It’s time for the August Break, a challenge started by Susannah Conway a few years ago as a way of taking a break from blogging so intensely and with words. Basically you aim to take a photo each day in August and share it via your blog or instagram or on the flickr pool set up for the group. It’s a way to sharpen your visual awareness, practice your photography skills and also connect with others focused on the same challenge.
I am loving this year’s August Break. For me, it’s doubly lovely and exciting as I am doing Susannah’s ecourse, Photo Meditations, at the same time. The two dovetail perfectly and without pressure and I am loving learning about photography from Susannah on the one hand via the e-course and then learning to look around me and see afresh on a daily basis for the August Break.
This year’s August Break also has a list of daily photo prompts that for me has been like a visual treasure hunt! Day 1 was Breakfast (easing in), Day 2 was Circles and Day 3 yesterday was yellow.
I had a huge and difficult week this week with my mum having some medical emergencies and being in hospital for a few days. Finally she was home and settling yesterday and I was doing some shopping for her and myself. In between, I am looking for yellow, something of value, something special, something I can practice my ‘Photo Meditations’ learning of week one on, something that sums up how I feel now some normality is returning.
There in the middle of the supermarket, a trolley of yellow sunflowers, a little oasis of yellow and sunshine inside a busy place. I park the trolley, get out the iphone, take a few shots and keep working till I get what I want, find the right plant that speaks to me and then I have it. I am so pleased with my yellow shot of flowers and walk out of the supermarket as if on air.
That’s what the August Break is about…seeing afresh, looking for beauty, for meaning in the visual world around us, the treasures that we can find or make from the details of our lives to share with others.
Many thanks to Susannah for the joy that is this year’s August Break – as always brilliant! As well as my own experience, I am loving seeing all the versions of breakfast, circles and yellow in everyone’s lives. And it’s only day 4! So much to look forward to this August. And now to find something that defines today’s prompt, ‘Love’….
