Photography as Art Therapy

I have not been posting at my normal or desired pace over the last month due to a family medical emergency.  I certainly could have kept pace given the amount of idle time I had at my disposal waiting in doctor’s offices and hospital rooms, but it was a bit difficult to focus.  Rather, I spent this substantial waiting time informing friends and relatives of current events, and post processing photographs.

The silver lining to this dark cloud  came in three forms.  Most importantly my wife will be better off than before.  Second, I was finally able to close out processing of photos from 2009.  Yes, I am that far behind.  Processing photos so distant in time from the moment they were taken has an added benefit that I will talk about further in a future post.  Finally, I was given the gift of having a productive diversion (processing the photos) as I faced the treatment my wife was enduring.  Hence the subject of this post.

I know nothing of art therapy.  I have not researched the principals or application of art therapy.  However, I can tell you of my experience without bias of knowledge of the discipline.  During the extended periods of waiting, or sitting by my wife’s bedside while she was passing from consciousness to sleep, I played with my photographs.  I found it to be much more than simply a diversion.

As I selected, discarded, and processed the photos I was transformed to a better state of mind.  I was viewing beautiful images and others that had the potential to be special.  As I worked through these photographs, pleasant and soothing emotions emerged.  This was a real gift.

By nature I am an introspective person.  I would not be surprised if this were the case for many of the people who pursue the art of photography.  Reflecting on the manner in which I processed the photos during this recent period proved interesting.  The photos featured in this post were all processed during this period of waiting and wondering.  As I look at them now, I see a darker mood.  I would guess there is a relationship between my experience and my choice in post processing.

Although I do not have the words to describe it, I found my photography to be much more than a diversion.  It was a creative release and it supported me by introducing and encouraging positive thoughts and beautiful images.

Thank you for enduring my completely unstructured and possibly irrelevant thoughts on the subject of art therapy.  I can tell you that photography added a wonderfully positive moment to a very stressful situation.
Have fun, and go make some great photography.
Craig

Black and White HDR Photography with a Lensbaby

A while back I had the idea of combining several of the latest technologies at my disposal to create a unique photograph.  The title photograph in this post is the result.  It combines HDR photography, a Lensbaby, and processing the photograph in black and white.  Any one of these approaches standing on their own is common place.  If you were to Google any one of these, you would get millions of results.  However, using HDR for b/w photography is not as common as color photography, and applying HDR to Lensbaby photography is even more rare.

While I am confident that plenty of people have combined the three elements, it is not a regular practice.  So here you go – an example of a unique combination of technology in photography.  The point of this exercise is to demonstrate just one of the endless combinations we have at our disposal to express our creativity.  There remains countless other possibilities for us to experiment with photography and our creativity. 

If you ever feel you are hitting a rut, just explore.

Have fun and go make some great photography.

Craig