Tag: Dorothy Perry Portrait

A Better Truth
Creativity · Photography · Vision

A Better Truth

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Sometimes candids need to look a little less candid-y.

The photo is from a snow filled time in Chicago when my daughter had come from Seattle for a holiday visit. We went to The French Market, my favorite place in the city to have lunch at a place that had Freitkoten: a way of making french fries my son really liked.

It was a rare and precious meeting with my kids that I tried to record on my phone, but my photos had resulted in the ‘selfie stretch’, enlarging the head of the person on the outside. Not only was it enlarged, but tilted as well.

I looked at it every day on my fridge, but when I considered making it a little nicer…I looked at it like a project I was making for a client I wanted to thrill.

What could help improve it, while changing it as little as needed?

Just what is needed.

Perhaps you have photos that have a quirk or two that keep you from enjoying them fully. There is no harm at all in gentle changes to do what improves them for you.

The truth, made a little bit better (smile!)

I would love to hear if that is a current project for you as well. My video chat consultation is free: schedule a time to talk on my Contact Page.

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!

The Digital “Caress”
Creativity · Photography · Practice · Vision

The Digital “Caress”

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

I don’t usually correct people’s images when I see them online in media – it is my observation that people upload what they choose to, and adjusting them is sometimes a second thought.

But I really like seeing the joy of people who have good images of their loved ones. Like an art restorer uncovering years of age and grime, I love to see the sparkle that’s been there all the time.

Sophie has devoted her life to creating extraordinary products that aid with spiritual development.

In this post she published an image of her younger self, an open smile under the flat yellow-sepia tone of film photographs of our past.

I really like the intimacy of looking at faces closely, and bringing the details back into awareness. Like a remastered record from your past, you can finally enjoy these images with refreshed beauty and memory.

I don’t consider it only restoring. It is a loving ‘digital caress’ from someone who is aware of the positive energy a good portrait of a loved one can have.

I sent Sophie the new image, with the apology of taking the liberty of changing it. And I am honored to say that she loves it!

My family has several beloved prints of my parents that have cracks in them so severe that the surface has disappeared and it will have to be reconstructed. I look forward to creating a renewed set of these favorite photos for my sisters and family to enjoy again.

Do you have older and damaged images? My digital ‘caress’ can take old family and favorite images and make them bright and beautiful again. Contact me here to look to see what I can do for yours!

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

Eye Contact
Photography · Vision

Eye Contact

Dorothy Perry

Some kids will be in need of others adult help to manage their lives all their lives. Some will need to have coaches, practicing, extra encouragement to try something in unfamiliar situations, using social skills others take for granted.

Love makes everything grow!

And in my life, it was 100% worth it. Seeing my guy Artist with his graduating class is abundance in presence, representing years of adapting to continual change and independence in my life and his with optimism, patience, and gratitude.

I speak for all good things for the tremendous special ed teachers we have encountered in critical times through the educational system, helping me ask the questions and meet other parents traversing their children’s futures.

I say Thank You to finding these stellar souls in his journey into adulthood.

Dorothy Perry photographs warm moments in family life. Contact her here.

Walk in Beauty
Photography · Practice · Vision

Walk in Beauty

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

I find beauty all around me.

I would love to find it for you, too.  

Portraits and events that capture life’s freshness

in spirited images.

Dorothy Perry sees things beautifully. Contact, here.

Creativity · Photography · Vision

Seeing the Feeling

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Do you have a favorite photograph

that brings you back to the exact moment of a place or time

that can awaken your senses…even now?

Does it bring a shiver or tears to your eyes?

However quickly or imperfectly taken,

the photographer caught an image

of the wordless, the present, the now.

Your senses recognize it in feeling.

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

Cleaning the Viewfinder
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.

Windows to the Soul
Creativity · Vision

Windows to the Soul

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

A valuable skill in our visually stimulating world

is relaxing your visual focus

(letting the eyes ‘go fuzzy‘)

when waiting or resting.

It rests more than your eye muscles:

it also gives the ever-spinning

wheels of mind a rest,

and lets your intuition come through

to show you something new.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer.

Contact her here.

Watch Without Words
Practice · Vision

Watch Without Words

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Benefit: Helps develop a ‘wider gaze.’ Useful as a daily practice. Helps to become more aware of photograph-able things happening in moving or crowded situations.

This is effective when coupled with deep, steady breathing to help stay creatively effective in highly emotional or moving situations.

Step backwards.

Step back, as if moving your body.  Make the movements to step back, sensing everything: temperature, your pulse, your breathing, the fabric of your clothes, your muscles in your knees and feet.

Step back again.  Keep stepping back until you feel a release of breath, a relaxing.  Keep breathing, steadily, deeply.

Watch without naming colors, reading words, or signs.

Open eyes wider, open ears, open nostrils, relax jaw.

hold it briefly, lightly, gently.

Gradually have all senses open at the same time.

hold it briefly, lightly, gently.

Open your pores, feeling in all fingers and toes, all at the same time.

hold it briefly, lightly, gently.

Continue to hold in that middle. surrender. breathe. go deeper with whatever your body feels. hold it briefly, lightly, gently.

Take a deeper breath. Come back to your focus gently.

Please write if this exercise works for you: I would love to hear if this helps you imbue your creativity and photography with deeper emotional content.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago photographer specializing in modern portraits. Contact her here.