I love the saying
"The way you do anything is the way you do everything!"
The artful life I live is reflected in everything I do.
Whether I am creating a delectable 5-star meal, building a floor, dressing my body, planting a garden, decorating a room, setting up for a festival, playing the Tibetan Bowls, or dancing under the full moon,
I am living art.
I'm excited to share with you the world from my perspective.
Every where I am I notice lots of details.
I notice the negatives and positives of space, the blends of color, alignment of lines, angles, the texture of surfaces, reflections, shadows, highlights, movement, shapes, composition, contrast and more. I see the order and disorder of things, and the balance in the space. So it's very natural for me to pick up a camera and frame up a shot.
I have always taken a bazillion pictures. I even did it when a roll had to be taken to the neighborhood drug store to be developed and then waited for days for the return of some awesome and some not so awesome photos. I paid for them all, learned a lot in the very slow process of feedback of seeing what great things I did and what mistakes I made, put some into photo albums and photo boxes, shared them with family and friends, and now have hundreds of photos still tucked away in the attic deteriorating with the years.
I never got into the darkroom game and was a bit slow to getting into digital photography, as I pretty much am with my entry into every higher tech reality. But when I did take the digital plunge, I immediately loved the instant feedback and the ability to take as many photos as I wished without having to wait for days and pulling out my wallet for those photos that were not worth keeping.
Yay for Delete, Edit, Delete, Edit, Delete....
One of my first 10 iphone photos.
With my new Canon in hand I took out to my land and began snapping LOTS of photos. I started by often taking 20-50 shots of the same scene just so I could see the things I was doing that I liked and didn't like. Everyday I could take hundreds of photos, and the next day go back out to the yard and take hundreds more.
What I realized early on, was that one thing I didn't like about my prolific experience of digital photography was deciphering which photo was worthy of keeping and which was doomed to deletion, as my criteria for a good picture is both of a high standard for focus, composition, texture, color, lighting and emotion, and also of an extremely profound eclectic artist's perspective. I can almost always find something about a photo that I love, so the decision to delete required more time than I liked to invest in sitting with my computer in the editing process.
Over time I honed my skills to take fewer and fewer shots of the same scene so I could get some really great photos without all the editing time. I'm not someone who likes repetition anyway, so a fresh composition and perspective for every few photos is more my style.
Lacy.
Some of what moves me about photography is the surprise. Even after all the years of experience I have behind the camera I still have not tuned into the mastery of manipulated/controlled photography. I suppose that mimics my life in general, as I am a much freer flowing kinda-gal than I am about fitting into a box, following formulas and rules. I don't really care about science or much about how things work, as intuition rules my reality. I can tune into details from a broad perspective and go with the spontaneous unfolding of what is. I feel most free and inspired when I can just tap into the flow of the moment, (not thinking about changing settings on the camera), staying in my right brain and heart space, where my tuned in creative spirit resides.
My style of life and photography are spontaneous, ever changing, shifting perspectives, full of texture, and a leap into the unknown. As I don't utilize all the special attributes that the camera has to offer, I count on my keen eye for details, love for reflections, shadows, light and angles. I love the surprise that happens when letting go of control and just allowing magic to happen.
I would say my favorite kind of photos are those that capture emotion and layers through reflections, glares, incredible light, the dark, smoke, fire, water and ice. I see pictures inside of pictures, repeated patterns, dances of shadows, shapes, hues of exquisite color, textures and detail likely unnoticed by most.
I have been blessed to photograph weddings, births, festivals, conferences, workshops, graduations, dances, fashion shoots, deaths, food, design and many other subjects and occasions. As long as I get to do my own thing and not be confined to posed photos with set scenes and a preconceived ideas of the outcome, I dance smoothly through the.shoot with great expression, and with gratitude for the opportunity to share the world through my lens.
I only take photos when I want to take photos and all of my subjects are objects of appreciation. I believe the reason my photos come out so well is my intense attitude of gratitude. I know when my heart is filled with appreciation the photos I take are alluring.
I have a favorite subject, the same subject I have had since I got my Canon. My love for this person and my gratitude for him is so deep, that I don't believe I have ever taken a bad photo of him. When I attempt to edit his photos, there are none I wish to delete. Every time I push down on the shutter, I capture not only his beauty but my undying love. So not only is the photo incredibly beautiful, but it also evokes intense emotion.
Photography has played a very big role in my tuning into gratitude. My awareness of fine detail and the generally unseen perspective I tune into keeps me focused on the beauty of life. When I'm caught without my camera in hand, I find myself jumping to grab it to catch the moment, experiencing more and more moments of appreciation in constant flow.
I have likely tens of thousands of photos that have never been seen by anyone else. My hard drives are overflowing with organized folders of subjects from the tiniest details in nature to the vastness of emotions that flow from people from all over the world. There are crisp clear macro photos and low light photos that take on an abstract feel and everything in between. There is beauty in every moment and I am exceedingly grateful to see it and share it prolifically.
