Tag: inspiration

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contemplations Germany inspiration Photography street photography war

Daily Coffee Talk~ 89/365

This cloud shall pass~ Germany

Hi again from Germany. It has taken me a while to force myself to come back to this blog since current events threw me completely off balance lately. But if there is anything I am sure of, it is that I am the boss of me and there is plenty of coffee left in the world to drink while I write my blog.

I chose this image today because it has felt lately as though a cloud is over us, casting a shadow on what we love to do and how we love to be, but all clouds dissolve and all storms will pass as they have always throughout history. We live on a planet of duality after all and there is always an up that follows a down.

I still remember spending hours trying to ‘melt’ clouds with my sister in Lebanon by firing force at them with our extended hands, and you can believe me or not, it works! Try it next time you feel like having some sunshine in your life.

The best way to get over a hurdle is to help break it down, and with the sad situation in the Ukraine and other wars, well, help, find a way to support the people who are helping by donating, creating, communicating, being compassionate and all of that somehow feels like a breeze that pushed the clouds out of the way.

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Fine art inspiration lockdown morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~48/365

Good Morning,

So for those of us who think we are sitting at home or standing still, ponder this:

Our planet is spinning around its axis at a speed of 1000 miles/ hour

It is also rotating around the sun at a speed of 67,000 miles/ hour

and our Milky Way is spinning around at a speed of 130miles/SECOND or 1.3 million miles/ hour!!!

And you, me, and the neighbour’s cat can stand still and balance on one foot (well not the cat) !

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contemplations morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~ 38/365

Hello yellow~ Russia Pavilion at Dubai Expo

Good Morning,

Let’s talk about color. What is it really? Why do we need to see it? Why is our planet blue? Why is the sun yellow? Why do we see the rainbow? Why are we drawn to different colors? How do different color influence us?

That’s an ongoing life long research but have you ever tried this simple experiment? Take a set of crayons and every day see which color is popping out or standing out more than the others? Try to tune to that color that day, wear it, draw with it, look for examples of it, and register the effects of that. I did that for years and I keep the colored pencils near my desk for that reason.

Maybe even consider that wearing the wrong color for you that day can have an influence on your whole day’s goings on.

And one more phrase to contemplate: “color is a cloak of force”.

Wishing you a colorful end of the week. Today we will drive to the yellow desert.

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animation

Dreaming in Monochrome

Dreaming in Monochrome~

Do you dream in color or monochrome? I have had this wish to recreate dreams in visual designs and until I started to learn motion design, this was not even a remote possibility. I am loving this journey of expanding my skillset to include live footage, animation, photography and sound design. I believe that we should never stop learning new skills and sharing them. 

What new skills are you learning? 

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Germany Photography

A Fresh New Beginning~

As the fresh new snow blankets the ground and lays a layer of white powder on everything standing still, it feels like a permission for a new beginning. All is still, all is clean, all is white and a new chapter can now begin.

Yesterday the sun was shining as it still is today and the whole day, snowflakes shimmered in the sun, floating, dancing and eventually landing gently on surfaces, each in its unique glory.

Despite the bitter cold, I kept finding myself jumping up, grabbing my camera and heading outdoors to try and capture the magic of what was going on.

Let’ see what today brings…

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art CHINA Fine art inspiration Photography

Time to be Still~

In a time when all the planet is in upheaval, when all that we know is changing, when tensions are running high and panic and fear are the order of the day, being still might be what saves us. Let’s all take a moment, to pause in time and reflect on our lives here on this planet and all the good that remains in us and around us waiting to be noticed. Let’s be still because all is well, at least on the levels that matter most.
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inspiration lockdown Photography

Let’s Photograph ‘Human Connection’

At this time, when ‘physical distancing’ has become a daily used term, what kind of an impact has this had on us all? Those of us who are used to being with other people on a daily basis, the extroverts who thrive with social contact, the teenagers who miss the daily get togethers that fill their day with purpose, and even the introverts, how are we dealing with the new normal under Covid-19 lockdown?

The concept of ‘human connection’ is taking on a new meaning and invites a new definition, so I put out the challenge this time to my photographer friends to come up with words and images to go with their new understanding of human connections. Here below is the work we did.

Enjoy!

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Photography

The World on Lockdown~

This is day on of lockdown in Germany where we are currently living after the start of the Coronavirus pandemic and life has never been more interesting.

Suddenly there is space, and at first, you feel like you don’t know what to do with all this time, you feel restless like you are forgetting something, an errand, you need to do, a doctor’s appointment, a meeting, something… and then you realise that you need to stop.

And once you feel settled to that fact and you delete all the appointments in your calendar, it starts to dawn on you that something is shifting, onsetting, happening in a big way, seen and unseen that is bringing the whole world to a halt. And you listen very carefully, you hear the planet breathing a sigh of relief.

Manufacturing has stopped, planes are stopping, trains, cars, football games, concerts, events, all the things that allow you to feel lost in the crowd and all of a sudden there is a large mirror facing each one of us.

How will we spend our time now? Will we panic watching the alarmist news? Will we take long unhurried walks in the forest? It is Spring here after all. Will we learn something new? Or much better even, will we take the opportunity to do our much needed dwelling on the meaning of life that we had put aside all these years due to our rushed and busy lives?

What a great opportunity this is. Humans working together to combat an undiscriminating and common threat to all. How do we battle this with our humanity intact? Will we take the time to reconnect to the most basic truth of our connection to our amazing planet and its natural laws? And what about the intensifying and onsetting future? Are we ready to meet it?

In the last few days as we hurriedly tried to get ready for lockdown, I saw scared and worried faces everywhere and a big chunk of confusion and concern, which caused me to be kinder than normal to others along the way. As I let a person pass in front of me on the line, stopped the car for a pedestrian, waved and smiled at a stranger, I realised with great delight that a small act of kindness is going a much longer way than ever before. People are glowing because of it and that caused me to understand that in situations like these, humanity thrives, values are resurrected and the future has a chance…

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contemplations Fine art Germany inspiration Photography

Embracing the future~

Who can be sure that the future is a continuation of and a consequence of the now? Could it be that the future is arriving independently of all what has been and that is?

Isn’t every dawn a new fresh beginning and a new permission for a brand new future?

Do we decide our future or is it predestined?

Is the answer hidden in the future and any answer that we arrive at today is already condemned to be in the past?

And what about light? What lives in the ever changing light?

Today I took this iphone photo of a tree outside my parents in law’s home where we are gathered for Christmas and I showed it to my sister in law. The light had a haunting quality in that moment that made me stand still in utter awe.

She ran out to the window and said to me “you must have magicked your image, it does not look like that!”

The truth is it did look like that and so much more but light doesn’t wait. It moves and evolves and radiates differently with every passing moment. Light is alive that way.

Musing last from an enchanted Christmas Day in the German countryside.

Merry Christmas my friends

Categories
contemplations inspiration morocco Photography Uncategorized

New Beginnings~

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images taken in Essaouira, Morocco

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It’s 2019, I used to imagine 2019 as a child with a cloud or mystery and wonderment, what could the future hold? How will we be? where will we be? what would we be doing?

I have always been fascinated with the unknown. It is about that excitement in the pit of my stomach every morning that is a fine line between inspiration and not knowing what the day will hold. Life changed me, it took me to different places in myself and in the world, I gained and I lost, I laughed and I cried, but this gift of loving the unknown never left me. I am thankful for that. It’s what drives me to create, to want to explore and to see rather than look, feel and not only be.

I wish you all an inner peace and the gift of inspiration, no matter where you are and what you are doing. Life is a mystery, waiting to be lived.