Be Your Own Beloved » With your Guide Vivienne McMaster

Be Your Own Beloved

With your Guide Vivienne McMaster

Northern Voice Conference (and the awesomeness of going outside of your comfort zone).

Jun. 17th 2013

Photo of the photowalk by Tricia Ward McDonald (see her awesome photos over here).

Last week I got a message inviting me to fill a spot leading a photo walk at a local social media and blogging conference. My local photog friends know that I’m into doing more in person teaching so I was super appreciative they recommended me. I’ve had a number of these kinds of local opportunities lately and not only have they helped this introvert feel more comfortable in the role of leading/teaching, but have made me feel more at home in my own city.

So this one was for a conference called Northern Voice and my friends, it totally rocked. I had heard about it, but hadn’t jumped in and signed up in previous years.

It was outside of both my in-person social circles and my online community, so for an introvert like me, thats a whole lotta outside-the-comfort zone action going on. The great thing was, that once I got there I realized that it was the same case for so many of us and I felt totally at home there. I only wish it was a day longer!

One of the many things I so loved about the event was that I couldn’t tell who the speakers where and who the participants were, there just wasn’t a cliquishness or hierarchical energy to the event at all. I loved that.

Another big reason I loved it was the content of the workshops. To tell you the truth, I listen to a lot of online blogging/social-media/marketing tele-seminars and so often I’m disappointed by the kind of blogging advice people give in those seminars (a one-size-fits-all approach) but this event didn’t remotely disappoint in that way. Quite the opposite. I went to such a range of workshops and my notebook is filled up with the take-away inspirations from it…some definitely technical workshops and some super philosophical ones too…all of which I felt spoke to us in a really outside-the-box way, recognizing the wide diversity of reasons we might be involved in social media. I think no matter why you were there you would have ended up going away with so much.

So I wanted to share a bit about this in case you are want to keep watch on the conference for next year or in case you have been pondering going to an event in your part of the world that is outside of your usually bubble of online or in-person circles…go for it…it might be exactly what you are in need of!

show hide 3 comments

write a note

Ariane

Oh, yay, I’m so glad to hear it went well! I felt like a puddle of a person all weekend (as is the theme the last couple weeks) and didn’t make it over there in the end, but it’s great to hear it’s still as friendly as ever.

Tricia McDonald Ward

Yes, what a great event it was! Completely new and outside my realm too, and I feel like I learned a lot, and met so many wonderful people. So glad you were there – you did a great job leading the photo walk. Let’s do it again next year!

Tricia McDonald Ward

Oh, forgot to add: thanks for using my photo & linking to my post!

Everything I know about Buying Glasses!

Jun. 12th 2013

So, I’ve been a glasses wearer since my teens and my eye sight is pretty bad, so a glasses girl I shall be!

I tried contacts for a bit when I was a teen, but I’ve always felt that glasses were fun to wear and that I felt more ‘me’ with them. I confess so much so that sometimes I need to take self-portraits without them on to see myself bare, unmasked as I want to feel ‘me’ with our without them!

The other day I got an email from a lovely friend asking for advice around buying glasses and she emailed back ‘You HAVE to write a blog post about this’ and I definitely think this one is overdue as people ask about my glasses online almost daily! So like the recent gear post, I want to have a place to send you with all the info!

The vintage pair I mention below.

Vintage Glasses

Oh my. Being a glasses wearer used to be mighty expensive. You’d easily have to pay $500-$700+ for glasses and lenses. Then of course, I’d make that pair of glasses last for as long as possible until they broke and there was no choice but to buy new ones. I’m glad those days are over.

When my old blue pair of glasses broke right in the nose bridge as I was cleaning them (I would have needed to tape them together geek-style to repair them) I started searching out new options for getting glasses. I think the online optical stores were appearing but I wasn’t yet ready to try them. Plus, after a couple decades of wearing pretty simple glasses, I was craving something bold.

I had been looking for a good vintage pair of glasses for a long time, granny style, and finally found a pair at the Vancouver Flea Market. The best part was that the prescription was almost the same as mine! Usually when I’d try on vintage glasses the prescription was so different that I couldn’t even see myself in the mirror through them to see if they worked. This pair was so close that I actually wore them for a few days to see if I wanted to make them into my own prescription.

To get them made into my prescription I went to an in person optical store. I learned that putting lenses into vintage glasses is kind of risky as they might break so glasses needed to be in good condition as they need to heat the plastic of the frame to insert the lens. They said these ones were pretty good but there was a chance they would be okay, so I went for it and luckily they came through. I won’t tell you what store it was as it was the worst customer service, but most places will put in lenses for you so try somewhere local to you!

Some of the best places I’ve found to seek out vintage glasses are:

Any regular old thrift store or flea market. You never know where you are going to find a good pair of vintage glasses.
Etsy! There are endless amazing vintage glasses on Etsy. Here are some vintage cat-eye ones. As I mentioned, not all glasses will work so I definitely recommend checking out their condition in the photos (you don’t want cracks or breaking anywhere).
Hollywood Vintage in Portland Oregon. The best in-person collection of vintage glasses I’ve ever seen is at this store in Portland, just in case you live there or are visiting and in search of new (old) glasses!
Ebay is also a great place to find old vintage glasses online and you are likely to be able to find them at pretty cheap prices too!

Glasses: Derek Cardigan 7006

My Favourite Online Glasses Options

Buying glasses is revolutionizing things for us glasses wearers! Not having it be a brick and mortar store allows the companies to offer glasses a lot more affordably.

In order to place an online order you’ll still have to visit an optician in person of course to get your prescription. Once you’ve got that you are almost ready to order online. Usually you’ll get all the information you need except your PD (Pupilary Distance) but its super easy to figure that out. Here’s a tutorial on how!

Then you’re ready to order! So I though I’d share a few of my favourite places to get glasses online with you.

Clearly Contacts (called Coastal in the U.S.)

This is the main place I’ve gotten glasses is from Clearly Contacts. They are a Vancouver based company but are available throughout the world. Initially looking at their glasses it felt like they were way nicer and funkier than the average in person or online option. As it happens, they have lines specifically designed for them and they feel really on trend. While so many of their glasses are amazing, I’m a big fan of the brands Derek Cardigan and Love, both made specifically for them. Clearly Contacts actually just opened a brick and mortar store in Vancouver, so if you are local you can actually go try on a lot of their glasses there.

Clearly Contacts (or Coastal) have a first pair free offer. Amazing, right? If your prescription is intense (like mine) you will have to pay for lens upgrades, so it may not be totally free, but still a great price.

If you like their frames, I totally recommend following them on Facebook (here for Coastal) as they regularly have sales on frames. These sales happen so frequently that I recommend deciding on the frame you like and then waiting a week or two as there will be sale of some sort very soon (there always is)!

Zenni Optical

The price range for Zenni Optical is even cheaper than Clearly Contacts. They too make their own frames and prices range from $6-$40 (wow, right). I feel like they might not be as good quality as CC but are drastically cheaper, so why not!

So far I have only gotten a pair of sunglasses from there which I’m totally happy with. They are also the place that seem to have glasses most similar to my present favourite cat eye ones, so if you’re hoping to find cat-eye glasses be sure to check them out!

Other Online options:

I haven’t personally purchased from any of these companies, only because they don’t ship to Canada (they should change that, eh) but I hear good things about all of these. Plus, they all have really funky glasses. Now that glasses don’t cost an arm and a leg, it is fun to join in on trends for glasses whereas before I would have totally just chosen a more classic pair to try to make them last. There are other companies online, but these are the ones I hear the best reviews of. Plus, I confess I judge a company by whether or not they have ‘Cat-Eye’ as a shape you can search for in their line of glasses!

Warby Parker

Lookmatic

BonLook

How to Figure out What Glasses Work for You!

Figuring out what shape of glasses really works for you is definitely the hard part of finding glasses. My biggest recommendation, especially if you are planning on ordering online, is to go into a glasses store and try on some frames and figure out what shape works for you.

If you already have glasses that you like the width of across your face or the height of, I definitely found it useful to make note of those lengths and use them when finding glasses online (every pair of glasses will have that info listed)!

On many of the online eyeglasses company have the option of uploading your own photo and you can see the glasses on your photo. It is actually kind of fun to do, but I wouldn’t judge the glasses only by that if you really like them as they will look different on you than in the photo. My favourite pair didn’t really work in the photo but I love them the most in person. So especially with companies like Clearly Contacts (where you can return them) it is worth it to try them on in person!

Left: Derek Cardigan 7005 Middle: Love L747 Right: Kam Dhillon 3027

So I hope that was helpful for my dear fellow glasses wearers!

Tags: cat-eye glasses / glasses

show hide 2 comments

write a note

Gi Csome

I totally get what you mean by feeling more yourself with your glasses on. I used them for almost 20 years before getting laser surgery, and although it was the best thing I could do for my health, it took me quite a long time to see myself on the mirror or in pictures without my lovely glasses.

Lydia Kimble-Wright

I can vouch for Bonlook. It was my first experience buying glasses online and it was great. They even have a tool that allows you torque your pupillary distance. The best part is that with an online coupon code they were less than $90, and they arrived in 2-3 days. I am getting another pair and some sunglasses. Blessings.

Join Me at the Soul Sisters Retreat

Jun. 11th 2013

I am truly so looking forward to this amazing Gathering coming this fall…the Soul Sisters Gathering in Portland, Oregon. When the fabulous Rachelle Mee-Chapman invited me to teach a workshop there I jumped in wholeheartedly with a big YES because I absolutely know this event is going to be life changing and is an event I would sign up for in a heartbeat as a participant. I’m only one of many incredible teachers including: Kelly Rae Roberts, Rachel Cole, Liz Lamoreux, Kate Swoboda, Jenna McGuiggan, Bridget Pilloud, Molly Mahar and of course Rachelle Mee-Chapman (the amazing organizer of the event).

As well, if you would like to experience the Be Your Own Beloved experience in person, this is a great opportunity to! I have a super fun workshop planned for you that is totally beginner friendly but at the same time will get right to the heart of seeing ourselves with kindness!

Its going to be an epic weekend.

Click here to register!

I wanted to let you know as well that this is actually an affiliate link so when you sign up from this page you’ll be helping me as a teacher get paid as a part of this amazing retreat. If you sign up directly from the Soul Sisters website you can also mention to Rachelle that you heard about the retreat from me.

It is going to be a truly amazing group of folks gathered there and I so hope I’ll get to see you there!

no comments

write a note

Stepping out From Behind the Camera

Jun. 10th 2013

When I first started taking self-portraits, even before I started going outside to seek out the beauty around me (and within me) it began even closer to home.

Yup, in my bathroom.

It really is an amazing place to take self-portraits isn’t it? It usually has a mirror and it is the one place where people might not question what we’re doing taking time for ourselves there! It was truly the perfect place to begin. All I had to do was hold up the camera and click.

Soon though, I realized that it had become my comfort zone. Not just taking photos in the bathroom but the way that I took photos, where I often held the camera up to my face and peeked out from behind it or held it in front of me.

I liked my comfort zone but I also felt like there was a lot more one could do with self-portraiture and I wanted to try it. For so many of us who are the folks who are often behind the camera (with our families or as a photographer) as we dabble in self-portraiture, we might still want to be behind the camera (literally) when we take self-portraits.

I knew that when I found out how to get out from behind the camera I would be able to take some cool photos, but I had no idea it would be so much more than that.

So I wanted to share a few of the tricks I found for getting out from behind the camera in my self-portraits in case they would be useful to you and share a bit about the unexpected learning that happened when I let myself step into the frame.

Use the Mirror to See Your Viewfinder

So the first step in breaking out of that comfort zone was to stay in the bathroom (or in front of the mirror) but get out from behind the camera. One of the biggest tricks that helped me burst out from behind the comfort zone was actually the mirror itself. Whereas the iPhone I have now has a front facing camera so I can see myself as I take the photo, the simple point and shoot (and my first iPhone) didn’t. In a way it was good as I had to figure out ways to compose my photo without being able to see it as I was no longer looking through the viewfinder.

All I did to get out from behind the camera using the mirror was to actually turn my camera on myself as I faced the mirror….and what happens is that when we look in the mirror we can see the back of the camera! Now I was no longer behind the camera but didn’t have to shoot blindly (though that is fun too). Of course I did need to take lots of photos, but that is part of the fun!

Put Your Camera Down on the Ground (or a Tripod)

The next step in getting out from behind the camera was to get outside! I started to seek out fun spots at ground level to take a self-portrait. Most cameras have a timer, so getting to know it proves to be so useful.

If you are using an iPhone and you haven’t yet discovered the app Gorillacam, please go get it! Gorillacam is amazing. It allows you to use both a front or back facing lens on your iPhone but with a timer. You can also set the timer to begin in a certain number of seconds as well as set it to take a chunk of photos one after another. This is such a great way to get ourselves in front of the lens as we can move in our photos or try different things with out having to pause between each photo!

Getting outside and finding places to take self-portraits is a beautiful adventure. We might use a tripod or find some make-shift places to prop our camera or iphone but it expanded my self-portraiture adventures vastly to start stepping into the frame.

Let go of Control (in order to find it)

The big realization that came from this process was that by hiding behind the camera in my self-portraits I was wanting to retain control and to see what was happening as I was taking the photo. The big and unexpected discovery that happened when I let go of the control of seeing my self-portrait as I was shooting it was that by letting go of that type of control I actually made room for a different sense of being in my power in taking photos.

I think at first self-portraits can feel really vulnerable and we might think of all the photos we might have seen of ourselves taken by someone else where we felt out of control (or didn’t want to be photographed). I know that is the way I often feel when someone else takes my photo. But with self-portraiture, especially when we let go of visual control from behind the lens and we step fully into our photo, we might find a sense of freedom and at the same time a new sense of control.

When we are in the photo, our hand are now free and we get to be in our bodies. I know when someone takes a photo of me I tend to not feel in my body but I was amazed to discover that when I was in front of the camera (while still being the photographer) I was in control of it all. By stepping into the frame I got to find my way into being in my body. Often this is a little dance I do before the timer starts to just feel rooted or often it is that I can create some movement in the photo itself. When we free our hands from the camera we invite our body to move and create a space where we get to be the subject of a photo, but our way.

It felt like freedom to me yet at the same time I felt even more in control of my self-image than when I hid behind the camera!

Of course there are truly no right or wrong ways to take a self-portrait so sometimes I still like to take a self-portrait with my camera in the photo but I no longer feel like I’m hiding behind it! Do you perhaps have a similar comfort zone of having your camera in the photo with you or not letting go of looking through the viewfinder when you are taking self-portraits? Comfort zones are awesome and my goodness in the process of self-portraiture we sure do need to find them, but I hope if you are craving to step out from behind the camera in your self-portraits that these ideas will be useful to you!

no comments

write a note

Dancing in the Garden

Jun. 7th 2013

I’ve totally fallen in love with the community garden that is about a 5 minute walk from my house.

Ever since the winter I’ve been coming here once a week if at all possible. As winter eased into spring I’d get to see the one or two plants that had started blooming and then spring hit with full force and now the garden is unbelievable. Its always busy with gardeners and folks like me wandering through so when I went the other day I was surprised to have a quiet stretch of time there. Since I was wearing a skirt with lots of movement I couldn’t resist dancing like no one was watching and twirling!

Here is a bit of the beauty and goodness I found in the garden that day!

Where do you like to go for photo walks?