I am practicing nature photography as a prayerful experience and I’ve learned so much from two wonderful books by Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred and Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice. Both books are excellent. I’m also deepening my contemplative photography practice as I share with and learn from others in the Nature Photography program I’m facilitating online. The beautiful people in the class have shown me so much beauty as seen through their eyes. We learn from and about each other as we are shown so many different images of creation, each so uniquely framed.
One of my favorite chapters in Eyes of the Heart is “Discovering the Holy within Us” where we are invited to explore how we might create a self-portrait. I am exploring nature photography as a form of self-portrait. After all, I am nature. I am part of nature and in nature and inseparable from nature. I am nature.
The other day I met a tall, gorgeous four-leaf clover who lives under an oak tree. Of course I did not pick the clover. She has a life to live. I did cradle her leaves in my hand for a moment to “receive the image” of her and create a photo. I realize this image is both a self-portrait as well as a nature scene. The clover and I are nature. Together we are nature. The image is also a family portrait, for the clover is my relative.
Then I was spending time with a hillside of daisies. Being with them and among them. Seeing them. Learning from them. Seeing myself in them. Later, I was showing the images to my sweet husband, and when I came to an image of two daisies together, I said, “And here’s a picture of us as daisies.” He loved this and said, “I’m the tall one.” “Yes,” I said, “and I’m the curvy one.”
What do your self-portraits look like these days? How might the exploration of nature photography as self-portrait look for you? How might this expand to the concept of your family portraits? And isn’t this a beautiful time to receive the glorious images and gifts within our holy selves, within holy creation?
—Angie Pierce Jennings, Prairiewoods hosted groups and hospitality coordinator