The Magic of the Camera – Transforming I “Can’t” to “I Can” – Treasure Your Life Now – v8-31

Are you regularly using your digital camera and/or your camera phone as one of your means of communication with yourself and your loved one(s)?

Are you filled with pride and taking pictures you love, then sharing them on cards, online albums, blog posts, email and/or on your walls?

Or, are you one who sometimes doesn’t even think to use your camera – digital or phone – for communication and taking special pictures?

You may, on occasion, remember to take photographs of people at events or scenes on locations to which you are traveling. Beyond that you don’t think of yourself as a photographer. You might even think you can’t “really take ‘good’ pictures.” Does any of the above fit you? If so, would you like to change that?

When I taught art, one of my missions was to eliminate people’s thinking, and stating, “I can’t draw.” Now it seems like one of my missions is to eliminate the “I can’t take good pictures” declarations and thoughts. Thus, the Through and From The Lens telecourse was created.

Very often I hear from subscribers and people who see my work, “I love your photographs. You have a special way of seeing. I couldn’t do that.”

Though I don’t say it aloud, in my head, my response is sometimes a denial as I start comparing my photos to those of the professional photographers whose works I so admire. Some of you are subscribers to Treasure Your Life Now, so what follows may not apply to you.

What I’ve come to realize is that what people are responding to in my photographs is the “connection” they are feeling with them. This connection results, I hypothesize, because when I use my camera it’s generally in response to something that catches my eye. This evidently comes from something within me. It’s that to which you, too, are thus responding, the inner voice.

So why am I sharing this now, you may be asking. In less than three weeks, you will have the opportunity, over a four-week time period, to start learning to use your camera, to broaden your SEEing and your connections with yourself and others; to shift the “I can’t”s you may have to “I can”s, to have an impact on yourself and others with whom you relate.

The details, along with a video of me, are on the Through and From The Lens page.

Click here or on the photo to get to page with 2 1/4 minute video

Today’s Photos –
The image at the start of today’s issue is cropped from the photo of the following Wetlands Wild Iris photograph.

The Through and From The Lens course video introduction has some photographs overlaid, starting midway through. This Iris is one of the photos used in the video.

The segment cropped from the right, shown at the beginning of this issue, feels, to me, like a mother holding out her infant as they sit in front seat of their covered wagon. It has a feeling of deep and loving connection. Thus I chose it for one of the illustrations in the video.

Very often the full experience and impact of the photo comes, for you and others, after it’s taken and downloaded into the computer. This is part of what we look at during our four weeks together in Through and From The Lens.

Self-Reflecting Queries and Relationship Tips –
There are several questions above on your relationship to your camera and yourself, sometimes to another person.

In terms of a relationship tip for this issue – When you are not clear about an interest, or hobby, that someone close to you has, welcome it as an opportunity to ask questions and learn more. Be sure you are coming from an open space, not a judgmental one, when you do this.

I invite you also to use your camera as a tool for focusing in on that interest of your loved one, opening up new perspectives for you and new openings for conversation. As an example, one of my clients could not understand her husband’s passion for cars and the hours he spent underneath their hoods. (He had several cars in his collection.)

I suggested she take her camera and look for interesting shapes, colors, textures under the hood as he worked. Then “snap” on whatever caught her eye. Sure enough, this resulted in new conversations and understandings between them, including some sharing that heretofore had never been expressed.

Not everyone is passionate about cars. You might start noticing when one or the other is preparing food in the kitchen, doing any kind of other activities, even fingers on a computer keyboard, or musical instrument.

As you are doing this, keep in mind, it is NOT about the picture(s) you are taking, it’s about the focusing, the noticing, the connections. The camera is simply a tool.

Please add in the COMMENTS section below your thoughts and/or experiences in relation to using the camera as a tool for communication.

Lastly, if any of the above resonates with you, be certain to check out the details for the course. I invite you also to pass this issue of Treasure Your Life Now on to your friends.

Using Flickr for Organizing and Sharing Your Photos and much more –
Free call on Tuesday night, August 28th or Wednesday morning, August 29th.

“FlickR, considered the best online photo management and sharing application in the world, is a free service allowing people to make their photos available to the people who matter to them.”

Their mission is also to “enable new ways of organizing photos and video.” (From the Flickr site.)

Flickr is one of the resources we use in the Through and From The Lens. To give an overview of it for those unfamiliar with it, I am doing the two Free Classes. And, I suspect, even for those who do use Flickr now, there may be a lot on there with which you are not familiar.

For those in business Flickr has also become important in terms of Search Engine Optimization and use in Social Media. I have thus, invited my friend Dan R. Morris, LettersfromDan[.]com, to join me on the call to share his expertise with you in using Flickr groups and how to maximize those photos you wish for directly, or directly, promoting your business.

You can register for that Free call, either session, by clicking on Using Flickr. And, certainly, feel free to invite your friends.