Lotus of Possibility

Lotuses have been influential in many cultures across the world from ancient times until today. They represent the human soul, purity, rebirth and enlightenment.

For me, most of all, lotuses represent possibility. I started using the lotus as a personal omen when I embarked on my creative journey years ago, and ever since then, its symbolic meaning has supported me in the creation of my dream life! (notice the lotus motif always there :)) The lotus reminds me that if I reach for the light, it is possible for me also, to rise above the muddy waters and create something utterly beautiful. Sigh. I do believe in that.

So you can understand why I am so excited to announce my collaboration with Bel Kai designs for the Shutter Sisters Capture Colllection! I really hope that this little lotus I photographed in Bali a few years ago, can go many places and be a reminder that anything is possible when we reach for the light. Besides, it is so pretty! I can't get mine off my neck!

And since this is the month of treasures here, you're in luck! All you have to do is leave a comment between now and Sunday at midnight PST, to be included in the random drawing of a "Possibility" necklace. But if you're so inclined, please do share an image that reminds you of possibility as well.

snapping a slice of life

 

Confession: The only thing I love more than eating food is photographing food.

Is it just me or does anyone else do this?

Sometimes I will plate a meal so that it looks pretty even though it’s going to be in my belly in two seconds. I’ve always cared about what my food looked like. If it doesn’t look good, I usually don’t want to eat it. As an artist, I'm always on a hunt for color, texture, and light. Food provides all three of these things on one plate!

This week, I’m inviting everyone over for a Slice of Life Tuesday Visual Potluck! Slice of Life Tuesday is a weekly photo challenge in which I provide a theme for inspiration and ask people to share photos from their everyday lives. For me, it has provided a way to stay creative and find the beauty in ordinary moments. And really, what could be more “everyday” than eating? It’s something we all have in common. We all have to eat. And those three square meals a day (or 6-12 in my case) provide ample opportunity for us to pull out our cameras.

So let’s feast! Cook up some of your most delectable, delicious, yum-tastic meals, and share a photo that will make our stomachs growl. If you don’t usually cook, try your hand at photographing your meal at a restaurant.

At one time, I thought about becoming a food photographer and spent a lot of time flipping through my fair share of food magazines, studying and ogling over the delicious photos. Through my studies, I discovered a few simple tricks that can help capture food at its best.

1. View your plate as art. Take your time plating the food. Think about composition and the rule of thirds. The same concepts that apply to art apply to plating your food.

2. Color. Color. Color. The camera loves color. Colorful food sets off triggers in our brains that say "Yum! I want what she's having!" In addition, think about ways to bring color and texture into the background. Use napkins and tablecloths to contrast and enhance the food.

3. More is more. When it comes to photographing food, the more full the plate is, the more scrumptious it looks. Photograph the overflowing bowl of food before you serve it on plates. Or put more on your plate than you plan on eating. Sometimes, art wins out over practicality!

4. Find the light. If you cook in a kitchen with fluorescent lighting like I do, don't be afraid to move the food to a different location. I photographed the couscous salad in the photo above outside on my deck. If you don't have a deck, bring the food to a window that lets in lots of natural light or find a place in your home that is lit with warm light. You can sometimes find me in the living room with my camera and my breakfast because that was where the best light was at that moment.

5. Take a bite. If you look at any food magazine, most of the photos show the food as it’s being cooked or mid-meal. This is where the "slice of life" philosophy really helps. Use your food to tell a story. Take food photos that look like real life. If you normally have a fork on your plate, put a fork on your plate. If you want to take a bite, take a bite!

Above all else, enjoy the food! Before your meal gets cold, put down the camera and pick up the fork!

Bon appétit!

Image and words courtesy of Honorary Sister / Guest Blogger Darrah Parker. You can find her on her blog where she hosts Slice of Life Tuesday. You are invited to share your Slice of Life with her at the Slice of Life Tuesday Flickr Group.

all the right places

I fell in love with shooting into the sun many, many years ago. Like, before I had ever even heard of digital photography. Some of you might remember those days. I recall the element of sun-shiny surprise to be intoxicating. No matter what event I was shooting I always fired off a couple of frames, lens pointed toward the sun. Whether I shot straight into it or just allowed the light to skim across my lens was no matter. It felt good t throw caution to the wind just to see what would come from it.

In those days, there were no test shots and nothing to double check to be sure you were getting the results you were hoping for. It was all good intentions and a lot of finger crossing. Fast forward to now, when you can experiment with any photographic technique with immediate feedback. I am even more invested in trial and error than ever before. Why not? There is nothing to loose. Not even developing costs.

I have been really focused on flare lately. It's become an obsession. Where to put it, how to get the flare and the sunspots to work together, how to manipulate the shape of the flare itself. These are all questions that can't be perfectly answered as using the light as a creative paintbrush  will always yield somewhat  inconsistent results. However, there are ways of getting a least a little more control of this illusive subject.

I hold closely the invaluable information that Sarah has shared here with us on flare and what Kristin shared too. It's always nice when someone who has taken good notes, can shed a little light on things for us. Pun definitely intended.

Regardless of what we know or don't know about flare, how long we've been working on it or how early we still are on our hunt to harness it, sometimes the photographic planets do align and we get a shot where the light shines exactly where it should. Insert heavenly voices singing together here.

Share with us that shot. The one where the light falls into place even better than if someone set it there themselves.

The beautiful belly above belongs to Superhero Andrea Scher.

oasis

I could be sleeping. But instead I am sitting cross-legged on the grass listening to the early morning crickets. The sun is just rising over our city, I came here this morning for peace. The type of peace you find at an oasis, at the edge of the water. I came here this morning to swim in the sunrise.

When I was a kid, summer meant swimming purely for the love of it... the freedom of loose limbs in water. Now, where I live in Texas, summer means swimming as a means to escape the brutal heat. It is one of the only ways to be outside during our dog days of summer.  Even though I am now a grownup, buoyancy brings me back to childhood. Floating on my back with my head in the clouds will always make me feel younger than I am.

On this morning I woke specifically to find myself kneeling in a field just as the rays of light spilled forth. And then I walked across the street to the golden child of our city, the oasis of swimmers and divers and fish and turtles.

I am most myself when I am in water. I realize this every single summer. Tell me, do you have an oasis? Whether it be the ocean, lakes, rivers, or pools ... where do you swim during the heat of your summer months? And if it is winter where you live, what summer memories do you treasure?

I am thinking it's a sign

The colours diametrically opposed to each other… are those which reciprocally evoke each other in the eye. ~ Goethe, Theory of Colours, 1810

Goethe's talking about the colour wheel, and about how blues and orangey-yellows go together because they face one another on a psychological spectrum of how our eyes process light. I'm imagining how he might have said that, in the German-born way of 1810: reciprocally evoke. It strikes me as extraordinarily un-1810-ish. It makes me wonder what Goethe might have thought of synth-pop.

I am thinking it's a sign that the freckles
In our eyes are mirror images and when
We kiss they're perfectly aligned
And I have to speculate that God himself
Did make us into corresponding shapes like
Puzzle pieces from the clay

~ Such Great Heights, The Postal Service

Could be the wet bokeh. Could be the light play of crystal. Could be that I'm thirsty, and that Justin's mom makes the best iced tea anywhere, and that's coming from someone who pretty much, more or less, thinks 'iced' plus 'tea' spells 'sacrilege'.

But it's none of that. It's the hunches of Goethe.

Blue, to me, is the shocking depth of everything we don't know. It is that feeling you get when you're treading water and can't see the bottom, both enveloped and exposed. It has an overwhelming way about it, blue. It says so much. It is a constant reminder of depth.

If blue is all that, orangey-yellow is the sproing of a trampoline. It is stimulation, energy, ideas. It feels much less complex, with less layers, though it's not as simple as happiness or optimism. It's an unspoilt leaning-forward into wind.

Put together, these colours feel like what my insides are. Not that I'm saying I'm all those things. I'd never presume to personify anything other than Kate, and when asked, I can't name my favourite colour. But these two never fail to make me opt out of conversation and immerse through the lens, chasing the why of why this particular combination plucks the basest of my strings.

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Today, I'd love to see your state of seeing -- that prime condition of light or colour or scenery that, every time it springs up, inexplicably compels you to geek out with your camera. How does this prime condition reflect who you are? Why do you think you seek it out -- why does it resonate?