FYV Summer Exhibition

The Stillness, the Dancing

I am part of Find Your Voice (FYV), an online expressionist photography group created by the amazing and inspiring photographers, Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery. I say this with absolute humility, because the majority of the group are talented and accomplished artists who exhibit and sell their work in galleries, and I am one of the new kids on the block, learning as I go.

FYV’s summer exhibition opened today! We could submit up to three images in response to TS Eliot’s poem, Wait Without Hope (see below). Valda and Doug chose which of our images to include in the show.

Because the online group is spread out across the globe (mostly UK, Europe, and US, I think), the exhibition is virtual. You can view it here: https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/11861520/fyv-summer-exhibition

It takes a few minutes to get the hang of “walking” around the gallery. I recommend clicking NEXT rather than clicking and dragging; at least it worked best for me. Please visit when you have time to browse- there is some amazing art to see and inspire you!

Wait Without Hope

By: T.S. Eliot

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

T. S. Eliot, East Coker

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Saguaro- the Softer Side

A lover of blur shoots a saguaro!

The above is a triptych of three saguaro detail images. I found that using intentional camera movement on the very prickly saguaro transformed it into something soft and dreamy- and quite different from the actual cactus. A white balance shift helped with this effect as well.

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The View

Standing in my driveway and looking down at the street below, this is what you would see- if you turned your head very fast or perhaps had just indulged in a martini. I recently got a new variable neutral density filter that fits my zoom lens so that I can use a slow shutter speed in bright sunlight- and thus create impressionistic images by moving my camera around. Great fun!

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Almost Iris

It’s almost Spring here in Prescott- finally. Our irises are going to bloom today or tomorrow, so I took some photos of the buds and leaves over the weekend. This one was taken using intentional camera movement- you can almost see it begin to unfurl.

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Niche

I’m looking back at old photos today, not just because I’ve hardly been out of the house to take new ones, but because I’m looking for a set of photos that I could say are in my photography niche (an assignment for my AAUW photography group). I have several “niches”, I guess, but in the last few years, my favorite place to take photos is at the beach. I like to take photos of beach people, beach birds, and the water itself. This photo is part of my intentional camera movement/slow shutter series of gulls in Alaska. I love the look of the white gull over dark water- and it required almost no editing.

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