Creativity · Photography · Vision

Portraits That Do You Justice

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

To do justice: to treat or show (something or someone) in a way that is as good as it should be.

When we are active in our busy lives every day,

we don’t think about the photographs that ‘live’ after us.

But consider: what photos will family remember you by?

Amateur photos and selfies don’t always do us justice.

Have portraits with vitality and energy to choose from.

Meet someone that values and captures your personality.

My images of families and dynamic couples are calming, inspiring,

and beautifully displayed in elegant albums and framed art.

An amazing energetic now, for valued memory later.

Of you, your loved ones, or your life’s passion.

Images to do you justice.

Dorothy Perry photographs sensitive people and intimate events. Contact her here.

Creativity · Practice · Vision

Eleven-Eleven Alice

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

The art of photography is the continual practice of observing things with a unique vision. But expanding and refining that vision is a creative challenge as well.

We go about daily life distracted by our phones and internal chatter, and mental filters created by our pre-conceived ideas of reality and what should be in it.

Our eyes function with the help of a sensing device called a reticular activator: it picks out the things that we have chosen (or have allowed ourselves) to see.

We all have had the feeling of suddenly noticing things that have been around us all the time – when we allow ourselves to see it, then we can. Instruct your reticular activator to pick out yellow trucks, and they will seem to be everywhere. Rare or uniquely colored objects might take longer, but then your eyes will ‘pick them out’ in advertisements, signs, and packaging.

It also excels with misplaced objects, giving hot/cold feelings or images that ‘suddenly’ guide you to the location. Instead of saying that you ‘lost’ something, say, “I’ll find it’ instead. This encourages your sensing to locate the object that much faster.

And in some cases, it can actually set in motion and create what you desire.

My favorite memory of using this Manifesting skill was the decision that I wanted to own a specific type of car – a vintage Volvo 240 GL.

Gold vintage Volvo 240 GL sedan parked in urban neighborhood.

It happened so rapidly, that the process of seeing to owning that exact type of Volvo took 48 hours, start to finish: a perfect storm of coincidences and circumstances.

I walked out of the Brown Line train station at the moment that this very type of car drove past. It had a “For Sale” sign visible in the side window. The driver got gas at a station across the street. The price was an amount I had available in the bank.

I got to witness this cascade of coincidences in action, and had the exact type of car I desired by that evening. And it was the first in a series of terrific Volvo 240s I have owned – my latest has its own Instagram page! https://www.instagram.com/volvocago/

Creativity energy creates the space and circumstances for success to happen. And to keep my inner eyes working, I shift between different types of perceptive techniques regularly so I have a neutral state of mind that can exist for creative focus, letting go, or just enjoying ‘no mind’ itself.

I call this “Eleven-Eleven Alice”, because I do it at 11:11 and it uses a picture idea from Alice in Wonderland, the illustration of her expanding in a small room.

I also am going to do imaginating (mentally picturing an object in all five senses) to briefly step outside the box.

Before the start, sit quietly, and gently relax your lower jaw. Relax all the muscles descending down your body. Settle down into its weight.

Feel the top of your head touch the ceiling: feel your hair against the ceiling. feel the texture of the trim, the coolness of the paint. Get big so your cheeks, ears press against the windows.

At the same time, expand your body and lower torso. Feel both shoulders widening and filling up all four corners of the room. Feel the smoothness and coolness of the painted wall against your skin. If there is furniture, feel its material as you expand. You are as wide as the room and growing.

Move your vision to other rooms, your lower torso going down several floors. I imagine my feet touching the ground three floors down, my head above my building, slowly looking around. Feel your immensity.

Gaze around as though your body is gargantuan: a full buildings’ tall. Take giant breaths. In this state, be grand as you feel this gigantic self.  

Then come back slowly, gently back down into your body. Stay neutral, eyes soft focused. If you can, let more time pass and feel this nice vibe.

Expanding and enlarging the self allows you to step out of your mind and daily worries, calms the chatter, and is something you can enter and re-enter in different circumstances. Widen yourself when you are sitting on a bus or in a car, practice in public when you are sitting in an office, be BIG when you are talking to someone.

There are times I do combine it with an intention to let things go, or to send out an energy of happiness to everyone in this surrounding vicinity.

But most often I feel its usefulness in creating a fluid, more creative state of mind –

and 11:11 happens twice every day.

If ‘Eleven-Eleven Alice’ becomes a favorite for you, I would love to hear it.

Dorothy Perry photographs sensitive people and intimate events. Contact her here.

Creativity · Photography · Vision

Photos for Feelings

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

The image was a beautiful moment in the ceremony, deep within the photo, taken by a guest in the wedding party.

The groom is a photographer friend, and I know so well the axiom that “the shoemaker’s kids have no shoes,”

and how a photographer may sometimes never own any decent photos of their own important life events.

I saw another moment within the image – to be ‘brought out’ and brightened, so that it can be seen – and felt.

The difference between retouching and my creative ‘caress’ is that I use a quieter, more intuitive eye to see the newer photograph inside the original one, not just a cropping. I wrote another post about the technique in a June 6, 2020 post, Finding A Something More.

So happily honored to see that the bride posts this as her profile photo online. I wish Daphne and Jeff Happy Anniversary, and many dances together to come!

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer specializing in custom family portraits, modern headshots, & personal branding for women and executives.

 Contact her for commissioned work here. Thank you.

Creativity · Vision

Cartooned Culture

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Anyone who knows me knows I love cartoons!

Some make me laugh, and some make me go “ahhh,” with tears in my eyes.

This cartoon is “Les Triplettes de Belleville,” by Sylvain Chomet. I saw this with a friend years ago in a Chicago theatre, and it remains one of the very few movies that I have viewed more than once.

It is a poetic animated story with very few spoken words. Imagine a plot that brings together cycling, a small family, and three quirky sisters who are part musicians, part muses, and, when necessary, molls familiar with the darker sides of Belleville/Parisian nightlife.

There are some picturing of rougher things of life, so it is not a movie for children, but perhaps saved for when they can appreciate it: the story, characters, and lovingly drawn details create a world that stays with you long after the cartoon is over.

The emotion of amusement also creates access to consciousness, a powerful way to allow the ‘firing of the synapses’ that lead to fresh new ideas and thought patterns.

Do you have any favorites that have this evergreen quality? I’d love to see them!

Keep laughing – watch cartoons!!

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago photographer capturing the closeness of todays’ urban families. Contact her here. 

Creativity · Energy · Perry Portrait Art · Photography · Practice

The Power Of One

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

One of the most read posts I sent out on my WooWay personal newsletter mailing, called The Internet is Forever (Asterix) involved dealing with loss of the photographs I took for the Chicago Reader when the newspaper issues were digitized.

In this, I wrote about my discovery that examples of my early photography career with the Chicago Reader were no longer visible in their online archives…anywhere.

Due to size or intellectual property issues, they imported the articles, but did not include the photographs from earlier editions of the paper.

The email started with dealing with the reality of the situation – but at the end* celebrated the various soft and hard skills learned with the experience.

Fast forward nine months, and through the wonders of Instagram, I get a ‘ping’ from an artist group I photographed in 1992, updated in a Gossip Wolf column. (the article here.)

He Who Walks Three Ways

After I did a quiet appreciative happy dance, I decided to update the story. In addition to the pleasant surprise in being led to one of my photos, it was also a little reminder to me to give life’s irritations or obsessions up to the body’s wisdom, and let things happen as they will.

*Looking with the attitude that there is nothing to panic about or ‘fix’ is a mindset that allows for quiet personal wonder, delight, and awe, even within an ordinary day.

I found that by not fighting and resisting and replaying the memories accompanied by emotions that would suddenly float in and make themselves felt, they changed or would leave by themselves. No examining or selecting anything for further review, I stayed present with no judgement as to what came up, and it would just evaporate.

Practice presence in all different types of situations to have the grounded feeling of being inside your body. Feel the heat through your fingers, feel your toes against the floor, use your senses. Even if at times you conduct your day on autopilot, make time to connect with yourself through the day.

I invite you to subscribe to my ‘Woo Way’ newsletter for intuitive counterintuitive strategies to help sense the world around you at your best. The sign up link is here. I look forward to meeting you there.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago photographer of peoples’ personal lives and celebrations. Contact her at perryportraitart@gmail.com or here. Thank you.

Practice · Vision

Putting It Out There

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

The most valuable lesson I have learned from my mentors is that

A portrait has to be framed.

so your children can grow up

seeing their lives celebrated in picture form

in art they see around their home.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago photographer of family portraits, modern headshots and personal milestone celebrations. Contact her here.

Creativity · Photography · Practice · Vision

Sane Spaces

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

“I’m going to miss this show.”  

This student used to come to the UIC African American Art Gallery

to do her home work and study along with other students:

making art, practicing yoga, and on Finals week,

even eating breakfast there!

It occurred to me that I had made an art show

that successfully created a zone of energy.

For four months, 11 photographs in the AACC gallery

imbued the space with energy,

serving as an artistic ‘power station’ –

and creating a room that felt really nice to rest in.

This show working with vibration worked beyond my expectations,

and created an idea for future exhibitions, rich with potential.

Dorothy Perry can be contacted here.

Consciousness · Creativity · Photography · Vision

Quirky Light

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Quirky light falls on you

in a special way. Beautifully.

When it’s time, I’d love to photograph you in natural and unique light.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago based photographer of intimate family stories.

Contact her at perryportraitart@gmail.com.

Creativity · Photography · Vision

Driven

Dorothy Perry

Custom made USB drives

can hold art,

transfer art,

and be art.

I am driven to choose tactile, natural feeling materials

for portraits and documentary that are uniquely personal.

When it’s your special occasion or gathering of loved ones,

I would be honored to be your photographer.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago based photographer of unique moments and personalities.

Arrange a session here.

Photography · Practice · Vision

Better With Age

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

I have a studio photograph of my parents as a middle aged married couple,

a posed portrait with her best outfit on, leaning on my dad’s back,

both with pleasant, fixed smiles. 

This is the same pose we always have of ourselves through school, printed in the yearbooks, and remembered by friends.  

But years later the children have only these photographs to recall their fathers, mothers, and beloved partners.  What is remembered of their sparkle and vitality?

It is no accident the photograph of my parents my sisters share the most is one of them as childhood sweethearts in their youth and energy, graceful in the naturalness of that candid, immediate moment.  

And it is kismet that years later, I find it is the seed of my creative technique in my search to capture real emotions for the romantic parents I love to photograph.

It stems from my desire to capture livelier, more engaged and energized portraits of mothers and fathers, photographing parents as the childhood sweethearts and lifelong soulmates they are.

My portraits are moments between two people in love, showing tenderness and affection. Glowing from true feelings inside for life and each other.

This intimate portrait is a gift that keeps on giving.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer specializing in custom family portraits, modern headshots, & personal branding for women and executives.

Contact Dorothy here.