As many of you know, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of being a part of 8 women in what we call the Next Octave. All eight women are fascinating, beautiful, and rich with wisdom. Together we are on a journey for 9 months in helping each other reach the Next Octave in our individual lives. Many wonderful things has come from this journey, but one unexpected gift is the break I get from being the Source.

If you are a mom, you are what my friend Genie calls the “Source”. Everyone in the family comes to you for direction on what to do, how to feel, where to go. As my pastor once said, “If mom’s not happy nobody is happy. If dad’s not happy–who cares.” I know all you husbands reading this know how true the statement can be! And all you moms reading know how taxing it can be to be the source of what meals to cook, lunches to pack, carpools to organize and swim lessons to finish up. When I come to be with my Next Octave girlfriends, I don’t have to be the source.

I get to crash on their living room floor and sleep in late. I get to stay up until 1am as I pick their brains about the meaning of feminine wisdom. I don’t have to pack any lunches or carpool. I just receive, laugh, cry and breathe deep.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of staying with Peggy. We call her our “Den Mother”. All the other women in this group are twenty years older than me. Peggy is our oldest member and says it with pride. And she should. Her life holds experience that I stand in awe of. She and I stayed up past midnight as she let me ask her question after question about her life.

Peggy has survived the deep loss of losing her oldest daughter to ovarian cancer. Beth was in her thirties, bright, alive, and a firecracker in spirit. She went in for a routine check up and was gone in 93 days. How does a mom survive such tremendous loss?

Peggy has survived what seems un-survivable. Every part of her that has chosen to keep going, keep being a mom to her other children, keep being a wife and keep loving other women like me–leaves me speechless. To make the choice to live with an open heart, when life has been so unfair…this is a miracle. I was going to take a picture of Peggy before I left, but instead I wanted to capture the many parts of her home that symbolize the essence of Peggy.

Her raised Victorian in the heart of Berkley, breathes deep with comfort, warmth and beauty–it breathes Peggy. The details surround you from the moment you pull up to her home. Sunday morning I took about twenty minutes and walked around her house with my camera, picking and choosing the details that best describe Peggy’s beauty. These are the symbols I found around her home so you could experience her too.

It starts with the stairs to her front door. Eye catching in a brilliant blue, so incredibly inviting. The purple flowers and vines wrap themselves around the white banister pulling you in to a home of rest.

But Peggy is also strong and certain. Like the magnificent 100 year old molding in and around her home, she seems to know the lines she has walked, is walking and continuing to follow.

Peggy isn’t wishy washy. She doesn’t mince her words. She says things like they are. Her passion for women, for their voice, for her voice is precise It wraps around the home of her heart as well as the home of her dwelling place.

Even the design of her chair seems to circle round and round you.

Peggy is also vibrant! Over the years, she has taught workshops on sensuality, bringing confidence and healing to women. Her bright yellow lantern is in the back hallway, one could almost miss it because the placement is subtle and unobtrusive. This reminds me of Peggy. She is strong and vibrant, but her sense of femininity and passion are never obtrusive. Instead they lure you in, wanting to know her more.

And when Peggy retires for the night, she climbs a steep ladder up to her bedroom loft. To climb down a ladder every morning and then back up every night is something I could journal for hours around. The symbolism makes my head spin, so I’ll leave you with this simple image.

Can you guess what the photo exercise is?

Photo Exercise in Symbols

Pick someone in your life that causes an emotion to rise up in you. Maybe you are intrigued by them, curious about their life. Maybe they are the opposite of you and confuse you to no end. Maybe it’s one of your children, a parent, or grandparent. Maybe an old friend or a new friend like Peggy.

Once you have your person, visit them and ask if you can spend twenty minutes taking detail photos of their home or bedroom. This is a wonderful exercise to do with your kids. As I share on DVD 1, Refuse to Say Cheese , capturing the details in our kids lives can be so fun because in months they will have already changed on us. The details that define their present stage in life will be all new. So you don’t have to travel to Berkeley to do this exercise, a walk down the hallway will do just fine.

Use the lowest aperture/F stop you can because the story of your images are the details. The blurred background will help give more attention to the details you are capturing. If you aren’t comfortable shooting in Manuel try AV or A mode. This means you get to set your aperture to its lowest point (2.8 or 3.5 or maybe 5.6–it all depends on the lens you are using. The lower you can go the more dramatic your blur is.), and the camera will figure out your shutter speed. If this makes you break a sweat, turn your camera to the Portrait Mode. There is usually an icon with a lady’s head to symbolize Portrait Mode. You can find this mode on a DSLR or simple Point and Shoot. This is basically taking photos at a low aperture and choosing the appropriate shutter speed. As you can see, there are many ways to do this one exercise. Modify it to whatever level is most comfortable for you.

Recipe for Peggy’s Details:

All the above images were shot with my Sony 350 and 35mm lens. The 350 is a great DSLR that is super easy to travel with and has fantastic color! I was at a 1.6 aperture for extreme blur in the background. My shutter speed was 1/500 or 500th of a second. When I was outside shooting the blue steps and molding, I could be at a 100 ISO. But when I came in the house, I lost light and needed to bump up to a 400 ISO.

Enjoy! Tell us how it goes! If you want, you can even send me some of your images. I would love to see! Email them to mera@merakoh.com.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To vote for one of the Five Finalists in the Water Themed Photo Contest, click here! If we get 400 votes, we’re giving one random voter a copy of Adobe’s Lightroom Software! So make sure you vote before midnight tonight! Midnight PST is the DEADLINE!

The Chicago Workshop is sold out. But the Seattle December Workshop is now open for registration! Click HERE to register!

To see our day job , visit here.

For more fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese , our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice!

To submit a photo for August’s Photo Contest, email us an image that is about your Pet. The image has to show off a part of their personality. Attach the image as a JPG and send to contest@merakoh.com. The deadline is the last day of August! For the August prize info, click the word!