Before I share my exercise for photographing the little things, I’d like to share a story. Â As many of you know, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of being a part of 8 women in what we call the Next Octave. All eight women are fascinating, beautiful, and rich with wisdom. Together we are on a journey for 9 months in helping each other reach the Next Octave in our individual lives. Many wonderful things has come from this journey, but one unexpected gift is the break I get from being the Source.
If you are a mom, you are what my friend Genie calls the “Source”. Everyone in the family comes to you for direction on what to do, how to feel, where to go. As my pastor once said, “If mom’s not happy nobody is happy. If dad’s not happy–who cares.” 🙂 I know all you husbands reading this know how true the statement can be! And all you moms reading know how taxing it can be to be the source of what meals to cook, lunches to pack, carpools to organize and swim lessons to finish up. When I come to be with my Next Octave girlfriends, I don’t have to be the source.
I get to crash on their living room floor and sleep in late. I get to stay up until 1am as I pick their brains about the meaning of feminine wisdom. I don’t have to pack any lunches or carpool. I just receive, laugh, cry and breathe deep.
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of staying with Peggy. We call her our “Den Mother”. All the other women in this group are twenty years older than me. Peggy is our oldest member and says it with pride. And she should. Her life holds experience that I stand in awe of. She and I stayed up past midnight as she let me ask her question after question about her life.
Peggy has survived the deep loss of losing her oldest daughter to ovarian cancer. Beth was in her thirties, bright, alive, and a firecracker in spirit. She went in for a routine check up and was gone in 93 days. How does a mom survive such tremendous loss?
Peggy has survived what seems un-survivable. Every part of her that has chosen to keep going, keep being a mom to her other children, keep being a wife and keep loving other women like me–leaves me speechless. To make the choice to live with an open heart, when life has been so unfair…this is a miracle. I was going to take a picture of Peggy before I left, but instead I wanted to capture the many parts of her home that symbolize the essence of Peggy.
Her raised Victorian in the heart of Berkley, breathes deep with comfort, warmth and beauty–it breathes Peggy. The details surround you from the moment you pull up to her home. Sunday morning I took about twenty minutes and walked around her house with my camera, picking and choosing the details that best describe Peggy’s beauty and photographing the little things. These are the symbols I found around her home so you could experience her too.
It starts with the stairs to her front door. Eye catching in a brilliant blue, so incredibly inviting. The purple flowers and vines wrap themselves around the white banister pulling you in to a home of rest.
Me Ra,
Those images are stunning, and what a fantastic way to remember and honor someone you admire so much. I think 99% of the population would say, “Take Peggy’s picture,” but a portrait of a woman may not tell us very much at all. But those gorgeous details of her life, the things she surrounds herself with every moment, the things she has made into her home and shelter and place of rest. That’s stunning to me. I’m going to do that more often.
I also need to re-decorate my house, I’m thinking!
What a great exercise. And maybe I can use it as an excuse to buy myself a prime lense with a deliciously low F-stop! 😉
Me Ra: Can you take 20 minutes and take some detail pictures of YOUR home for us? I would LOVE to see the things that you find as representative of your heart. ♥
what I’m interested in…how did you get this group of women together/started? sounds fascinating!
As a new-ish photographer, I check countless photographer’s blogs every day. Your blog always leaves me with so much to think about. I am thrilled to see another woman photographer with an interest in feminine wisdom and the divine. How refreshing. If I could afford to make to it one of your events, I would be there. And I am intrigued by this higher octave group!
hehehe
just figures i’m actually going to be in new jersey documenting a house for my husband’s aunt…i will have to try some of this… 🙂
Like Ashley said, your blog always leaves up with much to think about. I love reading it first thing in the morning and then sitting with it for the day in between being the “source”. At todays meet and greet at school some moms and I were talking about just that. We had a pile of forms to fill out and know that it will fall to us, not dad. I know that there are “roles” that we play in a marriage and as parents but sometimes it is overwhelming to be the keeper of all that information and stuff that only we can do. While we can step in for dad and take the garbage out, not so sure dad can step in to cut the toenails, fill out the paperwork and keep track of the schedules. So yes..it is hard to be the source and how nice it must be to receive.
I love the details you shot and am going to make that my assignment for the week. To try and document those things about my kids that are currently a part of who they are.
What a perfect post. You are right on in all you do Me Ra. So true – moms being the “source” and while it is wonderful and can be exhausting. I’m glad you have found the “octave” group where you can be fed and refreshed. Thank you for always sharing.
I love the detail shots of the home and how you showed us Peggy through them. I will be working on the assignment 🙂
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These pictures are just cool. And the exercise was tons of fun! I posted some of my favorites on my blog if you care to come and see.
[…] to being a Story Telling Photographer. Whether you are capturing the objects in one’s home that describes who they are, or the details at a wedding, you are telling their […]