Photo Session ~ Andrea Paterson

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On a rainy day day in January I gathered with the fabulous photographer, musician and artist, Andrea Paterson.   We met at the beautiful Bloedel Conservatory to add some lush spring like energy to this photo session on a not so spring like day.  Andrea’s husband Malcolm joined in too for the session as we captured this couple approaching the birth of their first child.

Biggest congrats to Andrea and Malcolm as their little man is now here!  It was a total pleasure photographing Andrea and I so wish them well in their new adventures as parents.

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Welcome!

Welcome to my new site!

I’m SO excited to finally share it with you.

I’ve been in planning mode for a long time, jotting notes in my journal and creating a new vision of what I wanted for my online space.  I’ve been pondering how I wanted my new site to feel and how I wanted it to represent my work in a different way.

I wanted this space to have ease for you, the reader, to explore.  I  craved to have a website that felt energizing to create and to work with.  I wanted a site that not only shared my E-Courses, but that gave equal focus to my portrait photography and wedding work.

It has finally come to be!  Come on over and explore the new site.

You’ll see there is actually a whole lot of new wonderful stuff I’ve been keeping quiet on!  I’m spilling all the beans today!

First of all, I’m thrilled to share that I’m going to be teaching a 2 day YAYOM workshop this summer in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

Yes, you heard me right!

You are Your Own Muse as a live two day workshop!

The workshop is hosted by the Whistler Arts Council, and though registration isn’t open yet, I highly recommend signing up for their newsletter as they’ve got some great stuff planned and that will be the first way to find out when registration is open!

 

As you explore the site, you’ll also see some new offerings!

 

There is a brand new e-course, a new YAYOM called ReWriting the Story.

ReWriting the Story is a 4 week self-portrait course focused on recreating our relationship with our self-image.  In our time together we’ll use self-portraiture as a tool to re-write and re-visualize how we relate to our self image.  Through photography activities, writing prompts and interviews we’ll write a new story, one that tells a story of self-love.

You can find more about it and sign up over at the main E-Course page and the course info page.

 

Another new offering is the Rule-Free Photography course running this month with the fabulous Live it to the Full!

This course is a 2 week adventure invites participants to get experimental and outside the box as we discover photography.  We’ll break some of the rules of how you are ‘supposed’ to take a photograph for the sake of cultivating creative inspiration!

 

 

Since today is a big day, I wanted to do something special.  I have a special discount code set up for today for you to use! Just enter MOVINGDAY in the payment process to get today’s deal!  You can use this for the new course YAYOM: Re-Writing the Story, Swan Dive, Light Hunters or the Light Hunters E-Book (of course the fine print is that it isn’t possible to use it with another discount code or offer.  As well, it can’t be applied to the already oh so affordable Rule-Free class as it is the one class that is hosted elsewhere).

You’ll also see the I’m sharing some of what is ahead this year!  I’ll be sharing that in another post soon, but you can get a peek at it right away by looking at the products section of the website!

Thank you so much for coming by the new site!  My old sites will remain live for a while, but there won’t be new content, so be sure to switch over your RSS feed to the new site if you’d like to keep up with posts in your blog reader!

Run Run Run

these two feet

So, I’m running again.

Last year in January I started training for my very first race, which is a 10km (by the way, not barefoot running like the image might imply…just regular ol’ running).  I’ve been in love with running for a few years now (especially the way it clears my head) and had been doing a weekly clinic at a local running store. My clinic leader, a fabulous woman in her 70’s, lovingly informed me that it was time for me to move beyond the ‘Learn to Run’ clinic I’d been attending for a few years and that it was time for me to push myself further.

So I did.

I signed up for the clinic that seemed to be what I needed at that point, which was the ‘Learn to Run Faster’ training group for the Sun Run (a race here in Vancouver).  I fit the description (in writing) of who the clinic was for…those who already ran 3x a week at least 30 min, which was where I was at at that point.  So I signed up and started the clinic.

What I found was that in reality I didn’t at all fit into this group.  It seemed like it was an ‘I can already run fast but want to run faster group’ and it wasn’t right for me.  I stayed, as I felt I should push myself. I had a downright miserable time in this clinic (and I’m a bit of an optimist so it takes a lot to say that). Miserable, as in crying after many sessions.

But, no pain, no gain, right?

Wrong.

About halfway into the 13 week clinic I decided I could no longer take that group and moved to a ‘Learn to Run’ group.  It was a great group and I was far less miserable, and kept training.

Only 3 weeks until the race I ended up in extreme pain during a run with the clinic.  I hobbled home but it so happened that I was due to head to the states less than 12 hours later to help Liz out with the incredible Joy Retreat in Manzanita.

I had never experienced an injured bone before and thought it was just a bad pulled muscle, so headed out to the states (which meant I wasn’t going to get any medical care until I got back to Canada if at all possible).  I spent the next week in amazing company in one of my favourite places, the Oregon Coast, but also in pretty extreme pain at all times.

Once I got back home I finally got it checked out and found out that it was actually a stress fracture in my Tibia.

So, running had to be set aside as I healed.

I then moved, which brought me to a new neighbourhood far away from my beloved original running clinic (which I would have happily gone back to).

My new hood is fabulous and refreshingly absent of most chain or big box stores, full of lots of independant stores. That rocks, but it also has no running stores (which also tend to have amazing clinics run there).

I wanted to start running again, so hesitantly headed back to the Sun Run clinic (it is run at most community centres in the city).  This time I was in luck.  This clinic is amazing.

I had to start from the beginning (as in run 1 minute, walk 1 minute) again as I hadn’t been running much since the spring at all.

But starting from the beginning was a blessing.

We’ve been working up slowly, eventually getting to the distance that we could run 10km (which for me will be over an hour).  I have no time goals at all this year, just to make it to the race injury free and enjoy it.

Thats the thing that is so different this time.

I am downright happy, thoroughly enjoying it.

Last night we got to the point after 7 weeks of easing towards it, that the clinic takes a jump.  We now run 10 min stretches with a 1 minute break (x4) and then in the coming weeks we go further and further times until we can run the whole thing.

Something about running a 10 minute stretch at a time (rather than 1 or 2 or 3 or 5 min at a time) has me feeling like a runner again, mainly because when you are counting down the shorter lengths of time I find it is hard to get lost in the momentum and energy of running as I’m so conscious of the time.  Once we get past 5 minutes of any run, I just get into the groove and run run run.

I want running to be this.  Happy, energizing, head clearing, positive.

Not painful, stressful, pressure filled and miserable.

I’m grateful my leg healed up and I’m injury free again.  Grateful that this 34 year old body gets energized by running and is able to.

Grateful these two feet are on the move again.

Breaking the Rules!

Rule-Free Photography

I’m so thrilled to share a new offering with you.  I had such a blast working with the fabulous folks over at Live it to the Full for our Emerge Course and I am mighty excited that they are now offering some photography specific classes as well.

So during the last two weeks of March, I am offering a brand new course: Rule-Free Photography.

This course is for those of you who get overwhelmed with all you are ‘supposed to know’ to explore photography.

The title for this course was inspired by some kind words I got from a fabulous past participant in my self-portrait classes, Johanna Harness who said “Vivienne took all the rules that have been holding me back and replaced them with playfulness.  Worlds of possibility opened up for me.”  

During this 2 week class we experiment, explore, make mistakes and go against the rules of what we are supposed to do in photography.  Of course, the How-To’s of photography are important and with purpose, but often they can hold us back from accessing the creative energy of photography, which is just as important.

I so often hear folks tell me that they feel like there is so much to know in photography and this class is all about letting go of all that you think you should know and accessing what you already know as a creative being, using the camera as our paintbrush, our pen, our thread, our yarn.

  • This course is designed for those of you just beginning to explore photography but also those who could use some outside of the box creative photography fun!
  • This is for those who crave to engage in photography as a playful relationship.  This course will infuse your photography with a playfulness that will keep you creating long past our two weeks together.
  • This is for those of you who’s camera has been sitting on the shelf or in your camera bag for a while now.  It is a 2 week dose of goodness that will jump start you back into feeling inspired.

Plus, this class is oh so affordable!

I hope you’ll join me for this two weeks of creative-photography exploration.  I would love to break the rules with you!

You can learn more about the course and register on the Live it to the Full website!

From Chaos to Peacefulness

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Something happened last weekend that shifted my week majorly, in ways I didn’t expect it to.

I woke up Saturday morning, turned on my computer for a weekend full of work and noticed something was most definitely wrong with it.

I swiftly backed it up and headed out to the Mac Store for some advice.

It became clear that this wasn’t a little problem and mere hours later I found myself standing over my computer, removing its casing and installing a new hard drive.  Now, I sure can appreciate techno geekiness in others, but it really isn’t a skill I have so it was mighty scary to do it myself.

So here I am at the beginning of the week with an even longer to do list (as this consumed all my work time) but with a computer that has been, well, cleansed.  In order to not bring back the problem onto my new hard drive I’ve had to not just load it back up as it was but to bring back only the data and programs that are necessary.

This has been surprisingly fabulous.

My computer essentially had a cleanse, and like any physical cleanse, it makes things shift.

Somehow cleaning out all that clutter in my computer and whatever was creating some trouble, it took some of my brain clutter with it.

It took my gremlins and some not so nurturing computer distractions I’ve had.

As I sat down to work this week I felt clear and gremlin free.  What a treat, though it does make me even more aware of how most days of the year I’m sitting down to work swatting gremlins and self-doubt away like I was being swarmed by bees.

Mighty refreshing to have some respite from it.

Now, of course we can’t just clean out our computers like that all the time (and I know that it seriously sucks when this happen and we lose data or photos) but it was a really nice outcome of a bit of computer chaos!

Has this ever happened to you?  Getting rid of some chaos and mess (even if it isn’t fun) ends up giving you unexpected feelings of freedom?  I’d love to hear about it.