Seeing Familiar Things in New Ways

by Linda

 

 

 

I always look forward to the creative things my Life Sisters select each month for us to Focus on. Each Life Sister carefully makes a selection, features a photo and a brief description to catch our fancy at the start of the month then spends the rest of the month perusing the Flickr gallery looking for our contributions to her chosen theme, featuring but a few of the beautiful pictures that are there. Each one, featured or not, is a treasure because someone else found the same beauty or found a new way of looking at the beauty that she carefully selected. It's always gratifying when someone else "gets it".

 

This month Judy selected the Alphabet. I have to admit, I was a little perplexed with this one. It puzzled me because I know that I am the kind of person that doesn't read between the lines, think outside the box or take a hint. I struggle with abstract art and if it doesn't hit me like a ton of bricks, I tend to scratch my head a bit. So, I thought, this would be a tough one.

 

Then one morning, I went to Cracker Barrel. I ordered coffee. The waitress brought my mug, poured the coffee, I did my usual doctoring and raised it up and saw the rim was cracked. I looked again and saw the number 4.

 

The light bulb moment, the elevator went to the top, the fog lifted, I had a breakthrough!

 

Last weekend, Kim Manley Ort sent out her weekly email with a link to her post on seeing. It is about a book on photo walks and the quote she had there jumped right off the page and hit me between he eyes!

 

"Right now, you are missing the vast majority of what is happening around you. You are missing the events unfolding in your body, in the distance, and right in front of you. ~Opening Paragraph, On Looking"

 

After reading that email, following Judy's lead, with inspiration from Kelly, I went out to see what I have been missing.

 

 

I saw the letter F

 

 

I saw the letter E

 

Wouldn't it be lovely to have an entire alphabet of vine letters!

 

...

 

Thank you Judy for inspiring me to try to see in a new way!

 

I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!

 

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How about you? Are you seeing old things in new ways?

 

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A B C, it's easy as 1 2 3

by Judy

This month we're going to have some fun, while improving our photographic eye. May's theme is the alphabet, and there's several ways you can interpret this.  

You can do what I've done, above, and photograph subjects that start with each letter.  This is an easy way to interpret the theme, and will have you searching for items to complete your alphabet. Do you have a subject for each letter?

Another obvious way to interpret this theme is to search for the letters themselves.  This sounds easy, but can get a little tricky when you're searching for all 26 letters. You can find the letter P on a parking sign, and the letter M in the McDonald's famous french fry sign. Can you find the whole alphabet before the end of the month?  Here I've found the letter L on a Teddy Bear's Varsity jacket.  

A slightly more difficult interpretation is to search your surroundings for things that look like letters. One of my assignments in photography school (years ago)  was to find the letters of the alphabet without photographing actual letters.  It really trains your eye to look for those hidden gems we miss everyday.

Here's the letter "G."

And, the letter "O."

I can't wait to see all of your letters this month! Kick your creative juices into high gear, and let's try to fill our Focusing on Life flickr stream with the entire alphabet!  Be sure to label or tag your photos with the letter you've found, or #FOL alphabet, so when we choose photos for our weekly Focus on You post, we'll know who is playing with us this month!  Enjoy!

Love, Judy