Curly Fence

Yesterday I started to look through my photos from the Portland Photowalk, and here is one of my early favorites, of a beautifully curly fence. I still need to finish reviewing photos and write up a post on the Photowalk, it was so much fun!

I am feeling so behind this week... even though I got back home a week ago, we went to Venice for the weekend and had house guests here for most of the week. There are piles everywhere in my life - on my desk, on my bedroom floor (suitcase is still not unpacked!), on my "to do" list, in my email inbox, in my google reader... everywhere. I don't like this feeling, to be honest. This weekend I hope to get things under control. Anyone have suggestions for me?

Exploring with a Camera: Spirals

Spirals are a beautiful shape. They have marvelous curves and convey energy and motion. Not only that, they are a truly efficient form used in nature, and we see them so many places in our every day lives!

While I have captured spirals with my camera countless times, the first place I truly became aware of the spiral form explicitly was in the Barcelona Science Museum. The exhibit on forms found in nature had this to say:

The spiral is a circumference that twists away on the plane that contains it. It is the best way of growing without occupying too much space. It is frequently found in animals when there exists the contradictory need for something massive, voluminous, broad or long that does not affect mobility (horns, tails, tongues, trunks, shells, etc.) and in plants to grow something that will subsequently be unrolled. If we unrolled all the spirals we have at home (kitchen and toilet paper, audio and video tapes, adhesive tape, records, springs....) we would be forced to leave the house, as we would not all fit.

Wow! I had never thought of it that way. The typical form in nature that comes to mind for me is the shell (above, from Barcelona Science Museum), but there are so many other places you will see it. Take this photo of a gardenia, for example, from my online friend Barbara:

So gorgeous! Mother nature really knows what she is doing in these things (and so does Barbara). :)

Our man-made world copies nature to use the function of spirals. I don't personally have any photos of toilet paper, but the common spiral staircase, like this one in Verona, is a good example.

And I will spare you the countless spiral staircase photos I have of lighthouses on the Oregon coast! I can't step into one without capturing the wonderful curves and lines of them. (In prepping for this post I learned that technically, this is not a spiral because it is not all on the same plane - it's a helix. But you'll forgive me if I claim artistic license here, won't you?)

Even more than function, humans copy the form of spirals in our everyday world. The Romans used them, as I discovered in this floor mosaic in the British Museum:

The Greeks used them, in their ionic columns. (Thanks to my 9-year-old son, I've relearned which are Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Ionic have the spirals.) These columns are used all over in architecture, here's just one example I caught in Bath:

And they are used all the time in wrought iron work, as I've noticed here in my travels in Europe. Here's a light post in Bath:

My favorite wrought iron spiral of all time is this railing in Amsterdam. Talk about function following form! What graceful curves...

An architect who used spirals over and over in his work was Antoni Gaudí, in Barcelona. He took much of his inspiration from nature, and this ceiling detail is but one example.

We see spirals every day, even if you haven't noticed it lately. I captured these two images of bus shelter advertisements in different cities on our recent trip to England. Spirals are used in graphic arts to denote natural beauty and to convey energy. They catch your eye and draw you in.

Keep your eye out for spirals around you. Here are a few ideas:
1. Look at home. All of those rolls of paper! And then there are spiral notebooks, springs, even toys (hello, Slinky!). What is there with spirals, sitting right next to you?
2. Look at nature. Flowers, ferns, vines, shells all show spirals. Water moves in spirals, think whirlpools and breaking waves. How can you capture them? What else can you find?
3. Look at architecture. Staircases and wrought iron are two I've mentioned, what others do you see?
4. Look at art and design. Artist have used spirals in their work for thousands of years, and the golden spiral or golden ratio is a fundamental compositional principle (see a short and helpful explanation here). What traditional and modern uses of spirals can you find?

I can't wait to see your spirals! Join in and share them in the Flickr group.

PS - If you want to do more exploring with your camera, visit past posts here.

Why Windows?

An attractive set of windows in Dubrovnik caught my eye. As I was editing this photo and others from this day I wondered, why windows? Why do they catch my eye so? Especially ones with plants and flowers in them. Ones like this, with interesting bars to cover them too.

Maybe it's because of the individuality of each of them. Each window is different, unique, has a history of its own. The decorations reflect the individuality of the owners, no two are alike. They are an outward display of the lives inside. So much of peoples lives is closed inside here in Europe - inside the shuttered windows and big solid doors - that this is a little glimpse that there is someone living in there. And someone there who cares to make their place look pretty on the outside, even if the only way to do that is to decorate the window. Not for the tourists, but for themselves and their neighbors, the people who will enjoy it every day.

And I get to enjoy these windows, to photograph them, and to share them with you. Thanks to all of these anonymous people, who make my images possible. They are the true artists here!

Hard and Soft Edges

A wrought iron handrail in La Pedrera, aka Casa Mila, another building by Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona is a great example of soft edges. The handrail could be all straight lines, right angles, functional, forgettable. But it's not, it's art - part of the decoration, the feel of the place. It's beautiful. I never thought much on wrought iron before living here in Europe, but now I've seen so much beautiful and functional wrought iron work I respect it as it's own art form.

In another forum, I had someone comment on the contrast I was seeing in my Barcelona photos. She put it as hard vs. soft edges. I hadn't even noticed that before, the contrast that I had noticed in Barcelona was the old vs. new, modern vs. classic, but there is definitely the hard and soft contrast too. Straight lines and flowing curves. I love getting a comment like that, that helps me to see things I captured in a different way. Keep them coming!

Beauty is Everywhere

One amazing lesson from this journey I am on through Europe and life - Beauty is everywhere around us, we only have to see it. We only have to stop and notice. In our hurried, everyday lives do we do that?

I didn't, until I completely uprooted myself and my family and moved across the ocean temporarily.
I didn't, until I started carrying a camera everywhere and noticing more about the world around me in a different way.
I didn't, until I started sharing what I found with others and recognizing the amazing joy that sharing beauty can bring.

All of these things have made me "see" in a different way. Helped me see beauty everywhere, in so many ways.

Is something beautiful if no one notices it? Our American (English?) saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has been used to mean that beauty is completely personal. But does it also mean that it requires a person, a beholder, to see it and name it beautiful?

If so, we have a big job! We have so many things around us to find beautiful. I encourage you to make something beautiful today, just by seeing it. Notice what is around you. You don't need the move to the foreign place to change your viewpoint like I did, learn from me.

(Image is a stair railing of a townhouse in Amsterdam.)

Functional Beauty

Security and art, all in one. If you are going to have bars on your windows, you might as well make them pretty. That seemed to be the theme in Assisi.

This is the first of images from our vacation last week to Assisi, Orvieto, Civita di Bagnoregio and Rome. I've barely, barely scratched the surface of images from this trip, this is going to be a fun but time consuming adventure!

Unique Vision

From photographer Rodney Smith's blog, The End Starts Here: "If you were to stand right beside me and use the same camera, you would not take this same picture. It probably would look quite different. This is what makes each person’s photographs unique. It is your take on the world, and is special only to you. This gift is not something to be taken lightly or ignored.

It is why I know more about you when I look at your pictures than I know about the subject. I can look deep into your being, know your vulnerabilities, whether you wish to acknowledge them or not. I can feel your perspective, your orientation, and your feelings. Isn’t it funny how life sometimes feels backwards? I look at your pictures and I see you in them, with a greater clarity than I see your subject."

What a powerful statement on photography. This just completely resonated with me when I read it this morning. I think this captures in an essence why I love photography, and why I feel compelled to share. It's like sharing about me. Sometimes when I look at my photos after coming home, I'm amazed by one or two. I think, "Wow, I really saw that? I didn't even know that was what I was taking a picture of!" But somewhere deep inside me, the real me, saw and acted on it.

And when I combine one of those "wow" photos with a thought on this blog, I'm often amazed at what comes out! Pieces of me that I didn't even know were in there.

So I share one of those photos today, one of those that I said "wow" when I started going through my images later. I was coming up the steps at the old castello in San Vigilio, above the high city of Bergamo, about to exit onto the roof for a view. My own unique vision. Truly the "Kat Eye View" of the World!

Inviting

Isn't this the most inviting little scene? The gate is cracked open, just waiting for someone to step inside. There is tantalizing view of the flowers in the courtyard, showing that someone put thought and effort into the space. The purple house makes me think - hey, I want to know this person who paints their house purple and has such beautiful flowers. I want to sit in their courtyard and drink tea. (Of course, this is in Italy, so it would be coffee they are drinking, sadly for me.) I love images like this that invite you in, where you can make up a whole story based on it. They say, "An image is worth a thousand words," but each of us can use a different thousand for the story. How fun!