inspiration

I recently stumbled upon a fabulous blogsite offering a free course on "Finding Your Inner Muse."  It's an inspirational course geared to fellow visually creative-types whether you be a photographer, designer, painter, scrapbooker or crafter of any other medium.  The class is an encouragement to find inspiration in the day to day things around you, in the places that you love and in the things that you love.  As you draw inspiration from those things, your work as a creative person becomes a reflection of who you are, an expression of something true about yourself.  As you get more comfortable doing this, your work eventually becomes YOU because it flows out of your own life and experiences.  

I love, love, LOVED this class.  I think it reminded me why I picked up my camera 6 years ago and began photographing everything and everyone around me with passion.

Because there is something beautiful in even the most mundane moments of life.  If we can just train our eye to see it.  To become aware of it. 

Here are some ordinary, but beautiful moments at my house:  bubbles in the courtyard.  Enjoy!

little miss ballerina

It's ballet week again.  It happens every fall and spring at our house.  Miss A began dancing when she was 3.  I'm not sure I'd start her so young if I had it to do all over again, although it has been a really fun experience, and she still loves it.  I guess I'm probably more relaxed now than I was then.  

Here she is:  a hummingbird.  It's an original ballet called "Reverie" by our fabulous ballet director.  It's and so fun and beautiful to watch!  I always try to take photos on dress rehearsal day rather than on the actual performance night.  We have a little more time at home and generally are more relaxed.

These were taken against a white wall.  The side lighting comes from French doors that are opened just to Miss A's right.

  

You can see the carpet and corner in the top left and below photos which take away from a professional look.  I'd crop those out if I wanted to hang these up anywhere.

And now, for the actual rehearsal photos.  Miss A leads her side of the stage out.

I just love the hummingbird's wings.  They spend a lot of time fluttering them.

 

They turn and stand in position while the other side of the stage enters.

 

Pretty girls!

 

And, now the steps:  passe, passe, tombe, pas de bourre, glissade, jette, glissade, jette....it's all French to me!  (I'm not sure how to add the accents, which actually really bothers me since I was a French major!)

 

The antagonist enters and the girls circle around her.  This is the last of my shots.  

 

I shot them all with my Canon 24-70mm lens at  ISO: 1000, f/2.8, SS:1/100 

If I had it to do again, I'd bump up the ISO so that I could increase my shutter speed a bit.  I don't mind the blurry background too much since I was focused on capturing Miss A, but if I had been taking photos for the entire group, I would have wanted to make sure everyone was clear and sharp which would have required a higher shutter speed.

Looking forward to the actual performance tonight!  Break a leg, Miss A!