Transformation

There are times I “go with my gut” in the photos I feature in Picture to Ponder. Today’s photos are indicative of that. Not especially beautiful or, necessarily, compelling they kept coming up for me, getting in the way of making other choices.

Given, I am currently in a program focused on becoming attuned to my intuition, I decided to let them be. Perhaps they will have meaning for one or more of our subscribers. Please let me know if this fits for you in some way.

In a different conversation, my friend Ellen Britt has put together a program chock full of information from six experts in the field of Social Media Marketing. I suggest checking it out if you are seeking more knowledge on effectively using any of the following for increasing business – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Cleverly presented, with the investment escalating over a period of 6 days, Ellen has titled it Ice Cream Social Media Sale. See Social Media. And, in another food family (though not edible given they are wild) here are

Today’s Featured Photos –

Today’s Photos –

The top photo is an overview of the four mushrooms (see below) that caught my eye, one of which were twins. The three other photos are different views of the same plant.

Today’s Photo Story –
I probably could make up a lot of stories around these mushrooms and bottom line I pretty much said it all above. Two days ago I happened to look out my window at the lawn on the side of the house across the street from me and noticed the very large mushrooms, almost looking like something had “landed” there.

I grabbed my camera, went out, and took several pictures. Because of the lines and the patterns, the overall rhythm, I think, the one that was on its side most appealed to me. At first, I thought it had “fallen over”. When I attempted lifting it off the ground to take further pictures, I found that it was firmly rooted in the ground and was growing that way.

Self-Reflecting Queries –
Has anything caught your attention lately, visually or otherwise, and left you wondering why?

When this happens, does it stay with you for dwelling on? Do you look for and add meaning or does it seem to find you?

Do today’s mushrooms, or the circumstances of them, have any particular meaning for you?

If so, especially because of my intuition exploration, I’d appreciate your writing about them in the COMMENTS section below.

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There’s a lot going on in my life right now, as I’m sure there is in yours. Thus I’m simplifying today’s issue with very few words.

A few years prior to my even starting Picture to Ponder, a mentor who saw my emerging photography said, “Sheila, something is telling me to tell you, ‘Don’t talk.'” I understood at the time and when I started Picture to Ponder there were few words. See “Intentions” in Issue 1 (Dec. 9, 2004).

Now, as I go back over issues from the past year or two, I see more and more words or “talking”. So for today, and most likely beyond, I’m minimizing on words, inviting you to supply them or to simply “be” with the photo(s).

Today’s Featured Photos –

Reflected Sunset underneath the boardwalk at Green Cay Wetlands, Boynton Beach, FL

Without the boardwalk

In the second photo I zoomed in on the reflecting sunset, eliminating the boardwalk. See Self-Reflecting Queries for my observation on this.

Today’s Photo Story –
There’s not a particular “story” around today’s photos and I could create one. I’m wondering do the “stories” I include make a difference for you?

Self-Reflecting Queries –
I posed the question above, specifically, “Do my stories as I include them in Picture to Ponder make a difference for you?”

And, then I went on to observe, for myself, how much of my life I’m engaged in “story-telling” to others and myself? What if I spent more time living my life, being in it, rather than in the stories, how much “richer” might my life be?

I invite you to make the same observations and queries in your life.

Also, in relation to today’s photos. Is there one you prefer over the other? For me, it’s the upper photo. It feels framed and anchored by the dark shapes of the boardwalk and support.

Do you prefer the frames and anchors in your life are are you more comfortable an unconstrained space as seen in the second, albeit it does end at the tops and sides of the picture?

Remember to have fun with the queries. As always your thoughts are appreciated in the COMMENTS section below.
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I must have spent an hour or more searching for Roseate Spoonbill pictures that I thought I wanted to bring you in today’s issue of Picture to Ponder. Then I got a notice of a comment someone made on FlickR on a Whistling Duck photograph I had posted there. I burst into laughter, loved what she had seen that I had not even noticed and “knew” this was my answer for today’s choice.

I also had a conversation this morning with Sus Kongsbak Larsen, a mom who is so excited with the new expanded relationship she now has with her 10-year old son after some coaching with me. Their connection was already great and Sus maintains that she now has a whole new sense of freedom around him and her work. I was especially moved with Sus’ concluding comment in our conversation. “Everybody needs a dose of Sheila,” said she.

Today’s Photos –

For more photos and the story [click to continue…]

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For this issue of Picture to Ponder I am simply combining images reflecting decor and reflections with one photograph of nature.

Today’s Photos –
The top photo is looking inside a lamp in a restaurant in Delray Beach. I love the contrast of the sharp vertical lines of light with the softness of the reflections in the glass.

The middle photo is the pedestal of a glass sink in a small bathroom in the home of one of our subscribers whom I had the pleasure of visiting a few months ago. I was captivated by the reflections in it. Thank you Beth for allowing us in your home. You can see the sink by clicking on the photo or clicking BETH’S SINK.

The bottom photo is, I’m thinking, of leaves from one of the varieties of palm plant.

Today’s Photo Story –
There is no particular “story” around today’s photos. The lower two have been cropping up for a while as ones wanting to be shared and the top one “surfaced” today.

Although quite a contrast between man-made and Nature, they hold together in presentation through similar colors, light and shadows and linear movement.

I will say, as I consider the third photo, I think of Peggy one of our subscribers who has written to me about my featuring “dead” flowers. I now wonder at her response to these leaves. See Last Issue COMMENTS.

For me, generally the first thing that catches my eye is texture, then whatever form of movement there is relative to line and/or repetition of patterns and colors.

I’d love to hear from you in the COMMENTS section at the end of today’s post on the blog, what your responses are when I feature photos of items that are “past their prime.”

Self-Reflecting Queries –
Today, I invite you to look at the contrasts in your life, be they in the physical world, in your activities and/or in your interpersonal relations.

Are there one or more commonalities that hold them together? If you start noticing this for the first time, can you what you find as threads for other situations?

I also invite you to simply be more open than usual this week to seeing things that you do not ordinarily see or pay attention to. What is it that attracts your eye? In noticing, can you relate that to anything else in your life?

With regard to paying attention, I suggest that you remind yourself a couple of times a day to simply open your eyes and look. Sitting in a chair, this morning, I glanced out into my backyard and noticed the brilliance of the lights and shadows on the wall of high plants. There was nothing different than usual AND by my looking only in that direction for a moment or two I experienced an unexpected pleasure.

As always have fun with these queries and looking/seeing. Also, please post your responses in the COMMENTS section below.

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This weekend, I was feeling sad, a little lonely and slightly depressed. Though I was functioning and had completed an interesting interview, I couldn’t get past a feeling of lethargy.  I finally decided that a walk in nature would “pick me up.”  So I went to Green Cay Wetlands with my camera in its bag on my shoulder and walked for a while.

Nothing was happening. My mood was not shifing, no elevation. (In retrospect I’m noticing how we think “it” will take place outside of ourselves.) Finally, I remembered, once again, “Sheila, it’s not the walk that you tell people to do.  It’s taking the camera out of the bag and starting to photograph WHATEVER catches your eye.  So I “snapped” the first thing in the distance that caught me eye.

I didn’t even realize that it was a palm leaf in the distance. All I saw was some texture in what seemed to be a light-colored “wall” of something.  Didn’t matter.  Focusing on something other than my disparate thoughts was starting to work.

Next came a couple of shots of this Roseate Spoonbill in the distance. Already, I was feeling better. The purple gallinule and black-necked stilts were simply a bonus.

The final image that grabbed my attention and really pulled me in was the warmth and light, the brilliance, of the afternoon sunlight reflected off the boards on the side of the boardwalk path at Green Cay.  In the distance, I was able to pull it close with my telephoto lens and capture the image in the top photo shown above.

And, to give the full picture I also photographed the railing shadows cast by the sun.

I could continue to spell out analogies and metaphors for life, for representations of mood shifting, AND I’ll leave all that to you, letting the photos speak for themselves.

Bottom line for me, I experienced once again, the power of the camera as my best friend, my energizer, my re-focuser, the transformer in my life.

I invite you to partner with your camera as a friend and mood stabilizer and expander in your life. To read more on how to do this for yourself, as well as seeing how others have experienced photography as transformation, simply fill in your name and email address under the Little Blue Heron photo and SUBSCRIBE at the top of the column on the right. Once you confirm your interest, you will get, by return email, EXPAND YOUR VISION, the 15 page report that includes 7 Tips for getting unstuck.

Happy shifting.

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