Superhero Photo Challenge: Ugly-Beautiful

Someone told me about the french expression "Ugly-beautiful" years ago and I think about it often. She was explaining it to me in reference to a boy she was crushed out on, who wasn't good looking by conventional standards, was even unattractive by most standards, but somehow all his parts added up to this oddly handsome, striking man. He was ugly-beautiful. (If any of you out there know the precise expression in french, let me know! I would bet it sounds better in french)

This week's challenge is to find beauty in an unlikely place. Find the messy, the dirty, the discarded, the forgotten, and transform it with your lens. See it into beauty.

"The first question I ask when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful? And very shortly you discover that there is no reason." John Cage

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Children are born true scientists. They spontaneously experiment and experience and reexperience again. They select, combine, and test, seeking to find order - "which is the mostest? which is the leastest?" They smell, taste, bite, and touch-test for hardness, softness, springiness, roughness, smoothness, coldness, warmness: they heft, shake, punch, squeeze, push, crush, rub, and try to pull things apart.

R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983)

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Let’s see some photographs that interpret this gem—show us the scientists in front of your lens.

Superhero Photo Challenge: Hidden messages

As I wander through the streets with my camera in hand I often like to play a game. I tell myself to look for things hidden in the landscape; hearts, faces, secret messages. One particularly low day, I looked up to see this, and felt like it was a sign from the heavens. More recently, I was walking with a friend who was overwhelmed with work and being pregnant and trying to keep up with all of it. She was in tears by the end of the conversation, not knowing what she should do. At some point we looked down and noticed that we were standing on a bike path that said "Slow down."

This week's challenge is to find a hidden message. It might be just what you needed to hear.

Superhero Photo Challenge: Color Spectrum

I realize that I've been waiting to post, for that exact right moment when I'm not feeling fragmented and distracted. That moment when I'm not simultaneously checking my email, packaging a jewelry order, and wondering if we're too late to apply for preschools or if Ben needs therapy for his chewing issues. And speaking of food, do we have any food in the fridge? and oh yeah, I should probably brush my teeth today. Now which numbers of plastic are bad for you? Better throw away our Nalgenes today. Maybe after one more espresso.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, fragments.

My life is a little chopped up at the moment. My phone calls are all in little slices (call you back, baby just had a poo!) my work is fragmented throughout the day between his naps. My sleep is still fragmented by trips to Ben's room for soothing or milk. Sometimes I feel like I don't give anything my full attention, that everything and everyone gets a little bit less of me than before. Nevertheless, I've been learning to make peace with the the fragmented life.

I posted the above photo because as I look at these paint chips, I see how beautiful this cut up little landscape can be, little bits of color strung together (some you like and some you don't) but together they make quite a stunning composition. This is the lens through which I want to see my life right now. Little bits of beauty, or hurt, or tiredness, or joy all bound together. If you stand back just a little bit you can see how it all fits together and makes something beautiful.

This is what I offer as a photo challenge today. Find a color spectrum.... it could be leaves, or paint, spools of thread, a set of colored pencils, or even buoys.

Then notice how you need the drab icky taupes, the mustardy yellows, the pukey greens, the shapeless greys. Notice how you need all of them to make the spectrum beautiful. Notice that if you only had your favorite colors, the composition would be less rich, textured and ultimately less beautiful.

Superhero Photo Challenge: Get a new perspective

I adore this photo from a recent portrait session. We had been shooting belly photos and family photos for hours already and I was getting that anxious, oh-my-god did-we-get-the-shot-yet? feeling and don't let on that you're not sure, just keep shooting! And smiling.

We went outside and I was immediately intimidated by the light. Bright sun, little garden with narrow paths, not the big expanse of green (and shade) I was hoping for. I began plotting my speech about how I could come back to do a re-shoot if we didn't get what we were hoping for...

At some point it occurred to me that when you're stuck, it's time to get a new perspective. I laid on the ground and looked up at her belly and was so delighted by what I saw. I hadn't really noticed how BIG she was until that moment and how amazing and beautiful and hilarious it was. From this place of total delight and seeing her anew, we were able to get some really fun shots.

I am a life coach as well as a photographer and so much of our training is about getting our clients to see their lives or a situation from different perspectives. This is how we have breakthroughs and discoveries! Whenever we are stuck, it is likely that we are literally stuck in a perspective, or a way of looking at things. Don't you love that moment when you say, I've never thought of it quite like that... and how it kind of blows your mind wide open? That's a new perspective.

Your challenge this week is to try out a new perspective with your camera. Lay on the ground and look up at the sky, climb a tree, get in the grass and look through the blades, put the camera on your head, spin around, don't look through the lens at all... Show me some wild perspectives, ones that make me say, I've never looked at it quite like that before...