Tag: Vision

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.

In Vino Veritas
Creativity · Photography · Practice · Vision

In Vino Veritas

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

I enjoyed this event for the organization,

finding conviviality and conversation

in Chicago’s beautiful Cafe Brauer

filtered through many great wines.

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.

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.

Just The Two Of Us
Consciousness · Counterintuition · Creativity · Energy · Family Portrait · Parenthood · Practice · Relationship · Vision

Just The Two Of Us

Dorothy PerryLeave a comment

Within the mindset that what we do for others, we are working on in ourselves, I see the actions I am taking to help someone grow

are the things that are my struggle to grow with as well.

My son and I have been a tight pair since he was born. He was not an easy boy to raise

after vaccinations caused developmental regression at an important stage of life.

School, Aspergers, socialization, therapy: we had our roles: I was his cheerleader and advocate, tried to anticipate issues, ease him into trying new things –

and dust myself off when well-meaning experiments sometimes went south (I actually wrote some pretty good poetry about this period of time.)

Over time, I came to realize that some of these well-meaning efforts ‘bubble-wrapped’ him

against the work he needed to do to stand on his own feet…

Steps he needed to take himself.

I realize to be an advocate of his independence in this new stage of life, I needed to step back and let him

make his own decisions,

set new expectations,

disagree with me,

fix his own dinner,

handle his finances,

figure out his own schedules,

make his own mistakes.

Old habits die hard, and being a ‘helicopter mom’ was second nature for twenty years.

It’s still hard sometimes not to take the wheel for him when he is working things out.

But this is the work towards a measure of independence that we both have to do in our own lives.

It has taken longer in time than some young adults need, but that is what it took. It takes different types of strategies and preparations, and some hand-holding,

but that is what it takes as well.

And with extra time, reassurance and ‘figure it out yourself’,

I see that he is more assured, trying his wings, making short flights.

And succeeding.

One thing, though never changes.

I have a little ritual in the mornings, where I watch him walking to work in the crowds, as far as I can see him, until he is out of sight.

And then, saying ‘thank you’ in tears of gratitude

for the marvel of a young man walking down the street to work –

a vision that looks so everyday and ordinary,

but is evidence of beautiful, positive growth that has happened in ours.

Update of sorts: the time at home over Covid and the preparation to return to work caused some anxiety we could not manage or assuage, and in time he left the firm.

I am creating our schedules with more attention

on doing the things he does here at home himself

to take responsibility, care for himself, and figure things out.

All as quietly as he usually does things.

No matter what it looks like from the outside,

I have dreams of this next step and germinating it

until it is strong enough to flower.

Dorothy Perry is a Chicago portrait photographer.

 Contact her here.