A Picture A Day in November: Soul Shooting Workshop Assignment

      I am a member of the Soul Shooting Workshop of Photographers.  I had the privilege of participating in the workshop this past June.  It is run by 4 wonderful photographers Kelly, Molly, and Rosina and Sarah.   See the posts about it here and here.  We continue to meet via a private Facebook page in which we are challenged every other month or so with an assignment that will bring us towards the goal of creating a type of photography that reflects our soul.  Hence, the name soul shooting.  As I had written in one of the posts, soul shooting is:

...simply learning to shoot in a way that reflects the dynamic of your soul and that of your subject. It is capturing life in a way that reflects your past, present and future as a photographer and not as a carbon copy of other photographers. It is learning to craft your soul into the body of your photographic work.

     One of my personal goals is incorporating my vision of post tenebras lux--after darkness, light--into my portfolio.  It is a view of the world that sees order in the disorder, light in the darkness, and hope in the despair.  I was inspired by this from church history.  Post tenebras lux was the binding motto and call of the Protestant Reformation and especially of John Calvin and his church in Geneva, Switzerland.  It is a triumphant statement of victory and hope in the brokenness and darkness of this present world.  It calls me back to a time in history of great change and reform and to which I am an heir as a Reformed believer and wife of a Reformed minister.  Post tenebras lux is my life: past, present, and future.

     In my photography, I try to convey this through high contrasts, a wide dynamic range, a wider angle of view and typically a deeper depth of field.  In most of my photos, I framed the subject in its context, usually an environment of disorder, imperfection, mess.  But I had the subject serve as the contrast to that brokeness.  The subject was typically illuminated by light with a clear sense of composition, order, or beauty.  At least that was my goal.

     So, for the month of November, we were to take a picture everyday that incorporates one of our personal goals as photographers.  For me, it was articulating that vision of light in darkness; this was my attempt at fleshing out post tenebras lux.  After meditating on my pictures, I encourage you to visit Sarah's take on the month-long assignment, an exercise on points of (eye) contact.  Each of us in the group will be sending you around the internet to see our personal takes on this assignment.   Enjoy!

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Oh You're So Silly

With 3 children in the house, there isn't much need to look for entertainment elsewhere.  

The calmest member of the house is the dog.  He's the only who has never bitten me.  ;-)

Over the River and Through the Woods

We hit the road the other day to see some church friends.

The baby toddler brought his favorite animals.  

Every now and then I catch glimpses of his former life as a baby--his plump cheeks, his over-sized head, the remains of a double chin...

But the tell-tale scars on his face remind me once again that I've got a little boy now who loves to explore.

 I often look pass the neat little shadows that prance in the car as the sunlight strikes.

The movement of light and shadow can be hypnotizing.

True to form, the toddler found a way to annoy his sisters.

Which I suppose would be normal, considering we ran into traffic and there was nothing better to do.

Our connecting freeway was cut off by the police, so we went on all sorts of detours.

I had nothing better to do.

Finally, we made it to our destination and it felt like we had reached the Promise Land.  

Hard journey.

Lovely destination.