The Present is Now

by Dotti

The other evening when my husband and I went out for dinner, I saw this sign on the side of a store and I knew I had to snap it with my iPhone because it is the essence of my post today. Normally, I’d share this post on my personal blog but since my personal blog is on permanent hiatus, I’ll share it here. I always feel like I’m among friends here and I do think what I have to say is something you’ll all relate to. In fact, I know you will, because we’ve discussed it amongst ourselves many times here in our little FOL corner of the inter webs.

Last week we took our almost-annual beach vacation. Since our son-in-law wasn’t able to join us, we had our girls all to ourselves. It was delightful! Normally, my big girl camera is in tow with me everywhere I go but this year, I decided to pull back. Instead I made a conscious effort to take photos only of those places and activities that were important or special to us. I was not constantly pointing a lens in somebody’s face. Instead, I took the shots I wanted, then put the camera down, and enjoyed the present. The here. The now.

Yes, I took the obligatory photos of my granddaughter perfecting her boogie board skills (which I won't bore you with) as well as the beach scenes and coastal flowers and wildlife.

 But it was these photos of my girls that made the trip special.

A mother-daughter portrait while waiting for our delicious meal at a low country bistro.

This photo that perfectly captures the 8-year old personality of my granddaughter, the “now” that is her. In fact, today, June 15, she is now the ripe old age of 9. Can.you.believe.it? I can’t.

One of the things we love about our favorite beach is the nearby fruit and veggie stand. It is beautiful and awesome. One day when my husband and I were over there by ourselves, I just walked around taking photos. Bliss!

Another favorite is the little retail village just outside the island gate, filled with lovely boutique shops, a yummy ice cream shop and a pizza place that is always our first, and last, stop on the island. We’ve enjoyed many a scrumptious meal at this establishment.

And, of course, there was the obligatory sunset photo at the marina on the neighboring island.

However, there are far fewer photos in my Lightroom folder than usual after a trip. Embracing the idea that “living in the moment could be the meaning of life” enriched my beach vacation this year. Believe me, I still have enough photos to make a memory book, and although it won’t be as long as usual, it’s nice not to have to wade through hundreds of photos.

But the most important take away is embracing the moment. The here. The now. And I encourage you to do the same in your travels this summer.

PS - The other important thing I did, other than checking FOL each morning, was to limit my social media time. During our week at the beach, I spent almost no time on Instagram or Facebook. Not only was it relaxing, it served to help me keep my heart and mind anchored in "now".

Celebrate :: Everyday

by Dotti

cel·e·brate :: verb :: to do something special or enjoyable for an important event, occasion, holiday, etc.

That’s a little more high-falutin than what I have in mind but it catches the essence of my word for 2016. After I wrote the post introducing our December theme, the idea of ‘celebrate’ stayed with me. Pretty soon I was thinking that I should ‘celebrate the moment’ all year long, not just in December. So that is my word, or phrase, really, I guess, for 2016.

Now, I should tell you that my record with a word each year is pretty dismal, not much better than the whole resolution thing. But this one, celebrate – is different. It really is something I think about each day, it propels me to look for things to celebrate in my ordinary, everyday life. It has also led me to see that celebrating the moments in my life is a form of gratitude. And I firmly believe that gratitude is the key to a happier, healthier life.

So what kind of things do I celebrate? I thought you’d never ask!

In my neck of the woods, the sunny days in January can be few and far between so anytime there’s enough sunshine to shoot indoors in natural light, I follow it with my camera.

I celebrate the morning light in my home …

the mid-afternoon sun in my kitchen …

the mellow late afternoon light on my porch.

I celebrated the first fire of this winter …

as well as my granddaughter when she experimented with her new chemistry set …

 and an unexpected Saturday morning visit.

Celebrating the moment(s) each day has given me joy I couldn’t imagine, my camera, and sometimes just my iPhone, are my new best friends.  Looking for the joy, the beauty, the specialness in my ordinary moments has awakened a new awareness of how blessed I am, how much I have to be thankful for, which brings us right back to the gratitude thing.

How about you? Have you tried celebrating the moments in your perfectly ordinary days? I hope you will – it could be a life changer.

The Calm After the Storm

by Terri

As much as I love the holidays and being surrounded by the people I care about, the music, the food, the glow on the faces of my grandchildren, in this week between Christmas and the end of the year, I really love the quiet and peacefulness. I know in a week I will be in full swing entering the new year and all of its possibilities, but for now I just want to enjoy the calm. Hope you can join me!

Not Just For The Holidays

by Dotti

Have you been enjoying this month’s theme as much as I have? The Flickr gallery is a treasure trove full of photographic art. The IG feed is alight with the beauty of the holidays. It’s breathtaking!

It’s always easier during the holidays, family celebrations, and special events to “Celebrate the Moment”. And the idea behind it was to give ourselves permission to stop, breathe, click (or not) and savor the little moments of the holiday season.

Now, I don’t know about you but I think we would be very wise people indeed if we continue this practice into the New Year. Yes, I mean stop, breathe, click (or not) and celebrate the little as well as big moments that surface in our lives each day. For myself, I find that doing this goes hand in hand with the practice of gratitude and with the practice of gratitude comes a healthier, happier me.

Just because I love the morning sun shining through the window blinds.

It’s true that some days we’ll struggle to find something to celebrate but chances are it’s there if we’re intentional about finding it. The art of celebrating the moments will enable us to be more intensely in tune with what’s going on around us, to notice things we’ve never noticed before. Sometimes we’ll take a photo and sometimes we’ll just tuck the memory away in our hearts.

Just because there is fall color sparkling in December.

When we celebrate these moments by clicking the shutters on our cameras, let’s remember to print them and put them somewhere - on your blog, in a scrapbook or photo book, on a table or a greeting card. Wherever! It’s important that we don’t lock these little memories away in the hard drives on our computers to lanquish in perpetuity. The joy they brought us in the first place will multiply when we print and share them.

There is no joy too small to celebrate.

Just because.

 How about it? Are you in with me to continue to celebrate our moments as we journey through 2016 together? I hope so, I love company.

Confession of a Christmas Light Bokeh Junkie

by Kelly

It's official...

I am completely obsessed with Christmas light bokeh.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

There's just something about seeing those out-of-focus (OOF) orbs of twinkling light that feels positively magical to me.  And today I thought I might share with you a few tips and techniques so that you can capture the magic too.

For DSLR
There are a couple of simple ways to capture OOF lights with a DLSR camera.  The first way is to use manual focus. Once you have your shot composed, slightly turn the manual focus ring until the lights become little circles.  Depending on how far you turn the focus ring, the circles will become larger or smaller - it's fun to experiment with different sizes of bokeh.

The second way to capture Christmas light bokeh is to use a wide aperture setting (below I set mine at f/2.8) and focus on a light near to you.  That will cause the rest of the lights to gradually fall out of focus creating progressively larger circles of bokeh.

For iPhones
For iPhones it's just as simple to capture Christmas light bokeh - only a couple more steps.  I like to use the Camera+ app.

I've got a step-by-step tutorial below, but basically the process is: 1) open the app (which pulls up the camera), 2) tap the plus sign next to the shutter button, 3) tap the 'Macro' button, and 4) take the shot.

See how easy that was?  

It really is the simplest things that can bring the most joy.  For me Christmas Lights are one of them.

I hope you found these tips to be helpful, and if you decide to give the bokeh technique a try, we'd love to see them in either the Flickr pool or #focusingonlife tag.  But whatever you do, take a few moments for joy and whimsy. Your heart will thank you.

Until next time,

Kelly

Thoughts on Being a Rebel

by Linda

 

 

Because we are just now starting to see leaves turn, and the sky was clear!

(strange)

All my life I have felt like I was at a little bit of a square peg in a round hole. If "everybody" was doing/wearing something, going somewhere, I really didn't want to. If "everybody" really liked a song/group/show, I really didn't.

It's not that I didn't pay attention to all that, I saw it, I knew what was going on, I just chose not to follow along.

It all had a fair measure of controversy that would arise from time to time because I went in a different direction. Lots of begging/pleading/trying to convince me that I "really should" do it too. Lots of different labels attached to this "unconventional" style, "strange" "loner" "weird" "anti-social".

(loner)

I have been on many photo walks with other people and always find myself looking at whatever other people are not looking at. If everybody is clustered around something, busily taking pictures, I will take a look and turn in a different direction to take pictures. If I am taking pictures of something and suddenly everyone is around me also taking pictures, I will stop and look for something else.

(anti-social)

I don't think so, but that's alright.

I have taken millions lots of pictures of these salt and pepper shakers on my table but when the light comes in the window and shadows dance on the table, I can't help myself.

This month's Focus is such a good one-Celebrate the Moment. I knew it would be easy to walk into my living room and take beautiful pictures of my Christmas tree and decorations all lit up and sparkly, celebrate the moment with lots of bokeh and shiny things and share that. But thinking about that and thinking about writing this post caused my inner rebel to speak up.

It is, after all, the season of light. Since we have had several cloudy, dreary days and on this day the sun was gloriously streaming through the window lighting everything in it's path so beautifully, I knew I needed to take pictures of it, outside as well as inside. I needed to celebrate the moment with this gorgeous light.

It seemed like everywhere I turned I saw another opportunity to celebrate the moment! Moments of light falling on the walls, the floors, the furry things I love!

And since I'm not a total Scrooge, the evening light streaming through my windows forced me to take a picture of this.

Because everyone has snowmen guarding their advent wreaths!

(weird)

...

I think everyone should listen to their inner rebel sometimes. You just might see something amazing!

...





Focus on You

by Kelly

This week's Focus on You is by the talented Lisa McCann.  I just love the glorious, golden light and the whimsical nature of her festive ornament. 

As always, the Flickr pool is bursting beautiful photographs - if you are needing a good dose of holiday spirit, look no further!  Thank you to all of the talented photographers who continue to share your beautiful art with our community!

Happy Wednesday!

Celebrate the Moment

by Dotti

Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and

realize they were the BIG THINGS.

As I pondered the theme for this month, I thought of the long to-do lists that each of us has, the calendars that are filled with appointments, dinners, parties, school events, piano recitals – and on and on it goes. I knew I needed an antidote and my guess was that you did, too, so I decided we should all just stop. Then breathe. Then ‘celebrate the moment’.

You can celebrate the moment in any way you please. For most of us, I suspect that we pick up our cameras and look for some holiday eye candy to fill the camera frame and then click, click, click goes the shutter.

Another way is to stop and make a cuppa tea for yourself. Or coffee. Or get a latte. Whatever slows you down and helps you celebrate this moment, right here, right now. Because when it’s gone, it’s gone.

 This year, I’m going a step further, joining Terri and Kelly, and Ali Edwards in making a December Daily journal. Terry and Kelly are old hands at this; it’s my first go at it. However, even though the month is young, I’m finding that I do like it. During the day as I go about my tasks and errands, I’m thinking in the back of my mind about what I might like to do with today’s page and what I might like to add. Sometimes the moment just happens so it’s important to keep my camera at hand. Those are the best moments!

It’s not at all unusual for us to have more foggy, grey days in December than sunshine-filled days. When that happens, rather than letting it be a downer, I light a candle in the daytime just because. The glow of the flame lifts my spirits and the scent fills all my senses.

But the real key to staying in the moment and to keeping our balance and perspective is to remember to practice gratitude. I am always delighted that our November Gratitude month leads into the holiday season because I truly believe that practicing gratitude is the secret to knowing joy in our lives, not just in December but year round.

So this month, let’s all share with one another the small celebrations as well as the big ones and through it all to be grateful for every moment, every day. Because when it’s gone, it’s gone.