Kartick

This is my friend, Kartick. He is 12 years old and lives in Dehradun, India. I had the extreme pleasure of spending a couple of days with his family while I was working with a nonprofit organization that he is involved with. I promise to share the images from the nonprofit soon, but, yesterday, I shared my images from India with a group of grade 2/3's and I had a chance to look back on my time with my friends. I found I missed them and I wanted to share some of my images from my time with them.

This is his 'street' essentially. When I first saw it, I admit that I got a bit choked up, but the truth is that I found the community there to be incredible. Everybody helping and looking out for each other...so, that helped me put my first impressions aside. Below are a couple of images of Kartick getting washed up for school. That hose is their only water source. This is the spot(just outside their house)where they bathe, get water for tea, wash dishes, wash clothes...whatever you can imagine needing water for. No sink. Some buckets for when they needed them, but mostly it just ran down the path to the open sewer a few feet away.

The above two images are from Kartick's walk to school with his brother, Adetey. It is only a short distance. One day, we even stopped for temple before school. Below are images of Kartick with his mom and dad. His mom stays home during the day to maintain their lives--cook, wash, clean...their dad has two jobs. He is a janitor at a school and a gardener. This family is very focused on their children's education and send their kids to private school, as well as, after school tutoring which is run by the nonprofit that I worked with.

I so enjoyed my time with them. They laughed all the time(often at my expense I think)...they complained about nothing. They just went about their day and were so happy to welcome me into their home. Constantly offering me something to eat(I did eat the lentil soup and rice...it was awesome...but the vegetables were so spicy that I just couldn't manage them) and showing me anything I wanted to see. The mom even gave me an impromptu 'roti making class'...I have tried to make them at home, but they are not the same. I'll keep trying.

It rained hard one night...it was still raining when I woke up before dawn hoping to go see them in their morning routine. They had lost power and it flooded just outside their little home. I decided to go anyways and see what I could photograph. It was a few hour period that will live in my heart for some time...that much is true...actually being there...realizing that they must have froze the night before and because of that they must have had little sleep, but they were up. Waiting for the power to go back on or the sun to rise enough so that they might have some light in their home...waiting for the day to begin again...and welcoming me there to document it all. That was a pretty powerful moment for me.

The winter is always a time when I start thinking about my work...wondering what will come my way in the year ahead. This winter I am seeing different things than I ever thought possible. And, I'm excited. And, going into classrooms and showing kids what life is like for Kartick in India is just one piece of the puzzle.

Just felt like sharing today...

Dana :)

Panorama Family Session

I met this family in Panorama this weekend. It is a special place for them. Their family place...where they go to spend time together. To reconnect after the craziness of life back home. I love meeting families in these types of places. Everybody is so laid back and relaxed...and eager to spend time together.

This family has entered a new phase...I feel a connection to that phase as I feel like we have just entered it as well...that phase where your kids start to be more independent and when they do come to you they come to you for the big things...the things where you have to think about the answers. It is a pretty cool phase.

So...a wee sneak peek for them...just a funny note that this family's surname is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the longest English surname...I think they probably have some stiff competition from Greek and Icelandic surnames for the longest overall one, but they kick butt in the English category :) Oh, the things I learn...

I will be out in Panorama again this weekend if there is anyone else who would like to do something like this for their family. AND...I love to visit families at their cabins and special places...email me if you have a fabulous idea for your own family :)

~ Dana

Winter Wonderland

One wintery afternoon in wonderful Canmore, AB...this family braved the cold and embraced the snow to create some fun and unique family images. If you are interested in some lovely, snowy images...winter is going to be gone before you know it. The perfect opportunity might be in Panorama over the next two weekends. I'll be there...and I'm willing to document a couple of fun families who enjoy spending time together in this winter wonderland. Contact me for more details.

Art Without Expectations

The other day on Pinterest, I came across this quote:

Act Without Expectations.

~ Lao Tzu

I pinned it because I thought it said 'Art' instead of 'Act'. At my retreat for photographers, while talking about personal projects, I had this revelation...an a-ha moment if you will. I realized that we all need to take time to create art without expectations.

Now some of you might think that is a crazy easy thing to do, but I would argue that it isn't. Especially in the day and age of social media and the urge to, for reasons not always really thought out, create a business out of a hobby. If you do have a business, there are always expectations being placed on your art. By the client who tells you what they want from the art. By your life that demands that you make some sort of an income from it. By the land of social media that expects it to be good enough to retweet or like on Facebook or pin on Pinterest. And, then there are the expectations that you place on it--to be good, to be worthy, to be this or that...the list is endless really.

So, what I challenged my workshop attendees to do is find something to create that releases itself of expectation. It is strangely freeing. And, will help you listen to your heart and truly see what you believe is worthy of capturing in that moment you release the shutter. It is hard. People will say 'what are you trying to do here?'...and I'll reply 'I don't truly know'. Or they'll say 'what is this for' and I'll simply reply 'for me'...This is difficult for most people to understand because they assume that I always have some greater plan. Some idea of what the image I'm trying to get is going to look like. But, nothing could be further from the truth. When I shoot, I'm not trying to create something I see in my mind, I'm waiting to see something in you that is worthy of capture. I long to be a part of something that is bigger than just a photograph because I know that it is in those moments that the best photographs occur. I also know that it took me a long time to let go of the ideas I had banging around in my head of what the image I'm creating should look like and just let the images happen. I still struggle with this ALL. THE. TIME.

Documenting Jennie Brade's journey through cancer was one such thing. I didn't have any real expectations just a knowledge that I wanted to capture it. Whatever 'it' would be. I remember at times catching myself thinking 'oh, I know that it will be like this' and then, in the moment realizing that I truly had no idea what 'it' would be like and that THAT was the point. Or, when I went off to Iceland with my family...I had seen so many images of the places I was going to that I had already imagined what the images I was going to take would look like. THAT is utterly ridiculous. I am off to India this week and, in some ways, I feel grossly under prepared. But...in this way, I am ready. I have absolutely no idea what it is going to look like when I get there. And, I can't wait to see it for myself.

So, this winter, take a moment to create art without expectations. Just do it. Just do it for you. I bet you might surprise yourself and learn a lot in the process. :)

~ Dana

PS...the beautiful graphic was made by my online friend, Jen Downer, who saw my comment on the Pinterest quote and sparked a conversation about me writing an article and her creating a graphic. We did it :)

PS#2...follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/pughville/