Finding Balance

Finding true balance has become very important to me over the past few weeks. After returning home, from a weeks break, I realised just how out of balance my day-to-day life had become. 

Without realising it I had overloaded myself. Filling my days with to-do lists.  Fearful not to miss an opportunity I was taking on one project after another. But to what end? 

Because, there is no real end when you live like this! Life becomes self perpetuating, where future events and achievements drive my every moment. I was distracted from the present, frustrated through my own imposed goals. Yet most of all I was suffering because I was missing my actual life! 

Seriously how do we slow down our lives enough to notice and appreciate what is happening right now? How do we gain gratitude for only the moment we live in?

These are some of my biggest questions. I have read and discussed this topic in great detail and then, through a guided meditation, I realised that I already have access to one of the most amazing tools to assist. My camera!

Through my lens I watch, where the moment is key, the light is perfectly balanced. I notice and pay attention to what is going on around me more so when I'm photographing than at any other time. I'm in the moment, present and awake. This amazing therapy has been in front of me all the time, clouded by all the other attributes it takes to run a business.  But like my yoga, my photography is a practise also and it's one I'm returning too.  


Sarah x

PROCESSING: Softly processed with my Beyond the Lens Actions using Brompton & Barkley Rd. These two Actions create a soft cooler tone. You can also add in Creative Action: North Light if you want a stronger contrast pop. Monotone image processed with 35mm Film, Parisian, Chinawhite and Vintage tone, adjusting to compliment coloured images.NOTE: If you want to take the contrast right down try using Melody. 

ELEMENTS VERSION OUT SOON 

The {GIVING}

{Springs gift to Summer}

Processed with Beyond the Lens Photoshop Actions: ProTECII, Barbican @25% plus Sway @70% finishing with a dash of LightFill Action: Blossom.

MAKE A WISH

My children call these, Wishy Sticks! (to the rest of us they're the common Dandelion seed heads.) With one giant exhale they bid them farewell as they send their countless seeds into the breeze. Each seed, with its own parachute, begins its own journey blessed with one extraordinary wish.






Taken up close with my Canon 100mm macro lens at f2.8. Softlyy backlite with natural light from the kitchen window. It was  raining pretty hard so I grabbed a handful and darted indoors to photograph them! A lot easier then trying to lie down on the soggy ground.  Then I processed them with Melody from my, Beyond the Lens Photoshop Actions, to keep them really soft and tonal.

 

Create your own beautiful

One of the wonderful things about being creative is that I can freely change my mind and work outside of my own paramaters. I can simply choose to articulate myself differently from time to time and use my work to reflect perhaps a completely different standpoint. My working style is often dominated by pretty pastel colours but every now and again I'm drawn to natures emotional  contrasts and textural quality. Sometimes when I ignore colour completely and look only for the contrasting light I'm amazed at how suddenly there exists a completely different picture. 

"From the vaulted stormy skies to the delicate dancing grasses, feel the stirring of the air as the strom moves closer still...create your own beautiful and express yourself with complete freedom". 

{Processed with Beyond the Lens Photoshop Actions 35mm Film Actions} 

This is {HONESTY}

This wild flower has self seeded all over my garden, from where I'm a little unsure. Probably from one of those free mix seed packets I through into the back border last summer! At first they looked like unwanted weeds as they rapidly grew before my eyes. They bolted up overnight and then burst forth into tall stems of  tiny purple and, more beautiful, white flowers.

This little bloom is abundant, vigorous and beautiful and has got me thinking (as you probably know from previous posts I'm doing a lot of that right now) as to the irony of this chance germination. As I have made the decision to down tools in order to force myself to slow down, live in the moment and recognise my achievements and only to work from a standpoint of total self indulgence rather than for any outside gain.....look what comes to grow in my garden...this is Honesty!



Have a wonderful day and please take a moment to be in the moment wherever you are. Love Sarah x