stress – Life, Love & Passion Through the Lens

Life Interrupted

Well, life has changed once again. As I write this we are experiencing a Pandemic in not just the United States, but throughout the world.

Personally I am still working my day job; who knows how long, however we have made drastic changes and have limited who walks through our door. I don’t have as much human contact as I once did. I go home and again no contact. I may be an introvert, but I miss being with friends, but most of all I miss shooting the concerts and events which have all been postponed or canceled. This is my busy time of year too so now I’m doing basically nothing. I am adjusting, but also have been on an outing or two, with social distancing. I did that his Sunday with a friend. Kati and I met at our destination, stayed a reasonable distance apart, yet was still able to talk to each other, be outside in the sunshine and fresh air and photograph some of the cutest Owls on the planet; burrowing Owls with their young. I have starting doing Yoga at home which helps with the stress, and I bought supplies to paint again. Listening to music also helps.

I don’t buy into fear mongering, I’m doing what I can to keep my hands washed and my place clean. I know I’m not the only one feeling this impact upon our lives, so share with me what you are doing to get through this trying time in our lives. Are you self quarantining? Are you still working your regular job or are you working from home? Are you in the service industry? Let’s hold a conversation and get each other through this trying time in our lives. Just know this too shall pass. We are all in this together, God bless each and every one of you.

Moving Forward…

Photography Meanderings

I feel as if I’ve been MIA for way too long. I have not written much since the end of April, because life took me for a loop for a while. I’ve been stressed and really haven’t felt much like writing, always had good intentions then as soon as I would get home, my brain kicked off and I shut down. I’m not sure what I am going through, but it’s definitely a funk of some sort. I have been trying to figure out the reasons for it and have come up with several plausible excuses. Moving; this was a big one, moving for me, being alone is extremely stressful. I did have some wonderful help from friends and my youngest son on the big move day, but still I did a lot of loads by myself. I think in the beginning of the move I really didn’t have a place to live, and had a lot going on in the photography part of my life and it sent me over the edge of being confused and stressed. The next element to lead up to this funk is that I’ve not had enough down time, and I don’t mean just weekends at home, I mean true down time with being out of doors camping and spending time with my son. My schedule this past season was so busy I didn’t have time to really release myself to the outdoors. I miss it, I miss spending time with family, and I think that has a huge play in my current feelings. And third, I just have no motivation, my creativity has decreased and I think it all relates back to reason one & two. I am tired……really tired, the kind of tired that all you want to do is to stay in bed and sleep kind of tired, but I make myself get up, get dressed and go out. Last night was the first time in quite some time I did photography for me, for my own pleasure and although I totally enjoy going out with my shutterbug friends, I felt as if I was detached and not really into what I was doing; this needs to change. I took some beautiful shots which I will include as a slideshow at the end of this writing.

I need to get myself back to being excited and wanting to go out and shoot beyond my concerts, which I still find so enjoyable and exciting! I have the possibility of four of them in the next couple of weeks with one of them getting me away and in a hotel for a night….this will be good, because I can then take myself to visit someplace new the morning after. I will not only be photographing three of my top bands, I will also be attending the concert as fan.

My energy definitely goes up when it comes to concerts; I love the excitement of being in the pit and challenging myself to get those near perfect shots, I also need to get out into nature and stop coming up with excuses on why I can’t or won’t. I need to be behind the lens……..

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Finding My Way Back

Photography Meanderings

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted something substantial. My last post was 23 days ago and that was to explain how unmotivated I’ve been.

It’s been a rough and stressful couple of months, I had to pack and prepare for a complete move to a new place by mid May. Not only was I stressed, but my poor cat Harpo had totally stressed out and hid for about three full days before I saw him again. He’s now at his usual place,sleeping at me feet as I write this. I finally finished unpacking last week and simply wore myself out. I rarely left the house during the Memorial Day weekend, but this week I feel like I’m back to normal with a busy shooting schedule and my normal work week.

I’m going to try and catch you up on what’s been happening in my world.

April was an incredibly busy month with packing, portraits, events and a two-day festival, Fort Rock.

It began with me being hired to shoot Stars on Ice at Germain Arena, and I was thrilled to meet a few of the Olympic Champions. My day began at 10am and ended around 11pm; but what an opportunity! It started with me up on a twelve foot ladder on the ice to take the promotional tour shots……this is one of my images from that adventure. I have a fear of heights and being on a ladder just totally freaks me out, let alone being on one where there is slippery ice involved. However, I did it and I really didn’t even think much about it as I was working my camera. Amazing what you can do when you are concentrating on your craft.

I also photographed the dress rehearsal, warmups, the merchandise area and the entire show later in the evening. What a wonderful day spent with incredible people.

Next, I had two mini-sessions with two beautiful ladies. These ladies are such a pleasure to work with and they both enjoyed their “modeling” session.

Lastly at the end of April I was once again at the annual Fort Rock Festival with radio station 93xfm where I was fortunate enough to once again photograph their meet & greets and work with one of my favorite photographers Ron Dukeshire. Ron is my right and left hand partner at Fort Rock he handles the bands as I am busy in the tent with the station crew and the fans for the meet & greets. When time allowed, I also photographed a few of the bands including Sunday night’s headliner Soundgarden with the late Chris Cornell; RIP

May is Prom season and this year was no different for me. I worked with a cute couple I had met at Fort Rock and truly enjoyed the time I spent with them.

I also photographed Disney on Ice for Germain, but due to copyright restrictions I am unable to post any of them.

The last day of the month found me at Germain Arena for Brit Floyd, an incredible Pink Floyd Tribute band with an amazing light/laser show.

All of this was accomplished while, packing my home up, moving to a new place, unpacking and editing the work to meet my dead-lines, however I have found my way back.

The Cat Knows

Personal

harpo — Harpo laying his head on my arm while I’m working

Almost eight years ago I adopted a kitten. Okay he adopted me, because we all know you never own a cat, they own you. However this little guy literally reached his paws out to me as I made my second pass through the pound. How could I resist? I brought him home that day. He’s not like any other cat I’ve ever been owned by, he’s different. Different how you ask? He’s intuitive; he understands me and my moods better than just about any human I’ve ever been around.

On days I don’t feel well he sticks close by laying against whatever is ailing me at the time, headache, stomach, etc.. At times he will even lay on the part of my body which is hurting at that moment. I don’t know how he knows, he just does.

Yesterday I had spent much of the day on Facebook (yeah I know, big mistake), but I had nothing really planned, all my work was caught up and I wanted to see what was going on with all the political rhetoric (again a big mistake). I totally understand everyone has an opinion, and each side think they’re right and try to force it upon the opposition to prove their point, but there comes a time to just stop.

I woke up just not feeling right, kind of in a bad mood. No one else lives with me, it’s just the cat and I, so I had to backtrack as to what triggered those feelings. This morning I came to the conclusion of how much the negative noise of social media had really affected me over this past election and inauguration of our 45^th President. When I realized Harpo had not slept on my bed or next to me all night, I knew he was sensing something wasn’t right with me. He came in around 5:30 this morning, jumped up on the bed at the far right corner and barely acknowledged me.

How did this happen? None of those posts were actually pointed at me, but something did happened at the end of the evening that set me off prior to going to bed. Someone began verbally attacking one of my friends for something she said on a post I had made because she didn’t agree with his philosophy, I immediately fired back and removed his post. Harpo picked up on this and didn’t even sit with me on the couch as he usually does, he snoozed on the floor….totally out of character for him. Somehow his instincts told him I was in a bad mood and he steered clear of me all night and all this morning. He didn’t even beg for his breakfast, he waited patiently for me to feed him. I left the house feeling bad, knowing I had upset my little black & white buddy. He understands me. I know he will be back to loving me tonight, I will make sure of it. But my point in all of this is, if a cat can pick up on the negativity, then how is it affecting each of us? I know I didn’t sleep well, and I obviously was in a melancholy mood, so now what? First I prayed, asked for the spirit of negativity to be lifted. Then I made a decision regarding reading what is on Facebook. I will keep scrolling, if it’s political in nature, no matter what side it’s on I will steer clear and even hide the posts if needed. I will not engage in any of the online badgering/bullying that is happening and I will choose to be joyful throughout my day. This year I chose the word “Intentional” as my word for the year to work on in my own life. I am going to be intentional in what I post, to make sure it’s free of negative language and to make sure it’s uplifting to whoever reads it. I choose JOY! And I will listen more to my cat, because he knows.

If you would like to read more in depth on this issue, please visit Karen Zeigler’s post: Light, Love and Letting Go

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