How Do You Measure A Day?

 

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Moments so Dear
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
How Do You Measure - Measure A Year?
In Daylights - In Sunsets
In Midnights - In Cups Of Coffee
In Inches - In Miles
In Laughter - In Strife

How About Love?

 from RENT (the musical)

I have always loved the intro to this song. I have been humming today as I tried to think of what I might do to measure my day today. It seems that today, the twelfth day, of the twelfth month of the year two thousand and twelve, we are being given many invitations and opportunities to mark the significance of this date in our own personal histories. People are documenting their days at 12.12.12. It's interesting because it is just one day...just one day that will never happen again. And so goes our lives right? A collection of days that will not ever happen again. I started thinking how I could mark the date for myself, what will place on the "date"?One friend has chosen to step into a lifelong commitment with her partner. It's thrilling for them to know that the significance of this day will be historical.

What about the rest of us? What about those of us that will not be touched in such a way that seems important? We will wake up, make tea, drink tea, brush our teeth, shower, put our hair in a braid, a little lip gloss, a cozy t-shirt, a warm sweater, some slacks and off we go... What could be our measure today, how can we create an opportunity to honor ourselves in a way today that is significant, not for any other reason but that TODAY is a date that will not be repeated. I have decided to check in with myself at twelve minutes past the hour, every hour. Yes, it's true, I've set my phone alarm to twelve minutes past the hour for every hour that I anticipate being awake. At that time I will stop, take a photo of myself and ask myself " in this moment, how do I feel, am I to being loving and kind to myself; do I feel anything in my body that feels tense or uncomfortable". I am going to attempt to measure my day in love. How loving can I be to me? This will be a good exercise for me to consider how much time I spend not in the flow of self-love. I will use this day to observe and learn and step into active choice of measuring my own story, my own way.

What about you? How will you measure your day today?

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self

These women. You women. Yes, all of you reading this right now. I'm talking to you. I'm over here, waving humbly from the corner of my family room plunking away on the family desktop computer, surrounded by piles of paper, a to-do list a mile long, and bad light. I'm tired. Already weary of all the small curve balls that this first week back to school has thrown. I sit here, feeling displaced. Because, my office is too much of a mess to sit in. Because my own computer (that is usually in my messy office) crashed. Because life is imperfect and I am just making due, as all of us do when we need to.

I can share all of this with you because I know you understand. Because I know you can relate.  You're nodding your head empathetically, supportively, kindly. I know you are. Because you have been here before. Because you care as much about the struggle as you do about the successes. This month, you've applauded my new book. This week, you wished me happy birthday. And today, you're being kind and gentle with me because you know I need it. It's what you do. It's what you've always done. It's just who you are. All of you. I have grown to know that about you over the past five years. It's what makes this place so special. Thank you for that.

This month has been a grand celebration of elevating the everyday. Every single one of your images has meant that you are with me, with us, as we share our lives with one another. That we are all in this together. That's what it's all about. Thank you all so much for joining me, for joining us as we explored what it means to elevate the everyday in honor of my book. It has meant so much to see your responses to each prompt.

And now today, as we wrap up the month, I want to see more of you. We want to see more of each other. Today we are asking you to share yourSELF. Because you so lovingly point your cameras to the world around you, capturing all that matters to you with such tender and kind eyes, it's time to capture yourSELF with the same kind of love. And if for a single minute you feel shy or unphotogenic or not enough, I encourage you to visit the I am Enough Collaborative. The stories there will give you the perspective you need to be good to yourself and share a shot of your beautiful, unique and awesome SELF.

Every comment left here between now and Sunday 9/2 at midnight will be entered to win a copy of my book Elevate the Everyday: A Photographic Guide to Picturing Motherhood. And don't forget to tag your images #sselevate.

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.

discover something new

I'm always hungry for a new discovery. A new learning curve, a steep hill on which to set my sights. Film photography does it for me, as do toy cameras and polaroids. iPhoneography provided that exploration too. You know the feeling, the "I can't wait to try this!" sensation that puts a skip in your step a few butterflies in your belly.

As we began our journey into self portaits last week with the launch of NOW YOU Workshops, many a great discussions were had about self portraiture. A friend shared a link to inspiration she found on the flickr blog about scanography ... and it got me really curious to try something new! The images I saw were so peaceful, in a strange sort of way. They were totally up my alley and I couldn't wait for some free time with which to play!

Scanography, n., the process of capturing digitized images for the purpose of creating art using a flatbed scanner.

The results can be so dreamlike or eerie, depending on your mood and what you choose to focus on. Many years ago, friends and I would make xeroxed copies of images similiar to this only with cool effects in black and white, but nothing prepared me for what I saw after I laid my face on my scanner bed this week! What a beautiful new (to me) discovery!

When I'm in a creative slump, it's best for me to jump into something new. To think outside the box and try to see in a new light or walk a new path of creating art. How do you get over your photographic slumps? What do you tend to discover with your camera lens?

This month we are rejoicing the month of May with all the exploration and discovery it brings. Share with us something that you have discovered in the comments today ... and throughout the month of May, be on the lookout for new discoveries! The Spring season helps us remember to see life with fresh eyes. Discoveries come in many forms and fashions, small or large. Enjoy this first day of May, along with the new one word, and be sure to add your discovery images to our OWP flickr pool.

proof

Every once in awhile we are gifted one of those moments, those moments when something so obvious finally clicks in our head.  "LIGHT BULB!" (said in my best Gru voice) This past weekend, while cleaning out my basement, I realized that I had box, upon box, upon box of family photos.  Albums stuffed full of family portraits and snapshots.  Not posed photos, just shots of regular ordinary days and moments. Maybe a bigger life event thrown in here or there, like a birthday or a new baby, but mostly just life. Funny thing about all those shots, no one edited them or photoshopped them, or deleted them before they had a chance to be seen.  Photo upon photo of me as a child, my mom at the age I am now, all of my family members sitting there in those boxes looking back at me from the beauty of film. They are not hiding from the camera, or stretching out their neck to avoid the sagging neck skin, no, just smiles and real expressions.  Then I started to think about the shots of me the past 5 years.  There aren't many. Why? Mostly because I am the one holding the camera.  I am in control of not only what gets shot, but what remains and what is uploaded. Even if there is a shot taken of me, I have the option to hit that ever tempting delete button at all times.  Herein may lie the true gift of film,  there was no delete button! No one was turning their camera around and previewing their images then choosing what was kept and what was not. Now hear me out, I love digital, I love playing with my images, composing shots, clicking away to my heart's content.  I would not trade that, but what if the control that provides me ultimately keeps me from having images of myself?  What will my kids have when they are my age I am now?  They will have bazillion photos of themselves, yes definitely taking care of that, but what will they have of me, and us together, if I continue to delete them? I have all the excuses, "I look fat (I have been overweight most of my adult life so obviously I am not changing that overnight). This shot shows my double chin. Ugh look at those crows feet! My skin is showing its age and years of sun worshipping. The greys are taking over my scalp." blah. blah. blah. BORING. Do my kids care about all those excuses?  Do they look at me with the same critical eye I am obviously applying to myself?  Of course not. Aren't I teaching them that beauty comes in all shapes sizes colors and ages, yet somehow not applying those lessons to images of my own self?  Guilty as charged. 

SO what do I do about it?  I need to change, and I have been on this path searching for the beauty of me. Not about the pretty, all about the proof. The proof of my life.  The ME in our moments. I want my children to look back and have proof of this me now, and the me tomorrow, and the me 5 years from now.

Yesterday we went to the beach.  I had my camera along, clicking away at my kids.  They were flying kites, running in the sand, feeding the seagulls and I was watching them and documenting it all. I wanted proof that I was there too so I shot my feet in the sand next to my youngest's feet.  Later that afternoon as I was watching them run, I turned the camera around and clicked the image above. Just me, off center, slightly out of frame, soaking in the sun, crows feet and grey hairs representing. Content, present, alive, me, now.  Not for pretty, just for proof.

Does this speak to you?  Do you feel like you too hide or delete too much of YOU from your images? Fellow shutter sister Meredith Winn and I are launching our very first 6 week e-course in self portraiture next Monday April 23rd. Click on over to NOW YOU to read more about our upcoming class. Perhaps this is a journey you are ready to leap into too. 

Today I challenge you, I want to see your proof.  I do not want you to stress over editing or composing. I just want you to hold your camera in your hands, turn it around and focus on the beauty of you. Click!  Don't delete it. Upload and share your image with me please.  You are worthy.  You are here.  You deserve to be seen just as you are right now in this moment.

xo.