Don't you just love that word?? Well I do.
I have been taking Rebecca Murphy's Encapsulate e-course for the past month. It was her first time giving the course, and you would have never known it. She is a VERY gifted teacher and huge inspiration to me. My word for 2011 is "be". I am working this year on being present for my life and for my children. Little did I know when signing up for this course how much Rebecca would help me with this practice.
The purpose of the course is to give you ideas and tips to caputure your children's lives as a gift to them. It is important to know that "children" includes humans and animals ;0)! It is a photographic journey that teaches you the basics of taking pictures, how to use your camera, and how to use those pictures to make a time capsule for your children. Well at least that's what I thought when I signed up. It is so much more.
Rebecca uses her own childhood photos and photos she has taken herself to illustrate what she is teaching. This was priceless for me. Through her encouraging words and childhood photos she gives you permission to be an "imperfect" photographer. She has this gift of taking the fear out of capturing the perfect picture, and giving you tools to capture what is in front of you. She taught me to see that what is right in front of me, happening right now is what matters. Whether it is out of focus, too dark, too bright etc. it is perfect however it turns out because it captures the memory, the feeling or the personality of the subject.
Just after the first week I noticed that my entire perception of the photos that I was taking was different. Pictures that I normally would have trashed, I cherished. This gave me a huge burst of energy to take more . . .and boy did I. And guess what?? I think my pictures got much better. I noticed that when I take pictures to capture the moment, not to capture the perfect image, my pictures are awesome. Well, at least I think they are, and that is all that matters ;0)!
To top it all off, my children loved it! They went from kids that ran as far away from the camera as possible to kids who were begging me to get my camera out. I stopped trying to pose them and making them do things they weren't naturally doing. I engaged them as much as I could in this whole process. They felt valued, loved and cherished for who they are and not who I was trying to make them be. Ahh what a gift! They love helping me pick songs for my photo slideshows. They will often ask "Mommy, can I watch MY show?".
I guess what I am trying to say is how grateful I am for this class. So utterly grateful for Rebecca and her friendship and this gift she has given me. I am definitely signing up for her private lessons before this month is over. It is a gift of love I have given myself, and the love continues to touch all the special people in my life.
Thank you Rebecca!
