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Entries in beauty (117)

Tuesday
Oct092012

Stumbling Upon Kindness

What this world needs is a new kind of army - the army of the kind. ~Cleveland Amory

I recently shared an Instagram image of my husband and I standing on a street corner in NYC near a chalk-drawn heart at our feet.  A friend asked on the feed, “Did you bring your own chalk?” The comment made me laugh. It sounds like me actually, to do something like that but in this instance, it was someone else who brought the chalk. In fact, it was what I would consider a random act of kindness. We found a number of these chalk hearts along our walk around the city that evening.

Sometimes when we engage ourselves in activities like leaving hope notes, or sidewalk messages, we forget that others might be doing the same. To stumble across gestures of kindness from strangers is nothing short of wonderful. It reminds me that we are all called to be a part of “the army of the kind”.

Today, share a story that expresses the power (and beauty) of kindness.

Friday
Jul272012

Yesteryear

Oh my..... there's nothing lovelier than an old brick house with a wrought-iron fence along the front. Yes please! The lines, the depth, the texture....all blending together so perfectly. It's heart-stopping, for me.

This beautiful antique home belonged to Thomas Mayne Daly, the first mayor of the City of Brandon (in 1882). It's now the Daly House Museum. I've been admiring the new, yet oh so perfectly old-looking wrought-iron fence, all summer long. Finally, tonight, I photographed it.... I'm so glad I did. Sometimes you just gotta stop and take the time.... it's totally worth it!

Today share something that stopped you in your tracks, pulled you over, made you turn around, go back and CLICK..... We'd love to see it too. 

Wednesday
Jul112012

On finding your own way

 

In my bio you won’t find the words “I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was a child.” You won’t find the words “I’ve been an artist all my life.”

Because I haven’t.

At school I couldn’t draw or paint or stitch and if you’d asked me three years ago, when I was still working as a stockbroker, I would have told you that I wasn’t creative in the slightest. So when I decided, at the age of 32, to quit my job and go to art school to study photography it was as much of a surprise to me as it was to everyone around me.

But something was calling to me. Quietly at first, and then insistently. I was being drawn towards something that I couldn’t yet understand.

I adored being an art student, but I felt like a fraud. Still, I would try my best and hope for the extraordinary to happen. And happen it did.

One day, while sitting in the library pouring over late 19th century children’s book illustrations and lamenting my lack of ability to produce anything as wonderful, I began to wonder if I could create my own “photo illustrations.” Why couldn’t I use my camera to tell imaginary stories? Stories that had no beginning or end, but just a middle. Just a moment frozen in time, leaving the viewer to put the story in context, to create their own story.

This was the moment my series, “Tales from the Moors Country,” came into being. I took as my starting point the local myths and legends of Northern England and I created a series of silent and still stories that I submitted as my final portfolio piece.

They were all self portraits because I found that I just worked better when there was no one else around. Something I’d been waiting my whole life to share was finding its way to the surface and I couldn’t explain it to anyone else. But, more than that, I didn’t want to share it. It was such an incredible release of energy and I wanted to absorb every second of it.

Although my tutors found the work fascinating, I really think that they didn’t know what to do with me. No one could give me any advice on what to do with my work beyond suggesting I might try fashion photography, which was not an avenue I felt confident pursuing.

So I just started selling prints of my work at a local artists market. And then I added a line of greetings cards. Uplifted by the joy of seeing people respond to my work, I gained confidence and approached some local galleries. Then I tried entering some juried shows. And now, before I really know how it happened, I am a self portrait photographer.

That’s not something that any school careers counsellor would have recommended and it’s not something I could have chosen for myself when I quit my financial services career. It’s one of those magical things that happens when you just let go and allow the story to have an ending you didn’t envision.

So believe in happy endings. Believe in magic. Believe in hard work, dedication and the delicious joy of finding that thing you can’t not do. Believe in your dream. Because If a hopeless “non-creative” like me can find her own way, then I promise you, so can you.

Let's all share images today that remind us to believe in all these things and more....

Words and images courtesy of special guest Nicola Taylor. She can be found at www.nicolataylorphotographer.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter as @ZennicPhoto

Tuesday
Jun262012

a shimmer of silver

 

This past weekend, Bryce's girlfriend graduated. She looked so beautiful. Every little detail just right. Silver shimmering in her hair, lovely silver and jewel accessories and the prettiest sequins on her dress. Perfectly perfect.

I adore silver. I'm always thrilled when I find a new silver ring or an inspiring silver charm. Love so much.

How 'bout you? Share your silver sprinkled photos in the OWP Flickr group, tag them with #sscolormonth and you will be entered to win a beautiful Epiphanie camera bag at the end of this month. 

Wednesday
May162012

rose-colored glasses

I headed out for a photo walk around my neighborhood today, wandering the cherry tree lined streets.  There is something about the act of walking even only a few blocks in search of photos that always shifts things for me.

When I go on these walks I feel like I put on my rose colored glasses and become a treasure hunter of beauty.  Today I find it in cherry blossoms that have fallen from the tree and their soft delicate petals.

No matter what else is going, when I make this space to wander, take pictures and look for beauty, it re-energizes me like nothing else does.   It invites me to slow down, to engage with the light and the natural world around me.  This practice of seeking beauty with my camera has been a lifeline from darkness to light.

When I first began exploring photography I was going through some drastic life changes.  I knew the way I had been living wasn’t working for me anymore.  I was living for everyone else and not for myself.

So I reverted into a cocoon for a while, craving even more time alone than my usual introvert self needed.  I wanted to be alone and figure out who I was separate from all the outside perceptions.

I went in search.  I didn’t know how to find what I needed or even that photography would lead me there.  It was just something I could do in which there was peaceful yet creative time alone.  I knew that was the first clue to finding my way back to myself and to happiness, simply because of the way it made me feel.

I went in search of beauty and when you go in search of beauty, you find it.

At times it seems like we aren’t supposed to tell our stories with rose colored glasses, muting out the rough in favor of the radiant, the flowery, the beautiful.  Yet looking for the positive, for little bits of beauty, isn’t denying that life has rough patches: that there are broken branches or muddy puddles around those gorgeous pink blossoms.  Rather, it is a way to focus on what is positive even if times are rough (especially when they are).  That doesn’t mean denying the rough patches, but rather using photography as a tool to engage with the world around us in a way that lifts us up. 

Even these years later, I’m doing the same thing I did when this creative journey began, seeking bits of beauty.

You could say that seeing the world through rose-colored glasses is what saved and transformed my life. Seeing the beauty around me helped me find my way back to happiness again and to discover the beauty within me by documenting the beauty around me.

Will you join me today in documenting some of the beauty around you?  Let’s put on our rose-colored glasses and go treasure hunting for beauty.  Be it a flower petal, a person you love, or the beauty you see in yourself today?

Image and words by guest blogger Vivienne McMaster.