Wow! What a summer it’s been! Heat, smoke, pandemic, drought — the full catastrophe! Still today, I see blue sky above and the wind feels soft on my skin. I am happy to be able to walk outdoors with ease and grateful for the blessings this day brings.
Happy Sunday! Happy August!
Last week a friend introduced me to a website called 52Frames. The sole purpose of the website is to encourage photographers to create and submit a photo each week on a topic chosen by the website host. Last week’s topic was “distorted.”
This was the image that I created and submitted:
It wasn’t something I was particularly proud of, but it was something I noticed and photographed in my kitchen because the prompt, “distorted,” was in my consciousness.
I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy joining the 52Frames group and committing to posting every week. But so far, I’ve loved it! It has really provided a creative push I needed at this time.
The number of photographers who submit to the site amazes me. And I so enjoyed looking at all of the different creations submitted last week for the word, “distorted.” It is so interesting to see so many different approaches and ideas. The quality and creativity of the photography astonished me.
I love that the 52Frames site focuses on 3 qualities: consistency, community, and creativity. This is probably a great recipe for growth and development in any creative pursuit. But it seems to be just the boost I need to bump me out of the summer doldrums.
This week the 52Frames prompt is “wide aperture” and the assignment is to shoot images with the widest aperture lens that you have. I carried my camera on walks in the neighborhood, around the yard, over to my daughter’s house, and even in my dining room studio in search of the perfect wide aperture image.
Of course there is no perfect image.
But I greatly enjoyed my different efforts and pursuits. There is something about committing and saying, “Yes, I will make and submit an image every single week.” It may not be something I am always proud to submit. But the practice is what matters to me and the discipline to create something new every single week.
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!—
It was my new commitment to a photographic community which enlivened my creative process this week. I hope I continue to feel enlivened by that commitment.
Are you also feeling the summer doldrums? Has the year gotten you down? Maybe it’s time to commit to your own creative practice. It can be as simple as committing to picking up pen and paper every day and making a single mark on the paper. Sometimes such a little commitment leads to something much bigger. What do you dream of? Is now the time to begin?
May you walk in beauty.
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