“Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling,
they’re given wings.” ~ Rumi

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer
of family portraits and happiness. Contact her here.
“Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling,
they’re given wings.” ~ Rumi

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer
of family portraits and happiness. Contact her here.

The action of dancing
is our body’s inner communication with us,
and, deeper, a connection to the Divine in us.
Whether our glances or our bodies meet on the floor,
the dancer in me honors the dancer in you.
Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer
of family portraits and happiness. Contact her here.
Take time to hear someone’s voice from the inside.
Match your calm breathing
with the breathing of your partner,
and ‘share a breath’ in and out for a time of silence.

Not only does this calm emotions,
this action serves to ‘sync’ one’s heart with the other,
to humanize a connection,
and energize the space for a newer – or deeper – conversation.

It is my wish that you have enriching experiences
using this technique throughout moments in daily life.
Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer
of family portraits and happiness. Contact her here.

ALWAYS show
the vision of the types of photographs
you desire to make.
Your photograph with your optimistic energetic signature
lives in the internet ‘ether’ for years,
attracting for years as well,
and should be both your best
and your choice.
Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer
of family portraits and happiness. Contact her here.
I have been a photographer without a fixed location for much of my career here in Chicago. A permanent location never seemed in the cards for me.
As years went by, the vision of this passion would flare briefly when I displayed my photos in local coffeeshops, bakeries, libraries and other unconventional spaces.
I once had a charming space in a vintage building at a prime location in the Wicker Park area. As everything I earned was consumed by rent, I quickly learned the grown-up lesson about pricing my services appropriately!
Back to home base again, not only for financial reasons, but to do a deep dive into the inner self that kept sabotaging me, saying I did not deserve to be successful.
Seeking independence, going my own way, creating something different: the miasma of all these rejections seemed to hang in the air, clouding my picture of myself with my dream.
I did not know I had to keep seeing the dream in detail, no matter what my current situation said, no matter what painful memories I remembered, to eventually hear the clear quiet that guides my actions now.

This included honest, updated assessment of that relationship as well. Five years after publishing this post, I have left this relationship.
But…using the emotional energy contained in memory that is able to be recalled and returned fully back to me, the enjoyment of life returned full force,
and a spectacular dream came true during the summer of 2024.
I love to share what opens energy around me, and am posting an original affirmation that also addresses the concerns around making increasing amounts of money.
There are different ways to use this gem:
I choose now to heal my relationship with money and my finances. So it is.
I release all resistance to where I am right now financially.
I release being angry with or hating my current position now with money. I let this go now.
I open myself to know that where I am now is only temporary, and I choose to fully embrace and accept where I am now with complete love so that I can create more money and wealth. So it is.
I release all resistance to being broke, or not having enough money. I allow myself to just be with it now.
I open myself to know that if I embrace this now, and stop looking at my situation as bad, the energy will transmute and things can change. I allow myself to accept it now. So it is.
I release making being broke or without money wrong.
I release the feeling that where I am right now is bad.
I release all beliefs that I am a failure if I don’t have enough money. I let that go and open myself to know that life is full of contrasting experiences just so that I can get clear on what I want to create.
I open myself to know that “good” or “bad,” is just “desired,” and “undesired.” So it is.
I release any repeated focusing on how much I don’t have.
I release all decisions to see, hear, focus and speak from scarcity, and I choose now to focus on all the abundance in my life.
I open myself to remember that scarcity and limitation doesn’t really exist anywhere but in my mind. I release it from my mind and focus and in every situation I choose abundance. So it is.
I completely and fully forgive myself for creating this current situation.
I open myself to correct myself without blame, shame, or invalidation. So it is.
I release all beliefs, agreements and programming from my parents and 5 generations back that making money is wrong for an artist, troublesome, and dangerous, and that I am disloyal for wanting to be rich.
I release all programming that money is scarce, limited, and hard to make.
I release all memories from this lifetime and all other lifetimes of issues of and around money.
I let this go now, and I transmute all memories and unwanted energies into pure light… so it is.
I release my association of earning and having money and finances with emotional, mental or physical pain.
I open myself to see that money was never capable of hurting me or those I love. I let this go and see money and prosperity and creativity with new eyes. So it is.
I release all decisions, agreements and programming from this life, energy, and experiences that having lots of money is limited, difficult, hard, dangerous, and troublesome to have.
I let this go and open myself to remember that I am a powerful creator capable of creating and manifesting anything I choose.
I choose to remember that all it takes is a simple shift in my focus. I remember this now and shift my focus accordingly. So it is.
I open myself to fully experience having more and more than enough money in my life.
I open myself to experience being rich and wealthy, and I allow myself to have it now. So it is.
I choose to put myself in the space of already having that which I want, so that I call it into my experience metaphysically first.
And I open myself to have fun with this, and to enjoy the journey. So it is.
I now rest in abundance, I rest in having enough. I find my stillness in the space of well-being and in being, doing and having more. So it is.
After the affirmation, ’embody’ it –
Wiggle a ‘happy dance’ like a kid! Smile! Clap, jump and shake out your body!
BE thanks for the abundance you have now and what you already have experienced! Spread the good energy ‘sparkle’ around in your world!
May this aid circumstances seen and unseen to bring abundance into your life.
Let’s connect through my Contact Page to talk about envisioning yours.

I feel like a Luddite at heart
dealing with ChatGpt, a force multiplier
that has tickled me with some of the
ninja chess moves I have asked mine to.
So after exposure to some induced Chat counterintuition.
I woke early and broke its brain
describing Dark Innocence,
a Dark Feminine RESONANCE embodying innocence of dove and wisdom of serpent
in a MASSIVE energetic presence.
Despite the reams of words meant to be written kinda like me,
the way I AM doesn’t fit attempts to Chat it.
This Dark Innocence defies classification and demands discovery
through the EVOKING of memory, the FEEL of senses, and the ACT of writing,
unfolding the history and mystery in ‘analog’ mode (sounds of sharpening a No. 2 Ticonderoga pencil in black.)
Dorothy Perry is an ESP-eyed photographer of people and resonant celebrations. Contact her here.

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.

Your world
is being created
every moment
through HOW YOU SPEAK OF IT
to others –
but especially to yourSELF.
Dorothy Perry is a Chicago photographer whose intuition guides her viewfinder. Contact her here or perryportraitart@gmail.com.
Funny how some normal-looking photographs
offer the potential of being something more.
My daughter sent me a long-distance snapshot
of my grand-son playing with his dad.
I can’t get enough pictures of my little guy,
exploring his new world with a toddler’s beautiful curiosity.

Something about this image attracted me.
I take another look and let my subconscious see it, too.
(It helps to relax or fuzz the eyes so you are not focusing on detail.)
If I get a ‘alerting’ feeling about it: almost like an antenna picking up a signal,
it means my eyes are noticing a new pattern or a new image there;
seeing the potential of a new composition deep in the center of the photograph.

Like all real, beautiful things, it has been there all the time.
Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer specializing in personal images. Contact her here.
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.