Today continues a series of guest posts from Photo-Heart Connection participants. I invited them to write a post sharing what the Photo-Heart Connection meant to them this year. For the next few days I will share these very special answers with all of you, celebrating the first year of the Photo-Heart Connection. Enjoy!
Discovering a Love of Simplicity
When I discovered Kat Sloma’s Photo Heart Connection, I knew that it was a practice that I would adopt. Photography has always been about connecting with what has heart and meaning for me. This practice reminds me that the truest art I create comes from my heart.
Picking a photo each month that best connects to my heart and soul is a reflective process that I have grown to love. Each month I am surprised by the image that speaks to me. Selecting the photo and writing the post about my photo heart connection is a way to chronicle my journey as a photographer and a human being. It brings new insights about my self, my life, and my photography.
More Simplicity
The first month I participated I sat down and went through all of the images I had created during the previous month, and put my favorites in a collection. (I use Adobe Lightroom to catalog and edit my photos so creating a collection is an easy way to organize images.)
I was amazed by how many photographs I had made during the month. Sometimes it feels like I am accomplishing nothing. Just reviewing the body of work I created during the past month helped me to see how much I really was doing.
Creating for the love of creating
It also helps me to go back and review my work when I have some distance from it. I see different things and I am more objective. Often I find overlooked images that speak to me. The process of reviewing a group of photos made over an entire month shows me how I am growing and changing in my work.
Most importantly, the Photo Heart Connection helps me step back and think about why it is I do this work. It helps me to deeply connect my images with my heart’s desires, and helps me to learn and grow as a human being.
I now have collections of my favorite photos from June through November. As I review those collections I begin to see patterns and get a hint of my own unique voice and style as a photographer. I can see how my work is maturing and growing as I review the images month to month.
As a result of participating in the Photo Heart Connection, I connected with a deep desire of mine to go to Hawaii to live for several months and make photographs. While I could come up with many reasons NOT to make the trip, my regular monthly photo connection with my heart showed me that I COULD make a leap of trust and just do it.
Until the Water Runs Clear
I am writing this post from my room overlooking the rain forest on the Big Island of Hawaii. Rain is falling gently on the roof, birds singing in the trees, and green everywhere I look. I just began this adventure last week. Who knows where it will take me? But you can bet that I’ll be continuing my practice of Photo Heart Connection every month.
Life IS short (as I wrote in one of my photo heart connection posts)! What is your heart telling you? Don’t wait until some elusive tomorrow to follow your heart. Grab hold of your dreams and desires and make them come true.
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Marilyn Lamoreux is a software engineer turned photographer. She is currently on walkabout in Hawaii for 3-4 months, absorbing the rhythms of the island and making photographs there (escaping Minnesota’s cold wintertime). Marilyn’s website is called “Chased by Beauty” because she believes that we are all chased by beauty all the time. We just need to open our eyes to see it. You can find her website at marilynlamoreux.com.
Thank you Marilyn, for sharing your experience the Photo-Heart Connection, and the amazing adventure you have been led to. I can’t wait to see your connection for this month!
Join me for another guest post tomorrow! And don’t forget the other things going on in the Kat Eye Studio:
- Do you know anyone who got a new camera for Christmas? Gift them with the free Digital Photography Basics eBook. They will thank you!
- Exploring with a Camera: Lights of Night continues through the end of the month. Take some time and get out to capture those holiday lights before they disappear, and then share it with us here.
- Registration continues for Fuel Your Creativity, starting January 6, and Find Your Eye: Journey of Fascination, starting January 20. Both are all new for 2013!