If you’d like to see some context to the pictures, take a look at the posts on Instagram.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
photography
Sky Photo Project on Instagram
If you follow me on Instagram, you probably noticed that I love taking pictures of the sky and tops of trees.
Even though the sky and trees are the same thing, they are never the same thing.
Especially the sky. There are so many variables. The amount of sunlight or moonlight. The shade of blue. The types of clouds.
I never get bored, because the pictures are always different. In fact, I get more fascinated the more pictures I take. It made me wonder.
How many types of sky can there be? What would it look like to take a bunch of pictures over time and compare? So about a month ago I started the #ljskyproject on Instagram. Sort of like my Virgo Season Photo Project. I’m still noticing the details.
This project could go on for quite some time. Which is fine. Because so does the sky.
This Month So Far: October 2016
Finding the time, energy and will to blog has not been easy lately. So I’ve been blogging much less. It’s now October.
Life has changed a lot since when I first started blogging ten years ago. Money and time available have decreased. Family responsibilities have increased. Free Yoga Boston and other social media platforms that I’m on now didn’t exist ten years ago.
Just like the seasons change, our lives change and we must adjust. Focusing on my well-being has made blogging fall away to a certain extent. But I miss it too.
Documenting my life and experiences is something that I had always loved about blogging. When others appreciated what I shared, it made it even sweeter.
To continue, blogging has to happen differently. For now, I hope you enjoy these images. These are bits and pieces of my October so far.
Have a great weekend!
A Virgo Season Photo Project: Noticing The Details
Happy Virgo Season! As a proud Virgo, this is my favorite time of the year.
While it’s not yet my birthday month, today is the start of the season, which goes through September 22nd. Although some things I read say September 21st and that Libra season starts on the 22nd. So my last post for the project will be September 21st.
For the season, I’ve decided to try something new — a photography project on Instagram using the hashtag #virgophotoproject.
Photography has always been a hobby and Instagram has brought me back to a purer form of it than blogging. While blogging, I always have pictures, but they are not the main thing. The main thing is the story and the pictures help tell the story.
I just read the book, Humans of New York, which is based on the blog. The blog started as a photography project and grew from there. I love how starting something small as an experiment can end up turning into much more than originally expected.
Reading the book made me think that it would be nice to try a photo project of my own. But I wasn’t sure about a topic. I read a blog post on Everyday Eyecandy about 16 different types of photography projects. They are all wonderful ideas, but none of them appealed to me.
After thinking about things that interest me and that were coming up, Virgo Season immediately came to mind. Virgos are all about the details among many other wonderful things, so I thought it made sense to focus in on that for a theme to start.
It will be interesting to see what types of things I have photographed. I’m also hoping that some others will join in and contribute some pictures by using the #virgophotoproject hashtag. I’d love to see what everyone comes up with. What are traits that you associate with being a Virgo?
My first Instagram post for the #virgophotoproject was this picture from the side of the building at 160 Federal Street in Boston. I have always noticed the shoe and wondered what it was about. Turns out the building used to house the United Shoe Machinery Company.
The shoe is just a small detail, but turns out it has a big significance! I hope you’ll follow the project and let me know what you think.
A Boston Night: Dorothy Parker, Mood + Memory
It always surprises me when I hear about people not knowing what they like. The older I get, the more I see that this life journey is about self-discovery.
If you’re looking to become better acquainted with yourself, blogging is one way. Looking back on over ten years of writing and taking pictures, I’ve noticed themes.
I see what topics interest me based on what I’ve blogged about. Food is a huge one. Yoga, full moons, birthdays, Boston and astrology are some more.
From using Instagram, the themes are even more pronounced because it’s mostly only pictures. I’ve noticed that I’m interested in all phases of the moon — flowers, trees, the sky and clouds. Based on these themes, I’m surprised I haven’t gone full Wiccca!
Anyway, one thing I have always been fascinated by since childhood is nightfall. That transition from day to night. When the sun is setting and the moon is rising. It’s so beautiful and feels magical to me. Maybe because I was born at night? I don’t know.
This morning, as I was catching up on some of my favorite blogs, I found this picture on Instagram by Yolanda Edwards. Based on the comments, it appears to be a Citroen parked by a storefront — a quiet evening in Paris and could not be more lovely.
Her picture immediately reminded me of the picture above. Probably one of my favorite pictures. I took it in Boston back in 2007 and wrote a post about it. Below is a quote from the post.
When I thought of Dorothy Parker’s poetry and life, it reminded me of those films, so I thought that I would adapt the film noir genre to a new genre of blog post. The post noir. Noir is black in French and I couldn’t help but think of my prior post about the color black. It all seemed to fit.
I took some night pictures around the city and converted them to black and white to try and get that same noir feeling. I was hoping for something special. Out of the blue, these two old cars appeared the two nights in a row that I was taking pictures, so I was able to take a bunch of shots of them. It was almost surreal. Like the cars just appeared from a different time. I’m sure there is a very rational explanation to it, but I like the mystery.
As I was looking at these old posts, I wondered if I could post this in time for Dorothy Parker‘s birthday. Her birthday is August 22nd, and she would be 123, so the timing is just right.
Also, stay tuned for an Instagram photography project that I will be announcing soon. If you look at themes in this post, there are some bread crumbs. Any guesses?
Until then, an early Happy Birthday Dorothy Parker!
