The Little Things

by Dotti

What makes you happy?  It’s the little things that make me happy, like Gerbera daisies and the color red.  

Recently I came across a “class” that resonated with me, made my heart sing, sounded like just what I needed to launch my photography into summer. I’d like to tell you about it.

Some, maybe all, of you may have heard of Karen Walrond. I’ve been following Karen’s blog and her work for several years. An original Shutter Sister, Karen soon went her own way with her own message. She’s a wonderful photographer, an excellent writer, a very insightful person and has an impressive professional resume.

A couple of weeks ago she launched her 21-day #shutterhappy project and I decided to jump in. It's something you can enroll in at any time so if you're interested, give it a try. The premise is that gratitude helps us attain and maintain happiness. The objective is to cultivate a habit (hence the 21 days) of looking every day for things that make us happy and taking a photo of at least one of those things. We’ve talked about this very thing here at FOL on more than one occasion and I believe it to be true so let’s chat about it today.

Here’s the cool thing: I’m barely half way through the project but all day long, I find myself looking at things and smiling because I realize how grateful I am for them. Most of them are simple things. For instance  -

A simple breakfast on the back porch -

The first swallowtail this season on one of our butterfly bushes -

The flowers on my back porch –

A coneflower ready to bloom into all its fullness and beauty –

The happy orange of a tiger lily - 

The blue of a hydrangea –

Some of these are my direct response to Karen’s prompts, some are just things that made me pause in my day and pick up my camera. Being more observant of things around me, particularly the little things that I’m grateful for has put a smile on my lips, my "center" seems calmer, I find that I’m happier.

Now I’m not naïve enough to think that it will always be easy. When  life gets tough, this practice will be harder but I believe even practicing a wee bit of gratitude at these times will help us weather these storms as they come.

Whatever it is that makes you happy, take the time to say thanks and smile at yourself and your gratitude. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Gratitude.

Memorial Day

by Dotti

Happy Memorial Day!

The customs of Memorial Day have largely disappeared since they began during the American Civil War when people began decorating the graves of fallen soldiers. Originally called "Decoration Day", the name was changed to Memorial Day in 1882 but it wasn't until after World War II that the "new" name became more commonly used.

Memorial Day is traditionally observed to remember those servicemen and servicewomen who were killed in action. Veteran's Day is the day we observe in remembrance of and in honor of all who serve or have served in the military.

There are still solemn services held at battlefields, landmarks, Arlington Cemetery and National Cemeteries across the nation. There don't seem to be as many organized parades as there were years ago because sadly today, Memorial Day is thought of more as the official beginning of the summer season in the United States.

I'm not criticizing that in the least especially since when you read this, I'll be at the beach with my family for our annual trip to Kiawah Island. And many of you will be joining family and friends for cookouts, picnics or whatever your traditions may be.

As we do all these worthy and fun things to kick off the start of the summer season. let's take a moment in our hearts to remember those who have fought and died valiantly for our country and for our freedom. We owe them a lot.

If It's Spring . . .

by Dotti

. . . it must be time for diptychs!

What is a diptych? Merriam-Webster says:

1. 1 :  a 2-leaved hinged tablet folding together to protect writing on its waxed surfaces
2. 2 :  a picture or series of pictures (such as an altarpiece) painted or carved on two hinged tablets
3. 3 :  a work made up of two matching parts

Our friend Susan Licht is once again inviting Facebook friends and Instagram friends to share spring-themed diptychs the week of May 8-12. Susan did this last spring and again in the fall. It’s a wonderful opportunity to help you change your thinking and perspective and rekindle the passion in your photography venture.

There is a Diptych Group on Facebook that you can join and it can be found here. The group requests that we post only one diptych per day.

On Instagram (where you can probably post as many as you like) the hashtag is #weekofdiptychs.

For those of you who might be new to using and making diptychs or just want some inspiration, here is a great article from our friends at Digital Photography School.

I love diptychs! They always help me resurrect my moribund photography. Creating diptychs pushes me to see things differently, it helps me to think differently when I have the camera in my hands. It’s a wonderful storytelling tool. I have created and saved templates in the print module in Lightroom and it’s easy-peasy to create a diptych (or any mosaic) in a moment’s time. You can make them in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements as well.

If you’re shooting with your phone there are numerous apps that allow you to create diptychs. My go-to is Diptic but there are plenty of others. Be sure to share your favorite in our comments today. And you can create diptychs right within Instagram.

So, what are you waiting for? I’m going to start looking for diptych opportunities . . . as soon as the wind stops blowing.  [insert eye roll] Sometimes I feel like I live in Oklahoma.

Also, for those who haven’t heard, Tracey Clark is offering a “Picture Spring” class. The “Picture” series that Tracey started seven years ago (!) is where many friendships began, including those of us who contribute here at FOL. So take a look, you might find it interesting. I guarantee you’ll find inspiration, fun and new friends!

Fun With Word Art

by Dotti

Knowing my turn to pick a monthly theme was rolling around, drawing ever closer on the calendar, I searched and searched my pea brain for some inspiration. Finally I found it while trolling the FOL Instagram account and Flickr gallery. Several of our followers enjoy using word art with their photos and use it to beautiful effect. I always love those photos!

So – let’s have some fun this month, shall we?

Let’s continue our Spring celebration but this month, let’s blend it with some word art. You can use favorite quotes, one word, phrases, your own words, whatever floats your boat.

And, I might add, this would be the perfect time to search for and share some favorite fonts. I’m sure we’re all always on the hunt for new fonts. Well, in my case, I haven’t hunted for new fonts for a while, I’m in a bit of a rut. But I plan to up my game, revisit my long neglected Pinterest account where I know I have a board for fonts. And ask you, our loyal followers, to share your favorite and newfound fonts with us in the comments – all month long!

My pulse is beating just a little bit faster just thinking about a month filled with beautiful Spring images and word art. I hope yours is, too.

Oh! Your photos needn’t just be the beauty found in nature, there are many other signs of Spring that we can celebrate, too, and enhance with word art.

So how about it? Are you with me? (To all our Down Under friends: feel free to celebrate your Autumn with Word Art and post in our galleries. It will be a great juxtaposition of art!)

Coming Back to the Light

by Dotti

It’s happened to all of us, hasn’t it? The dreaded creative drought. That time when you just don’t feel inspired, can’t think of what to create, don’t even want to try.

After several months of just such a drought, the most profound I’ve ever experienced, I’m beginning to climb out of the dark hole. It’s true that there are many valid reasons for why this happened to me but I won’t enumerate them here. Except for my holiday mug series in December, my camera has been mostly idle, my brain in neutral, my search for the light non-existent since last November.

What to do?

The new year came and went. January crawled along. February followed. All this while, my new Project Life album sat on the work table. Empty. There were no sparks to get me started. Even though I can’t stand to fall behind in a project, I was inert. And so it sat. I did, too.

Then finally, a couple of weeks ago, as I lay in bed just before getting up, I had a firm talk with myself. I told myself that if I didn’t pick up the camera and start shooting today, I might never do so again. It didn’t matter if the photos were good, it didn’t matter if the light was stunning, it didn’t matter what I shot. I just had to shoot. I had to point my camera at something and compose a photo and click the shutter button.

So I did. It did help that we were having a wee bit of false spring weather and the yard was bursting with yellow goodness and brave crocus after a very grey, dreary January. Still I felt really rusty. I was rusty! Nevertheless, I pushed the shutter a few times that day. And the next. And most every day after that.

When I uploaded to Lightroom, I rejected a lot of my photos. That’s okay. The whole purpose was just to get back into the habit of doing this again, of re-training my eye to see things, to look for details, to find the wonder in the world around me. It was always there, I was just ignoring it.

A week ago today, on March 13, I finally started assembling my Project Life album for 2017. Because of the late start, I’m doing a new format this year, monthly instead of weekly. January and February were lean (and challenging) months. I saw no reason to emphasize that. I just briefly told the story and moved along. March is still a work in progress but it is lighter, brighter and happier than January and February.

So that’s how life is, friends. It’s not always sweetness and light and happiness. Life happens. It’s not always pretty. There’s no sugar coating it. It is what it is. When this happens, we just have to put on our big girl panties and tough it out.

In other words - just do it.

Pathways

by Dotti

Our goal is to create a caring community for people who are passionate about photography and life. We hope this will be a place that will inspire, teach, nurture, support and accept one another; a place where we can grow in our craft and as individuals.  Welcome and thank you for visiting.

This is the Focusing on Life mission statement, the one we adapted when we started our blog more than five years ago. Five days a week, we strive to fulfill this pledge to you, our readers. But there is more to us than what you see on the pages of our blogs, more than our words, more than our photos.

Each of us, the collaborators and the readers, is on our own pathway through life. Sometimes that pathway is smooth, sometimes it veers in unexpected directions, and sometimes it seems to be all uphill.

Right now, several of us here at FOL are on our own uphill pathways: aging and ailing parents, parents passing away, dealing with our own health issues, the long term challenge of spouses or other close friends and family who have  chronic and debilitating illnesses. The list goes on. 

Yes. You see, behind the scenes, our lives mirror yours.

Most of the time, we can juggle these concerns and we find that in addition to our caring relationships, our creative spark and camera therapy can see us through many of life’s stressful times. We’ve often talked on our pages about how effective camera therapy is for us as photographers.

But what happens when that’s not enough? When life’s challenges are just so hard that these things don’t work? When you just can’t muster the energy to lift your camera to your eye?

Terri and I were chatting about this just a few days ago and she reminded me that sometimes we just need to stop, feather our nests, concentrate on self care and allow ourselves time to heal.

Oh, yes! That’s something else we talk about a lot in our pages, too, isn’t it? Self care. But somehow, we too often forget to practice it for ourselves. I’m grateful to Terri for reminding me that this is what I need in my life right now. So today I’m reminding myself and each one of you to remember to concentrate on self care, not just when the going gets tough but every day to build our emotional and spiritual strength for those uphill pathways that will come our way.

We also talk a lot about practicing gratitude as a way to heal. Today I would like to express my gratitude to each of the FOL sisters and to each FOL reader for the love and support you bring to our community. One of the things I value most about FOL is that we are a caring community; we reach out in love and concern when one of us is hurting. There are not enough words to tell you how much that means to each of us.

So I’ll just say, “thank you”.

Focus on You

There were so many delightful shadow photos in the FOL gallery this week that it was truly hard to choose just one to feature. Finally I settled on this one by Life, Unscripted Photography. I was particularly touched by the caption that was written under the photo:

A Special Shadow

I took this photo back in 2013 shortly after my grandmother had passed. I was missing her when I stumbled on this crocheted table runner she had made for me many years ago. Its shadow reminds me that she is always near.

Thank you so much for sharing this lovely photo and memory with us, it is truly special.

Light and Shadows

by Dotti

Do you like January?

January is always a challenging month for me. It’s not unusual in our neck of the woods to have few sunny days in January and this year we actually set a record for cloudy and rainy days.

To compound matters, I feel like I've been living in the shadows due to unusually stressful family issues. Fortuitously, on January 1, the Lexington Herald-Leader ran a great little article in its health column by Dr. John A. Patterson, associate professor at the University of Kentucky Medical School, about mindful breathing.

Like you, I’ve read other descriptions of this practice but for some reason, this method seemed to resonate with me and I’ve had good success using it so I wanted to share it with you. I firmly believe we’d all be healthier, mentally and physically, if we learned to do this every day, whether we're living in the light or the shadows. Here are some key points.

• “Assume a comfortable position, lying down, seated or reclining. Closing your eyes improves focus and reduces distractions.
• Allow your muscles to relax, especially the neck, shoulders, jaw, face and back and anywhere you are tense.
• Take a few deep breaths, paying attention to the physical sensation of breathing.
• Notice the pause at the end of the out-breath. Without prolonging that pause or thinking about it, experience its calmness, quietness and peacefulness.
• Shifting your attention to your belly, allow it to be soft, rising with the in-breath and falling with the out-breath. A soft belly increases the movement of the diaphragm. This stimulates the para-sympathetic (“rest and digest”) of the vagus nerve, which runs through the diaphragm, acting as an antidote to the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) impulses of the stress response.
• Finally, feel the physical sensations of the breath in the nostrils, throat, chest and belly. Notice when the thinking mind wanders and, without judging yourself, simply return to feeling the breath.”

Dr. Patterson suggests practicing five to twenty minutes a day, once or twice daily. And the great thing is, you can do this anywhere although if you’re driving, you might want to keep your eyes open.

The hardest part for me? Keeping my mind from wandering. To do this I think the word “in” on the in-breath and “out “on the out-breath. (Hey! I never claimed to be a great wordsmith!) You can use whatever words or phrases work for you but the key is using a tool to help you focus on the breathing.

Perhaps you have other ideas which you can share with us about reducing the stress load on your body. If so, please share with us in the comments. We’re all here to help and support one another and I don’t claim any particular expertise in this field. I just want to start a conversation. Want to join in?

Wishing you sunny days and blue skies,

Dotti

We're Really Not So Different After All

by Dotti

We may have the same color eyes

or not.

We may have the same color hair

or not.

We may have the same color skin

or not.

But underneath all that, we’re really not so different after all.

We may be married

or not.

We may have children

or not.

We may have grandchildren

or not.

But underneath all that, we’re really not so different after all.

We may live in a big house

or not.

We may live in a cottage

or not.

We may live in a city or town

or not.

But underneath all that, we’re really not so different after all.

We may have different religious views

or not.

We may have different political views

or not.

We may have different opinions on life

or not.

But underneath all that, we’re really not so different after all.

We  all have hearts that beat,

feelings that get hurt,

family that we love,

things that make us laugh,

things that make us cry.

You see, underneath all that, we’re really not so different after all.

So today I ponder: why do we have such a hard time accepting the beauty of our differences? Why can’t we agree to disagree without hating? Why can’t we see past what the eyes see to what the hearts feel? Why can’t we just all get along?

In 2017, I’m going to try harder to see past the surface and see hearts instead. Are you with me?

Thanks for the Memories

Does the holiday season put your memory files into overdrive? It does for me. As I’ve thought about today’s post, I kept coming back to memories. One in particular kept flooding my memory drive: the annual ritual that my cousin and I observed of going to visit Santa. I just knew that somewhere – somewhere – I had one of those photos.

It took less than five minutes to find it and I was so happy when I did. You see, my cousin was my best friend for the first 18 years of my life, and never more so than when we were young and almost inseparable. My guess is that this is probably the Macy’s Santa Claus as we lived in New York then. Macy’s had the best Santas!

What a treasure this photo is! And that brings me to the point of today’s post: we, you and I, we are the memory keepers in our families. We hold the power, a.k.a., the cameras in our hands.

Unfortunately, not all my memories have physical photos, they reside only in my heart and mind. One such memory is firmly etched in my heart and my mind. When my daughter was two years old, she was, as all two year olds are, in overdrive about Christmas.

On Christmas morning, we heard her tiptoe down the hallway from the bedrooms to the living room and then coming running back, saying at the top of her lungs, “He came! He really came!!” Oh! What I would give for a picture of that chubby little girl in her one piece sleeper, curls flying every which way, running to get us out of bed to share her joy. (And, yes, I'm pretty sure all that loot under the tree was for our daughter!)

This memory puts me on a fast track backwards to when I found out the truth about Santa. Do you remember how you found out? My granddaughter is nine and won’t reveal whether she “Believes” or not. But the fact that she chose a family outing to see the new Star Wars movie rather than our traditional visit to the Kentucky Horse Park to see the Southern Lights and Santa is a pretty good tip off.

But I digress. When I was seven years old, we lived in a two story home. I distinctly remember that Christmas Eve. I’d been hustled off to bed early so Santa would be able to come to our house. Like most seven year olds on Christmas Eve,  I couldn’t sleep. I was sure I heard Santa’s sleigh bells on our roof. So, what did I do? What any curious seven your old would do. I crept down the stairs – only to find my mother putting the toys under the Christmas tree. Yes. True story.

So where does all this reminiscing take us today? To the point I made earlier: we are the memory keepers. We have a sacred duty to click the shutters often this holiday season. You just never know when a seemingly mundane photo will trigger the most precious of memories.

Memory is such a fragile thing. Let’s do our part to keep memories alive with our photography. And with our stories! We’d love to have you share a memory or two in our comments today or with a photo in the Flickrstream or IG feed.

Happy Holidays!

Focus on Friendship

by Dotti

[Not all these photos are mine; they are the result of a collaborative effort by all of our wonderful writers/photographers here at FOL.]

There's a lot to cover this morning so go get a cup of tea or coffee, make yourselves comfortable. There are a lot of pictures but I hope you'll stick with me. The punch line is at the end.

Ready? Let's begin.

Part One

The first internet friend that I met “for reals” was Terri. We were both attending the Shutter Sisters Oasis in Palm Springs. Air connections from Kentucky to Palm Springs were, well, a nightmare so I flew to Phoenix to make the four hour drive with Terri and some other women. Terri and I had been friends in Picture classes for several years, and, in fact, this is how all of us initially met. FOL is the culmination of these relationships. My friendship with Terri progressed to that of “partners in crime” as we  served as moderators for the Prompt Addicts Flickr group, a path which led directly to the beginning of Focusing on Life in January 2012.

Terri picked me up at my hotel the morning of our trip. I saw her coming down the sidewalk in her measured “Terri walking pace” and couldn’t believe that this was finally happening. We embraced in a big, heartfelt hug and shed a few tears as well. Well, as luck would have it, my travel plans from Palm Springs home to Kentucky got royally messed up. I found myself in need of a place to stay overnight and Terri kindly took me home with her, like a little lost puppy. Is it any wonder I count her among my dearest friends?

The second person I met that morning was Deanna, who immediately grabbed me in a big bear hug that made me feel like I’d come home to a long lost friend, which in a way, I had. Now, I want to tell you a couple of things about Deanna.

First, I think it’s fair to say Deanna might be the spiritual center of our FOL group. We all know from our conversations together how important her church and her faith are to her. But even more telling is how we watch, day in and day out, how her faith informs her daily path as she deals with the “Long Goodbye” life dumped in  her lap.  It hasn’t been easy; it never is. But now she is in a place where her faith and her naturally sunny temperament steer her through life’s confusing maze. 

Lest you think our Deanna is a saint, I’ll hasten to add that she’s not, even if she is our inspiration. She has a wicked sense of humor and when we least expect it, she will come out with a comment that will have us all in gales of laughter. Yup. That’s our Deanna.

Linda and I were roommates at Oasis so I think I probably next met her. It didn’t take me long to realize how nifty she was with a computer and post-processing or how she quietly claims her space in the world. Linda also has a quiet, yet potent sense of humor and a positive attitude toward life. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed it from time to time in her posts. Since Linda and I were both morning walkers, we shared our early morning walks around Palm Springs as we talked about our families, our all-encompassing love for our granddaughters – we’re both granny caregivers – and life in general. Linda was the easiest roomie I’ve ever known and I wouldn’t hesitate to be her roomie again.

I think Leigh might have been my next real live in person meet up. What I noticed first about Leigh was her radiant smile. It says, “Hi, Friend!” and it immediately draws you into her orbit. Leigh is one of our nature lovers here at FOL. Well, we’re all nature lovers but some of us are more serious about it. I think her passion for nature might just have something to do with her chosen profession: landscape architecture. In addition to her passion for nature and photography, Leigh is passionate about her family life and has two wonderful children.

(There were other wonderful gals that I met in Palm Springs but in the interest of time, I’m sticking to our active collaborators today.)

I finally met Carol in Chicago in 2013 and I absolutely adore her (as I do all our girls). She’s a fabulous photographer and writer but she is also a very kind and compassionate person; she really recognizes the other person’s needs. She is also an attentive listener. I think she sees the good in most everybody and, like most of us, she’s a real animal person. Stands to reason since her dad was a veterinarian. In all the time I’ve spent with her, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without a smile on her face and her “let’s go” attitude. She’s always up for an adventure. And she's always looking to raise the bar higher and achieve yet more.

Kelly also joined the party at our very first FOL gathering in Chicago. As luck would have it, we were all arriving at the airport within minutes of each other and when we had a group hug, Kelly immediately dissolved into tears. Those who know Kelly won't be surprised.

Kelly is our thinker, our resident philosopher. Many’s the time when she's brought up a topic leading us into a deep discussion of life’s most pressing questions. And we love her for it! Life is not all pretty pictures and beautiful light. There are some serious issues that, as women, we all have in common. Kelly seems to be perpetually cheerful and optimistic and that attitude is highly contagious.

Although she was one of our early collaborators, we didn’t get to meet Judy until our 2014 trip to Galveston. True confession: Judy wasn’t at all who I thought she would be. I knew she was a Cracker Jack photographer but I’d somehow made myself believe she was rather quiet. Wrong! Judy has a wonderfully warm and outgoing personality that immediately envelops you. As our week together unfolded, I found myself becoming more and more fond of Judy. After her leave of absence, she emailed Terri and me to see if she could rejoin our team. We didn’t miss a beat in saying "YES!" and are so glad she’s home!

And finally, I come to Cathy. Sadly, Cathy was not able to make the trip to Rhode Island this year so none of us has had the pleasure of meeting her. But again, I feel like I’ve known Cathy for eons since we all started our intersecting photo journeys through Tracey Clark’s Picture classes. I’m so eager to meet Cathy. I know she has a love of nature and that it is her photographic muse. She also loves to take daylong photo trips and is a passionate researcher so she can tell you all about the places she’s traveled in Arkansas. I’m beginning to think we might have to go to Arkansas to meet up with her!

Of course, we always say “once an FOL sister, always an FOL sister”, so let me just give a shout out to our FOL alums: Claudia Wrightson (a co-founder), Carol Hart, Cathy Sly, Kate Austin, Kim Stevens, Stephanie Mull, and Susan Case.

Part Two

I know I’ve gone on too long here but bear with me just a minute longer while I share some of what we do when we’re together. It won't take long, I promise.

Well, we eat.

We talk.

We teach each other new tricks.

We shop …

And sometimes we even buy.

We  pose.

We take photos.

We laugh – and we hug – a lot.

But mostly, we just savor the joy of hanging out with one another, a joy so real, it's palpable.

Thank you for sticking with me through this lengthy post but I really wanted to share these stories and pictures with you. You see, each of these women – and each of you – is so special to me - each holds such a big space in my heart, I wanted to share with you my gratitude for them as we all celebrate Gratitude Month.

There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.

                                                                        ~ Linda Grayson

With love and gratitude,

Dotti

FYI: In case you missed it over the weekend, check out this post with information about tonight's super supermoon. It is a rare photo op so you won't want to miss it.