My First Color Musing

(Copied from my private blog)

Sorry it took me so long to get this out here…it takes me so long to quiet my thoughts enough to get them out here sometimes!

Every since coming back from Hawaii I realized that what I loved the most about Hawaii was not the warmth (okay, that was nice too), but it was truly the color. Honestly, I can handle the cold in Minnesota in the middle of frigid winter, but when I look outside at grays, blacks and browns…I am far from inspired. I think more so since I took up photography. What in the world can one take pictures of when it is drab outside? So, what do Minnesotans do? They head out of state and soak up some color, OR, they sit around and long for SPRING. Glorious, wonderful SPRING!!!

I think it dawned on me too when viewing a friends pictures that she took in Idaho…although the temperatures aren't nearly as frigid as MN, they still have drab winters. Crazy how that can drain ones happiness right out of them…it is no wonder that so many of us are affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder. I think not getting the right vitamins from the sun plays a HUGE role in this. But I also realized that the lack of color does indeed bring many of us there too! Not just any color either, certain colors for some of us make the difference. Some are excited by the bright colors in Hawaii or somewhere else tropical; some like the muted color tones in somewhere like Martha's Vineyard or other beaches that attract you. It does amaze me that it does matter though none the less, what inspires you?

See, although I had the joy of experiencing some color in the middle of winter over in Hawaii, I think it has increased my longing for color. In this process though I can see my vision for what I enjoy about photography. It brings the ability to capture color and look at it over and over again and bring smiles to your faces. Look at your computer desk, I am sure you picked a colorful screen shot. Mine, is a crab apple tree with amazing white blossoms, sun kissed with wonderful green leaves and the blue sky as the backdrop….yep color and a promise of springtime! Brightening the drab…

When I reorganized my office, I also removed a lot of my old black and white photos…once again, although I love them, the lack of color is actually quite depressing. So, I replaced my pictures with some brightly colored ones of my kids that I took the last couple of years…ahhhhh, smiles, joy, happiness and COLOR! I can't believe the difference that it made in my small office! I love it! I also realized that there is a reason that I love having color on my walls at my home. I have so many too! The Pioneer Woman blog had a question about what your common colors were on your walls and I couldn't give a simple answer since I have sooooo many different colors with purple, red, blue, tan, brown, gray and even lavender on the walls in my home. Honestly, we just love color here! I am glad since it puts a smile on my face.

God was so amazing to give us a world that has lots and lots and lots of it! What a great way for him to show His glory to us! If I can sit here and think that the colors that we see here are amazing, HOW MUCH BETTER will heaven be. Ooooh, the Lord is soo good and it will be great to meet Him when it is the proper time. I believe that the Lord opened my eyes WIDE to His glorious colors. I can only thank Him for planting in me the seed of photography and also the seed to be able to see what He has offered to us as a gift…the wonderful use of His earth loaded with colors that are unimaginable. So cool!!! My desires right now are to capture glorious color in my photography. The reason I asked the questions of all of you regarding color was that I was seeking a new mission statement for my photography. I realized more and more that I love to take pictures not only of people, but of anything and everything….so my focus is going to be COLOR!!!!!!

In the process of reading everyone's comments I came to realize that this one stuck out the most to me, "In Pursuit of Color". Keep in mind, I loved, loved, loved all the other phases everyone came up with too and you can guarantee that you wil see them in the days to come when I find something especially wonderful! So there you have it, for right now, that is my new theme while I am taking pictures. I am positive there will be times that I am not able to get color and I need to be okay with that since after all, I do live in Minnesota, LOL! I haven't figured out if I will go too far into it, but at some point, as I take abstract shots or scenes, I might be so bold as make an Etsy shop or something like it with it for sale….we will see how that goes. Since I am a true amateur too, I am not sure that this is really going to be a money maker for me (not sure that I care to be honest since I really just love it for the joy of it!). But to be clear the description of amateur that I liked the best is this: a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons. I don't want to lose my love for it by making it a business, so there is a good chance that if I happen to get pictures that I think are worth selling it will be by accident only, because the truth is, I am TOTALLY in this for the delight of it all! ;)!

In the mean time I did create a blogspot site (http://inhotpursuitofcolor.blogspot.com/ ) to potentially put some of my favorite shots out there. I even left it as a public site (that is huge for me!) so others could potentially trip on it. At this point, there is absolutely nothing out there…sorry, I can only do one thing at a time and that just isn't yet. But I did create it. I may have them posted there and on this site since I use this as my memory page. My Chronicles site is primarily for friends and family to keep track of me and for a journal for my children as they grow and want to see what our life was like. I am so thankful for this site and can't believe that I get to do it, it feels like a special gift for this stay at home momma. In any case this site is a private one, if you googled me, you wouldn't find it and that makes me quite happy. It keeps it as a safe haven for me, family and friends. I suspect there are some out there reading my blog that I have no clue who they are since I don't password protect and the site can be accessed by anyone if they have gotten the site from either me or someone else, which is also just fine. But not having it accessed by the whole world and a million strangers….that is priceless for me! Wow, what a digression from the blog post title I just ran on!

In the conversation of color though, I have been so thankful to better understand my camera, taking RAW pictures, learning a little bit of editing and getting more experience taking pictures (Thank you Lord for Maui!). I feel such delight in this and I know that the Lord gave this to me which makes it all the more fun! Now, what does He want me to do with it…well, my heart, my eyes and my ears are open!!!! The High Adventures with the Lord are always wonderful so I can't way to watch my life unfold even more! What is more fun is I can't wait to share them out here with you! Who would want to keep it all to themselves…boring! Thanks everyone for being on this color journey with me…what a great time we will have!
So here is your assignment folks….go out and find color and smile! Thankfully Easter has arrived and even the color of dyed Easter eggs (Star Wars ones to boot!) can bring a smile to your face…how about at church tomorrow morning… there are tons of flowers there that brought a smile to my face at the Easter Egg Hunt today…

We have a little longer here in Minnesota to find color outside, but maybe, just maybe we can find color where we least expect it!