Learn to See Yourself with Compassion

September 27, 2012

Why I Take Self-Portraits

Because I’m taking control of the way I see myself in photos

Because I love going for photo walks and taking that space for myself

Because I’m redefining my relationship to beauty, on my terms

Because it is playful and lets a part of myself out that otherwise is often contained

Because capturing the twirl of a skirt or a light flare feels like magic to me

Because I am chubby and I don’t want people to believe you need a certain body type to take self-portraits

Because I am telling an ongoing, ever-evolving visual story

Because I know how it feels to not feel free in your body and to be told your body is wrong

Because it makes me slow down during my day and notice the world around me

Because I don’t want to be absent from the visual story of my life

Because I want people to be inspired to turn the camera on themselves

Because it is me, showing up for myself

Because I can look back and see my life through photos, with me in them

Because it is not vain to take your own photo. It is a tool to untangle negative stories and transform them into new empowered ones!

Oh…and if you’re craving to explore seeing yourself with kindness through your camera & explore self-portraiture, join me for Be Your Own Beloved!

September 20, 2012

Accidental Beauty

I was holding my camera near the ground, trying to get a shot from the perspective of the ground when the wave came quick and I had to jolt upright hoping I saved my camera from getting wet.

Luckily I did end up keeping it dry, and I didn’t see this accidental shot until I uploaded it. Oh accidental beauty, you inspire me to get even more playful. To go unfocused, to not look through the lens!

I’m oh so grateful for the responses to the new E-Book: Tips and Tricks for taking Dreamy Photos. The whole book is about experiments like these as I find the dreamiest photos happen when we get out of the left brain learning of photography and just get playful!

September 19, 2012

Self-Portraits on the Beach

I’ll confess I was tired after a long walk around town.

For once I didn’t actually even feel like taking self-portraits, but I went down to the beach anyways.

{its not all me skipping and twirling down the sidewalk taking self-portraits all the time…i definitely struggle with taking selfies too sometimes}

There were a few people there and I wasn’t feeling brave enough to take self-portraits right away. So I wandered further and further down the beach. Rocks in shoes, sun shining fiercely. The further I went, the more free I felt and finally I felt ready to pull the camera out.

I know it always makes me feel good to pull out the camera. So I did.

Energy returned as I twirled, raised my arms, jumped, tiptoed on logs.

I may not have gotten an epic shot, but it really wasn’t about that. It was about this time, this place. Remembering this beautiful solo weekend in which I created space for a new project (of the big dream sort) to be birthed onto the page. Remembering the hours working on it and how I could look up and see the ocean ahead. Remembering the breaks needed to replenish after the output of work and the long walks I’d take around town.

Often, its just about documenting a moment in time, with so many stories other than the obvious one that become embedded in the photo to me.

September 18, 2012

Rose Coloured Glasses

I have a brand new class to share with you! Last winter I fell in love with teaching 2 week long courses. It felt like it was a beautiful amount of time to focus on a creative adventure and I loved hearing that the course after effects long past when it was over. So, when Live it to the Full asked me to create a new course to teach for them, I was all for it.

So, I’d love to introduce you to a new class: Rose Coloured Glasses

It is two weeks of quirky, fun and playful ways of engaging in seeing and documenting the beauty we see around us and noticing the ways that it renews us, replenishes us and simply sometimes just helps us get through our days.

I’ve been saving up some super special activities for this class, so while its in the same style of Rule Free Photography (a great next step after that course) its full of more outside-the-box activities to get you inspired this season!

Rose Coloured Glasses runs October 8th-19th and is $39

and you can register over at the Live it to the Full site!