Tag: Creativity

Photography

The Practice

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

I follow a writer and influencer named Maxpein on X.

The curated posts always raise the bar,

but this one vibrated with beauty and poetry.

Without force, I am simply suggesting

tune in – the time is now.

Integrate your tools into your being.

Practice meditation without music, incense & oils.

Practice opening your heart without cacao or chocolate treats.

Practice multidimensional sight without plants.

Practice yoga without a mat.

Practice ceremony without feathers, guitars & drums.

Practice clearing without sage.

Practice enhancing, amplifying and protecting without crystals.

Practice without any aids…

just You and the expanded You.

Practice conversing without convincing.

Practice being without doing.

Practice feeling without analyzing.

Practice experiencing without criticism.

Practice listening without projecting.

Practice thinking without a story.

Practice speaking without parroting.

Practice seeing without lights.

Practice dancing without a DJ.

Practice getting there without GPS.

Practice creating without a laptop.

Practice connecting without a phone.

Practice Love without conditions.

Practice. ~ Kamau Abayomi

Dorothy Perry is a photographer of family happiness. Contact her here.

Counterintuition · Energy · Photography · Practice · Relationship · Vision

Pleased to Meeting You!

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

As a small business photographer, I see people working together to provide the best experiences their own businesses can offer. All the time.

My special skill is in capturing the brief, but beautiful moments of interactions, outreach, networking and personal celebrations with better than normal portraits with the participants of your distinctive event.

This good feeling image, taken during the networking of the Northside Networking Group, captures their natural, engaging images for social media needs.

 Contact Dorothy Perry for commissioned work here.

Photography · Practice · Vision

Heart of the Matter

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Beauty in things exists in the mind

which seeks to see it.

Even a clove of garlic.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer.  Contact her here.

Practice · Vision

Independence Day

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.

~Rumi

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

Contact her studio for commissioned work here.  

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.

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.

Photography · Practice

About Such Things

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Paraphrased from Philippians 4:8:

“…Whatever is true, whatever is noble,

whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,

— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy —

think about such things.”

My focus as a witness and photographer

is to bring a good vibe into the event

and capture its effect on others.

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

Contact her studio for commissioned work here.  

Photography · Practice · Vision

Cleaning the Viewfinder

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

My website for a time had been with a company

that offers the ability to add and change things at will

without waiting for my webmaster to do it.

Today, in addition to changing ALL the fonts (!),

I had been tweaking the info on my contact form. 

The item in question was in scheduling a screening call, to see if we clicked,

and to make an appointment to meet, so over a calmer, more relaxed time,

I could see them and strategize how to help.  

Just contemplating the sentence that I could not discuss price before I understood the parameters of the project flooded my nervous system

with past memories of all the people that had done JUST THAT.

This suddenly seemed like a perfect metaphor

for the way I felt people were seeing me and my work,

and filled me with such a sudden, heated surge of memory,

I had to step away from the computer until I cooled down.

But instead of giving in to the part of me

that wanted to let them all ‘talk to the finger,’

I let myself finally feel all these emotions all the way through.

The common thread that ran through all of these incidents

was a lack of boundaries and ‘backbone’,

letting my easy-going nature be misinterpreted as weakness.

I am in a profession I love, and I want to continue to be in a profession I love.

So it is my responsibility to keep searching out the gaps in my protocols and policies,

and strengthen them so that hidden feeling does not steal joy

and cause me to become cynical or embittered.

Though these things have indeed happened, 

each step today becomes the next one tomorrow.  

I saw that my part in this is slower & more connected communication. 

To not be rushed or in a hurry to close the deal.

To know that not everyone who wants my work is my ideal client. 

To know my ‘deal-breakers’ and be able to stick to them.  To listen to my gut.

And to keep a regular practice of ‘dusting the cobwebs’ that build up in the corners

so I am able to be ready, whatever happens,

with clean sensors in my cameras – and in me.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer.

 Contact her here.