Transformation

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 am also excited because she’s agreed to be a guest on an upcoming call, in the works. See below. I was especially moved with Sus’ concluding comment in our conversation. “Everybody needs a dose of Sheila,” said she.

Today’s Photos -

The photographs above are of the Black-Bellied Whistling Duck on a boardwalk railing at Wakodahatchee Wetlands taken very late afternoon. The lighting differences between the top and the second photo are a result of the different directions I was facing in relation to the setting sun. In the top photo it was behind me. In the bottom it was to the side and almost behind the bird.

The third photo, if you haven’t guessed, is a close-up of the beautifully silky feathers of the bird in the top photo. The video is a quickie, only 11-seconds. You can briefly hear the Whistling Duck’s voice.

Today’s Photo Story -

I started the “story” of today’s photos in my introduction to this issue. The comment on FlickR that had me laughing was made on the top photo by past course participant, resultant friend and Picture to Ponder subscriber Blaise Allen.

She wrote, “Oh this is just stunning! Its leopard panties are showing!” When I called her to say how “right on” she was and I hadn’t even picked up on it, she commented, “You taught me well.”

Blaise is a writer and wonderful photographer. You can get a taste of her work on her new blog – blaiseallen.com. I just subscribed to it knowing I’ll be in for a treat.

Self-Reflecting Queries -
Once again, I find I’ve covered a wide range of topics: laughter, paying attention to detail, noticing the components and adding humor, and the effects of such discoveries on your relationships with your kids and others.

I invite you to look into your world. Where are you seeing humor? If you don’t have an immediate response, make it up. Look around you. What do you see that you can add a “touch” of humor to?

Now may be the time to point out a blog post I put up a few weeks ago – “Sh*t Happens – Find the Beauty” – photographs and a discussion on branding. I was moved to write the post while reading CRUSH IT, a wonderful book on branding your passion, your work and more. I’ve been reluctant to share the post here because of the title I gave it. I’ve been afraid of possibly “offending” one or more of you, my precious subscribers.

I was also concerned with quoting Blaise with the “panties”, thinking maybe “underwear” would be better. And, I have no idea if anyone here will be offended. It’s one more thing to which I’m giving “meaning.”

So, are there places in your life where you are holding back on your self-expression, concerned that “people” might not like a word or term that you use? Is it stifling you, keeping you from being fully yourself?

As I think about the two words above on which I was holding back, I am reminded that my purpose is to be true to myself and to encourage you to be true to yourself. In actuality by holding back, I could conversely be “ripping off” other people who might find “openings” in what Blaise or I, or another, wrote.
Are there places in your life where you are depriving others of truly getting to see and experience you?

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for Parents who would like to experience the same fun and play and freedom with their kids that the grandparents have –
If this does not apply to you and you know someone to whom it would, please pass on the link for New Connections with your Children as described below.

I am in the process of setting up a conference line phone call, which will be recorded, interviewing a couple of parents whose already great relationships with their children have shifted even more dramatically out of conversations we’ve had.

There will an opportunity to see how I’ve been coaching moms, for questions to be asked and, perhaps, some “spot coaching” for a couple of participants. The call will be sometime this month.

For more information, a sense of what’s possible and to be on the notification list, go to CONNECTING.

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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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