Tag Archives: writing

Sunshine on a Stem

I spied it from afar as I was heading to my car this morning. And I had to stop. Right in the middle of our gasping-for-water, drought stricken lawn a dandelion stood tall and yellow, sunshine on a stem.

I’ve definitely become obsessed with dandelions…in all their forms. They represent the tenacity, resourcefulness, and strength I want to help cultivate in learners and teachers. Learners as hot house flowers that have to be carefully controlled and cultivated seem too fragile to become the innovators and explorers we need in the world. Teachers are often portrayed as gardeners, nurturing their crop of learners…but I’m wanting to reject that image too, it seems to take all the energy and agency away from students in that scenario.

Like dandelions, I want learners to thrive where they live. I want them to land in places where they can dig in and grow tall. And I want teachers to be like dandelions too, not dependent on specialized tools but instead drawing on the processes that honor writers and tinkerers and explorers. And when they happen to be plucked by the curious child who takes a big breath and blows on the puff, I hope the wishes fly far and wide and land on fertile ground so that these tenacious and resourceful survivors populate our classrooms and our world.

Rubbing Elbows with Nature

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The Wabi Sabi photo-a-day challenge has me looking at my surroundings differently. I find myself looking for beauty that presents itself in unusual ways.

Today I had the opportunity to head out around the UCSD campus for a short learning walk in conjunction with a demo presented by a kindergarten teacher in our SDAWP Summer Institute. She explained how nature inspires her own writing and some of the ways she inspires writing with her students. As I headed out with the charge to spend some time in nature, tuning in the sights, sounds, smells, and feels, I also had my phone/camera in hand ready to capture evidence of my experience.

Down the metal stairs, past the row of ATM machines, across the cement walkways, sandwiched between the architectural wonder of the Geisel Library and the tall buildings that are Warren College, lies a secret garden. Garden often conjures lush foliage and brilliant blooms, but the space lives under a canopy of Eucalyptus trees. And to my surprise, growing from a fallen trunk were three new tall, thin trees.

Heading off to the Snake Path, an art installation leading to the library inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost, I found the natural beauty and familiar smells of the native plants that thrive in our arid, coastal climate. With phone/camera in hand, I noticed the contrast of the angular, metal and glass library poking up behind the fragrant, wild-ranging brush.

As I continued my walk, I came around the front of the library and found myself drawn to to the barrier poles laying on their side…with flowers growing nearby.

As I headed back to our meeting room, I noticed another of our participants lounging on some large boulders and working on her writing. I admit, I snuck up on her–wanting to capture the image that tells a story in one frame. (She does know about the photo…and has approved of it!)

I find myself looking for the Wabi Sabi of nature rubbing shoulders with the not always so beautiful man-made. And some of that Wabi Sabi I noticed was not only visual…I heard the buzzes of insects and the chirps of birds joining with the melody of car engines, back-up beeps, and snippets of conversation in the songs that are uniquely UCSD.

Where do you find nature rubbing shoulders with man made structures? Have you noticed any Wabi Sabi?

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!

How to: Inspiring Writing

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“…smell the sea, and feel the sky

let your soul and spirit fly…”

Jim Morrison

With the end of the school year and the beginning of the SDAWP Invitational Summer Institute beginning next week, I find myself with a small window of unstructured time. Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of “work” to do…but I am determined to play this week and the CLMOOC is helping me.

This week’s “make” is to make a how-to. You might notice that I tend not to follow directions in a literal way, but as I headed off to join the SDAWP Young Writers’ in Nature campers on a field trip to the Scripp’s Coastal Reserve today, I was thinking about how to write under the influence of nature…and science…and children.

As we headed off on our walking field trip, I already felt inspired. There is something about kids with notebooks and their innate curiosity that sparks my own learning. The kids had been learning about native plants–a favorite topic of mine (see this blog post) and Janis (their teacher) encouraged them to explain what they had learned to me as we walked. I loved listening to them describe coyote brush and its adaptations and watching their keen eyes on the lookout for lemonade berry.

I love the earnestness of young writers at work. This little guy caught my eye…and I love that he is framed with the gorgeous blue of the Pacific Ocean behind him.

And I decided to push out of my comfort zone and make a video of today’s experience. I suppose you can loosely define it as a how to write under the influence of nature (and science and children) video.

Here’s a few lines from my own writing under the influence today:

Sitting on the cliff looking out into the vast endless ocean I see clouds crouch on the horizon, retreating from the blaze of the mid-morning sun. Relentless breezes dance with my hair and with the natives on the cliffs. Children hunch over the words that pour from their pencil tips, inspired by the sights, sounds, smells, and touch of this visit to Mother Nature’s living room.

And here is my video capturing the experience of writing under the influence of nature and writing and kids.

Summer Manifesto

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There’s nothing like the CLMOOC to get the creative juices flowing…and the inspiration turned up high. Ideas are arriving–pouring in fact–in flash flood proportions. So I’m working hard to use the inspiration and not let the flood of ideas overwhelm and distract me.

This Summer Manifesto was posted this weekend…and I knew I would take it up and create one of my own–early in the summer, before my work pushes the good intentions from my priority list. I hope this manifesto will be something I can return to throughout the summer to help remind me of my intentions.

So here goes:

Summer Manifesto

Spend time outdoors every day: exploring with my camera, walking/hiking for exercise, enjoying the sun and sea breezes…

Explore with my camera: try new strategies and techniques, go places in my community I haven’t yet visited, and see familiar places in new ways

Celebrate moments: take the time to breathe and laugh in the moment, even when they are squeezed between obligations and obstacles

Play: find the playful moments in everything I do…I even want to make brushing my teeth more like play!

Make stuff: digitally and physically, and keep trying even if it isn’t beautiful…and even share those “makes” that don’t quite turn out

Try something new: even if it’s scary!

And most of all, enjoy my family, quiet time, and a bit of adventure!

Welcome summer!

(I originally composed this manifesto in Noteography in my attempt to tty something new and make it more beautiful. It offered Twitter as a way to publish it…and here’s my first try at embedding a Tweet on my blog post. If you know a better way to use Noteography or some other application for similar purposes…I’d love to learn from you!)

Summer Manifesto https://t.co/HyrbMgaYnX pic.twitter.com/VJoKpYEmkD

— Kim Douillard (@kd0602) June 17, 2014

Weekly Photo Challenge: In Flight

Garden Magic

One Photo, Two Ways: June’s Photo a Day Challenge

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Not too long ago a friend of mine posted this article on my Facebook page…with the message, “Thought of you.” The article opens to unfold images of famous places…one the way you are used to seeing it, and then another from an entirely different perspective. Some are unexpected juxtapositions of the classics with modern life like the Pantheon through the windows of McDonalds while others expand your view like the picture of a tree-lined path in Central Park that pans out to allow you to see the park in the larger view of the city.

I love the ways that photography helps me see the world…and present the world in ways that are beautiful, unexpected, unique, and interesting. And I like that I can take the same picture in many different ways. One of the most important lessons that I continue to learn as a photographer is that it’s up to me to create that image through my lens.

You don’t take a photograph, you make it. – Ansel Adams

As I considered this month’s challenge, I wanted the opportunity for us to play around with the idea of taking the same shot/image and doing something different with it. So…will this mean posting two photos each day? I think maybe it will. And to encourage this experimentation, let’s try a different category of creation each week.

June 1-8: Frame of Reference

Every day take two shots of your subject, each with a different frame a reference. In this example I took this shot of the lighthouse in the distance. It shows the rocky jetty…and people walking on it toward the lighthouse. The second shot is much closer and captures more of the movement in the water. You might use a collage app to post your pictures side by side, or you can post each separately.

June 9-15: Cropping

For this week, take a photo each day and use a cropping technique to create two different shots…the original and the cropped version. With cropping you can eliminate some of what we can see in the photo, change the place where we see the central image, or draw our eye in a new way to where you want us to place our focus. My original photo here was of the hot air balloon rising. My iPhone camera struggles a bit with distance shots…and there is a lot of background in the picture. Using Camera+ I was able to crop the photo, eliminating the ground, the trees, and the other balloon, focusing your eye on the balloon in the sky.

June 16-22: Filters

This week use a filter (or two or three) to create a new version of your photo. There are many apps that offer filters…from Instagram and Camera+ to Vintique, Picfx, Snapseed and more. Be playful…try something you hadn’t considered before. With this photo, I loved the original and the way the tall palms play with the low-lying clouds. And then I was playing with Picfx and found this brown filter that makes the clouds even more prominent.

June 23-30: Use a combination of techniques

For the last week of June, try combining techniques to create a photo two (or three) ways. You might crop and filter, shoot from different angles and crop…explore the ways that layering techniques change the composition and effect of your photo. Here’s one I tried a few different ways. The original was a long shot of the Cleveland skyline. In the second version I cropped to eliminate the extraneous foreground and used a “scene” in Camera+ to brighten the photo. And then in the third I imported the cropped and brightened version into another app to apply a filter.

So now it’s your turn. Experiment with creating your own versions of one photo, two ways. After you shoot, post a photo (or both) each day with the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices to Twiiter, Instagram, Flicker, Google+ and/or Facebook (the more the better!), so that we can all enjoy the posts. If you are game for some extra action, compose a blog post about a photo, a week’s worth of photos, write a photo essay, try a learning walk, or write some poetry or even a song! 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 beginning, it’s the perfect time for some playfulness and experimentation…try something with your photos that you have never tried before! You can post every day, once a week, or even sporadically throughout the month…whatever works in your life. Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Get Close

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Just yesterday I noticed some unusual mushrooms growing in the garden box outside my classroom door. I snapped a quick picture (you can see it on my instagram feed) and went into the classroom to prepare for the day. Later in the day when I looked into the box, the mushrooms were no longer there. Did someone pluck them out? This morning I looked in the box and noticed just a couple of these same mushrooms growing. I decided to take the time to attach my macro lens and get close to these mushrooms. And I’m glad I did…once again, they seemed to vanish as the day began to warm.

And sometimes I like to get close even without the aid of the macro lens. The pines I met while I was in Ohio were different from the varieties I am used to. I got close to this one as I looked through at the green beyond…and green like this is very unusual where I live!

Sometimes there is an unexpected invitation to get close. I couldn’t resist this sign asking museum visitors to lean in and pick up the items in the box…to really examine them closely. It’s such a different message than the “look only with your eyes” message that is so common.

I’m not sure about this fence. I got close to the fence…but is the message of the fence to stay back, don’t get too close?

And sometimes I use cropping as a way of getting even closer than I’m able to with my ordinary camera lens. In this case I took a photo of my oatmeal and coffee in the carry tray…and then cropped to make it fill the frame. The other photos above all are unedited…but this one has been cropped (but no filters applied).

So this week’s challenge is to get close. You might pull our your macro lens and try your hand at magnifying something small…or you might lean in and see how close you can get. You might even think about getting close more metaphorically…how else might a photo “read’ close? You can also consider using an editing tool to create the feeling of getting close from a photo that wasn’t all that close.

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #close for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

So snuggle up and get close! I can’t wait to see what you find when you get close with your lens.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

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Have you ever found yourself with your head in the clouds, looking up, noticing what is above you rather than what is beneath your feet? It’s been that kind of week for me, maybe residue from last week’s fires and the sky watching that goes with it. As our weather cooled and returned to May-like temperatures, puffy white clouds began to appear. I found myself taking pictures of the sky, trying to capture the lightness and depth and roundness. I noticed on Instagram that others were also noticing the sky and the clouds.

I stopped on my way to school yesterday because i was mesmerized by the blueness of the sky and the way the clouds were sitting low and near the ocean. There’s this spot with a row of tall palm trees that begs me to stop and take a picture or two. Yesterday’s was of these tall trees with the clouds sitting low, beneath them. If you look closely, you can see the sliver of the moon up above.

But I know that I’m not always looking at the clouds with I am looking up. I couldn’t resist the “up” shot of this tall church in downtown Nashville. I love the way it seems you can look up forever as the building narrows the closer it gets to the sky.

I’ve discovered amazing ceilings by looking up. I noticed some interesting ceiling tiles in a restaurant last weekend…and shot this picture of the gray on white structure looking up inside the atrium of the San Diego Natural History Museum.

And sometimes up means catching a glimpse at the sun reflecting off a bubble. This one happened to be a big bubble that a guy was making at the beach…not by blowing but by using a big rope-like wand to throw out giant bubbles. He stood up high and the bubbles floated just above the heads of children who couldn’t wait to poke a finger at them.

So this week’s challenge is to figure out how to capture “up” with your photos. You might be up high looking down or be on the ground noticing something up above. Maybe it’s an image that makes you feel up…or like me, you might just have your head in the clouds. You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #up for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

Have fun with up this week. I can’t wait to see what’s “up” through your lens!