Sunday, May 15, 2011

TaKe ThE TiMe To GeT tHe ShOt... tHeN tAkE SoMe MoRe TiMe To StAy WiTh iT... PeNnY De LoS sAnToS

Presence...

How do you know where you are supposed to be at any given time?

For me this choice has been simplified to a great degree.  My life has gone through a major transformation.  You'll know this if you've been following me.

But really, given all of the choices I once had I am not sure I would be able to be present enough in this moment to really appreciate all of the things that I am able to witness.  The slower pace at which I am able to experience it and the appreciation for the things that others take for granted. 

I am far from a scholar.  I am by no means an academic.  I'd like to say I am a learner.  I have always been a learner.  I love to glean information.  I also like to disseminate it.

I enjoy having a purpose, I am full of passion, and these things have stayed with me throughout my experiences.

The last few days I have been fortunate to participate in a FREE online course.  I take in everything I can that is free as I really have no income source that can be spent on such things in an easy manner.  The course was a photography class on cooking photography.

During my limited movement days when everyday was spent in bed on major pain medication I would watch PBS and the cooking shows.  I learned to cook.  I'd of course been given a rudimentary start in cooking with my mother, who tried as she might, finally gave up any hope of turning me into a domestic creature.

I was the kid who used salt instead of sugar.  I was distractable and would always be trying to squirm my way out of the house.  But now I can cook if I've got the energy.  Lord knows I can eat, and I thoroughly enjoy amazing food.

Back to what I experienced over these last days.  It started out like any other class.  I wasn't able to watch the entire beginning but I caught what I could.  I liked the teacher, Penny De Los Santos.  She seemed real to me, grounded and open and willing to share.  Like so many of the CreativeLIVE teachers.

Her rhythm was different.  Unobtrusive calm, formidable, but easy going I found what she said to be deliberate, but with a casual intensity.  She knows who she is, and when someone knows who they are they don't have to pretend, they are authentic, vulnerable and yet the words they say have more depth.

I think that most of the teachers that I have experienced in this forum have brought that.  I really like that.  They are right there with you getting into it, experiencing it, and feeling it while they teach it.  These classes are not necessarily pen and paper classes.  Parts are.  But for the most part they bring you into the experience.

Even from where I sit in bed, in my bedroom with my service dog Luka by my side watching the birds outside my window, my environment fades away and I am in Seattle.

Watching a food photography class really did make me hungry.  I was right there getting a steam bath as they took off the burlap which covered the oysters before they were shucked.

I don't know that I will ever go into kitchens to shoot food.  I think that may be something dangerous for me to do.  But I have come away with the continuing thought of bringing people to experience moments.  Opening people up to new experiences and really making them feel as if they are a part of a moment when they see one of my pictures. 

I am going to continue to work on this continue to grow and develop my eye and my skills.

I am grateful for the continued opportunity to learn from the best for free.  I am amazed by their courage, their skills, and their willingness to put it all out there.

Will I ever be the greatest photographer?  Take the greatest photos?  I don't know..
What I do hope to do is... I hope to share the message of where I am at, who I am with and what I have gone through.   To invite people into places they would never receive an invitation to and to allow them to witness another type of experience from a picture that I have taken.  Even if it is one of themselves, I would hope that through what I am learning to do that I would allow someone to see themselves in a brighter light.

There is hope there is a place for us all and we each matter.

Thank you Penny De Los Santos, the entire CreativeLIVE team, and my husband Jason who I annoy with the amount of learning that I continue to involve him with.  =)

Support CreativeLIVE so folks like me can continue to watch it for free!  

Blessings,
Pink Doberman

Penny's BlogCreativeLIVE's SiteThe Class.


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