Ripe with Inspiration

by Kelly

If you are looking for some fresh inspiration, well then look no further than your local farmstand or farmers' market.

Or maybe even your own backyard!

Summer is here, and with it comes a glorious array of color and shape and texture.

A season so ripe with sweet inspiration...pun totally intended.

Summer's bounty is the perfect subject for photography.  And the very best thing about it is that once you're finished photographing it, then you get to enjoy it! 

Now that's what I call inspiration! 

How about you?  What summer fruits and vegetables are inspiring your photography?  We would love for you to share with us in our Flickr pool!

Until next time,

Kelly

Gardening Love

by Leigh

Do we have any gardeners here among us?  There is something so therapeutic about spending time in my yard pruning the roses, cutting back the grasses, trimming off the old seed pods on the Crape Myrtles.  It's watching the transformation from dead and unruly to clean and ready.  Ready for new additions to the garden.  Ready for vegetables and fruits to be planted.  The thing about a garden is that it's never really finished.  It's an adventure and offers things you can and can't control.  There are new beds to cultivate, new outdoor room spaces to create, new plants to try and heirloom plants that bring back memories every time they bloom.  

Working in the garden sparks creativity.  Nothing is really permanent as plants can be changed out or transplanted to new places from year to year.  Each year can be a new experiment in color combinations.  It's like starting with a blank canvas every year.  Nothing makes me happier than to walk into my local garden center and to be blinded by color.  But it's easy to be overwhelmed with choices, so sometimes I have to step back and consider what I'm trying to accomplish in my space.  Then I search for the plant with the right texture, foliage, or bloom color to make it happen.  

And the photographer in me loves to walk out my back door to find inspiration.  My garden feeds my photography passion!  I encourage you to find a small space in your yard…it could even be a group of container and create your own photography muse and then share your photos in our Facebook or Flickr group.  I bet there are a lot of green thumbs in this group!

Beauty En Masse

by Leigh

Every person is like a single tulip.  While they may blend when together, 

each one is special in it's own light.

~Danielle Kessler

The beauty of tulips when planted together or en masse is a sight to be seen.  The color blending of tulips has become an art form that can take many growing seasons to really learn.  But the thing about tulips...is that as amazing as they are together they are equally stunning individually.  Which reminds me of this FOL community we have here.  We come together in harmony to share our mutual love of photography and at the same time we gather little bits and pieces of information from each person to help us in our own photographic journey. When I look through the photos in our Flickr and Instagram group, I am astounded by the level of talent. As I look into each photo I see a story being told through the photographer's unique perspective, point of view and style.  Each individual shines through their lens as they share a piece of themselves with the viewer.  

As Ansel Adams once said, "To the complaint that there are no people in these photographs, I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer."

 If you are anything like me, you have this unquenchable hunger for more knowledge.  Every one has something to teach and every one has something to learn. I want to thank each of you for being a part of our group and helping us to shine en masse!

Winter's Beauty

by Leigh

Winter….my least favorite time of year. Work is slow, the sun shines less often, the cold brutal wind chills me to the core and then there are the snow days.  Snow day after snow day after snow day……you catch my drift.  So here I am stuck at home as the snows falls outside.  The kids are ecstatic that school was closed and I tell myself that's it's better to be inside my warm cozy home than out in the elements.  I had my post for this week all planned out.  I was going to use the monthly focus as inspiration.  But that idea quickly faded as I realized that I have very little red in my house.  No problem…I'll just head to the store and pick up some red flowers to photograph.  Oh yeah….the roads are too slick.  So here I am stuck at home and my plan isn't going to pan out.  Thanks a lot winter.  You suck.

But then I remembered the fondness I discovered for winter just a couple weeks earlier.  My friend Jamie, a landscape architect at Olthia and I hosted a Native Plant + Photography Workshop.  When she first approached me with the idea of a workshop in the middle of winter I was skeptical to say the least.  Who in their right mind wants to photograph plants in the winter!  But after we met at the park and she showed me the plants she wanted to focus on….I understood her vision.  I took my camera out and began to shoot….and there was beauty to be found everywhere!  so the seed was planted for our workshop with the tagline, 

"the plants aren't dead….they're just sleeping." 

Our goal was to show people the beauty of these native plants in the winter and how to capture that beauty with your camera.  As Jamie called it, "an out-of-the-ordinary adventure into the soul of indigenous plants, via your camera lens. The seed continued to grow and I got more and more excited about this new adventure.

I chose to focus on five aspects of photography.  Jamie took these and married them beautifully with her five plant focuses.

• Be Composed-and get in the thicket of it (Sumac)
• Shift Perspective-to find that which feeds you (Persimmon)
• Be Focused-and discover a hidden gem (Beautyberry)
• Seek The Light-but have firm roots (Little Blue Stem)
• Be Detailed-to see the cosmos in a single flower (Sunflower)

We offered a morning and an evening workshop.  The two different times allowed it to be a new experience for us with each group.  The five days following the workshop we had carefully crafted emails sent to the participants with even more info about the five plants and their corresponding photography element. Planning is now underway for more Native Plantography workshops.  Our goal is to have one every season with different plants and photography subjects.

I am so thankful for Jamie encouraging me to "get out in it".  It is so easy to shut ourselves inside when the weather doesn't suit us.  But just because the days can be dreary, the temperature cold, the sunshine non existent, doesn't mean there isn't beauty to be found.  I have found inspiration in winter and inspiration for new ways to share my passion with the world.  

Thank you Jamie from the bottom of my heart, for opening my eyes to ideas that I would have never pursued on my own.  

I Found My Thrill

by Kelly

As I sit here typing up this blog post, it is about 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside and the north wind is howling something fierce.  Needless to say, I am not feeling inspired to bundle up and head outside to find something to photograph for my 365 project.

To be honest, I had sort of forgotten how uninspired this time of year can be, photographically speaking. Seems like the other seasons are practically handing inspiration to us on a silver platter...an ever-changing array of colors and textures.  It's not hard to find magic.  But this time of year, it takes a little more work.  

So the other day, I decided to take matters into my own hands and look for some inspiration.  I happened to be cleaning out some old Southern Living magazines and in the process I stumbled across this photo.

It's that just so delightful??  I loved the gorgeous color combination and textures.  And so standing there over the recycle basket I decided that I would try to recreate this photo.  Use the relative quiet of Winter to practice on my still life skills.  Something that does not come easily to me.

So the first thing I did was to gather my supplies.  I bought two containers of blueberries from the grocery store.  I pulled my colander from the cupboard. I didn't have any blueberry branches, but I did have some greenery from a bunch of flowers I had bought earlier in the week.  And finally I dragged my favorite old, white chair from the other room.

Next I scoured my house looking for the perfect spot to set up my shot.  This time of year, my front door (which faces north) gets very soft, indirect light.  

{Thank you for not noticing how dirty my baseboards are.}

And then once I messed around with the placement of the berries and the greenery I started shooting away. Here is one of my first attempts SOOC.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the light and the composition.  Like I said, I had to improvise with the greenery, but I still think it works for this.

Next I moved the berries around a bit.  

{Please...don't say it...I'm probably the only person in the world who could overthink a basket of blueberries to this degree..  But it's a special talent I've mastered through years of practice.}

Now I'm pretty happy with this shot.  Nice composition.

But one of the things I really liked about my inspiration photo was the deeply saturated colors and the square crop.  So I played around with the processing in Lightroom.  I increased the clarity, vibrance, and saturation a fair bit. 

Yeah.  I like that.  Fun.

But of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I played around a bit more with the placement of the berries and the colander and came up with this composition which I think I like even more.

And then that got me thinking....if what I love so much about this photo is the green/blue combination, what would happen if I put the blueberries in a green bowl?

Yeah, I like that too.  Completely different feel, but still pretty.

See what happened there?  I started out trying to recreate my inspiration piece, and in the process, got completely inspired.  And after an hour of photographing blueberries I got inspired to make some blueberry bread.

It's like the gift that keeps on giving!

So I thought it might be fun if you wanted to play along!  Take this opportunity to play around inside and have some fun with your photography.  Find a photo either from a magazine or one of your favorite photographers - it doesn't have to be food (although that does have benefits) - and try your hand at recreating the shot.  

And just to be clear, what we are doing is learning from the masters.  Copying the works of art they have created to better our own art {painters have done this for years}. Finding our own inspiration. But the key here is to give full credit to the artist of the inspiration piece {asking for permission to use the photo if applicable} and not passing it off as our own.  Because that's not cool.

Anyway, if you want to play along, feel free to post your inspiration piece {with appropriate permission and/or credit} and your own, original take on it to our Flickr pool.  It's a great way to learn and have fun at the same time.

Happy Shooting!

Kelly

Too many boundaries . . .

by Kim

"Fear is the highest fence." - Dudley Nichols

A boundary, a limit, something that divides one thing from another. Sometimes for our safety or for someone else's privacy.

But, they can keep us from getting close to people, and relationships, and to experience.

They can keep us from exploration and from trying new things. Sometimes it's because of the boundaries others put in place, but often it is because of the ones we put in our own path either consciously or subconsciously. 

Fear is often the culprit, because of the unknown or because we have come to believe a certain set of expectations that may not be true. Yes, sometimes fear seems to be an impossibly high fence, and kind of like barbed wire . . . if we allow it, a little painful too.

I know we have all mentioned this here, and to each other, that the act of going out with our cameras have helped us to "see" more. And to a certain extent that is true, but how much more are we seeing, really? 

As I was sitting on my front porch this weekend enjoying the breeze and the birds singing, and the little lizard that climbed onto my hand, I started to really think about those boundaries and expectations. Because as much as looking through my camera does allow me to see more because there is a limited view of focus, I still think I'm doing so with more boundaries and expectations than there should be.

My intention is to really dig deeper in cultivating the way I see through my lens that will allow me to tear down the boundaries I have and let me see beneath the expectations, even if I have to look at things sideways. And that perhaps instead of going out to make an image . . . I could let go of all perceived ideas and just participate in the receiving.

Poet John O'Donohue said, "The heart of vision is shaped by the state of the soul. When the soul is alive to beauty, we begin to see life in a fresh and vital way." 

Now, don't freak out . . . yes this is a spider. But for just a moment I want you to remove the boundary I know you just put up, and the negative thoughts that accompany the label of "spider." I used to have nightmares about spiders, and, I'm severely allergic (as in anaphylactic shock allergic). But my camera has helped me to see past the "ewww" factor of an insect that society tells me I should dislike. And in its place I have found fascination, wonder and awe. This didn't happen overnight, but as I took down the boundary caused by fear I began to see beauty instead. Beauty in their colors and patterns, and the gracefulness in which they spin their webs.   

{Interesting spider fact: Spiders are capable of producing different kinds of silk so that they don't get caught in their own webs. And the silk is in liquid form before it exits their body.

And I came across this quote I had written in my journal some time ago that seems appropriate for this post. It made me think that sometimes when I try too hard, or try to force a photograph, it's in that very act that I create boundaries.  

"You need not do anything,

Remain at your table and listen.

You need not listen, just wait.

You need not even wait,

Just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.

And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.

It has no choice, it will roll ecstasy at your feet." - Franz Kafka

Maybe it's not the camera that shows us beauty after all, but only one of many tools that helps us to be still enough to receive moments from all that surrounds us. A tool that can help us to remove boundaries and labels that will allow us to see beyond the surface of life and people (and yes even spiders). 

Are you up for a challenge? I'm going to try being a little quieter, a little more still, and try to see what the world will offer up when my view is boundary free. Are you in?

Love, Kim

   

On Searching For Inspiration

by Dotti

Inspiration, like this Monarch butterfly, can be elusive sometimes, can't it? Today I'd like to share with you some of the people and places where I go for inspiration.

The first will come as no surprise - right here at FOL. I find inspiration every time I read one of the posts and see the photos that the other FOL people post here. That's why we chose them for the team - because we knew they would inspire. 

I also get inspiration from other photographers on the internet. I couldn't possibly name them all but here are a few of the people I turn to again and again: Karen Walrond, Kim Klassen, Xanthe Berkeley, Tracey Clark.

Some of the sites are: Vision and Verb, The Coffee Shop Blog, Digital Photo Secrets, Digital Photography School, mcp actions, Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics, to name a few.

There is also a long list of other blogs that I follow, many of which are yours. Yes, I follow a goodly number of your blogs and try to comment when I can. Every morning while I'm on the treadmill, I prop my iPad on the book stand and read the blogs that have come via Bloglovin' in the email overnight. Then later I go through the list again, stopping to comment on as many as I can.

Your comments on our FOL page, your photos on our Flickr page, the IG feeds, all these things inspire me. I feel like my inspiration cup overflows! It is such a joy to be in the company of such wonderful people and photographers, it truly does inspire me. 

But at the end of the day, I realized something. All these resources are good, they're helpful. Learning to see, which we talk about a lot here, is good. But what really counts is what we find in our hearts. That's where the real inspiration comes from.

And now ... as promised ... the BIG REVEAL! We're happy to announce the winner of our poster giveaway: Sherry Galey. Sherry, please email us at focusingonlifegrp@gmail.com and tell us first of all, which poster you'd like, the Barrio or the Desert Flowers as well as the snail mail address where you would like us to send your poster. And thanks to all of you who participated in this fun give away.

Confessions of a Light Junkie

by Kelly

The windows of my soul I throw wide open to the sun.  

~John Greenleaf Whittier

It’s all about the light.  I mean, that’s why we’re here right?  Because when you think about the Greek origins of the word photography, {photo-  meaning "light" and -graphos meaning "draw"} it sort of makes sense then doesn't it.

But whatever you want to call it, lately I just cannot get enough of it.  Seriously.  This time of year, the way the morning light comes in through my east French doors….truly, it stops me in my tracks. 

That’s why this month’s theme has been so perfect for me.  An opportunity to pay homage to the sun, the source of all light.  Especially this time of year when the light is so beautiful. 

And don’t even get me started on the golden hour…I swear it seems to call to me. 

And I am drawn to it like a June bug to a porch light.

In my head I know that all of this magic can be explained by astronomy and angles and mathematics…scientific mumbo-jumbo that, quite honestly, means nothing to me.

Because for me, all of this magnificent beauty is a reminder to stop.  To pause.  To appreciate.  To just be content to bask in the amber glow of the sunset.  An opportunity to be fully present in this wonder-full moment. 

As August draws to end, I would like to encourage you to get out and experience this magic for yourself.  Savor these fleeting moments.  And while you’re at it... maybe capture a few in your camera and share them with us in our Flickr pool.

It’s just too good not to share.

Until next time, Kelly

She Took a Picture of What??

by Kelly

“Why is she taking a picture of that ugly, old boat?”

That’s what my dear friend, Suzanne, was thinking while I was standing there taking pictures.

She confessed this to me on the phone one day. It had only been a week or so after we got back from our vacation to St. John and I had finally gotten around to sharing a few of my photos on my blog.  But when she saw that photo in context with the rest of the photos of the adventure that day, she said, “I totally get it.” And that simple comment...even to this day....well, I’m not sure if she could possibly know what a confidence booster it was to me at the time.

Well so that vacation was two years ago.  I’d had my fancy new DSLR camera for about a year and had just scratched the surface of photography.  This photo would have been before any of my Big Picture Classes so it’s not really the greatest photo.  But it was there….the desire to capture not just the highlights of our trip, but the experience.  The details.  The heart.  The story.
 
So fast forward two years and as I’m putting together this blog post, I am knee deep in laundry and unpacking from our vacation to Destin.

And as you would probably imagine, I took a lot of photos.  One rainy afternoon while we were at the beach, I was going through my photos.  My dear friend Carrie was sitting next to me and she said, “What makes your photos so interesting is your point of view.” Which is just about the nicest compliment she could have given me.

I have to admit, it was a conscious decision on my part…before we even left for our trip I had decided that I was going to leave my inner critic at home. This time I was going to shoot differently. I mean, ok sure, I took lots of photos of the beach and the water and of us having fun.  But I also wanted to capture photos of things that spoke to me. Little details that touched my heart. Even if they weren't necessarily “beach” or “vacation” photos.  You know what I mean?

I think this, for me, has been a defining area of my journey in photography. Learning to shoot for myself.  I think being a ‘scrapbooker’ definitely had an impact on my photography.  Especially in the beginning…mostly shooting to preserve the precious memories of my family and friends.  And to some degree there will always be a part of me that shoots with that goal in mind – preserving, documenting, celebrating.

But in the last year or so, I’ve slowly started allow myself to take a break from the memory-keeping mentality .  Finding the confidence to capture the light as well as the memories.  Find the heart in the story – the way I see it.  It’s been so liberating. And can I tell you…it’s brought me so much joy.

So I’d love to know…how has your perspective changed or evolved over the years. Do you ever struggle with finding voice in your photography?  And more importantly, do I have any volunteers to come help me fold clothes??

Until next time, Kelly

A Change of Perspective

by Leigh

You know what it's like I'm sure.  Those times that you are feeling listless, uncreative, uninspired....like you are running on empty.  But then you see an image or read a post and it ignites  a spark that helps to get those creative juices running again.  This happened to me when I read this post of Stephanie's a few weeks ago.  Every word she wrote about feeling very blah about photography was exactly how I was feeling.  And lucky for me she offered a solution!  She changed her lens and that changed her perspective!  I decided right then and there to buy that 105mm macro lens I had been drooling over for the last year.  I call it divine intervention, but my husband just calls it mindless spending...but what does he know!

 

The lens gave me the ability to look closer and to delve deeper.  It totally brought me into nature and changed my perspective (both literally and figuratively).  

One of the many things that I love about our FOL community is that we all share the same love.  And many of the issues that I struggle with you might struggle with as well.  

 

I hope that you find inspiration here.  I hope that you read our posts and that it brings a sense of familiarity and a smile to your face as you nod your head in agreement.  I hope that you find yourself fitting right in here with our blog, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr family.  We would love to hear from you!  Share your photos with us at any of the above places.  Found a new cool app?  Share it with us on Instagram.  Have a technical question?  Ask away on our Facebook page.  Join the conversation as we all learn from and inspire one another. 

Grace in the Garden

by Kelly

Well so if you happen to follow me on Instagram, you might recall that during the month of May I did a month-long photo series on my garden.  I even created my own hashtag for it -  #mayinmygarden – because I’m super clever like that.

I guess I’ve always loved gardens and flowers.  I can remember being a little girl and spending summers at my great-grandmother’s house.  I loved walking out back behind her house into the big garden where she had planted zinnias in between her rows of tomatoes and green beans.  I would pick a handful of zinnias and bring them inside to her.  And she would always make such a big fuss over them and find some little container to put them.

Once I got married and had my own home, I always enjoyed planting flowers in my flowerbeds.  And I would say this is when my own passion for gardening was ignited. 

Like it is with anything I enjoy, in the beginning I spent an enormous amount of time reading as much as I could about gardening.  Which I might add included learning both the common and Latin names of flowers.   And because I’m a total nerd, I even took a botany class at my local community college.   Hello my name is Kelly and I am an overachiever.

As much as the science fascinates me, the older I get, the more I appreciate the actual physical aspect of gardening.  For me, digging in the dirt is a major stress reliever.  I can totally take out my frustrations pulling weeds.  And I don’t know exactly how it happens, but very often if I am struggling with problem of any sort – mental, creative, emotional – just focusing on a simple garden task helps me to clear my thoughts and find solutions that I would not have otherwise been able to come up with.  Yes indeed….I do love gardening so much.

These days, gardening is still such a joy to me.  But it also serves another purpose…providing material (in the form of flowers of course) for my other favorite hobby – photography.

  

I think I can safely say that flowers are my favorite muse.  I love the endless variety and the many shapes and forms they take.  I adore the vibrant colors and often intoxicating scents.   And as a photographer, I find so much delight in the all the little details – the curve of a petal, the texture of the centers, the way the light bounces off the leaves.

 

I should tell you that I can lose all track of time photographing the flowers in my garden.  (Just ask my daughter.)  Being behind the lens and focusing on flowers really connects me to the present moment.  And appreciating the beauty and finding gratitude…well it all just brings me so much peace and joy.

We love hearing your thoughts…so please do share…what is your muse?  What brings you joy behind the lens?  And more importantly, have you ever burned your family’s dinner because you lost track of time photographing it?  Please tell me I’m not the only one.
  
Love, Kelly