"Here's lookin' at you, Kid"
My Havanese dog, Ricky, gets me out in the world...even when I don't feel like going outside. Often, because he stops so much on our walks, he is the reason I see something I had not previously noticed. In that way, he is my "seeing-eye" dog.Learning how to see, really see, what is around us wherever we may be takes practice. It takes being mindful. Doing photography with that kind of intentionality -- being open to glimpses of grace in the world -- is the spiritual practice I enjoy teaching and that is the focus of this course.
This mini-course is not a typical photography course. It's an introduction to a process that -- while you are doing photography -- will encourage you to "see" differently, to "receive the light" by opening yourself up to the Spirit moving within you and all of creation, and to share what you discover with others in a small group process. Thank you for joining this adventure! Eileen D. Crowley ecrowley@ctu.edu www.eileendcrowley.weebly.com |
Our small-group process
Usually, a small group is effective when it has 8-12 people participating ... just enough to gather around a big table. This size group allows everyone a chance to speak when we meet face-to-face. Ours will be a holy conversation around the experience of making and sharing images. Our small group process trusts that the Holy Spirit is with us at every stage. Over the course of our weeks together we will improve our photography skills. More importantly, though, through practicing the art of photography we will simultaneously be practicing the art of spiritual and theological reflection. Our reflections will arise naturally from the experience of taking and contemplating our photographs.
Each week before we meet in person around that table... 1) Participants will do photography in response to the reading and the assignment given, and a "Reflection" on this site. Plan to spend about an hour each week, whether all at one time or in smaller chunks of time over the course of the week; 2) Each group member uploads 5-7 images online into our group SmugMug gallery ... in advance of our face-to-face gathering. This will give everyone a chance to see each other's images on their high resolution computer screens or tablets. When we meet, we will look at these images again in silence. Those viewing the images will share what the image evokes in them. Then the person whose images they are will share what she or he discovered in the process of "receiving" those images. We will close by giving thanks for the Light thus shared with our "Open-Eyes Prayers." |
Online resources
Although we will be using Bryan Peterson's Learning To See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography, revised edition (NY: Amphoto Books, 2003) as our textbook, dozens of websites offer basic tips on photography in general, on using a digital Single Lens Reflex camera (dSLR), and on using an iPhone as your camera.
Below is a document that will provide you with links to some of these websites. Explore as you wish. Some are in the form of blogs, others in the form of video tutorials. If you like one, you might find that the person who created it has other ones on other topics. Enjoy! 
| ||
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What difference can this small-group faith formation process make?
Rev. Michelle Sevig, associate pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, participated in the Photography as a Spiritual Practice group hosted by her church in the weeks following Easter 2013. She gave a report on the course, entitled "Visio Divina," in her church's e-newsletter. It included some of the images created by other Holy Trinity photographers. As the mini-course came to a close, Michelle also shared her experience of this small-group process with church members during a sermon she gave on May 5, 2013. (Photo by Julie Sevig)
Here is an excerpt: |
|
Photography as Spiritual Practice…I was intrigued by the title and the concept when Eileen Crowley first pitched it to us. I love taking photos—lots of them, and I consider myself to have a good eye, and come up with some pretty decent photos. But a spiritual practice? I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I was certainly curious and eager to discover how doing something I love could help me be “more spiritual.” |
glimpses of grace, and this week we’re to photograph images that represent our callings to be God’s presence in the world. |
