also reflected in the Vespa side mirror. This was a fun discovery of “looking out by looking in” as I edited the photo.

Wherever you find yourself today, enjoy the view, whether looking out or looking in!

by

Anchored Walls

We are still studying windows in Exploring with a Camera, and this week I realized I neglected to mention one important way I use windows in my photos: As an anchor.

I love the texture of walls, but having an image of a textured wall without any other context is not so interesting. Including a piece of a window, door or some other architectural element helps provide context. The corner of the window in the image below “anchors” the wall in reality, so you know what you are looking at.

I’ve enjoyed seeing the windows shared so far! Have you had a chance to explore windows yet? You have another week to join in!


by

Exploring with a Camera: Windows

It’s no secret that one of my favorite subjects is windows. Since returning home from Italy, I’ve noticed that I gravitate toward images of windows as much or maybe more than before. Noticing this has caused me to look closer at how I use them, why they interest me so. For this installment of Exploring with a Camera, let’s dive in and see how and why windows are such an appealing subject.

Source of Light

Windows are important to our existence. The let in light and air, while protecting us from the elements. As photographers, windows are a fabulous source of light when we are indoors. Each window, each time of day will bring a different quality of light to our photos. How often have you captured something with your camera, because you saw it sitting next to a window, in the light?

But windows go well beyond a source of light, to become an integral part of the composition and subject of a photograph. The image below is a great example. The window is the source of light, illuminating the table, but also a critical design element balancing the composition and interacting with the other items in the frame to tell a whole story.

Design Elements

The shapes and lines of windows make them an amazing design element in our photographs. They are usually square or rectangle, and we can decide how we incorporate them inside the square or rectangle frame of our photograph.

In the image below, the shape of the window replicates the shape of the frame. The contrast in color of the window gives your eye a place to focus and rest, while taking in the texture and layers in the wall. I see the texture as the subject, but the window “grounds” the image, giving the texture something to hold on to.

The window in this image is mainly used as a design element. Not only the color contrast, but the shape provides a strong, ordered contrast with the curving and disordered elements of tree, sculpture fragment and uneven texture in the wall.

When you see windows as a shape or a design element, you can see interesting uses for them in your images. Windows become the perfect subject to explore the use of repeating shapes as a dominant element, as in this photograph from late night in Venice. The repeating pattern of the window through the frame provides a separation between the working gondolier at the right and the rest of the empty gondolas on the left. (Visit Exploring with a Camera: Repeating Patterns for more on using repeating patterns in your photos.)

In this photograph from Madrid, repeating shapes plus the point of view reveal the use of windows as a design element to create lines. The strong linear perspective is completely created by the lines of the windows. (See Exploring with a Camera: Linear Perspective for more.)

Backdrops, Frames and Shelves

I find my use of windows in my photographs goes way beyond simple design elements. Windows are an integral part of many of my photographs, interacting with the subject as backdrops, frames and shelves. In the photo shared at the top of this post, the window serves as a shelf that holds the main subject – the colorful flower pots. In addition, the window frames the subject, creating separation from the contrasting space, texture and color around the pots.

Here is another example of a window used as a shelf, to hold the cupcakes. You can’t see the whole window, but you can feel it is there. A second window becomes a backdrop and frame for the person inside the building.

The window in this image serves as a frame for my son, looking out at the world.

In this self-portrait, the window is a backdrop for me. The framing and brightness provided by the window brings your eye to where I am sitting first, making me the focal point.

Reflections

Since windows are usually made of glass, they provide an excellent source of reflections. My recent favorite photo of the window in Ashland is an example of using the window as a source of reflection, but the window also serves to frame and bound the reflection within the image.

Window reflections can also create complex interactions within the photographic frame. They can reveal things that are not visible otherwise; the reflections create layered images by showing both what is reflected in the window along with what is seen through the window. The window reflection in this image shows a slightly different perspective of my sons face, while also layering it with what is outside and providing a frame.

You can find more on using windows as a source of reflections in Exploring with a Camera: Reflections in Glass.

Psychological Barriers

Windows can have powerful emotional impact in our photos, by creating a strong feeling of being on the inside looking out, or on the outside looking in. There can be a sense of separateness, longing, mystery or even protection created by windows in our photos. They are a useful storytelling element, both to express our own feelings and to draw the viewer in. This image below captures a story. It makes me wonder who lives on the other side of that window, with the colorful pots.

In this image, I am both literally and figuratively on the outside. I want to experience the warmth and companionship felt through the window, not just the warmth of the lone candle that is immediately accessible outside.

Does Stevie the cat long to be part of the outdoors or is he protected from the dangers of the outdoors by the window? You can decide. Either way, the window provides a boundary to explore, along with providing a frame for Stevie to sit within and light to the image.

By writing this post I may have discovered why windows show up in my photographs so much… there are so many different ways to use them! Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve discovered, just by doing my own image review:

  • Windows are a fantastic source of natural light, when indoors.
  • Windows are the perfect design element to explore shape, line and repetition.
  • Windows can serve as backdrop, frame and shelf, interacting with your subject in interesting ways.
  • The glass in windows creates complex layers through reflections.
  • Windows are a storytelling element, creating psychological barriers that can evoke strong emotion.

To view more of my window images, you can visit this set on Flickr.

What other uses of windows do you have? How do they show up in your photos? Share with us! The link up will remain open for two weeks. I look forward to seeing your interpretations of one of my favorite subjects!


by

Changing Perspectives

OK, here it is, the window that started off last week’s rainy photowalk. I was drawn to those window frames of wonderfully peeling paint in contrast with the shiny smooth metal of the building. It was interesting to find that the metal wasn’t as shiny smooth as it seemed from the car driving by. It had it’s own texture of rust and even writing on it, as you got closer. I like the shapes and lines in this image, and the contrast of not only textures but the silver-blue building against the warmer yellow and brown found in the windows and doors and repeated in the color of the curb.

I’ve been noticing lately how “straight on” many of my images are. That seems to be a favorite perspective. It’s not intentional, I often take many different angles and perspectives of one scene but come back to the “straight on” one as my favorite. Maybe it’s a reflection of my personality, I’m pretty direct and straightforward.

But the angles often show something that the straight on perspective cannot, and that’s depth. This is the window on the left. You can’t tell the depth of the texture, borne out through the paint and screen and screws and nails, in the image above. To show that, it took moving around the angle of the camera, the depth of field, capturing the layers and the details. Of the two images today, this second one is my favorite. It has more depth, it reveals more. It says more to me.

It’s just a reminder to continue looking from all different perspectives, to see which one connects with you the most. You never know!

by

How Connection Happens

My first Find Your Eye class of the year starts Sunday, and I’m so ready! It’s a full class, and the Flickr group is open and everyone is starting to introduce themselves. It’s so exciting to begin the process of connecting.

I was pondering how connection happens this morning, especially in the online world. It certainly takes effort on both parts, yours and mine, for us to connect. It’s not like in the “real” world, where circumstances could put us together in work or social environments, to help that connection along. We have to choose to be here. That’s the first step, but it’s not enough is it?

There has to be something more, to make a connection. There has to be an human, or emotional, sharing and response. If you visit a website, and get factual or useful information, do you feel a connection? I don’t. If there’s no personality involved, no sharing of self, there is no connection for me. Connection starts to happen when one person shares a little bit of themselves, along with whatever info they are sharing. It could be the sense of humor that comes through in their words, or a little about their lives or personal philosophy. Whatever that special something is, it’s important to start the connection.

Hidden Window in Bologna

That’s important to me, maybe because it’s what I do here every day, share bits and pieces of me through my photos and words. Today I share this window in Bologna: Partially hidden, partially revealed by the vines, but completely blocked off to light. I wonder, why is the window hidden and blocked off? Isn’t the point of a window to let in light, and air? This image makes me feel somewhat sad, and anxious. What windows do I still have inside me, hidden and blocked off like this? I know they are there, I stumble across them from time to time. Perhaps that’s why I’m anxious, worried about what window I will need to open next. It’s always hard to open a blocked window within our soul.

So I share, and I learn something about myself in the process. The next part of connection is up to you. It’s how you respond. Not everyone will feel a response to what I write, the images I share. For some, they will take away only the factual and useful information. Others will have a response, an emotional connection, with what I’ve shared. You may see yourself reflected in my words. You may see things entirely differently. Either way, that’s where the connection begins to happen in online interactions. One shares, the other feels. The recipient feels connected.

Connection is deepened, the cycle of connection is completed, when there is a response. That could be a comment, an email, an interaction that somehow closes the loop. It could even be signing up for a newsletter or a class. Something that tells me, the person who originally shared, the message was received. And valued. It’s weird sometimes in the online world, because there is the potential to connect with so many people by putting information out there, but you don’t always know who and where it’s being received. You only see numbers. I greatly value the connection I have with those of you who respond, even once in a while to say, “Message received.” It turns the numbers into real people, real connections.

Regular interaction over time, sharing a little bit of the “self” from both parties, becomes a real two-way connection. As real as any connections I make face-to-face, maybe even deeper, because with these interactions we’ve connected on something very, very important to me. Likely, to both of us.

That’s what life is all about, isn’t it? The connections. Of ourselves to the moment, and to the world around us. Our connections to other people.

What do you think? What does it take for you to feel a connection in the online world, and make a connection back? Close the connection and let us all know what it takes for you.

by

Tiny Clues

What is it about windows that attracts me? Maybe it’s because I just like to wander around places, outside with my camera, and they are what I see from the street. Maybe it is the perfect frame within a frame opportunity. Maybe it’s the glimpse I see of the lives that go on inside.

Whatever the attraction, I’ve been capturing them a lot lately. This one is from one of the buildings I was scoping at Oregon State University the other day. I think it was one of the shop or maintenance buildings, there was just enough to see in the windows to make me curious as to what was inside. The books only offer a tiny clue.

What’s attracting you these days?

Upcoming Events