I’ve worn myself out trying to wrap up projects and prepare for a much anticipated trip to DC with my sister. Inspiration and creativity? What are those? But, okay, I know it’s only temporary. Just need some rest.

Yesterday, I was fired up about this crazy, wonderful lady though – Ashley Ambirge of The Middle Finger Project and her post, “How to Hit Rock Bottom + Come Back a Business Owner (Without Breaking a Nail. Or Going Insane. Or Resorting to Prostitution. Mostly.)“. Actually, all of her posts get me fired up. I couldn’t go to sleep after reading it. I want to hug her. And then go drinking with her. As crazy as it may sound, my camera and photography make me feel uber sexy. But this lady oozes sexiness no matter what she’s doing! I want to be her when I grow up. Even though I’m 7 years older than her.

So, it’s been a hectic week and I only got a couple of shots. But that’s okay. They often come in bursts. I took a step outside on Wednesday and woah! Everything around me had something to say. I took a shot of the sky above an ordinary parking lot. I even took a photo of a cheap paper fan on the top of my cubicle. Photos are everywhere.

Next week, I’m sure I’ll have lots of DC photos to lovingly sort through. And then I jump into Miksang II at the Austin Shambhala Center. Yes!

Happy photo-ing!

I recently experimented with an exercise in John Daido Loori’s book, The Zen of Creativity, called Making Love with Light. The idea is to create a visual representation of love and to use light in a way that expresses your experience of love.

I wasn’t sure how to go about this, but I set out with my camera anyway and let the experience and feeling of love simmer in the back of my mind. I didn’t quite capture light in the way that I expected, but that’s okay. It seems like most of my photographs end up displaying a sense of playfulness, more than anything else (at least, from what I can see). I guess because for the most part, I do feel playful when I’m out shooting photos. So I just went with it and let that be my experience of love.

I am constantly amazed at how a photographer’s state of mind can affect a photograph. I’m going to keep playing with this…

Welcome to The Good Eye Project! Let’s start with the basics, shall we? I just completed Miksang Level I with Jake Lorfing at the Austin Shambhala Center. We covered color, texture, pattern, space and dot in space. Each assignment was terrifying because I had no idea what I would come up with. It was also thrilling.

The idea was to focus on one aspect – color, for example, and go out and shoot it. I had to constantly remind myself to keep it simple. What I discovered was that many of the concepts overlapped, but if I focused on one, usually, that was the dominant feature in my photograph. Give it a try and see what you come up with. Check out the Miksang flickr group for some inspiration. Get macro! And don’t forget to come back when you’re done and share what you found!