Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Macro (a Photographic Visual Puzzle*)

13 February 2017

Lens:

I. Taken in Camera+ and edited in Snapseed and Pixlr

1. Palm Leaves Photomontage; Copyright © 2017 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

II. Taken in Camera+ and edited in Snapseed and Pixlr

2. Palm Leaves Photomontage; Copyright © 2017 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

Click onto each image to enlarge. Let me know which you prefer.  Prints are available upon request.

Pens:

From this seriously difficult time in the lives of Americans and the global community, I created the photographic visual puzzle* to comfort me. I am grieving and simultaneously threading my journey forward. One result can be seen in my photography.

This visual language digs into my soul, speaking quietly inwardly and more gentle outwardly. These new forms are illusions, even as the eye and mind can unveil their layers. They shape my way of seeing, and help me transpose my vision into a photographic visual puzzle.* But they also have deep-felt meaning to my inner core, especially about the natural world.

As I ponder this stage of “my” light in what will some day be perpetually dark, I am becoming more infatuated with photomontage: a double exposure that also can be a photograph layered onto another and another and another. This process moves my inner creative soul from one level to the next, to blend ideas and thoughts through image making.

As I record another slice of my visual universe, the image making is a deep wellspring for survival. It keeps me afloat and delving into my interior, and also allowing me to live outwardly.

Photomontage is one of my vehicles to show the multitudes inherent in nature. I do not use sleight of mind or hand, but re-image what is before me. My visual universe is given a life beyond the moment of its being, stopping time’s momentum.

The final photograph comes into fruition through experimentation and intuition. When the image comes into itself, I am free to release it, and free to move forward.

*Photographic Visual Puzzle © Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

Tip of the Week:

The Sierra Club was founded by naturalist John Muir, and his advocacy on behalf of Mother Nature gave us Yosemite National Park and many legacies of its aftermath. He was a proponent of nature walks that led to the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku. The literal translation is “taking in the forest atmosphere” or “forest bathing.” Recently, when I read about this phenomenon, I knew that it was a familiar part of my daily life. Then I learned that over thirty years ago the concept entered Japanese health care as a preventive therapy. And the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries began to officially use the phrase to describe the silences, sounds, smells and views found in natural environments. So I highly recommend that no matter where you live, you infuse your life with these restorative nature walks. Even urban dwellers can find places to immerse themselves in the joys of nature with green bathing (my interpretation). Find a (tiny forest) small park and let the warmth of the day relax you, making the world’s worries silent for just a brief time.

Forest Bathing

View other entries for this week’s challenge:

https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-berry-red/

https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/mobile-photography-challenge-macro-2/

https://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/sally-ds-monday-macro-challenge-moon-lit-paperwhites/

https://nowathome.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-2/

https://ohmsweetohm.me/2017/02/13/

https://angelinem.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-on-the-wall/

https://mylifestorymyway.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro/

https://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2017/02/15/14845/

https://chasinglifeandfindingdreams.wordpress.com/2017/02/16/seeing-and-feeling-color/

Note:

As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. My photographs for the mobile photography challenge are taken with an iPhone 6.

****If you would like to buy a print of any of my photographs or have any questions, please view the Contact Information found on the masthead. Thank you.

If you’d like to join this Mobile Photography Challenge, please click here for details and history of the challenge. If you have any questions, please contact me. Below is a reminder of the monthly schedule with themes for upcoming challenges:

1st Monday: Nature.

2nd Monday: Macro.

3rd Monday: Black and White.

4th Monday Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Animals, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Objects, Panorama, Portraiture, Photomontage, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

5th Monday: Editing and Processing with Various Apps Using Themes from the Fourth Week.