Tag Archives: ordinary

Beyond Paint by Number: October’s Photo-a-Day Challenge

Oranges, browns, yellows, reds, greens…the colors of fall are legendary. Leaves turn, pumpkins grow, candles flicker, and we can see the sunset as we head for home after the work day. In the midst of all this spectacular and extraordinary display, we live our mostly ordinary lives. So what do we take photos of? How do we challenge ourselves to pay attention to the colors and wonders that only October can bring?

Let’s spend October painting what we see through our lens by paying attention to the extraordinariness of the ordinary. I used the term paint by number to play with that idea of the hum drum ordinary of taking that same uninspiring photo over and over again. To avoid that burnout of boredom, you’ll need to pay close attention to what your photo might be if you move in a bit closer, frame it a little differently, or look under the rock instead of just at it! I’ve come up with a prompt for each of the numbered days of this month to suggest an idea for you to paint through your lens…by taking a photo. With the extraordinary of the ordinary in mind, here are a few of my paintings for inspiration…

These red converse hightops highlight the shift to fall…and notice the hat with a splash of orange sitting on the floor under the chair. (And you might even notice the other kid with the florescent yellow shoes in the distance!)

A walk on some hiking trails last weekend brought the dry and scratchy brush into full view…along with a tiny splash of color provided by the monkey flowers.

I love the warmth and glow of the sun on the cliffs bringing out the oranges and reds that often go unnoticed.

And what do you think of these whimsical pink stripes on the outstretched arms of the reader holding her book just so as her wispy bangs obscure her eyes and brush the side of her face?

Saturday’s amber brew was a perfect match for the locally grown veggies on the pizza…and a great way to view the community outside the window.

Don’t you love all the hues of green this painter made using only the primary colors and a dab or two of white?

And I love the layers of oranges and yellows of this early fall sunset framed by the lifeguard tower. If you look closely, you can see the people along the edge of the surf enjoying the last days of summer.

So let’s go beyond “paint by number” and explore the extraordinariness of the ordinary. Here’s a list of prompts to help you look in some new ways…or create your own prompt and share it with the rest of us!

1. brown

2. dry

3. scratchy

4. wispy

5. orange

6. hollow

7. alive

8. dark

9. growing

10. yellow

11. thumps

12. falling

13. spooky

14. lit

15. red

16. fresh

17. spicy

18. morning

19. crisp

20. setting

21. harvest

22. scary

23. hue

24. flicker

25. outside

26. under

27. golden

28. light

29. stacked

30. delicate

31. glow

Once you go beyond painting by numbers and take that shot, post a photo each day with the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices to Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, Google+ and/or Facebook (the more the better!), so that we can all enjoy the posts. If you are game for some more playfulness, compose a blog post about a photo, a week’s worth of photos, write a photo essay, make a video or slideshow or try a learning walk! You are invited to create a pingback by linking to this url or post your blog address in the comment section. It’s fun for me to see what others are doing with the same prompts I am using!

So push past the ordinary, beyond paint by numbers and discover the extraordinary in your everyday routines. You can post every day, once a week, or even sporadically throughout the month…whatever works in your life. You can play this game by posting your pictures in the order of the prompts or post the one you find on the day you find it. You get to make your own rules! Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them! So go out and use you lens to start painting! I can’t wait for you to share what you are seeing through your lens!

Finding Beauty in the Ordinary: July’s Wabi Sabi Photo-a-Day Challenge

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Summer is about the ordinary, it’s often the time we rediscover our playful selfs as we encourage children (and maybe ourselves) to run through the lawn sprinklers, lick popsicles from the ice cream truck, and spit watermelon seeds as we sit on the front porch. We roll up our sleeves, walk barefoot, and sip glass after glass of iced tea in tall frosted glasses that drip, almost crying with the pleasing coolness on a hot, summer day.

I first heard of Wabi Sabi from my friend Susan a few years ago when she asked her students to focus on the ordinary in research projects they were doing in her middle school English class. I remember how excited she was that they were discovering the beauty in the “old school”—typewriters, rotary dial phones, handwriting…and so much more than I can’t even begin to remember now.

Wikipedia offers us this definition:

Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”.

My photography has heightened my awareness of the complexities of beauty in the ordinary as I have learned to tune my eye to seek out the familiar in new ways. So when Margit gifted me with the picture book, Wabi Sabi by Mark Weibstein, I found myself thinking about the Wabi Sabi around me. Weibstein pairs his story of a cat named Wabi Sabi with Haiku, following the Americanized three-line, 5-7-5 syllable pattern, that helps the definition-seeking cat understand its name…and adds this definition, for us slower to understand folks, as well:

Wabi Sabi: a way of seeing the world. It finds beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest, and mysterious. It can be a little dark, but it is also warm and comfortable. It may best be understood as a feeling rather than as an idea.

The more I have been thinking about this concept of Wabi Sabi, the more I want to explore it more intentionally through my lens.

Here’s a few of my ideas…along with a Haiku attempt with each. Each of these represents my interpretation of Wabi Sabi, an appreciation of the imperfect, often fleeting beauty I find through my lens. Letting 17 syllables speak for me is a challenge, but an interesting one, creating another layer of Wabi Sabi for me.

A flurry and munch!

Time for posing and sunning

Scaly modeling

Purple mountains stand

Off in the distance watching

Both desert and beach

It’s a hard knock life

Reflecting privilege’s promise

Strong enough to thrive

Kegs and art mingle

Chatting on a street corner

Exchanging cultural news

And to stretch my exploration (and yours too) I have come up with a list of potential prompts or categories to consider. (I notice that I tend toward nature for my photographic exploration of beauty–these prompts are meant to push my thinking and seeing in new ways.)

1. On the corner

2. Nature

3. People

4. Celebrate

5. Inside

6. Under

7. Home

8. Outside

9. Places

10. Animals

11. Food

12. Personal

13. Things

14. Mood

15. Looking up

16. Sitting down

17. Looking down

18. Early

19. Growing

20. Morning

21. Sound

22. Growing

23. Feeling

24. Places

25. Night

26. Light

27. Hot

28. Early

28. Travel

29. Between

30. Smell

31. Icy

So now it’s your turn. Explore what Wabi Sabi means to you as you examine the ordinary in your life this summer. After you shoot, post a photo each day with the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices to Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, Google+ and/or Facebook (the more the better!), so that we can all enjoy the posts. Try your hand at an accompanying Haiku and explore how it expands, defines, or changes the meaning of the image you share. You are invited to create a pingback by linking to this url or post your blog address in the comment section. It’s fun for me to see what others are doing with the same prompts I am using!

With summer in full swing, it’s the perfect time for some playfulness and experimentation…look for beauty and the unexpected in the ordinary–let it surprise and delight you! You can post every day, once a week, or even sporadically throughout the month…whatever works in your life. You can play this game by posting your pictures in the order of the prompts or post the one you find on the day you find it. You get to make your own rules! Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them!

A Closer Look at the Ordinary

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Sometimes we take things for granted. Especially those ordinary things that we are so accustomed to that we almost don’t even notice their usefulness or necessity. I’ve been reminded to pay attention to the ordinary in a couple of ways lately.

A blogger I follow (who takes some spectacular photos!) mentioned in a post recently that she was participating in a macro photo challenge…and was reminded that macro is not all about flowers and bugs. That prompted me to put the macro lens on my phone/camera this morning and to snap some macro shots of ordinary things around my house.

The zipper on my sweatshirt immediately attracted my attention, I like seeing how the teeth interconnect.

I noticed the banana…and focused my lens on the dark end. It is definitely more interesting than I originally thought!

And then since I wrote about being more playful about ordinary things like brushing my teeth in my Summer Manifesto yesterday, I couldn’t resist a quick shot of the bristles…and the toothpaste tube!

Later today while I was outside on a long walk–of the exercise persuasion–I found myself thinking about the NWP radio show I taped today. The show focused on formative assessment and a resource, an e-book, that NWP colleagues, Beth Rimer from Ohio and Terri McAvoy from Missouri, have put together to help their writing project colleagues and other educators understand and use formative assessment effectively…in classrooms and in professional development. (The e-book will be available on the NWP website on June 26th…and you can hear the radio show that same evening!)

I realized in my work with Terri and Beth (I acted as their coach and editor…and cheerleader!) that formative assessment is one of the taken for granted, ordinary practices that becomes nearly invisible–even to those who use it well–and totally unacknowledged and often dismissed by those who aren’t familiar with its powerful outcomes. What I love most about the new e-book, Formative Assessment as a Compass: Looking at Student Work as an Intentional Part of Ongoing Professional Development, is that it shines a light on all the reasons this is an essential practice for educators–in classrooms and in professional development. Like my zipper and my toothbrush, it’s easy to overlook formative assessment. It’s not flashy and doesn’t get much press, but effective educators understand that paying attention to learners–what they “get” and what they don’t–is essential to planning for effective teaching and requires a willingness to abandon the carefully created lesson plans and attend to the learners in the moment.

Since working with Beth and Terri, I have been more aware of the use of formative assessment in my classroom and I can’t wait to use this resource in my work with my SDAWP colleagues. Like a macro lens, this e-book will help people look more closely, examining the details that are often overlooked and considering intentional and systematic practices that support learners (and teachers too!).

What of the ordinary are you overlooking or taking for granted? How will you take a closer look and consider the consequences of doing without this thing? I’m glad for reminders to pay attention in different ways…to make the familiar new, allowing me to appreciate what I might otherwise dismiss as ordinary.

Celebrating the Ordinary

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I wasn’t going to post today…and if you’ve been following me you will know that is significant. In the last 98 days I have only not posted on one day, and the practice of writing and posting each day has become very important, so when I decide not to post it feels like a major decision. And then I got a tweet from my friend Janis (check out her blog!) pointing me to Ruth Ayres’ Saturday Celebrations (this is the practice week).

This week I have been celebrating the ordinary. You can see it in my blog posts here and here. And today was a blissfully ordinary day. I slept in, spent a quiet morning puttering about, ran a few errands, had lunch with my hubby, ran a few more errands…and bought a new book. Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo. The first few chapters are promising… elements of graphic novels right in the novel itself! It will be my bedtime reading tonight.

This month for #sdawpphotovoices we are using writing as our photo prompt. And while writing is valuable to me…creating interesting photographs that reflect writing has been challenging. How do you make something ordinary, like writing, look like art? I’ve been experimenting with cropping and filters to get some new and different effects. Here is collage of a few of of my photos from this month.

So thanks, Janis, for the nudge to think about what I have to celebrate this week…and for the nudge to write and post today.

What are you celebrating this week?