Love Letter from Italy

"You have entered my life and colored it with amazing colors I did not know before..."

This is a rough translation of one line of the love graffiti found on the path in Parco di Monza Saturday. Isn't it beautiful? I captured this image of the graffiti for the interest in the photograph but when I looked at it on the computer, I fell in love with that line.  I could take that quote for myself, to describe my time in Italy. Or the beauty and peace I find in Parco di Monza. Or the relationships with my husband and son, also pictured in the distance. So many interpretations in one simple line. 

We had a beautiful weekend spent doing a few last, favorite things around our home in Italy before the dismantling of our lives this week. It's a weird feeling, this dismantling. Taking apart piece by piece the life we've built here. What seemed so exotic a couple of years ago has become so normal. When did that happen? There was no exact moment in time, I know, but a gradual adjustment that just now becomes obvious as we shake things up again.

Beyond my move, there is quite a bit going on around here, I want to share with you too...

- I am featured today in Beth Nicholl's "Shared Stories" on the Do What You Love blog. Please come by and say hi! There are also lots of wonderful stories in Beth's archive, if you want to look around a bit.

- Exploring with a Camera: From a Flower's Point of View continues for another day, link up by the end of the day tomorrow if you are participating. I am loving the entries for this theme!

- Will you share what interesting new sites you have found in the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap? Yesterday I shared the link list and asked you to share your favorites in the comments. There are so many wonderful artists participating! Please come by and let us know who you've found by leaving a comment on yesterday's post.

- I did something crazy this weekend and entered a photo contest, my first ever. I've looked at a number of contests over time, but for some reason this one felt like it "fit." Would you come by and vote for me for the "people's choice" award? (This is an example of me feeling the fear - both of putting myself out there in a new place and asking people to vote for me - and moving ahead anyway.)

Whew. And I'm moving internationally in the midst of all of this. Doesn't that sound a bit crazy? But for some reason, it's all working out just fine.

I hope you have a wonderful, creative Monday! I am linking in to Creative Every Day and The Creative Exchange today.

Potential of the Day

Yesterday morning, on my walk in Parco di Monza, I saw this. Such amazing light and mist, and mystery. It seems an infinite path, you wonder where it ends.  What a difference a day makes, the intense rain of the previous day contributing the moisture for the mist in this otherwise sunny morning, making this image possible. A moment where you can sense the potential of the day.

Would you believe that this is straight out of the camera, and a point-and-shoot camera, no less? This supports my fundamental belief that it's not the equipment that makes the photographer, it's the eye. I keep coming back to this quote, "The best camera you have is the one you have with you." I keep my Canon Elph with me at all times in the park, so I'm armed for whatever inspiration is shown to me. And lately, things are shown to me often. I must have just started to see it in a different way, because I doubt the park has changed substantially in the year and a half I've been here, but my enjoyment of it has deepened substantially and it's become a wonderful source of inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, have you been keeping up with the 9 Days of Inspiration on the Mortal Muses sites? If not, go right now and read this post by writer Cara Lopez Lee. Her words are incredible. And while you're there, look around and leave a comment or two on the different sites to win some of the cool giveaways (including a set of my postcards - I have more on the way!).

I hope you have an inspirational day! The potential is there, in every day.

Words for Breakfast

Yesterday, it rained. And rained and rained. I seem to recall that last week I wrote the words, "When life gives you rain, take photos anyway!" in more than one place. Well, here was my chance to live up to my words or to eat my words. I decided to live up to them, as words for breakfast don't sound too nutritious. My shoes were soaked and people might have thought I was crazy, but I had a big grin on my face and I managed to get this image for the "Fall Color" prompt in Picture Fall.

I realized with yesterday's rainy situation that this blog keeps me honest with myself, if nothing else. I mean, if I'm going to write about it here, it would be false to not follow my own advice. I think you would eventually see the truth of the matter, feel the hypocrisy come through, and abandon me to my own devices. I would be writing in my own little dream world.

Since I would rather be connecting with the real world, with real people, I'm going to have to assess myself honestly. Flaws and all. Thankfully, so far, I haven't had to eat any of my words for breakfast.

Exploring with a Camera: Dappled Sunlight

This image fills me with a sense of peace. The greens and blues, the sheltering trees, the path to follow, with the archway leading you right around the corner into the sunlight. It's a safe, shaded place to pause before moving onward. Beautiful.

This path is part of Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia, where we spent one day hiking along a series of lakes with wonderful waterfalls. Just as spectacular is the path you follow, that winds you along and right up close and personal with the waterfalls or "splat" as they are called in Croat. It was an enjoyable day, a nice break from the cities we had visited to commune with nature and see something new.

I've often struggled with getting a good exposure in dappled sunlight images like this one because of the high contrast between full sun and full shade, a common problem in the middle of the day in the summer. Here are a couple of tips for your own explorations of dappled sunlight:
1. In the camera, underexpose. You want to make sure that the bright areas of sunlight on the leaves and the path are not overexposed or "blown out" completely. If that happens, you lose the ability to make any adjustments to those areas later in photo editing software.
2. In your photo editing software, consider two edits (I use Photoshop Elements):
- Adjust Levels to get back the "bright" areas if they were underexposed too much.
- Lighten shadows or Darken highlights to get less contrast between the light and the dark areas. I've found the biggest problem with dappled sunlight pictures is that the dark areas are too dark relative to the brighter area of the photo, so if you just lighten them up a bit it looks more like what your eye sees.

For this image, I underexposed a full stop in the camera and then just adjusted levels to brighten the highlights back up, because the exposure was pretty good overall. A small bit of cropping and I was done!

I also played with Pioneer Woman's Lovely and Ethereal Action for Elements, and I like the depth of color and the dreamy quality this one gives as well. I can't decide which one I like better!

Try your own dappled sunlight pics, and let me know how it goes! I've created a flickr group if you want to share your exploration results called Kat Eye View: Exploring with a Camera. Come join in!

Black & White

I'm feeling black and white, after more snow photos that just called out to be converted to black and white yesterday. So I decided to change my blog design to match my mood! There are bonus photos today, because I couldn't decide which one of these to post. Yesterday, after the snow, we went for a walk in Parco di Monza and these were my favorites.

One of the fun things about Parco di Monza is that in some places, the trees were planted with such a perfect symmetry. It's unnatural nature, and works in a photo like this.
I can't decide which of these next two I like best, they each give a different feel. I like that they both give a better idea of how big these trees are, relative to the people! Which one do you like best?
I like the different elements in this one, near, far, random, ordered...
My new favorite of Patrick and Brandon, my snow men!

Snow, A Day Ago

Brandon and I went out for a short walk in Parco di Monza yesterday morning. Me, to take some photos; Brandon, to make some snowballs. It was a black and white day in the park. Even though I converted this photo to black and white, the original does not look much different. I love this path, lined by the trees. So peaceful.

I hope we get a lot of snow this winter, since we don't get much normally in Oregon. We just need to find an ice scraper for the car, they don't seem to exist here and we've tried a few places. This morning Patrick scraped the car windows with a big lego!