Thursday, February 21, 2013

Finding My Eye: Creative Breakthroughs 2013

I know that 2013 is going to be a big breakthrough year for me. I laid a lot of ground work last year and I am ready to capitalize on that. My One Little Word for 2013 is Journey. I am making it a year of self-improvement and creative growth. I am on an exciting Journey.



Two areas that I seen Creative Breakthroughs in already are:

Confidence
I have been working with a personal trainer to give me confidence in my body. I have had back and hip  problems on and off for years, so we are working on strengthening those areas. Along with confidence in my body, I am gaining self-confidence. Personal Training, I think needs to work on fixing the body and the mind. My trainer has me repeat the phrase "I Approve of Myself" 100 times a day in my head. Easy enough to do when you are driving around town or cleaning the house. It is amazing what this little mantra can do. I have tweaked the phrase a little to fit me better, mine is "I am Good Enough".

About the same time that I started personal training, I also started Kat's Starting the Journey Class. I live for those Sunday and Wednesday emails, wondering what creative aspect we will be exploring this time. Kat's prompts have me stepping back and looking at my previously taken photos with an objective eye. You know what I have found by doing this? I am good enough!



Still Life Photography and North Window Light
I have never been one to do a lot of Still Life photography, mainly because I always felt a story needs to go with the picture. I am doing Kim Klassen's year long class, Beyond Beyond Layers, and Kim does a lot of Still Life combined with her textures. I knew that this class would be a good thing, it would push me out of my comfort zone and I would learn new things.

My Creative Breakthrough is that I discovered North facing window light. I usually shoot on my sun porch, it has west and south facing windows and produces a warmer light, which is what I thought I liked. Thought being the key word here. One day last week I brought my daughter's black piano bench up from her room and set it in front of the North facing windows in our bedroom. I recreated a still life I had done a few days earlier on the sun porch. I shot away and was happy with what I was seeing on the back of my camera. Imagine my shock when I loaded these pictures into Lightroom. I LOVED what I saw. I compared the photos from each shoot and the North window ones won hands down.

Now I am excited to get my camera and tripod out and try different set-ups, knowing that a fair amount of the time they will turn out pretty good.

The top picture is the South/West windows
Bottom picture is the North windows

In a Nutshell
My Creative Breakthroughs come from taking classes, learning new things, exploring and having the confidence to try something different.

17 comments:

Barbara said...

I have seen you grow and continue to grow, love your word for the year and your creative spirit in being true to you. I adore the bird nest and the light.

Viv@Thoughts from the Desktop said...

You are growing so fast well done big congratulations. I love your photos especially the top one, looking forward to seeing more of your journey....

Kat Sloma said...

I love how you summed up your creative breakthroughs! It's a cycle... as you build confidence through classes, you have more confidence to try new things and it perpetuates. You ARE good enough and I'm so happy to see you realizing that in the Find Your Eye class!

Anonymous said...

Sarah, those are both significant breakthroughs, but I especially love the first one. Realizing that you are good enough, really accepting that, will lead you to many more breakthroughs, creative and otherwise, as you continue your Journey.

Angela said...

Nice to know you are enjoying the journey! Love the self portraits and that crown is extra special.

Suzette Rothlisberger said...

Wonderful blog and insight! I also love your search for light!

Ahayes1225 said...

That is wonderful. It is amazing what different light can do. I am also happy things are going well with your trainer. I am doing well this year also. Though I am getting tired of winter.

gina said...

Good for you for finding the confidence to explore and learn new things. Fixing the body, as well as tending the mind is so important. I love your first image!

Denise Fabian said...

Wow...I am amazed! What an exciting journey... You continue to inspire me, my friend.

Zena said...

So wonderful and inspiring. Good for you for allowing yourself to experience this great journey and thanks for sharing

Karen Lakis said...

That's exciting to be taking a personal journey. I'm surprised by the difference in lighting in the North facing window, also. I don't shoot much indoors, mostly because I'm rarely home in the day. I think I'd like to try this, though.

Deborah Tisch said...

Wow! I love the light from that North window, and how you showed the examples from both. This is a beautiful, heartfelt post. I'm grateful to be sharing the experience of Kat's class with you.

Sherri B. said...

Wow, I'm amazed at the difference between the lighting from south to north...I have learned something from you today. Now I must figure out where my north lighting is and give it a try! I love your thoughts in this post, Sarah...I'm glad you're sharing your journey with us. Your photos are beautiful!

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing your journey...it helps me on my own. I have been loving your nest images, and today the amazing contrast between two locations and the lighting. Food for thought!

xoxo

Simon said...

How perfect was your choice of word! Congrats on the positives coming from doing PT. That is hard work. I love that your trainer thinks not only of body, but mind and spirit too. Fun princess shot!! Thanks for mentioning the window light. I'm going to have to try that myself. Never thought of it.

smiles, Sharon said...

This is one truly inspirational posting. Thank you! You spent a great deal of time thinking this through and writing about your breakthroughs. I found all of your breakthroughs very helpful for me personally....and isn't that why we POST? And you know I love the golden light photos, BUT never thought about the North light which is what I use where I paint. DUH .....okay, so I am going to follow your lead...and I love and absorb your mantra. So glad I finally got around to reading some of the postings today. I actually needed it...but didn't have the time earlier in the week. smiles: sharon

Michele Matucheski said...

This is lovely, Sarah. I'm 3 months behind in the 2B lessons, but working through them slow and sure. Your bird nest subject inspired me to try something similar. Thank you!