If ever there was a reason...

.... to turn the camera on yourself, then, for me, this is the reason.  I took this yesterday (Sunday 22nd April 2012) as I am preparing myself for the You Are Your Own Muse Re-writing the story by Vivienne McMaster.

This picture is a "happy accident ",  I was taking a picture of myself, not realising that in the process, I had included my other half who was standing by watching me, but, I had also captured myself with my camera! I'm kind of pleased with the result, but I'm thinking maybe I need botox for the furrow lines above my nose!! ;o)

Funny how

Funny how today I have been playing with self portraiture, enjoying a quiet moment dipping into a new book:

Playing in the sweet moment of the afternoon sun

Trying out new angles

Happy accident self portraiture with my iPhone and my dog

And then I come across Vivienne McMaster's re writing the story through self- portraiture! It seems my destiny has called me :)

Moon Joy

Feels good to be doing a bit of mixed media - this canvass started life as a lady taking a bath under the moonlight but I just didn't like it, so it's morphed into this....it's still a work in progress

One with the ocean and the woman unfurled

I have learnt

that when I drop my own story about my life and myself, all that is left, all that is truth, is  the love that I have had. Love is and remains the only constant, in a life full of change, all that remains the same is love, and even love changes, from how we experience it within ourselves and our relationships with each other. Love is the ultimate truth......it is as blue as the sky, it penetrates like the desert sun, it is the storm that rages within us and is the peace that flows through us, extends through us and to each other.  It is the truth that reclaims us as we draw our last breath,  it is the air we inhale on our first breath. It is the first, last and always - may we all know and extend to each other the love that is given to us freely in every given moment.

Look Up

It was only Tuesday of this week that I was floundering like a fish out of water trying to take pictures with my iPhone using Instagram. But, I have been using it religiously to take pictures over the past couple of days and I have to admit, I've been quite pleased with the results.  Today I took this picture whilst out on my dog walk, it's had a little pre-processing work on it in Picnik.

This is quite an interesting article from the BBC posing the question if Instagram is making everyone's photography look the same - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17667891 . 

Can we be users of Instagram and yet still infuse the photo with our own style? I would love to hear your thoughts!

I spy

with my little eye, a seagull making off with a piece of bread in it's beak!  Top row of birds, second in from the right!

A poem found me in a blossom filled sky

Pink, frilly, loveliness silhouetted against a cloudy blue sky,

You frame my world as I pass you by.

I stand underneath you, drop my head back and look up,

I love looking at you this way, dear blossom tree, you always fill my cup.

                                                                © Deborah Jackson April 2012

I-sea

A sunny day down on the beach

This picture was taken with my "new to me" iPhone using Instagram, I have no idea what filter I applied.
I have no idea if I can edit the photo and apply a new Instragram filter!
I had no idea that trying to work out how to use an iPhone would be so time consuming!
I have no idea how people take great pictures with an iPhone, as you cannot shield your screen from the sunlight!
I am out of my comfort zone using an iPhone.

 Bearing all of the above in mind, I feel this photo turned out quite well!

I then had a good idea.
I returned to the beach with my friend the G1 Panasonic Lumix and I took this:

It's had a little post processing in Picnik and a friend commented it looks like a painting!

I like both pictures.

Given the following:

 I will be taking more pictures with my iPhone! :)

The Girl In The Swing

 

"Do you see them coming through fields of snow?

do you see them riding through fields of snow?

One rides for a woman who has no name

one rides for a king

And one just rides and rides and rides and rides

for the girl in the swing

They race like phantoms in the Belmont light

you see them follow the Belmont light

They ride through places where the walls are white

where the noble voices of women sing

a brace of thanks and silent night

and a song for the girl in the swing

 

When you just asked me

Do I know what love is

Well, sure I know

Sure I know what love is

It's the thief of sleep, a boy and his dog

A red rubber ball, these old foolish things

A rain that falls a long, long way from home

It lives in the girl in the swing, it lives in the girl in the swing"