Creativity · Practice · Vision

Share a Breath


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.

Photography · Practice · Vision

The First Purple



The mercurial Midwest Spring has been hard on the beautiful flowers

that come up in the neighbors’ gardens. ย 

They come into the beautiful, shapes colors and scents

and sometimes into extended days of rain and chill that blast and freeze them. ย 

The lilac season came in the midst of rain and bone chilling temperatures. ย 

In a week, they had bloomed and then were gone.

I picked a wild branch, that true to all wild things, did not open,ย 

but found a blooming garden and stood there

(as long as my son let me)

breathing in the air of my childhood

being again as the little curious, exploring, growing child.

And with this brief meeting this season,

I ‘got’ย how flowers are used as examples

to teaching the here and nowness of life:ย 

so beautifully, completely HERE

in their short season and time on Earth. ย 


Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer

of family portraits and happiness. Contact her here.

Counterintuition · Dorothy Perry · Energy · Healing · Manifesting · Photography · Practice · Spirituality · Vision

An Innocent Chat


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.

A Certain Way · Creativity · Energy · Perry Portrait Art · Photography · Practice · Vision

A Branch of My Own

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:

  1. Record it in your own voice and listen to it as the start to each morning.
  2. Gently sit with each sentence and let the images and emotions and experiential memories well up, allowing the emotion to move through without resistance.
  3. You can choose one sentence and use it as the inspiration to consider through the day.
  4. Say it out loud during your morning walk in the park in the strongest, most positive voice you have.

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 donโ€™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 โ€œgoodโ€ or โ€œbad,โ€ is just โ€œdesired,โ€ and โ€œundesired.โ€  So it is.

I release any repeated focusing on how much I donโ€™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 doesnโ€™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 lightโ€ฆ 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.

Counterintuition · Energy · Photography · Practice · Relationship · Vision

Pleased to Meeting You!



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.

A Certain Way · Consciousness · Creativity · Energy · Healing · Manifesting · Practice · Self-Development · Song Of Triumph · Spirituality · Vision

Genesis



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.


Creativity · Photography · Practice · Vision

Finding A Something More

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.

Photography · Practice · Vision

Heart of the Matter


Beauty in things exists in the mind

which seeks to see it.

Even a clove of garlic.



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

A Certain Way · Creativity · Energy · Perry Portrait Art · Photography · Practice · Vision

To Your Health

My personal portraits focus on enjoyment & contemplation.

To that end, I remove canes, walkers, and aids for standing in the final framed portrait.

It is not a denial of their current age or health situation,

but a focus on a personal image that celebrates

a life-affirming vision of wholeness.

Always to your health, Dorothy

Contact her here.

Consciousness · Energy · Healing · Practice · Self-Development · Spirituality

Ping Pong


Hold palms close
until you can feel the

warm or pulsing feeling of energy,

then slowly widen the space
between your hands,

until you can feel the
‘ping pong’ between them.

This can be gently moved into your body

to make your heart – and your soul – happy.

Your energy is an amazing force of nature.

Keep it YOURS – and use it to power YOUR dreams.

Dorothy Perry makes good photographs to evoke fond memories. Contact her here.