07-JAN-2008
Duality #31
Ann LT has the most amazing quote by Diane Arbus on her Profile page. It is:
"It's important to take bad pictures. It's the bad ones that have to do with what you've never done before. They can make you recognize something you hadn't seen in a way that will make you recognize it when you see it again." - Diane Arbus
I spent much of this day taking bad photos and she's right. That's how you learn. This morning I'd recalled a photo of a sunflower that I'd taken in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, DC back in July 2006. I thought it might be a good start for a duality. After finding and downloading this photo off its backup CD, I could see that a possible match would be a self portrait taken in the mirror with my camera at my eye. Sounds simple, right? Wrong.
I must have taken at least 40 frames of me and my camera reflected in the mirror. Every single one was overexposed. Now, I'm sure you experienced photographers know exactly why that was, but I didn't. At least not at first. It took me the l-o-n-g-e-s-t time to figure out that my spot meter was exposing for the black hole of my camera, meaning everything around it would be overexposed. This camera--the Canon 40D--and I are relatively new to one another so I'm still getting the hang of things. My old Canon Rebel XT didn't even have spot metering, so I had no idea of its limitations. Well, thanks to my having had a bad photo day, now I do. When I finally brought out the 40D manual, I saw that evaluative metering would be my best bet. Instead of exposing for what was in the center of my lens, it would include the area around it and average out to an exposure that would work for everything. And work it did!
So my thanks go to Ann LT and Diane Arbus for giving me permission to take bad photos. It's a great way to learn.
06-JAN-2008
Presence
Occasionally individuals come into your life whose very presence benefits the world. They are rarely in positions of power, but prefer to work behind the scenes with little need for recognition. In group situations they generally let others take center stage. These persons speak only after having reflected on all sides of an issue, and when they speak people listen. They define the word "mature." Their capacity to love is endless. Arlene is one such individual.
I first met Arlene at a Carolyn McDade singing retreat in Paris, Ontario in October 2001. Carolyn and I were the only Americans present and both of us were heartsick over the events of September 11 and our country's recent vengeful attacks on Afghanistan. Arlene and her Canadian sisters drew us to their collective bosom and held us close during that entire weekend. In September 2002, Arlene, who lives in Georgetown, Ontario near Toronto, became a member of the Windsor/Detroit community of women who gathered the first Saturday of every month to work on Carolyn McDade's "O Beautiful Gaia" CD project. That CD was recorded in June 2003 by 150 women in three regions of Canada and the U.S., and was released in November of that year. In September 2006, this community--now called the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin--joined hundreds of women from across Canada and the United States in another Carolyn McDade-inspired CD project. This CD is called "My Heart Is Moved" and features original songs based on the Earth Charter. It was just released in November 2007. The Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin continue to spend the first Saturday of every month together, and Arlene from Georgetown and Mary from Toronto continue to make the long drive to join them. Arlene also works behind the scenes as their group email coordinator.
After a two-year hiatus, I have just rejoined the community and took this candid photo at our January 5th gathering in Windsor, Ontario. It was my good fortune to be seated next to Arlene whose loving presence seeped into my pores and filled me with peace. Arlene is one among many such women of presence in this group and together they are changing our world.
05-JAN-08
Duality #30
This is one of two new images in my Dualities gallery.
CLICK HERE to see them.
I doubt if I could have imagined a year ago that I would ever have chosen to bring attention to my wrinkles like this. And I wonder if my attitude could have changed so dramatically had I not become a photographer. It was more than just creating my
"Facing Up To My Face at 65" photo gallery that changed things for me. How can I say this? It's as if looking through the lens of my camera has trained my eye to see things as they are, not as I wish they were. And to accept that reality without needing to gloss over it or turn away. Instead of simply seeing flowers, sunsets and beautiful faces, now I see empty liquor bottles in brown paper bags on city sidewalks, lakefront mansions one mile from boarded-up shop windows, and the wrinkles on my face. It just is what is.
Maybe this is why I think my spirituality is tied to my photography. Mindfulness is a core value in both. And living in the present moment. And seeing the truth of the world around me. And accepting life as it is. And being grateful for it all.
04-JAN-2008
window to the soul
If it's true that the eyes are the window to the soul, I'm afraid some of us hang drapes over that window. But not children. When you look into the crystal clear eyes of a child, you free fall into their depths. That's how it was for me at school on Thursday. As students were waiting for the art teacher to help them with their weaving, I asked if they'd let me take close-up pictures of their eyes. By now they're used to Ms. Patricia and her strange requests. I must have looked into at least a dozen pairs of 10 & 11 year-old eyes. I could hardly focus my camera I was so in awe of their beauty. Each one looked straight at me with total trust. I'm getting chills remembering it. Later I wished I'd had my macro lens, but then I would have needed a tripod and that would have been a bit too much for the circumstances. I may not have gotten the clarity of focus I'd hoped for, but I got something much more than that -- a glimpse into the souls of the innocent.
03-JAN-2008
Duality #27
This is one of two new images in my Dualities gallery.
CLICK HERE to see them.
Eyes and hands, the two most expressive parts of our body. And for those who are blind, I'm sure the voice is every bit as expressive. We may think we can cover up our inner feelings but I don't think that's possible. Not to anyone who's sensitive to others. I remember when I worked at a local bookstore, I could feel the energy--both good and bad--of certain individuals the minute they walked in the door. I didn't even need to see them. All this to say how important it is that we deal with our "stuff" before going out among others. If our energy is clear we can benefit the world simply by being. We don't need to do a thing.
02-JAN-2008
"...that wild thing inside"
I seem to be on a run of portraits here. Maybe it's that time of year. I don't know. But when my friend Dorothy emailed me her brand new poem as a New Year's gift last night, I knew I wanted to share it with you. So I was thinking of her poem when I took this self portrait.
Sudden Turns
I want to live my life all over again, to begin again,
to be utterly wild.
(Mary Oliver, “A Meeting”)
Do you want to live your life again,
to let that wild thing inside you
have its way this time,
to not hold back when the invitation
came on the silver platter,
the one which would have changed
your life forever.
Do you wish you had stood up
and said your truth
in a louder voice
even when the others didn’t want to hear
what you were saying?
Do you wish you had told them
how wrong they were,
how they didn’t understand?
Do you wish you had picked up
and moved to the mountains,
even if the snow blocked the door
in winter and the streams froze over,
and gone swimming naked in the pond
that summer with the stranger
who stopped by,
or hitchhiked through Greece with
a backpack and a smile.
Would you give up all the things
you did in exchange for what you refused,
surrender all those treasures in your
memory box,
the times when you were,
in fact,
quietly, suddenly wild,
took the unexpected turns in the path
which brought you here,
the place you are now,
this life you love
and would not trade.
Dorothy Walters
December 31, 2007
01-JAN-2008
Stay up till midnight? I don't think so!
Happy New Year! Some folks celebrate its coming with champagne; others with yawns. My sweet Eddie is of the yawn variety. And even though I'm usually a night owl, I'm barely going to make it to midnight myself. But before I take myself off to bed, I want to say once again how much you mean to me. Finding PBase was one of the most serendipitous occurrences of my life. Not only have you taught me so much about the artistic and technical aspects of photography, but the global community we've formed here gives me hope for our world.
As a longtime peace activist, I've attended innumerable rallies, marched on countless U.S. and Canadian streets, made more signs than I can count, listened to hundreds of speakers, spoken myself at national and international rallies and gatherings, created and sold original peace postcards, T-shirts and posters, written and sung peace songs with the Raging Grannies, organized and coordinated peace groups, facilitated peace workshops and retreats, and had my drawings and writings about peace appear in publications across the globe. All this to say that I've been working for peace in every way I could think of for a long, long time.
So now that I've allowed myself to follow my creative passion and focus almost exclusively on photography, I've found myself in a community of persons from around the world who are already living the dream of peace that I'd almost lost hope could ever exist. What I experience here on PBase is the new world I had dreamed of, but had come to fear I would never see in my lifetime. But here you are, persons of different generations, from different countries, speaking different languages, following different religions, of different backgrounds and cultures, holding different political views, living in every time zone on the planet, yet supporting, encouraging, educating and sharing with one another, often on a daily basis.
How could I not have hope for our world? You, dear PBasers, have given me that hope and I thank you. From the depths of my heart, I thank you.
