On My Purpose

I woke up grateful for my eyes today. Being a photographer, it seems that EVERY day might trigger such a sensation, but today felt different. I have spent the last couple of years adjusting to a completely new life. Moving the studio, moving our home, getting married and then moving both the studio and home a second time while remodeling.

I've never been one to stress over things, short of the cat's claws on our leather couch, but straying from my usual "daily doses of gratitude" have been hard to get back into. As if by the flip of a switch, I feel restored to the greatest practices that led to the creation of the most beautiful elements of my life.

My wife and business partner Cathy, has been BEYOND supportive in my need to get back into a groove, which means not hurting me when the 5am alarm goes off. Of course I had to trade my night-owl intentions of being up until 1 or 2am, but the results have been amazing.
Meditation, running, reading and writing, again fill the first 3-4 hours of my day, prior to beginning work. Breathing in the light of a sunrise each day has been like a reunion to the departed "Gratitudaholic" that once seemed addicted to fascination with everything!

Today, it was more than my physical eyes, but more-so my vision. To have the ability to truly see, what it is that I am looking, and expand my self-actualization to an empathic mind has made me return to my most creative, "Best Self".

Again I CRAVE writing, shooting and growing as I did before the barrage of life-altering shifts. As if in an instant, the phone began to ring again, our office space has remained organized, and it seems that everyone around me has done the same.

An annual photo gig takes me to Los Angeles for some multi-day, personal growth seminars where I pinch myself that I get to do what I do in trade for sustaining dollars. Progressing my craft to the point of what some might call, second nature, allows me to really get in to what I am photographing, especially when it comes to music.

The amazing talent of Faith Rivera, Kenny Loggins, Rickie Byars Beckwith and Daniel Nahmod occupied the stage between speakers. I have done my job within the first 30 seconds of each song, recording stage activities, but as they burst out in passion-filled expression of their amazing verse, I cannot sit down with a camera in my hand.

It is never enough for me to see, feel and hear something, I want to share it. I explode with my own rhythm of image-making composition-addiction. Squatting down to get the right angles of light-chiseled faces, following a nudge to view from the opposite side of the stage. Arriving at the best location, at just the right moment creates a feeling inside of me that I cannot put to words.
It is pure harmony!

When phone calls and emails come, just to share appreciation for images that I've created, I cannot wait to see which of the images have moved others. As I run to the "Image Bank" to look at the image through the eyes of the caller, I realize that it's almost always the image that I did more than just see, push the button and sit down.

As with the image of Faith Rivera (below) from the July issue of Science of Mind Magazine,
I can look at the image and remember the feeling that I had when the shutter released. It is a perpetual addiction to be fully engaged in a craft that you can feel as you produce, which has given me cause to stand tall against opposing economical affects in this industry. As the power of thought has proven, I put my thoughts on what I was grateful for, and the redirection of my attention from lack to purpose, have given me more things to appreciate.I love what I see. I love what I do. I LOVE my wife and the family we have merged, and I appreciate EVERY client, no matter the job size, that has allowed me to make it possible for me to provide a service that brings me life.

Thank you Science of Mind Magazine for permitting me to post the article. (click here to see the full story) In it you will find an amazing quote from the lyrics of another giving artist, Jana Stanfield, from her song "All The Good"

"I cannot do all the good that the world needs,
But the world needs all the good that I can do."

That pretty much sums up what I am feeling right now.
Thank you for finding your way here.

Brian