Fun Connections - Giving Voice

One of the ways I like to play is through photography. I participate in an online “photography club” that has helped me learn new techniques and strategies and has provided a venue for sharing photos and getting peer feedback on them.

Let me share two shots that won awards through the club (called “Viewbug” if you’re interested.)

1. This shot, entitled “Ice Fog Abstract #6” was taken during one of our many winter “fog days” when it’s cold enough that fog decorates everything with crystals. This is the fence near our school:

Winner of both a “Peer Award” and a “Top Choice 20” award

for August 2021

2. This is one of my all-time favorites. I took it at a local wacipi here, pre-COVID. His grandmother gave me permission to enter it in the contest.

I find that photography can be like meditation… both in creating and in focusing on them after the shot is taken. As you can imagine, photographing people, especially across cultural lines, calls for special sensitivity and an understanding of the cultural expectations of the event or situation. Photos I would have taken but didn’t, at inapi (sweat) ceremonies, at Sun Dance, and even at our local parish, will remain only in my brain’s private photo exhibit.

On the other hand, as in the case of the picture above, being able to track down and talk with the grandmother of this young man offered a wonderful conversation and connection. She was thrilled to receive both the digital image of the picture and a printed image to save. And she was honored to know that “our” picture had won in the contest!