Learn to See Yourself with Compassion

June 12, 2012

Nephew and Auntie Adventures!

As with every trip to Portland, I can’t help but take tonnes of photos of my sweet nephew.

As he’s getting older, its getting a bit more challenging. When he was really little he’d gaze at my camera wide eyed wondering what the noise was, but for a while now he has been totally uninterested in me taking pictures of him.

What is a photographer auntie to do?

Why, play games and be silly of course!

Every single good shot I got of him this trip was when I was either playing a game (doing a backwards silly run as he chased me) or just making him laugh. Isn’t his smile so lovely? Totally worth acting like a goof in public to capture in a photo (though I should confess I’m known to do this in most photo shoots anyways).

We had the best day together on Sunday, going out for brunch together just me and him. I want to make this a tradition to just have auntie & nephew time. When we were kids our grammy would make a point of spending a whole day once in a while with each one of us kids (there are 3 of us) and going somewhere neat. Those days really stand out in our memories and I want to make a point to do that with him too throughout his life. Plus, at this age, it helps give his parents a well-deserved break!

June 11, 2012

PDX Adventures

June 6, 2012

Fave iPhone Apps

So, I’ve had my iPhone for almost 2 years now.

In the first month I had it, I downloaded pretty much every iPhone Photography App that sounded great. Then I had this way too full iPhone and I realized that there were really only a few that I loved and that I use regularly.

So I thought I’d share which ones those are and why they are the bees knees.

PictureShow

GorillaCam

Instagram

VSCO Cam

AutoStitch

June 5, 2012

The Chakra Photo Workshop

Introducing: The Chakra Photo Workshop, a brand new course exploring the Chakra System through our cameras. We’ll be learning about the chakras and get inspired to seek out the energy of each of them through our cameras. This is such a different course than any that I’ve ever offered and I’m so excited to bring it to you!

I wanted to share a bit about how this course emerged and where my interest in the Chakras began.

When I started working on this class, it made so much sense to weave photography and the chakra system together. You see, many years back I studied with some incredible Mentors from a collective called the Thirteenth House Mystery Tradition. As a part of my training, we explored all sorts of of wonderful things: wicca, meditation, tarot, astrology. The one that had the most effect on me was a course called the Tree of Life which was a 7 month course exploring the chakras. I think I did the course at least 2 times as it was so powerful. Each month we’d explore a different chakra and I was amazed how by simply focusing and learning about the chakra, the effects were pretty profound. Some months I’d feel physical pain or get sick in that area (like the throat), other times beautiful things would happen (like the month of the heart). It amazed me.

So while my wicca exploration isn’t part of my daily life these days, I definitely experience the effects of it, especially through the chakra work. The idea came to me to start exploring each chakra through photos, I was hooked on it right away. Just being present in each of those energy centres, exploring and learning about them through the lens of photography is going to be amazing. I am really SO excited to share this class with you.

It also has the energy of a summery course (though if you’re in the southern hemisphere….I promise you it isn’t centred around summer) but it does have a light and playful energy to it and will mesh well with your July and August adventures.

Registration has been open for a bit, but I realized I hadn’t blogged about it yet and shared where the idea came from. We already have a really wonder group of folks signed up but there is lots of room, so if you feel called to join in, you can find out more about it via this link!

June 4, 2012

An Experiment in Self-Portraiture

So, I’m starting an experiment over here.

When I sat down with my journal and brainstormed ways to make action on my ‘Be Yourself’ Business Plan (and life plan), an idea that came up really surprised me. It was to do some fashion blogging. Oh my.

It makes sense though.

It can involve self-portraiture
I love clothing and style (especially style that invites you to ‘be yourself’)
I adore fashion blogs and OOTD (outfit of the day posts) particularly from body positive blogs or fatshionistas.

So I thought, why not experiment with it?

The experiment for me is playing around with the purpose of taking self-portraits. In my courses I really try to highlight that it is an artistic act, that we can be our own model, be in control, be in charge of the way we see ourselves in our images.

In reading fashion blogs (or at least the ones that I read which are centred around body-positivity ie. loving and celebrating your body and all bodies…not just thin or stereotypically beautiful bodies) I see the same thing….people being themselves, taking control of the way they see themselves, getting dressed in something that makes them feel fabulous.

I see it as a way for us to see ourselves with kindness, to feel empowered, to be ourselves!

I don’t feel like either type of self-portraiture, whether it is to share our love of fashion or to create something for arts sake, is really that different.

Somehow I feel like if we add ‘fashion’ into the mix, those ideas that self-portraiture is vain comes up again. Is it more worthy to do it for arts sake or creativities sake than to do it to make ourselves feel empowered in how we get dressed in our every day life and express ourselves through our clothing?

So this is where the experiment comes in.

I want to try it out, see if it invites me to dress a little sharper, feel even better in my skin?

I want to see if it feels different than self-portraiture for arts sake and see if I learn anything new about that kind of self-portraiture? I also feel like fashion OOTD blogging is really outside of the blogging community that I’ve been reading or who I feel like my audience is…so I hope you’ll come along with me as I try out this experiment in having a new genre of content on the blog too.

I also want to see if it invites me to take self-portraits in a different way technically.

Remember that one line on my list? Burst outta the f-ckin’ box? I think this counts as that so I’m going to go for it!

So, let the adventure begin!