Digital Photography Workshops offered...

If you stumble upon this page you may be interested in taking one of my digital photography workshops. Learn more at these links:
http://www.moonsunearth.com/ShakerVillageWknd.htm
and
http://www.moonsunearth.com/WeeksBay.htm
It would be great to meet you there.
J. Eve

Simplicity Experiment

Looking back at an experiment that took place a while back in our country... a life in Central Kentucky in the 1800's that was lived by what people have called the "Shakers". I have been interested in Voluntary Simplicity after reading Thoreau in my late teens. Here in central Kentucky you can see an exquisite example of that. I have recently been there to photograph the village as it is preserved for all of us to see and enjoy. I will be teaching a photography workshop in April 2008 at this picturesque location. (page still under construction, be patient)

The Shakers were nineteenth-century America's largest and best-known communal society. In 1774, nine devout Shakers sailed from Liverpool, England to New York City to escape religious persecution. By the 1840s, nearly 3,500 Shakers lived in communities from Maine to Kentucky.

The Shakers chose a peaceful way of life. They were celibate, believed in racial and gender equality and freedom from prejudice. A quest for simplicity and perfection is reflected in their fine designs and craftsmanship, and today the term Shaker-made is synonymous with excellence around the world.

In 1805, a group of Shakers came to central Kentucky and established a village they named Pleasant Hill. Although the population peaked at almost 500 in the 1820s, the community thrived well past the mid-nineteenth century, acquiring over 4,000 acres of farmland.

Gratitude

Gratitude has been on my mind a great deal lately. There is so much to be grateful for and I have taken to the act of recognizing and acknowledging it regularly during the day. It has a cumulative effect so the more you are grateful for the more grateful you become. So plan your gratitude list and see your life become a wonderful reflection of your inner peace and love.

Cast Net Fishing

Late afternoon on the banks of the Ohio River in Madison Indiana offered a surprise for me. There was a man using a cast net to fish. It was a surprise for me because as long as I have lived near the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers I have never seen anyone use a cast net. When I lived on the Gulf Coast in Alabama, it was a daily event for me to watch the cast net fishermen carefully gather the net in a very specific way and heave the large round net over their heads...releasing it at just the perfect moment to fall in the water in a wide circle of a net over whatever is swimming below in the water.
It is a wonderful thing to watch the precision and timing involved. So to see it unexpectedly on the banks of the Ohio River was a real treat. If you look in the lower right corner of the river scene below the bridge you will see the cast net fisherman with the net in mid-air. Wonderful surprises await us every day, just keep your eyes open.

The Larger Picture

Many times as I do digital review of the images I have taken I notice one small section of a photo that stands out. I was not taking of a picture of that particular thing when shooting, and the larger picture as a whole just does not work. This whole thought of not seeing the forest for the trees can be something worth considering. Hummm, today I wonder what I may be missing because I wasn't looking close enough. Consider this.

Changes....

Our planet has always been in a state of flux and change. We were created in the midst of this change. The current changes can be quite unsettling for those of us who pay attention. I think that our lifestyles are in need of change, taking a serious look at the last 50 years of unrelenting 'taking' from the earth with not a thought of giving back has put us in a serious spiral...the direction is truly unknown.

I watched a short piece on PBS about how there is a 'spiral' of trash out in the Pacific Ocean that collects because of the currents. That each sea bird and turtle has a gut that is getting filled with plastic trash that cannot be digested or passed through the digestive system.

I do have the lifelong sense that it is important to GIVE back to those who give to us. Even if we are not sure who gave it, we can pass it on by doing "random acts of kindness". So I would urge you to think about how you can GIVE back to the earth what she has given to you.

THINK for this day about what the EARTH gives to you. Make a long list and take time to really reflect on what you can do. If you make 5 changes in your life that will give back to Mother Earth then you are starting an important part of the change that we want to BE.

Be Well, Mother Earth.

Being.

On my last photo walk I had a profound sense of peace and connectedness with nature. There was a stillness that joined my SELF with all that surrounded me. My feet could feel every stone and twig I stepped on with such clarity. My eyes were able to perceive more clearly than normally. The sky was exceptionally blue with white fluffy clouds, the white tree trunks were bones against the sky. The animals that had been to the diminishing pool of water left their energy and tracks behind for me to sense. There were deer and raccoon tracks, & many species of flying creatures. The plants were vibrant with life, producing the seeds that would provide their future. Smells of drying mud and clear fresh air, rocks with iron stains, moss wringing the last bit of moisture out of the stream to further its existence. Being.