{"id":754,"date":"2014-03-10T04:46:39","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T04:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=754"},"modified":"2014-03-10T04:46:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T04:46:39","slug":"march-week-1-capturing-the-power-of-gentleness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=754","title":{"rendered":"March Week 1 – capturing the power of gentleness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"March<\/a>The deer, ever gentle and graceful, beckon us into the wilderness of our hearts to learn the art of offering kindness to all living things.\u00c2\u00a0 At least that was the message I was hoping to capture in the portrait of this young deer in the Marin Headlands, just a few miles from the financial district of San Francisco.<\/p>\n

I have learned from Jamie Sams (Medicine Cards <\/i>Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988) that deer invite us to consider that there are other ways than violence to deal with one another and our environment; they show us that there is a power in the gentle word and touch, and that strength comes through caring.\u00c2\u00a0 Who can look into the eyes of this gentle animal and not be moved to feel compassion and kindness — towards others and ourselves?\u00c2\u00a0 Gentleness has the power to melt hearts of stone.\u00c2\u00a0 Those huge eyes seemed to be pleading: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Come, let us practice tenderness and loving-kindness in our lives today\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

In the photograph, the background tonalities are the same as the deer, so, in order to both \u00e2\u20ac\u0153see\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hear\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the message of the deer, I chose to render the background soft (out of focus) so it would not compete with the deer for our attention.<\/p>\n

\"March<\/a>Selective focus is a cherished artistic tool as well as a powerful skill for visionary planning.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything around the main subject\/point needs to gently flow away or towards the focus point.\u00c2\u00a0 That is the mood that the center of a California poppy evokes when the petals are represented as cascading hues of orange and yellow.<\/p>\n

The rains are returning to the drought-hardened mountains and meadows of California.\u00c2\u00a0 The wildflower crops may be fewer, but the first blooms don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the seasonal tall grasses to overshadow them.\u00c2\u00a0 If you pass a meadow of wildflowers and see someone sprawled out among them, it is likely to be me.\u00c2\u00a0 Please stop and say hello.\u00c2\u00a0 I urge you to try out my method of close-up nature photography \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sit down on the ground, anywhere, and start composing!<\/p>\n

A prayer so appropriate for the wildflowers blooming around and within us comes from Mary Kathleen Speegle Schmitt<\/i> in her Seasons of the Feminine Divine \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Cycle A.\u00c2\u00a0 Christian Feminist Prayers for the Liturgical Cycle:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rainwoman,<\/address>\n
You fulfill your promise of grace<\/address>\n
through the pouring out of yourself<\/address>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 upon the sun-scorched land<\/address>\n
that thirsts, that cries out for your<\/address>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 nourishment.<\/address>\n
Raise up within us the flowing stream<\/address>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 of your Wisdom:<\/address>\n
that, fed by your mercy and compassion,<\/address>\n
we bring into bloom your justice and peace,<\/address>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 world without end.<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The deer, ever gentle and graceful, beckon us into the wilderness of our hearts to learn the art of offering kindness to all living things.\u00c2\u00a0 At least that was the message I was hoping to capture in the portrait of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[75,181,182,184,183,63],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-2","tag-california-poppy","tag-deer-portrait","tag-jamie-sams","tag-marin-headland","tag-selective-focus","tag-stacy-boorn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hkEw-ca","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}