These Flowers Pulled Me out of My Creative Funk + Connected Me Back to Who I Want to Be
Since I’ve gotten off social media (more on this soon!), I’ve been reconnecting back to myself and one of the things I’ve been wanting to start doing again is to take more pictures with my DSLR.
I used to ALWAYS have my BIG girl camera out, but after having Luca, I got pretty burnt out so I took pictures with my iPhone instead (which is GREAT and totally works when I don’t have time to pull out my DSLR and mess with settings and lighting), but lately, I’ve been thinking that it’s time for me to snap more pics with my DSLR!
But, as soon as I’d think that, I’d immediately think to myself…
“But what am I going to take pictures of? The kids are in school all day now and I don’t live in Virginia anymore where I can take pictures of the beautiful fall leaves on the trees and all the amazingness that nature provides on the hikes we took up there.”
“I could take pictures of flowers again, but I don’t want to force it…I want it to be like when we were hiking in Virginia and the flowers stopped me in my tracks, made me smile, filled me with love and I couldn’t help but snap them with my camera.”
“I could take pictures of food again…I always loved taking food photos, but again, it’s kinda forced and I’m still very much burnt out on food thanks to my kiddos and my mind is mush as to what kind of great meal I could make so I could take a picture of it…even though, I do really love food photography, but right now, I’m not ready to do that just yet.”
“I know I want to to take pictures again. I know taking pictures ignites me with SO much JOY, but for me, it’s when I see something that makes me stop and smile and fills me with JOY and has me saying to myself, I LOVE THIS!!, and I can’t do that if I’m forcing the pictures..or forcing the feeling that I love to capture.”
So I just let it go and decided that if that moment happens, I’ll take the pic, either with my DSLR or iPhone.
Well…like always, the Universe knows EXACTLY what brings me JOY and when I don’t listen, it does everything it can to show me things that’ll make me finally DO the things will ignite me with JOY.
Yesterday, while scrolling through my blog reader, I saw that Clickin’ Moms had a blog post with the title: How to crush a creative rut: simple ideas to stay inspired.
I immediately clicked on it because for the past few weeks or so, I’ve been thinking that maybe taking a new photography class would be good for me get my photography juices flowing again or maybe I could force myself to finally going along with those photography challenges that everyone does on social media that I usually can’t stand doing, because, again, I like to take photos that find ME, rather than ME finding or forcing a photo to take.
So when I saw that title...especially the “how to crush a creative rut”…I immediately felt compelled to click on it.
Once I got to the “reconnect with nature” part, I saw a link to “5 steps for creative and flower photography” and clicked on it.
I have ALWAYS loved taking pictures of flowers. It’s something I used to do all time…and yeah, at times, it was set up and forced, and wasn’t always something I took pictures of because I just happened to walk by a flower and it made me stop and smile so I had to snap (the feeling it was bringing me!) it.
The second I started reading it, I was HOOKED, because I could relate to her SO much much!
She said people always ask her if she lives in an area where she’s surrounded by a beautiful field of flowers.
She said she’s not and that she doesn’t usually take pictures of random flowers that she finds growing around outside around her.
She usually photographs flowers that she bought at the grocery store.
And then I thought…OMG!! ME TOO!!!!
Then she said THIS…
“Every Monday I go grocery shopping and take some time to walk around the flower section to see what catches my eye. Usually it’s one type of flower and some random fillers to go with it. I don’t spend a lot of money on this, though.
Another place I search for subjects is my own back yard. I have a few beds of flowers/greens that change a lot during the year and there’s almost always something I can use.
Your subject can be anything, not only beautiful flowers. Even the most uninteresting thing can make the most interesting shot. It’s not unusual for me to shoot dead or droopy flowers!”
And again, I thought, even louder, ME TOO!!!!
Every week, when I’d go to the grocery store, I’d do the same exact thing.
The flowers are always right at the entrance, so I’d go over and look at them and I’d only pick the ones that popped out at me and had me saying, “Oooooo….I LOVE THOSE!”
If I didn’t see anything that stirred a feel good emotion in me, I wouldn’t buy any.
I never bought fillers like she does, but maybe I’ll start looking into that. Ha! :)
But I LOVED doing this!! Buying flowers, from the grocery, every week, for myself, not only helped me to take my camera out more, but they also uplifted me and filled me with SO much JOY as I looked at them every day on my windowsill.
Nature…you ALWAYS do that to me and I absolutely LOVE it!
Last year, with our move to Virginia, I didn’t buy any flowers all year. Sometimes I’d think about it, but flowers weren’t located in an area where I could automatically walk by them AND I thought to myself…
“I don’t think I’m in the mood to buy them because this year, I have the beautiful mountains to look at and take pictures of every day.”
Yep…I was waaaay more into the mountains that surrounded us each and every day last year…SO sorry grocery store flowers! :(
So, yesterday, after reading both blog posts, and knowing I was about to head to grocery store, I said to myself,
“I’m doing it! I’m going to buy flowers today AND I’m going to take pictures of them!”
And wouldn’t you know, there was one bouquet there just waiting for me to pick them up and they were Halloweened themed!!
Yes…they’re not 100% natural…as the orange on them have been painted on to get the fun candy corn color, but I didn’t care…they pulled me in with their fun and festive and perfect-for-Halloween-week-look, so I grabbed them, placed them in the front of my cart and smiled as I continued to grocery shop because they were right in front of my face the entire time.
I mean, really, how can I NOT smile when I’m around flowers! ;)
I came home, unloaded all the groceries and I did what I always used to…cut the stems and placed them in one of my mason jars.
Then I took them outside, because this year, we have the biggest, most gorgeous tree in our backyard, which I knew would give these flowers the perfect lighting they needed as I snapped!!
And, oh my gosh, was I immediately pulled out of my head and into my heart JOY! Holy cow!!
I found myself remembering how much I love doing this and how much I missed doing this!
I was reminded of how much I love to get every angle of them.
How I love to get close up so I can see their absolute perfect detail even more!
And how I love to focus in on some of them, while the other ones are blurred in the background.
But most of all, I love how I was reminded how taking pictures completely helps me to get out of my to-do list head (hello, left brain!) and back into the present moment (hello, right brain!) where I’m 100% focused on every single angle and every single beautiful detail that flowers (and nature and my life!) provide.
Instead of sitting in the house wondering…
“How in the hell am I going to take candid photos again when I have no kids in the house and I’m not living in an area that’s filled with mountains and a Blue Ridge Parkway or a Shenandoah National Park to hike in?”
But here I was, out in my backyard, in a not-so-fall-like-area (hello, Louisiana!), absolutely enjoying these beautiful, fall colored grocery store flowers out on the grass, rocks and mulch and being reminded of how much I absolutely LOVE nature, no matter where I find it or see it!
Yes, hiking the mountains with my BIG girl camera connected me to nature in the most profound way and it nourished my soul like no other, and I miss it dearly!
But picking up these grocery store beauties showed me that just because I’m not living in an environment that isn’t abundant with seasons that provide vibrant colors, changing temperatures and soul nourishing sounds like rain dripping on leaves and birds constantly chirping their most beautiful sounds…
that the beauty of nature and life still surrounds me, no matter where I live, even if it’s sometimes found at a store! ;)
As I snapped every angle, top, side, bottom, close up and far away, I felt myself starting to feel UPlifted and JOY swirling through me, just like when I was taking photos of what I was seeing while on our hikes in Virginia last year.
I was starting to smile more and I was LOVING how all the littlest details of the flowers were making me FEEL HAPPY inside!
And then, when I pulled them up on my computer and I started to edit them, I found myself smiling BIG even more.
Yes, I saw the beauty of the flowers in the grocery store.
And, yes, I saw the beauty of the flowers as I was snapping them in my backyard.
But when I started to edit them, I saw even more of their beauty, that I had missed during those first two moments of connecting with them at the store and in my backyard.
The more I creative I became (taking pictures and then editing them to a way that felt good to me and represented how I saw them in person!) my left brain (past and future…I suck…I don’t do enough!) thoughts got a much needed break and my right brain (present…all is good…life is beautiful!) thoughts BLOOMED!!! BIG TIME!
I saw their details, their colors and their shape even more than when I had when I was picking them up at the store and capturing them with my camera.
It’s SO easy to SEE the way they look real quick and then get back to tending to my to-do list. But when I get my camera, I truly SEE them…100%, because I’m pulled out of my head and into the present moment, where every little detail is shown to me even more!!
Details I would have missed if I didn’t pull out my camera, because I would have just thought, “Oh those are pretty…and then I’d put them in a vase and look at them real quick whenever I’d walk by them real fast.”
But my camera…MY CAMERA allows me to SEE them..BE with them…even more!
Yes, I see the type of flower they are and the color they are, but I also SEE their UNIQUE BEAUTY even more!
I see the way how different some look when they’re fully bloomed and when some are not.
I see just how delicate their petals are, as some are about to fall off and some are not.
I see all the amazing colors that come through at their center…how some are white with green and some are orange and yellow with white coming through.
And most of all, I see how they look from underneath petal…the way they’re attached to the green stem and how detailed it all is.
I see every detail of them! Every single one! Because I’m that present with them!
My camera helps me BE in the present moment more than my mind ever will be!
And my camera reminds me that when I stop and snap the beauty of nature, that I must continue to STOP and BE present even when I don’t have my camera in hand.
Like when I’m cooking dinner and my kids keep coming up to me because they want me to look at something they drew or they want to tell me a fun story about what they did at school that day right that second.
Because for me, it’s SO easy to stay stuck in my head and think…“Oh, not now…I gotta get this dinner ready!! I don’t have time to stop and look or listen to what you have to say right now…can’t you come up to me when I’m done”…when the kids come up to me and I’m super “busy” trying to get things on my to-do list done.
So, again, yes, I can feel uplifted when I see flowers at the store.
Yes, I can feel even more uplifted when I start to photograph them.
And, yes, I can feel uplifted while I’m editing them!
And now, while I look at these beauties on my kitchen counter, I see ALL of their beauty…way more than I did when I spotted them at the store.
And now, when I look at them, I’m absolutely reminded of how important it is for me to get into my CREATIVE right brain, daily, because when I CREATE I’m pulled out my head and brought back into my heart to where my inner JOY is ignited and my negative, stuck in a funk thoughts won’t be so loud and controlling.
And when I do force myself to CREATE (because, yes, my left brain loves to tell my to-do list is WAY more important the getting my creative fun on!), I will ALWAYS be reminded that CREATIVITY helps me BE more present to the beauty that surrounds me, where ever I live…
(As I just typed that…my sweet, elderly neighbor just knocked on the door and gave me a bag of candy for the kids since they won’t be home on Halloween…oh man…talk about BEAUTY right there…it may not be the mountains, but honestly, my heart is overJOYed that we have the nicest neighbors surrounding us…and yeah, even though the leaves don’t turn yellow, red or orange here this time of year and there’s no mountain backdrop every time I drive around town…we have SO many green trees in our neighborhood and we absolutely love everyone we’ve met and there is SO much beauty shining through…and I can’t help but smile BIG as I feel the JOY as I type that! Because I AM SO THANKFUL for that SO much! THANK YOU, UNIVERSE!! THANK YOU!! Ok…back to my blog post! Ha!)
and that it will also help me to EASILY get out of my to-do list thoughts more (even when it’s the craziest time of day and I have two pots on the stove to tend to, and oven to turn off because my timer went off and the food is done all while at the same time my kiddos want to show me their drawings or tell me about their day) and BE more present to my kids, my husband and my life, even when I’m NOT creating and I’m VERY busy making dinner and multi-tasking!
There’s SO much beauty in my life…no matter the environment I live in…abundant with mountains or not! ;)
THANK YOU, Universe for putting those blog posts on my radar, because I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t seen them, I probably wouldn’t have bought these flowers yesterday.
We’ve been here since June and I haven’t bought any flowers…and yeah, I’ve totally walked by them, too. I’ve seen them and thought to go over and get some, but my left brain won because I was like, “umm…not today!” and then immediately getting back to everything that was on my grocery list.
I’d still be stuck in my creative, photography rut, all caught up in my left brain and telling myself there’s nothing to take pictures of anymore and I’d still be making dinner pretending to look at my kiddos drawings and listening to them.
But thanks to those blog posts, the grocery store flowers and my camera (hello, CREATIVITY!), my right brain got some major, MAJOR, nourishment in.
Now I’m ready to keep that creative (right brain!) nourishment alive by getting back into my routine of buying myself beautiful, grocery store flowers again so I can continue to connect to my inner, creative (and LOVING!) self all while FEELing uplifted and JOYful as I admire their beauty and the beauty that fills my life with AND without my camera.
Woohoo!! I’m SO ready!!
And, how cool that they are candy corn colored, too!
Reminds me of the ones I got a few years ago at the same grocery store when we lived in a different area of Louisiana for seven years before heading to Virginia last year. So fun and festive!! Yaaay!
Until next time…
Happy Halloween, friends!
See something that makes you stop and smile. Grab your camera!! It'll slow you down, pull you into the present moment even more and have you SAVORing your JOY feeling even more!! And most of all, it'll connect you to your soul so you can SEE and HEAR the things that you may have passed by (like your kids starting the first day of school!). The camera...it's powerful...especially when it comes to FEELING JOY and BEing more PRESENT! :)
That's WHY I take pictures!! The camera is one of my favorite creative tools that easily pulls me out of my frazzled + overwhelmed mama head so I can fully SAVOR (the feeling of) everything that makes me stop, smile and lights me UP with LOVE (something that's hard for me to do when my mind is running five miles ahead or behind the present moment)
Creativity CALMs my mind, ignites my JOY and slows me down so I can SAVOR everything I LOVE in my life.
Who I am is what I love...SAVOR it!
