Week #52 Photo Challenge

Walking Home

Hard to believe that it has been a year since I started this project. My intent was to give myself  motivation to get out every week with my camera - and it did just that. My commitment to this project gave me some sleepless Saturday nights wondering which picture to use, was it really my best one, would it convey what I was trying to say, and would anyone care. In the end it all come together. I have learned much about photography this year and enjoy having my camera in my hands more than ever. 

I would like to give a special thanks to all of the teachers that have helped me learn to see with a "beginner's eye" this year.

Kim Manely Ort , Lee Ashland , John Ricca , Keith Walklet, and 

Miriam Hall have all shared their love for photography and have helped me align my eyes, heart, and hands. These are truly generous teachers and amazing photographers.

I am not sure what comes next and whether I will continue with this blog. If I do continue, it will most likely look and feel a little different. Stay tuned to see what 2016 brings.

Blessings to you all - Louise

Week #51 Photo Challenge

Lines and a Palm Tree - San Diego

When gifts are given to me through my camera, I accept them graciously. - Minor White, 

Week #50 Photo Challenge

Coronado Bridge

I've been down in San Diego for a conference this week. The Coronado Bridge caught my eye over and over again - loved how it looked at different times of the day, different lighting. I took this image early yesterday morning as the sun came up.

"Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence."

Minor White

Week #49 Photo Challenge

Pittsburg Marina

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever.... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything."

Aaron Siskind

Week #48 Photo Challenge

Thanksgiving Day - Mt. Diablo

Leap into the boundless and make it your home!

-Chuang-Tzu

Week #47 Photo Challenge

Autumn Reflections Yosemite

" Seeing/drawing as a technique of contemplation is, I believe, a way particularly suited to that "Western temperament" which may be no more than a habitually overstimulated nervous system, an "overloaded switchboard." It is the discipline through which I extricate myself from the habitual, the mechanical, the predigested and acquisitive automatisms of our society. I stand face to face with a hill. a bird, a human face - with myself, in unwavering attention."
Frederick Franck - The Zen of Seeing

Week #46 Photo Challenge

River Bank - Yosemite

"Every insignificant thing appears as if seen in its three dimension, in its own space and in its own time. Each leaf of grass is seen to grow from its own roots, each creature is realized to be unique, existing now/here on its voyage from birth to death, No longer do I "look" at a leaf, but enter into direct contact with its life process, with Life itself with what I, too, really am. "

Frederick Franck - The Zen of Seeing - Seeing/Drawing as Meditation

Week #45 Photo Challenge

Meadow Trees - Yosemite

I had the great pleasure last week to participate in a wonderful photography workshop in Yosemite National Park. The class was sponsored by the Yosemite Conservancy and taught by two talented photographers - Keith Walklet and John Ricca. 

I had wanted an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and spend some guided time out exploring landscape photography.  The days were long,  full of incorporating new skills, meeting new friends, and spending quiet time in the glory of that which is Yosemite Valley. I left the valley feeling grateful for the kindness and knowledge of the teachers and students and blessed to have the creative time to explore this very special place.

Week #44 Photo Challenge

Sunset In Yosemite

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

John Muir

Week # 43 Photo Challenge

Chair Outside of Store, Murphys CA

I've been in Murphys California this weekend with my family celebrating my son's birthday. My husband I and I were out having lunch and doing some shopping on Main Street when I saw this beautiful old bench.  The colors, lines and textures grabbed my eye.

"To see in a thousandth of a second what indifferent people come close to without noticing - that is the principal of photographic reportage. And in a thousandth of a second that follows, to take a photo of what one has seen - that is the practical side of reportage."

Martin Munkaski

Week #42 Photo Challenge

Oak Leaf

"Our society cannot deal with the minimal, the silence and the spirituality anymore. Everything is huge, loud, flashy and intrusive. Perfection and flawless function are expected in all areas."

Wabi-Sabi - The Beauty of Photography

Natsuko Podzimek-Horinouchi | Jana Manz |Dr. Susan Brooks-Dammann

Week #41 Photo Challenge

Morning - Pittsburg Marina

"And while the paths and outcomes of creative living will vary wildly from person to person, I can guarantee you this: A creative life is an amplified life. It is a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner - continually and stubbornly bring forth the jewels that are hidden within you - is a fine art, in and of itself. Because creative living is where Big Magic will always abide."

Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic, Creative Living Beyond Fear

Week #40 Photo Challenge

Looking Down

"It is the artist in photography that gives form to content by distillation of ideas, thought, experience, insight, and understanding."

   - Edward Steichen

Week #39 Photo Challenge

City Buildings

"Be a good stewart of your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books. Have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours."

Dani Shapiro

Week #38 Photo Challenge

Sunrise on Water

" I subscribe to the belief that we don't find a subject for a photograph - I believe it finds us. When I wander off with my camera, I try to keep my mind blank and instead listen for that soft "Psst! Over here!" to guide me.  The best bet is to disconnect the intellect from the process and listen to your feelings...your gut. What am I going to photograph today? "I'll know if when I see it" is a great answer.

Charles Cramer - First Light - Five Photographers Explore Yosemite's Wilderness

Week #37 Photo Challenge

Window Light

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence."

Ansel Adams

Week #36 Photo Challenge

Bark

"It is through the everydayness of such (unremarkable art) that we are blessed to experience the ordinary mind as a portal to transcendence and liberation."

Charles R. Johnson - Taming the Ox, Buddhist Stories and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture and Spiritual Practice

Week #35 Photo Challenge

Trapped

"When we practice dharma art, there's a quality of freedom in the artistic process.  Our art becomes something we discover rather than create. When we see ourselves and the world as transitory, we begin to relax, to look at what is happening with curiosity about where it leads. We don't have to try so hard. We let go. Now the real artisan begins to come out."

Steven Saitzyk 

Week #34 Photo Challenge

Sunlight 

"Light was my first love."  Sir John Herschel

Week # 33 Photo Challenge

White Flower

"Then you might see something, which is second stage. The more you look the more inquisitive you are, the more you are bound to see.  Your looking process is not restrained because you are genuine, you are gentle, you have nothing to lose and nothing to fight against ... you can see so beautifully. In fact, you can feel the warm of red and the coolness of blue and the penetrating quality of green - all at once.  You appreciate the world around you.  It is a fantastic new discovery of the world.  You would like to explore the entire universe."

            Chogyam Trumpa Rinpoche, Shambhala Sacred Path of the Warrior

Week #32 Photo Challenge

Reflections In the Lily Pond

One eye sees, the other eye feels. - Paul Klee

Week #31 Photo Challenge

Reflections at the Marina

                    You don't take a photograph. You ask quietly, to borrow it.

                                                            

                                           Unknown

Week #30 Photo Challenge

Texture and Lines

I have been slowly working through a wonderful book - Looking and Seeing: An Introduction to Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography by John McQuade and Miriam Hall. This week I learned that Mariam Hall will be offering an online class on level 

1 Nalanda Miksang. I have already signed up for the class and look forward to engaging with a broader community of those practicing  contemplative photography. If you are also on this path I hope you will think about joining the class too!

Week #29 Photo Challenge

                        

   

 Lines and Clouds

"You don't make a photograph with just a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved."

Ansel Adams 

Week #28 Photo Challenge

Curved Lines

The bells and stones have voices but,

unless they are struck, they will not sound.

- Chuang-Tzu

Week #27 Photo Challenge

Trees In The Park

I've been thinking lately about why I like to use my camera to "see" the world. I am definitely about the process of photography. Through my practice of Nalanda Miksang and contemplative photography I am learning how to carefully observe the world around me and in turn, learning at a much deeper level about this wonderful world. Observing, looking, seeing, feeling, appreciating the experience of the phenomenal world.

Week #26 Photo Challenge

Yellow Paper

"Color as color cuts through interpretations and self-absorption, straight to things as they are. It has an edge. 

John McQuade

I continue to work through the Looking and Seeing book by John McQuade and Miriam Hall. I went out this week with my intention  set on color. Some of my images were good but they included other aspects such as pattern or light. This "flash of perception" came out as pure color with space and depth. It is easy to understand why contemplative photography is a practice for a lifetime.

Week #25 Photo Challenge

Looking Down

Another week of practicing Nalanda Miksang contemplative photography and reading "Looking and Seeing" by John McQuade and Miriam Hall. I'm feeling very inspired by their writing and exercises.

"Practicing contemplative photography is a kind of sail, stirring us back to the ordinary magic of clear seeing. Making an image is using that sail to catch the joy of the world"

John McQuade and Miriam Hall

Week #24 Photo Challenge

Impressions 

"This is what it is like to be in the Now, which is really just to be still in the mind and body. My photographs come from a place of emotion. They are not an attempt to capture the perfect image, but to capture the feeling I experience as I witness the things in front of me."

Eydis S Luna Einarsdottir

Week #23 Photo Challenge

Reflections at the Marina

“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera.” 

Ansel Adams

Week #22 Photo Challenge

Shadows and Lines

"Ordinary things when really seen, make extraordinary photos. Such photos seem to make themselves. They seem like presents that are given."

           David Vestal

Week #21 Photo Challenge

Sheets

Nalanda Miksang is based on the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his work with the contemplative arts. As I begin my journey with this practice, I have found these words to help me frame the path for my journey.

"Either you look and see beyond language - as a first perception - or you see the world through the filter of your thoughts, by talking to yourself. Everyone knows what it is like to feel things directly. Intense emotions...don't have a language. They are too intense in the first flash...Synchronizing mind and body is looking and seeing directly beyond language...you can see on the spot with wakefulness. Your eyes begin to open wider and wider, and you see that the world is colorful and fresh and so precise, every sharp angle is fantastic."

Chogyam Trungpa Ripoche - Shanbhala Sacred Path of the Warrior

Week #20 Photo Challenge

City Window - San Francisco

Started a new book this week, Looking and Seeing, Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography by John McQuade and Miriam Hall.  Looking forward to learning more about Nalanda Miksang, a contemplative photography training out of Canada, and starting some of the exercises they have developed. I'll share some of my thoughts about the book over the next several weeks.

Week #19 Photo Challenge

Light on Leaves

"If you have something to say about life, you must also find a way of saying it clearly. And if you achieve that clarity of both perception and the ability to record it, you will have created your own composition, your own kind of design, personal to you, related to other people's, yet your own. The point I want to make is that there is no such thing as THE way, there is only for each individual, his or her way, which in the last analysis, each one must find for himself and in photography and in living."

Paul Strand 

Week #18 Photo Challenge

Reflections 

"I believe to be good at anything, even those things we love most, requires discipline. Because growth happens when we hit our limits (and our limits are either at the edge of our comfort zone or the furthest extent of our current ability), it is discipline that gets us past the natural boundary."

David Duchemin - Photograph - issue 12

Lately, I have been at a place with my photography where I was feeling stuck. I knew that I needed to keep going out every day with my camera and keep at it - but I just wasn't connecting with my images.   This week, while I was down in Palm Springs, something shifted. I was able to use my camera in a way that contributed to my ability to capture what I saw - I stopped fighting my camera and started to be one with my camera. This experience seems to reflect what David Duchemin is saying above. Growth happens when we hit our limits. 

Lessons learned? Just keep at it - even when you feel like you have hit the "creative wall".

Week #17 Photo Challenge

Back Gate

"The bells and stones have voices but, unless they are struck, they will not sound"

Chuang Tzu

I would like to share a wonderful book that I've been reading. It's title is The Tao of Photography - Seeing Beyond Seeing by 

Philippe L. Gross and S.I. Shapiro. The book draws on Taoist philosophy and wisdom to illustrate how the art of living and photographic artistry is organically linked.

The book is broken up into five parts.

Part One provides a description go Taoistic photography.

Part Two focuses on the constructive nature of reality.

Part Three discusses barriers that can constrict awareness and ways of freeing awareness.

Part Four examines the role of method and education in artistry.

Part Five moves beyond the practice of photography and looks at using conscious camerawork as a way of enriching our everyday life.

I've read through the book twice and each time I gleam more insights and words of wisdom.

Week #16 Photo Challenge

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."

Rachel Carson

Happy Earth Day 2015

Week #15 Photo Challenge

Bark

Yesterday, I took a walk down by the river at the Brandywine River Museum, to take in the first spring like day. I closed my eyes, took a breath and asked for nature to speak. This image was her answer.

Week #14 Photo Challenge

Garden Art

I just came back from a Garden Photography class at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. The teachers for the class were John Ricca and Richard Valenti . Both of the instructors were patient and encouraging as we spent the morning exploring this wonderful garden. We were encouraged to try new skills and both John and Richard were always available to walk us through a new approach or give us feedback on our photos.  

One of the reasons I took this particular class was that I wanted to try making abstracts using these succulents. I had noticed on John's site that he also looks at nature in abstract ways and I was excited to learn more of how he set up the technical part of his shots. I was not disappointed and feel like I finished the class with some new knowledge and techniques. Besides all that, it was fun to meet some new people and share a morning together.

Week #13 Photo Challenge

Even the smallest thing......

Even the simplest thing is as important as the things we consider important. I consider the fallen leaf as important as the Gand Canyon. It's all connected. One couldn't be without the other.
Ruth Bernhard

Week #12 Photo Challenge

In A Gust of Wind

In a gust of wind

The leaves scatter

Leaving only impressions 

I've been working on writing Haikus for some of my photos. I've been reading "The Heart of Haiku" by Jane Hirshfield and was inspired to take a try using this photo from my last trip to Maui.

Week #11 Photo Challenge

Capturing the Emotions of Spring

"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art."

Paul Cezanne

Emotion and art seem to go hand in hand. I am not always aware of the emotions that I am feeling when I click the shutter. Later on when I have spent some time with the image, the emotions seem to reach out to me, and urge me to explore my heart. 

Week #10 Photo Challenge

Living Room Blinds

I just finished a wonderful six week online class in Mindful Photography. The class was taught by Lee Ashland. Lee was supportive and challenging with the assignments and the depth of the course materials was fantastic. I not only learned from my time out with my camera practicing the weekly assignments, I also had the opportunity to read about many photographers that helped me take my learning to a deeper level. 

You can read more about Lee at his site The Mindful Photographer. While you are there I encourage you to sign up for the class he is starting in April. If you have never tried an online photography course I highly recommend them. I find it a great way to keep my photography practice focused  at the same time having the opportunity to "meet" some other like mind people.

Week #9 Photo Challenge

Driving home this weekend I saw this beautiful sky and had to stop and capture the moment. It made me think of the the concepts of "taking" photos and "receiving" photos. I choose to receive these images that touch my heart. The experience fills me with grace and helps me to experience the sacred.

Week #8 Photo Challenge

This week I am reminded that when I stop judging the world around me, labeling what is "beautiful" or "ugly" and can start seeing the world through my heart, I experience a world filled with wonder.

Week #7 Photo Challenge

"It is far more creative to work with the idea of mindfulness rather than with the idea of will".

John O'Donohue - Anam Cara

Week #6  of Photo Challenge

Out For A Walk

Looking, seeing, perceiving the world around me. My camera is but a tool for my contemplative life.

Week #5 of Photo Challenge

I park in front of this vine trunk every day but didn't really see it for it's beauty until the other morning. Makes me wonder how may beautiful things I pass by to busy to "see" what is around me.