Along the edge of the trail yesterday, I noticed the wild iris blooming. I love these small, delicate flowers. They are like the quiet cousin of the typical varieties you see around in gardens.
I got up close and personal with my iPhone, but the images just weren’t capturing the essence of these beautiful little flowers on a gorgeous spring morning.
So I looked for the light… and there it was.
Hello, spring.
Have you ever been swept into a positive cycle? One good thing happens, then another, and another… the positive energy flows. We often get bogged down in negative energy cycles, but the positive ones are the best. How would you like to participate in one? I have a way you can insert yourself. You have the opportunity to help inspire others and to fuel your creativity too. Here’s the cycle you can join…
Step 1 of the cycle: My friend, Toan Lam, founded Go Inspire Go. Toan is a former news reporter who was tired of dwelling on the bad news. He created Go Inspire Go to help tell inspiring stories of people using their power to help others. How awesome is that?
Step 2: I met Toan when he interviewed me for a Tea with Toan segment on the Photo-Heart Connection for his blog over a year ago. We clicked and have become friends, meeting in person when I visited San Francisco and chatting on Skype when we get a chance. (Not nearly often enough!)
Step 3: Toan and Go Inspire Go just launched the 50-50 Campaign. Their goal is to raise $50,000 to uncover and tell 50 inspiring stories from 50 US states. They want to spread the positive message! You can visit here to read more about the campaign and meet Toan in the video explaining what he wants to do. It’s worth the watch!
Step 4: Pay close attention – Here’s where you come into the cycle! Donate to the 50-50 campaign and help Toan and his crew of volunteers bring the 50 inspiring stories to life. Whatever they raise, they will use to tell as many inspiring stories as they can. Donate what you can, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot. Every little bit will help!
Step 5: Receive my one week eCourse, Fuel Your Creativity, as a perk for any donation over $5. This is me sharing my power to help others – showing that each of us can bring the positive energy of creativity into our daily lives. It was always my plan to make Fuel Your Creativity an on-demand eCourse, and it will be available for regular registration on my site after June 3. Until then, the only way to get this creative boost earlier is to donate to the Go Inspire Go 50-50 campaign.
Step 6: Do the exercises in the Fuel Your Creativity course. Feel a boost of energy. Find more happiness in your daily life as you become more aware of your surroundings. Find joy in creating, whatever your medium.
Step 7: Share that joy and happiness you find through your creativity with everyone you come in contact with! The good that comes from creativity is contagious. This is your power to pass on. Who knows what else your positive energy will lead you to?
There you have it. The cycle of positive energy, started by Toan wanting to share inspiring news instead of bad, continues — out from you. Each of us who touches the cycle transforms it a little bit. We all have a slightly different power to help others, and that’s a beautiful thing. The cycle spirals out in every direction! I love that I can use my unique power to help Go Inspire Go’s mission. What’s your power? You can help too!
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you just might find
You get what you need
— Rolling Stones
I’m not a big Rolling Stones fan, but the chorus is running through my head on an infinite loop this morning.
You see, yesterday I went for a walk. It was a gorgeous day, and I took a walk around the little lake on the property where I work. Inspired by my Singapore lily pad images, I wanted to see what I could capture with the water. I desperately wanted to get closer to these lily pads, to get rid of all off the surrounding stuff, but without hip waders or a zoom lens that was not going to happen. Frustrated, I took a couple of frames with my iPhone and moved on.
I realized this morning: I couldn’t get what I wanted, but I got what I needed.
Beauty, peace, tranquility. The perfect image to edit and share today.
I hope you all have a great weekend! If you have a chance, come over and say hi to me and the Bhoomies today.
The thing I’m realizing about play, and the resulting creativity that comes along, is that you need time. Unstructured time to just see what happens. No agenda. Come what may…
Here’s the result of my play this morning. I call it “Lifeblood.”
This was created with some new apps I’ve been playing with recently, Handy Photo, Percolator and Repix, along with some of my mainstay apps, Glaze and Snapseed.
It feels good to play again.
Linking up to Paint Party Friday this week. Hi everyone!
Looking through.
That’s the feeling I get from this image: Looking through.
I’m looking through a small, frosted window. It’s dirty, maybe in a warehouse or shop.
(But it’s still beautiful.)
I can’t see the whole of anything, all I see are pieces and parts.
(But it’s still beautiful.)
I can’t see the details. They are only impressions left on the glass.
(But it’s still beautiful.)
We can’t always see things perfectly. Sometimes we can only see what’s right in front of us: Part of something, through a dirty window. That can be enough.
Enough to call it beautiful.
I am a person who is always looking for the big picture in my life. I want to know how everything fits in with a greater plan. I want to see and understand the connections. My Photo-Heart Connection this month reminds me that’s not always possible. It reminds me that even when I can’t see the whole plan, I can still enjoy the part I can see — what’s right in front of me. There is beauty in the parts without seeing the whole. It’s funny… I processed this image to look this way. It started as a silhouette of bamboo against the sky, but it became a window. A window to my heart, with a message I needed to hear.
What is your Photo-Heart Connection this month? What message does your heart have for you? Review your April images, and share with us here.
Sunny skies. Palm trees. A group of photographers gathered. Lots of interesting things to photograph. Is there a better way to spend a Saturday? I’m not sure if I can think of one! On April 13, I spent the day with five wonderful photographers at Selah {an art salon} in Las Vegas, Nevada for my one-day A Sense of Place workshop.
First off, Selah is in a gorgeous, refurbished old house near downtown Las Vegas. The light, the architectural touches, and the colors just make this space a great environment to enjoy a creative discussion. Walking in to the house, you feel soothed and refreshed. Ready to learn!
We started the day in the classroom, talking about the concepts of Photography of Place. We explored our individual philosophies and the kind of things that make up our unique sense of place. We looked at the ways to photograph places, from icons to small details. My workshops are very much a small group, discussion type of workshop. I don’t stand up and present material from a powerpoint presentation on a projector. We sit around a table and talk about the material. Everyone has something valuable to share.
Photo by Sabrina Cofield of Selah
Before heading out for the day, we had an amazing lunch! Fantastic, healthy food was catered for us, to fuel us up for the photowalk.
Photo by Daria Riley of Selah
After sitting inside and talking for the morning, we were ready to head out into the gorgeous sunshine and explore downtown Las Vegas. What an interesting place! Downtown Vegas is being revitalized so there is a lot of construction going on. Wandering around, you find a little bit of everything to photograph. There is something for everyone, regardless of your photographic interests.
We found vintage neon signs…
Photo by Rainie Martinez
… and interesting modern architecture. (Channeling my inner Brenda here!)
We could photograph close ups of desert plants…
… and wonderful little scenes that are unique to this place.
We encouraged each other to find interesting angles and explore new subjects.
It’s always interesting to take people who live in a place on a photowalk around their own city. Most of the places we walked, the locals had never been! It reminds me that we don’t need to travel a long way to explore someplace new, we just need to get out and explore our own area. No matter where we are, we photograph with our own sense of place. The more we cultivate our sense of place close to home, the better our experience will be in new places. And our photographs will be truly our photographs, not a replication of what others have seen and experienced in the place before.
After a pause at a coffeeshop for a cool drink, we photographed our way back to Selah and wrapped up our day. It was a truly wonderful experience to meet and talk photography with these lovely women! Joining me for the day were Rainie (who travelled with me from Oregon), Erin and Trisha from Las Vegas, Cindy from Arizona and Daria, one of the Selah owners.
Right to Left: Rainie, Erin, Trisha, Kat and Cindy. (Photo by Daria Riley of Selah)
A huge thank you to Daria and Sabrina of Selah for inviting me to bring this workshop to Las Vegas. They were wonderful hosts and I hope to go back and teach there again!
And when I do, I hope you will join me there too.
The weekend also included a night photography walk on Friday evening. More on that tomorrow!