Kathleen McGivney

Zeitgeist Films

Zeitgeist Mugs, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

Recently, I went to the offices of Zeitgeist Films with Jenni Miller of Premiere while she interviewed them for a piece about their 20 years as a filmmaking team and their retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. I was there to shoot photos of the two for the article. I only posted a couple - this one of the mugs that a friend of theirs made for them, and another of the two filmmakers, which are both featured in the article on premiere.com.

I am looking forward to doing some more work with Premiere, which I'll be doing next week as I cover one day of the San Diego Comic Con for them. Yes, it's a comic book convention (and one I've been to many, many times before), but there is quite a large film company presence there and there will be many filmmakers and actors there promoting their films. And I'll be there to take pictures of 'em doing it.

Raging water

Raging water, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

I have blogged a few photos that were taken using a Lensbaby before. As I mentioned in this post, the Lensbaby is a hybrid of a tilt-shift and a bellows lens that allows a photographer to create a selective focus effect. With a traditional tilt shift lens, you can create focus on your desired subject and have the other areas of the image out of focus, which makes the subject really pop out from the background. This is achieved by creating a very shallow depth of field.

What the Lensbaby does that's a little different is adds a blurry effect around the center area of focus. As you can see in this image, the flowers and foliage surrounding the water that I was focusing on look streaky, as if you took a watercolor brush and dragged it away from the subject. This effect happens when you focus the Lensbaby, which is done by pushing down on the bellows until your subject is in focus. The flexibility of the bellows also allows the photographer to concentrate their area of focus at any point in the image. So I could focus on the upper right corner, for example, and the rest of the image would have that streaky, soft-focus, watercolor look. I especially like to use this lens for high-contrast or difficult lighting situations, because the Lensbaby allows for some incredible ways to play with light and color.

On our last trip to Ireland, I used the Lensbaby much more than I did our traditional lenses, so I'll be posting some more on the artistic possibilities that can be achieved with this lens, which has a very attractive price point, just $150 USD for the Lensbaby 2.0 (my preferred version). It's a good way to take a step towards expanding your creative vision with your photography.

To really see the full effect in this image, it's best to view it larger. Bigger version posted after the jump.

A friendly horse

A friendly horse, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

I have been to Ireland a number of times and always love exploring there. It's a beautiful country and in case you couldn't tell from my name, I'm of Irish descent, so visiting Ireland has special resonance for me. So it was with great delight that in 2006 and 2007, I spoke at the Irish Lotus User Group meeting in Dublin, Ireland. In 2007, my husband (then boyfriend) and I brought his parents with us and had a little vacation before the conference. One of the places we visited was Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway.

While we were exploring the island, we came upon this little horse, grazing in a field behind a stone fence. She was very friendly and interested in us, allowing people to pet her and sniffing at us with curiosity. She was much more reluctant, however, to let us get even a glimpse of her foal, who she was quite determined to protect. Two more pictures of the friendly yet overprotective mom are after the jump. You can barely see her foal hiding behind her in one of the images.

Flowers from Belgium

Flowerpots, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

One of the subjects that I like to shoot often are flowers. That sounds awfully girly, but I like them for the same reasons I like shooting landscapes and people with pink hair and architecture and crazy dudes walking down Park Avenue in a bunny suit - because something about them catches my eye. Sometimes it's the color, sometimes it's the texture, sometimes it's the novelty, and sometimes it's the juxtaposition of modern and ancient, like an office building in the same shot as a Roman ruin. With this image, it was the bright yellow of the flowers contrasting with the muted colors of the windows, flowerpots, and bricks surrounding them.

I took this while we were exploring in Bruges in 2006 on our annual Thanksgiving weekend trip to Europe. Bruges is a really romantic and lovely city - lots of old brick streets, beautiful buildings, and many, many chocolatiers. Of course, because of that, pretty much all of our friends and family got Belgian chocolate for Christmas that year!

More photos from Belgium here, and more will be added soon. We're moving our photo archives from all of their many disparate storage locations to a centralized 1TB shared drive, and finding lots of photos that we thought we had lost. I'll be sure to share them with you soon.

A tower that leans, you say?

Leaning Tower, Pisa, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

While we were on our honeymoon, we took a day trip to Pisa to check out the Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), which contains the world-famous Leaning Tower. We didn't have time to climb up the tower as there was a 6 hour (!) wait for a climbing time. They only allow a set number of people up in the tower at a time due to its, er, structural issues, so we decided to pass and instead took photos inside the Baptistery (one here) and the Duomo (cathedral).

Many efforts have been made over the years to stabilize the tower and keep it from completely falling over, but it still leans and offers a great opportunity to play with perspective. I shot this with the Canon 5D and a Canon 17-40mm f4 lens at its shortest focal length. The wide angle at 17mm causes some perspective distortion. This, along with the direction that I was pointing the camera, makes the bottom of the campanile look larger while making it look like the tower leans much more than it actually does.

Lucky

Lucky, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

This is our housemate's cat, Lucky. She is tiny, only 5 1/2 pounds or so, and is 18 years old. She still scampers around like a kitten, though, and kills catnip-filled mice with reckless abandon.

She was the lady of the house until we brought my one-eyed cat, Jack, to NYC from L.A. (She may look like she has one eye in this image, but her left eye is just in shadow.) They get along in that uneasy cat way, where they swat at each other occasionally when we are around but will sniff each other's noses and sit close to each other when they think we're not looking.

This shot was taken with our Canon 5D and the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens. I just got this lens, and I really love it. It was quite difficult to maintain focus in this shot because she's a cat and therefore refuses to hold still when I want her to. I did manage to catch another shot with her face in focus, shown after the jump along with a couple of images from the Nokia N82 - a kitty standoff and Lucky lounging on her most prized possession, our cat-hair-filled cable box.

More from the Monument

Untitled, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

Yesterday, I posted a photo of The Monument in London, which commemorates the Great Fire of 1666. While my boyfriend at the time (now husband) climbed its 311 steps on the day I took these photos, I walked around the area, taking photos of whatever caught my eye.

This image is from a carved relief on the west side of the base of the monument. It is quite large, as you can see in this photo on Wikipedia. I captured this using a Lensbaby on my Canon 5D.

To get the full effect of this image, you really need to see it larger, though. A larger version is posted after the jump.

The Monument, London

The Monument, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

The Monument to the Great Fire of London is exactly what its title says it is - a monument that commemorates the Great Fire that happened in 1666. Built in 1677, it is 202 feet tall and stands 202 feet away from the point where the fire started. You can climb to the top of the monument up a steep and narrow winding staircase. It is 311 steps to the top - quite a feat, but well worth it for the views from the top. You even get a little certificate when you climb it.

I climbed it in 1999 on my first trip to London, but can't find the photos that I took with the point & shoot film camera I borrowed from a friend (I've come a long way, baby). This is a photo of the base of the monument taken in 2005. Normally it's surrounded by tourists checking out the sights or locals walking to or from work, but on this day I managed to capture it with nobody in the frame.

Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna

Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

During our trip to Italy, we took a day trip to Ravenna, which is not too far from the Adriatic coast. Ravenna was a prominent city in Roman times, and after the fall of Rome and a few changes in rulership, eventually came under the control of Justinian, emperor of the Byzantine empire. Ravenna then became the seat of Byzantine government in Italy.

During Byzantine rule, the Basilica di San Vitale was completed (though much of the artwork was completed during the period of Gothic rule). It holds some amazing examples of Byzantine mosaic art, which are considered some of the most important examples of Byzantine art in western Europe.

The photos we captured there do not do justice to the beauty and colors of these mosaics, most of which are over 1,400 years old. They are absolutely stunning.

More photos after the jump, including a detail shot. Keep in mind that the entire apse and surrounding arches are all decorated in mosaic pieces smaller than my fingernail. The ceiling in the main part of the church is painted, however.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Japanese Garden, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden is a wonderful oasis in New York City. My favorite thing about the BBG is that it has a large Japanese garden, which contains a large number of cherry trees. Cherry blossoms are one of my favorite things, both for their aesthetics and their symbolism. Each year, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden celebrates the Sakura Matsuri, or Cherry Blossom Festival. It is a huge, weekend-long event with Japanese art, performances and music. We love to go there to see the cherry blossoms in bloom and enjoy the festivities.

This image was captured at last year's Sakura Matsuri with a Leica D-Lux 3. More images from last year's festival can be found in my Sakura Matsuri set.