Picture Black and White: Nature

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Naomi

It’s time to catch up with Picture Black & White and theme five (of six): nature. It did seem counter-intuitive to be focusing on nature when there is so much vibrant color to be found, but we found the beauty, the detail, and the texture of what is in nature to be so beautiful in black and white.  I have particularly loved the community-building in the class and want to remember some of the lovely compliments people have given me about some of my images, so I’ve included a few here.

The Sky is the Limit: We often wait for sunset to shoot the skies above for the glorious colors, but when you’ve got a monochromatic mind all you have to look for is depth, texture and light.

Storm clouds about to cover up the blue sky and sunlight.

  • That is just stunning.
  • Very dramatic!
  • Beautiful! I love when the light hits the clouds like that. Great image!
  • Love the contrast in the clouds!
  • i LOVE this in b&w!!
  • Fabulous storm clouds!!
  • Spectacular! Love all the tones in this!
  • So many layers! Great contrasts.
  • wow. what depth!
  • sensational!! love all the layers and how the sun lights that one puff of cloud ~ awesome : )
  • wow that is one fierce sky!

  • Love the branches in the foreground.  Pretty!
  • Love the feel of this!!  magnificent ~ love how you framed this! : )
  • Wonderful contrast! Love the little berries!
  • Very cool shot
  • I really like how the light sky divides the frame… just beautiful!

Grounded: Perhaps it’s the unexpected angle, the curious perspective or the feeling that it evokes. Use the ground as your muse. Explore, discover, connect with the earth under your feet today and see what happens!

Enjoying this lovely little droplet in post-processing.

  • poetry!
  • oooh! Stunning!!! That focus is amazing!!!
  • wow, fantastic light and focus!
  • oh wow soooo beautiful!! :-))
  • the droplet is perfect!
  • Gorgeous…just love that little drop!!
  • That water droplet is like a hidden gem. Great capture.
  • Absolutely amazing. Love what looks like an entanglement between grass and the clover.
  • Beautiful b&w, love your focus and of course the water drop
  • beautiful! love the angle here with the droplet of water….
  • This is gorgeous! Frameworthy for sure!

Clover in my backyard

  • I love seeing the little hairs on the clover. Nice!
  • Love the focus and light!
  • Beautiful light and detail!
  • love the light :-)) and how it brings out all the charming details :-))
  • this is so pretty!
  • love your photo! the light is amazing.
  • Such fabulous focus, lovely tones!!
  • I never knew clover had the fine little hairs on the leaves. Great detail!

Lens on Landscape:  Take a look at the landscape around you and look for magnificence, splendor, glory. Consider shape and texture balance and of course lights and darks. Get lost in your landscape today.

It was fun converting this to B&W since my reason for taking it originally was the fall foliage. I used an HDR-like filter to bring out the contrast.

  • I like the way you’ve captured the dense foliage… I’ve tried this and it’s harder than it looks… great job.
  • lovely details and composition. great bw capture :-))
  • looks like a path to somewhere lovely
  • i love how the road keeps it all in control. just wonderful.

Getting Intimate: When the tiniest and seemingly insignificant things appear larger than life in our images, we are drawn in and even enchanted.  There is a magic and mystery that lies beneath what is usually obvious to the eye.  Revealing something poetic of the inner workings of nature can be so creatively satisfying.

  • Great macro! I love the wispiness.
  • Such beautfiul wisps!! Great capture!
  • so delicate and lovely!
  • like fireworks! beautiful … : )
  • Ahhh – delightful!
  • Love all the wispy parts!!

The Growth Process: How can you frame the growth process in nature in a way that somehow distills what can seem intangible? Black and white shots that we find in nature today can help us to focus more on the gesture than anything else so watch for a twist, a turn, a bend, a bow or anything that shows that process.


Gerber daisy before it unfolds its petals

  • oh such great stuff.  love all the interesting details in here :-))
  • Awesome! I love this. The light and lines are great.
  • stunning macro!!
  • amazing … such wonderment all about us! great photo! : )
  • This is wonderful! Love the little droplets of water on it and all the beautiful tones.
  • Gorgeous, love the light
  • OMG – the detail on this is fantastic!!!
  • amazing light and texture – love it!
  • great and awesome light shining on these buds :-)) pretty cool all the details
  • So delicate
  • Love the hairy little things.! Beautiful light.
  • this pretty much took my breath away … amazing. : )

See previous Picture Black & White posts: graphic elements and light, texture, and messages.

Posted in Creativity, Photo Friday, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The beauty of you: self-portraiture

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Naomi

you are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
and whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

~ Max Ehrman

This week I began a new class… on self-portraiture.  Aaarhgh.  Coindidentally, Chapter 5 of Inner Excavation (“I look closer”) is also about self-portraits and “a personal journey of discovering new ways to see yourself.”

The new class, NOW YOU, is 6 weeks of lessons with Kristin Zecchinelli and Meredith Winn (Shutter Sisters and all around awesome women and photographers).  Each week we will be exploring a different way of seeing ourselves through our viewfinders.  Their “ultimate hope is that you gather tools along the way that will have you loving YOU right NOW.”

I highly recommend reading this post by Liz about how powerful the gift of letting yourself deeply see yourself can be.  She says, “This is the practice of finding and using creative self-care every day so that when the hard stuff stacks up, you can lean into those tools and feel supported.”  How we think of our bodies is powerful stuff… check out this post from Sunni Chapman on Roots of She.

I am curves and contours, 
soft curls and sunspots.
I am a head tilt and a smile
with that one side dimple.
I am freckles and creases, 
proof of youthful summers spent outside.
 
I am curious, musical, creative,
a lover of words.
I am a seeker of a quiet corner.
I want to be known, nurtured, and loved.

OK so the poetry aspect in Inner Excavation is getting easier, thank goodness! That one only took a few minutes. 🙂

Self-portraiture, at least on day 1, feels selfish and full of self-judgement.  I am far from the self-aware point that Kristin and Meredith (and Liz) describe to be self-care: “a form of therapy, an artistic expression, a long deep look at what makes us who we are.”  The promise of all these things is keeping me going.  I also guess that some day I will want to remember the smoothness of my hands without wrinkles or the brown of my hair without the grey.  I want to appreciate and love my body for what it is now.

I deleted so many pictures in this mirror session except for this one; a face of frustration and doubt.

Lessons learned:

  • Quiet your inner critic as much as you can.  When you look at the photos, let go of how you feel about them and try not to make any judgements about yourself.  (I know…)
  • Crop out any distractions in the photos, like a red cup on the table behind you, so that the eye is drawn to you and the background disappears.
  • Try other fun ways to capture yourself besides looking directly at yourself… perhaps your shadow or reflection, part of your face, your hands, or your closed eyes.
  • Keep in mind that while you may not like how you look today, you may be glad to have these pictures 10 years from now.  It may be a privilege to look back at your younger self.
Posted in Mindfulness, Photography, Poetry, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Naomi

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is MOVEMENT.

I knew there would be a future need for these photos of the San Antonio Riverwalk when I took them 7 months ago! Ripples and reflections on water speak implied movement to me.


What comes to mind for you?

Past challenges: Create, Close, Today.

Posted in Mindfulness, Photography | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

An announcement and a photo-heart connection: beauty is God’s handwriting

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Naomi

I am celebrating a private accomplishment today.  As Tracey Clark said on her blog recently, “it’s time we celebrate who we are, where we’ve been and where we are going and all the awesomely brave things we do along the way.” I can hardly believe that my little blog started a year and a half ago hit 100 followers last week. Talk about taking a risk to put myself out there! That people would like to see my photography and read my thoughts baffles me still.  But I am giddily jumping for joy and mentally doing cartwheels in celebration of this accomplishment. I am proud that I began, even though I wasn’t sure where it was going.  I am proud of sharing my photography, dreams, and motherhood struggles.  I am proud that I thought enough of myself to put myself out there… and I am rewarded with so many new friends… YOU!

Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t, it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.  ~Barack Obama

It’s time for the June Photo-Heart Connection! When I looked through the photos I took in June, this one stood out for me.  I snapped it for a Picture Black and White class prompt, but desaturating this of color sort of ruined it for me. 

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The heart and soul connection here for me is that I did not ever notice that this “weed” was so colorful until I visited it with my iPhone macro lens.  In looking at the photo on my computer, I was taken aback at it’s texture, rich color, and delicacy.  Quite a revelation… photography does that for me.  I didn’t see the beauty right before me until I had my lens there to translate it for me.  This happens so often that you’d think I’d be used to it by now, but I still pause in wonder every time.

I am currently participating in Liz Lamoreux’s Inner Excavate-along, and part of one of our prompts recently was to capture the world around us with our cameras, seeking patterns and nuances in how we see things every day.  I was immediately drawn to the words “you already know” in her prompt.  There is so much intuition within me when I’m holding my camera. 

Haven’t done it before? You can learn more about how to find your Photo-Heart Connection here.

See my May photo-heart connection post here.

Posted in Creativity, Mindfulness, Photo Friday, Photo-Heart Connection, Photography, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Inner Excavate-along: I gather and I see me

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Naomi

On to Chapters 3 and 4 of Liz Lamoreux’s Inner Excavation: Exploring Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media.  Liz is leading a couple hundred of her friends through seven weeks of inner excavation on Flickr, on her blog, and through subscribed posts.  I’ve met some wonderful new friends already through this process and am enjoying seeing how they progress through the prompts.

In chapter 3 (“I gather…”), Liz prompts us to look at what we gather to ourselves and what we are drawn to repeatedly that fills the world we inhabit, gaining insight into who we are and who we want to be.  She asks “who are you?” “what inspires you?” and “how do you nurture yourself?” She is pushing us to “find clues and claim the truths within our thoughts that become tangible on paper.”

I chose to work on the writing exploration segment of this chapter, answering these questions “in poem” about the images and textures of my world right now.

I enjoyed a rare few minutes of quiet when my daughter fell asleep in the car last week.  When we got to our destination, I picked up a scrap piece of paper (yes, my car is a mess!) and jotted this down…

Having looked into our past in Chapter 2, Chapter 4 (“I See Me”) is about where we currently “stand in our lives.” I had fun with a photography series that literally captured my path… my feet and the ground beneath me, “playing with the idea of being rooted in the moment.”

I will be starting a self-portraiture class soon (“Now You“), which is not at all about the photos but more about how we see our authentic selves, and I am nervous.  It’s very difficult for me to be comfortable in front of the camera.  Liz reminds us here that we are in control of how we see our own beauty.  “Give yourself permission to let go of [the assumptions you might have about what photos of our bodies have to look like.”

In the poetry section, we “delve deeper into what the body says, how the body feels, what the body knows.”  It’s a way of looking at ourselves in a different light.

Here are links to previous chapter posts: “I begin” and “I seek.”

Posted in Books, Creativity, Mindfulness, Motherhood, Photography, Poetry, Quotations, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Visual representation of mindfulness – July 1 OLW blog hop

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Naomi

This post is part of the One Little Word Blog Hop where members of Ali Edwards’ OLW class share their monthly assignments or something about their word.  Each month, on the 1st of the month, I’ll participate and then give you a link to the next in line (see the full list of participants at the end of this post).

Our assignment for June was to literally play and be messy with our word in mind; to reflect on our word and allow a creative meditation to unfold, using the word to create a visual representation.

I should preface these photos with the explanation that I had absolutely no earthly idea what I was doing.  The day I began these cards, I had a long to-do list and was looking forward to crossing through several items while my daughter was at her preschool camp.  I was going to cut the nine cards out of card stock and have that be it for the day.

I got out a bunch of random supplies, some of which I’d never even used, and couldn’t help myself.  I just had to use the brushes and paints and see what might happen.  I let each canvas evolve as I attempted to represent me right now… where I am with my word and in general.  When my head got stuck, I trusted my hands.  When my hands were jumbled, I listened to my heart and just kept going.  It felt sort of like free writing, but with paint.  I was using a part of my brain that had been stalled, like a junked car in an abandoned lot, unsure of when someone would be coming by to collect it.

Most importantly, I had fun.  I am really proud of myself for trusting the process and creating something ad hoc.  I honestly do not remember having fun like this recently.  So my gift to myself… do more of it.  And soon!

(Remember that last month I committed to changing my diet? I’ve already lost 6 pounds! I anticipated feeling better about my body and in my body, and that has definitely been what is happening.  More on this sometime soon, I’m sure.)

Enjoy the photos and please come back on Wednesday for another Photo-Heart Connection post.

I’m so glad to be part of this blog hop!  Some of the artwork these ladies do is just incredible! Now, hop along to visit Lisa for the next OLW post.  She (and each thereafter) will send you on down the list from there until you’ve seen them all.  The rest of the participants are listed below.  I encourage you to visit every blog for more creative fun.

You can read other posts related to my OLW here.

* * *

JULY 1 OLW Blog Hop Participant List

Jamie     http://jmpgirl.blogspot.com
Naomi     http://poeticaperture.com <— You are here.
Jill                      http://jillconyers.com/
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Posted in Creativity, Mindfulness, One Little Word | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments