Category Archives: Uncategorized

February 19, 2014

Re-Sparking a Love Affair with my DSLR

Last year was the year of the iPhone over here!

I most definitely took more iPhone self-portraits than DSLR photos, primarily because as I teach Be Your Own Beloved I like to participate alongside the participants with my iPhone rather than my DSLR…as the journey in that class isn’t just about how fancy your photo is…it is about telling your story through your camera (any camera…yes, even a cell phone camera).

Every month at some point I’d get out with my DSLR (if you’re wondering what gear I love, there is a post all about it over here), but after years of it being my primary way of documenting the world around me in that magical way that a DSLR can do…I confess I missed it!

I’m craving to re-spark a love affair with my DSLR.

So this year I want to make an effort to bring out the big camera more, both to document the world around me, step into the frame and I’m so excited to do more photo sessions too!

The other day I donned my thrifted cowboy boots and took my camera to the community garden and it was surprisingly quiet so I found myself feeling free to take lots of photos in some spots at the garden that are usually busy!

Here are a few photos from that adventure!

How about you? Do you favour your cell phone camera over a DSLR? What is your favourite camera to shoot with?

February 18, 2014

Spreading Hearts!

Last week, leading up to Valentine’s Day, my friend Rachael Ashe, an amazing local artist, invited me to join her in an adventure in spreading some hearts around our neighbourhood!

Rachael made the stencils (and you can read more about it a post over at her site) and it was so neat to see her amazing paper cutting art in the form of a stencil!

Our first adventure into spreading these hearts in the neighbourhood got a bit rained out, but was so fun none the less. Our second adventure, on Valentine’s Day was much less rainy and these ones are still standing strong!

If you are local and you spot one, we have a hashtag for sharing them with us #heartingtheneighbourhood

As you know, I LOVE the serendipity of coming across hearts out and about in the world and it happens on such a surprisingly regular basis and it felt really inspiring to be the one to put hearts out there for other people to find!

Of course, using spray paint isn’t going to work for many of us, but chalk is an awesome alternative! Have you tried something like this before? Or do you want to?

If you happen to feel drawn to put a little love out there in the form of hearts for other people to find, please do share it with me using #heartingtheneigbourhood or if you step into the photo with your hearts please do share it using the #beyourownbeloved hashtag as I’d LOVE to see!

Here are a few more snaps of some of the hearts we left!

February 10, 2014

Listening to What We Need

Lately, my days have been all about self-care.

In some ways they are similar to the time I often refer to, way back when this whole journey to self-love began. When I was in that ‘rough patch’ I talk about and didn’t know where my life was going. It was then that I started picking up the camera and would go for long photo walks, exploring different parts of town, taking paths or turns I hadn’t taken before.

Slowly, that path led me to a place in my life where I found my way back to myself, to a life that in many ways feels like home.

These days, the way I feel drawn to spend my days is familiar. Thankfully, this time I don’t feel like I’m in a depression, just grieving & some stress and worry that have me feeling like the earth is shaking under my feet a bit.

The familiar overlap in both of these times is that I needed to focus in and relearn how I could cultivate more self-care and refill my well again.

Last year around this time I was focusing on self-care too, and started creating some ‘self-care policies’ for myself of journalling at the beginning and end of each week and going for weekly hikes in the forest. The ideas I was exploring in creating this plan for myself led me to offer the Creating Self-Care Policies Class.

A year later I’m left wondering yet again: What do I need to do to take care of myself right now?

Its not that my Self-Care Policies from last year don’t still apply, but with all of the stuff going on I’m feeling drawn to listen in again and really notice what I most need right now.

The cafe I loved to go to journal at has now closed and every time I think about going for a big hike lately something in me says “softer” “gentler” “just walk”.

So I’m doing my best to listen to what I need and let go of my old self-care policies in order to really do what I need right now rather than guilting myself for not doing my usual self-care tools.

I feel SO drawn to go on really long walks these days. I know for those of you with busy families that wouldn’t be an option (which of course is why we get to figure out what our own self-care plan is). Somedays a short walk is enough to shift energy for me but lately I’ve kind of been going for epic walks around the city.

For me, right now, when the weather allows…my heart is calling for these long walks to refill my own well. Hours and hours of walking, letting emotions or thoughts arise and flow as I move.

On Saturday I walked all the way from my home to a beach on the other side of town along the gorgeous sea wall. Just me, a good pair of walking shoes and my camera.

About an hour into the walk I noticed that I was grinning widely and that I had been for about 5 minutes straight (you know that feeling when you’ve been smiling so wide that your cheeks hurt) and I felt like I was finally filling up my own well of energy & support again, from myself.

I took the photo that I’m sharing at the end of my walk when I reached the beach…and that felt like the truth of the moment…not to be confused with the truth of every moment these days, as it has been quite the opposite. But it felt so worthy to document that moment of feeling really filled up.

All those years ago photography and going on photo adventures taught me a tool that helps me fill up my own well and to a large degree, keep it filled up.

I wanted to share this with you partially because so much of my days right now are filled with work and yes, self-care. As well, I think we can get really focused on one tool of self-care when what we really need to do is just listen in day by day to what we need to do to fill up our own wells again be it taking a short photo walk and turning the camera on ourselves, or taking some time to just read.

I also wanted to share this as up until Valentines Day, I’m having a little sale on the Creating Self-Care Policies class…if you enter the code SELFLOVE the class is half price!

It is a self-paced class so as soon as you sign up, class will begin the same day! In the class we explore ideas behind self-care and cultivating a plan that works for you right now…that involves listening in to what you really need to fill up your own well and to keep it filled up!

How about you? How do you fill up your own well & what are your go-to self-care tools these days? I’d love to know…

February 4, 2014

Love in our Eyes

I’ve been a bit quiet over here lately as in the last couple weeks the earth has been shaking under my feet. Almost a week ago now, my Grammy, who I was very close to, passed away. She was a truly amazing woman who taught us so much about savouring the simple beauty of life and was someone with whom I got to experience unconditional love.

For those of you who have been in Be Your Own Beloved, you have heard me mention her in one specific prompt where we are looking into the camera with love. Her health has been very up & down in the last year with many strokes, so in this activity in particular as we are thinking about someone we love when taking the photo…I would think of her and send her love.

Grief and I have met many times in my life and I feel like each time I lose someone it opens up the well of grief as a whole. I loved my Grammy so much & had so much gratitude for her, which made losing her even more intense. I’m still definitely in the grief stage and taking good self-care right now.

I wanted to share this photo with you though, of her and I taken on the day we had a party for her 80th birthday.

There were a number of photos taken on that day, with each of us and she looked so happy and while I don’t think she loved being photographed in general she most definitely let me take so many pictures on this day and I’m so glad she did.

This photo though. I wanted to share it because if I focus on myself in it, old stories have the opportunity to emerge. Yes, this is probably taken at my heaviest. Yes, my eyes are drawn to focus on my arms which are one of the parts of my body I still have some love to cultivate with. Yet those were my inner critics talking. I’ve learned through exploring self-love through self-portraiture that I have another choice, even when looking back at photos from the past.

But when I look at it without those critiques, I am choosing to not let those things be the story that is most important in this photo. I choose love.

So I let those momentary thoughts go rather than make them my reality.

Because I see such love in her eyes in this one and it makes me feel connected to her, to be able to look in her eyes with love even if she isn’t here on earth anymore.

I wanted to also share this with you to share a bit about what has been going on behind the scenes here and to share this photo that I’m choosing to see with love with you. I wanted to share this with you in case you have photos of loved ones who have passed away that could be healing to see without self-critique of ourselves in it. I wanted to share this with you in hopes that next time you are with family, you’ll take more photos (even if you and your family aren’t all that fond of having your photo taken).

Again I’m reminded at how valuable photographs feel in my life, not just self-portraits, as a way to be able to look back on our lives & people we love.

January 31, 2014

Be Your Own Beloved starts tomorrow!

In celebration of Be Your Own Beloved starting tomorrow I made a little video about some of the misconceptions about self-portraiture!