Finding Appreciation

 

I recently had a garage sale to get rid of some of the stuff I've accumulated over the years so that I don't have to carry it all with me when I move next month. I'm moving because I can no longer afford my rent. 

When I first realized I would have to move, I was despondent. Why didn't I get as many opportunities as my friends, I wondered? Why did I continue to struggle while others had it so easy?

But as I looked around the garage sale, I realized that almost everything I had was given to me (either by friends, family or the side-of-the-road gods). I had been given furniture, TVs, books, dishes, clothing, everything I really needed.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude. I realized that there have been so many times that I've been the recipient of good fortune and generosity.

My focus shifted from depression and indignation to thankfulness and appreciation. Now, I am grateful that I have another home to go to and that it has turned out to be even better than the last.

Are there things in your life that need a second look? Can you find appreciation where and when you might need it most?

Image and words courtesy of Gennifer Carragher. You can find her on her blog or on Facebook, where she created a community for other Gratituders in The Year of Gratitude.

Update on Friday, December 14, 2012 by Kim Klassen

The winner of a spot in Kim's Lightroom class, Round Trip is, Becs! Congrats!

b is for blur

Because it's how I remember things. It's how memories unfold in my mind. when I close my eyes and try to remember, this is what I see: lovely, blurry scenes. I've been shooting this way for a while, for three or four years now. Not exclusively, of course, but more and more. I intentionally throw the focus until it feels rights. Until it looks like what I see in my mind. So often, these are the images I revisit, the ones I come back to again and again. These are the photographs that tell the real story. They spin like records on a turntable-- soft, scratchy, inexplicably magic. 

If you've not yet tried it, go ahead. Today, I invite you to intentionally throw your focus. Fiddle with the lens til you find magic. And please, share the blur. Share it with us here today.  

the decisive moment

"Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."  -Henri Cartier Bresson

I was standing on the fourth floor of the High Museum of Art when this moment unfolded. I had one eye on my son in a neighboring room, one eye on my daughter a few steps away. I was fiddling with my scarf, with my braids, fiddling with the contents of my purse, fiddling with my camera. My mind was in a dozen different places but when I looked up, I saw it. The painting, the woman on the bench, the light in between. It was, by very definition, a decisive moment. If I'd hesitated at all, I would have missed it.

Instead, I reached for my SX-70, looked through the viewfinder, adjusted the focus. Steadied my hands and hit that little red button. Two seconds later, the woman walked away. The space filled with people, the light shifted. The whole scene evaporated. The only proof of its existence, this photograph. It doesn't happen like that for me very often but when it does, it's a thrill. Which is why I am always sharpening my brain, training my eyes to see this way, to seek out these moments, these fractions of seconds, whether I have my camera with me or not.

What decisive moments have you captured lately? Please do share a few with us today.

(The image above was shot with a polaroid sx-70 using Impossible Project PX 600 Silver Shade UV+ film)

what you don't see

I have to tell you how amazingly freeing it is to show you the photo above.  When I started writing this post and looking for photos that show the, “what you don’t see”, I started finding and laughing at all sorts of discarded photos in my computer files.  What you could perceive from the first fireplace photo is that my house is perfect enough to get this shot or as one comment I received on the fireplace photo, “It’s like you live in a magazine”. ..ha, not with four kids and a dog! That is just photography magic (and clever cropping) my dear friends. I’m pretty sure a magazine wouldn’t have an unfinished fireplace, dusty wood floors, a discarded newspaper and wires poking out where once there was a flat screen. There is so much we don’t see in photography.

 I took the “pretty” fireplace photo before we were finished because I needed inspiration.  Priming and painting an entire two story, floor to ceiling fireplace is not an easy task and taking this photo kept me focused. It reminded me that soon, hopefully soon, I would have a wonderful showpiece in the house in which to hang our family’s stockings and decorate with each new season.

Photos speak volumes in both what it shows and doesn’t show the viewer. Often times what you don’t see, the real shot,  is the most beautiful part.  I have a photo of one of our newly arrived chicks sitting on a window sill looking out.  In hindsight what I wish I had done was take a step back or two.  What you would have seen then was my sweet husbands’ hands cupped underneath the window sill, steadying himself there just in case miss chick decided to jump, simply because I had asked.  To me, that memory means so much more than the professional looking chick photo. It reminds me how real and wonderful life is outside the perfect point of focus.  How although a pretty picture has its place to keep us inspired, the not so perfect shots (or uncropped versions) shouldn’t be so easily discarded, because they too have a story to tell. The newspaper on the ottoman in the right side of the fireplace photo…my kids sharing a chair, laughing and reading the Sunday comics in pj’s.

A dear friend of mine posted this photo on flickr a few years ago. Out of  the hundreds of beautiful and perfect shots she has taken through the years, this one stands out most in mind.  Why?  Because it is so real.  It is her and I adore her.  It is her life on her farm summed up in a single photo and I find it so achingly beautiful. Today, show us the real, the perfectionist, the messy, the inspirational, the uncropped and the gorgeously, beautiful parts of YOU.

Images and words courtesy of the lovely Andie edwards.

no distractions

Racing against the clock today trying get a million things done all at at once, I felt more scattered than focused. Late in the afternoon I was on a call with a friend (someone I'm working with on a big project) and  before we could even get into the work part of the call, I was interrupted on my end by my daughter bounding in from her first day of High School. I got immediately distracted, Uh, er, I think I have to go. But, I really need to talk to you about just a few things. Uuuuh, er, um...shoot. Let me think.I paused for a moment trying to figure out how I was going to stretch myself to be in two places at once; with  my work and with my daughter.

Go, go, my friend ordered,That is much more important than this. Go. We'll talk later.

Indeed.

How was it that so quickly I lost sight of what really was most important? How easily I tried to put off what was happening under my roof, with my kids and keep them on hold while I worked? There's a lot of that around here with projects and pressures and so many things to do. It's amazing to me how often I say, give me a minute.

But sometimes, there's the non-negotiables. The things that matter so much that everything else must fall to the wayside; the other demands of the day totally blocked out until all you can see is right in front of you; no distractions. There is such a freedom in those moments. The freedom of letting go and being all in.

When my kids were babies, there was a lot of that kind of time. When you didn't have a choice. When tiny mouths needed to be fed. When small bodies needed to be rocked. When bright eyes needed you to pay attention. No distractions. It's so different now and yet so much the same. Sometimes though, it's harder to see the need. But rest assured, it's still there.

Whether you've got teen-agers or babies or spouses or parents or pets or friends or neighbors or anyone or anything that might need you, remember the non-negotiables. When all you can do is be there and be all in. 

Show us today how you capture a moment through your lens that removes everything but what matters the very most.