I am musing today on Applied Texture over at Mortal Muses, come by and say hello. This image was captured on our day trip to Sirmione last weekend, and I just loved the piece of the castle jutting out into the lake. Beautiful light and reflections, a reminder of an era gone by. Perfect for a little texture to age it.
I love digital photography, for the way it can alter our view. Here’s the original image, before the texture. A different feel, don’t you agree? Which do you like best?
I am so happy to get reacquainted with this stairway today. This lovely spot is in Cascais, Portugal, a little coast town that is a 30 minute train ride from Lisbon. This stairway takes you from the sea up to the town. I loved the texture of the peeling paint and the exposure to the sea air. Looking at this photo today, I am reminded of music. A treble clef to start the line, and notes ascending. A beautiful melody of line and color and texture to see and hear. In my mind, the percussion of the sea is in the background, to support and tie it all together.
I have been thinking of the creative process this morning, as I am reading The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. My creative process is a combination of regular practice, along with some little rituals. When I work at the computer, either writing or with photos, I love to have my cup of tea. That signals my brain, “It’s time to create.” When I’m writing or have something I need to really focus on, I also turn on classical music. I love classical music, but I save it for my personal creative time. The cup of tea and the music help me move quickly into a state of flow. It’s amazing what happens from there.
Do you have any rituals that help you get into the creative zone? What is your creative process?
There is a place on my normal walking route in Parco di Monza, were I sometimes find myself in the middle of nowhere. On foggy mornings, all I can see is the path I am on and the empty field around it. I am suspended in a place where nothing else seems to exist.
Our journey through life can be like this too. We can find ourselves on a path, where all we can see is just a little bit right in front of us. The rest is utterly, completely unknown. The only thing to do, is to take one step forward, and then another, on the path that we can see clearly. We have to trust that the path that opens up before us will lead us to good things. Take the steps in faith.
I’ve been revisiting part of my creative journey recently, as I prepare the material for my Find Your Eye course. It has been an enlightening exercise. By looking back at my journey, I can see that each little step into the unknown was leading me exactly to this place, where I am today. I can see every action, leap of faith, “aha” moment clearly in retrospect. It all fits together, what was unknown is now known. The fog has cleared.
Do you know what I’ve learned, more than anything else, by retracing my steps along this journey? That whenever I find myself in the unknown – that place where I can’t see the end of the path – I need to just take the steps. Put one foot in front of the other, along the stretch that I can see in front of me. I can trust that all will be revealed in time, and it will be good.
Today the 9 Muses Musing prompt is JOURNEY. Tomorrow’s prompt is VILLAGE. Come by and share your journey, or visit the links to see those that are shared today.
Yesterday my fellow muse Suki asked a question to the Mortal Muses, “If you did a 365, what did you learn this year by doing it?” Initially, I dismissed the question because I didn’t do a 365. (For those of you who don’t know, a “365” is where you take a photo every day, for an entire year.) But then I realized that I do my own sort of daily photography practice, if a bit different.
A little over a year ago, in November 2009, I started posting a photo a day here on the blog. Up to that point my blogging had been sporadic, and I didn’t have much focus. I had all of these great pictures from our travels, but it was so overwhelming to think of editing and posting many of them to tell the stories. I wasn’t interested in writing about our daily lives or travels. Sorting through, editing and picking one favorite photo a day, however, was doable. I decided to try that.
This simple little decision has had a profound impact on me. Today I found myself journaling this in answer to Suki’s question, on what this simple daily practice has given me:
It’s good to take a moment, look back and see all of the gifts I’ve been given through this one step. I don’t think it matters whether you specifically do a 365 or post a photo a day or write three pages every morning or whatever it might be. I don’t think it even matters that it is every single day (I certainly haven’t done that here!). What matters is that you find a regular practice that you learn and grow from, and you stick to it long enough to see the benefits.
I can’t stop doing this now, posting a photo and some words most days on my blog. I would lose some important, integral piece of myself. This practice, for me, is a gift that keeps on giving.
Today’s 9 Muses Musing challenge is GIVING. Stop by and leave a comment or link up to win the giveaway.
Tomorrow is my challenge day for 9 Muses Musing, and it’s LIGHTS. I know, big surprise! Get those holiday light photos tonight if you can – I have a great giveaway you won’t want to miss!!
I mentioned that on this latest trip to Burano I was attracted to color for color’s sake, and this little mosaic captures a few of those images, to show you what I meant. Such interesting colors, broken only by texture and a few forms and shadows. Even more interesting, when grouped together, to show the variety of it all! Burano is a candy store for photographers who love color.
When I finished this mosaic, my brain immediately saw a cover page to something, although that wasn’t the intent when I started. Maybe a calendar? I made a mental note on this as a project for next year, when I return to the US. For now, there are too many images to capture in Europe!
Along with this mosaic I must give a little thanks to Kim Klassen for the square mosaic template, which she posted in the Photoshop Test Kitchen. I am loving the Test Kitchen! It’s a membership site that I joined because I liked the idea of a place where tutorials and things were posted on a regular basis, so I could pop in and learn something new when I had time rather than commit to weeks-long classes. I love Kim’s videos, they are bite-sized mini-classes on using Photoshop. This weekend I watched a couple and learned some tips on making a (better) blog button, and using the high pass filter for sharpening. Along with downloading this mosaic template, I downloaded all of her past freebie textures, which she offered up to members. Fantastic! If you are interested in learning more about Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (which I use), I highly recommend visiting Kim’s site and checking out her Photoshop Test Kitchen.
Apparently I had time to play this weekend because yesterday, after posting this photo on my blog, I decided that it would look good with some textures. Again, reaching into my toolbox from Kim, I used some of her textures and created this version. I like this one – it conveys the mood and the age of this place better than the original. The “recipe” I used (textures and blending modes) can be found here.
I hope you had time this weekend to play too!
Wandering the back alleys of Burano, I found this. Sometimes I wonder, do the people who leave these things out, for me to see, know what they are doing? Do they see what I see in them? The fusion of textures, the contrasts, the repetition of color? Sometimes I think they do, and I am lucky enough to see it with them. Sometimes I think no, this may just be a chair someone set here, to sit outside their house on a summer evening. I wonder.
This morning I picked up Eric Booth’s book, The Everday Work of Art, for the first time in a long while. Here is something I read on this topic:
The moment we see that the world we inhabit is not just a sequence of hard, dead surfaces with fixed absolutes, but that it also can be seen “as if” it contains many non-logical truths, many mysteries, we head into a better future. The “as if” transforms artifacts into live media for the work of art.
I don’t quite know if that makes sense outside of the context of the book, but I see it in this photo. This chair, in this location can be a place to sit, or it can be seen as a work of art. How do you see the world?