I debated doing a full black and white challenge, but my heart wasn’t in it. I have a soft spot for those who feel their work needs a color. Even if it’s just one. I create a lot of monochromatic images, especially sepia/yellow. This challenges centers around images with no color (black and white) or with just one, like a sepia-toned image.

The subjects are endless here – just make sure the lack of color fits with your concept and overall feel!

I’ll pull some of the art that I see this week to feature!
Use the hashtag #PromotingPassionChallenge so I can find you!

Here is some food for thought. Enjoy the challenge, and remember to push yourself creatively!

While shooting on the eve of the first day, we gathered in our hotel meeting space. A boring room with boring lighting and boring furniture. Nonetheless, I was determined to kick off the shooting by taking a self-portrait of myself laying on a table, to later composite on top of a giant mushroom.

Soon everyone started shooting, taking their cameras out and snapping a few shots here and there. I offered myself up as a subject to get the ball rolling, and in no time I found myself balancing on a chair, being suffocated in fabric, and posing for the picture you see above.

The person who took it, Beth Olson, also took another on the last day of our class. There is a stark difference between the two, and in the most perfect way possible, she captured the two sides of how I feel…perhaps without realizing it, or perhaps she did. In the top image I am fragile and contemplative, and in the next I am curious and imaginative. That is me, inside and out. Shy, daydreamer, fragile, imaginative…all of these things rolled into two images.

Isn’t it so amazing how an image can capture something so true about a person. I take many self-portraits, and as a result I feel that I know myself very well. I understand what makes me who I am, and I often try to capture a part of that in an image. But when someone else steps in to take a few shots, and they get it so exactly right, I can’t help but smile and nod. That’s me.

Thank you Beth and everyone else who shared in our beautiful adventures those few days. The photos that resulted are wonderful and I am grateful to have been a part of it.

But then I got older, and I thought a lot more about what it means to truly be a leader. It doesn’t mean that you have people following your every move, or that you speak in front of big groups of people, or that you make epic speeches like in the movies. It is a solidarity with oneself, a resolve to do what makes your heart sing, and the confidence to move forward without following someone’s footsteps.

We are all leaders and we are all followers. What matters most is not whether you are predominantly one or the other, but if you are leading yourself. The rest will follow.

How often, in your own life, do you choose the road less traveled? How often do you give yourself permission to go where no one has gone before, or to do something out of your comfort zone. It is easier to follow because it is safe. We find security in knowing that someone else has been through what we will go through. Yet someone had to be first. Everything starts with something. Don’t live your life with someone else’s decisions.

Take hold of what is dear to you. Lead yourself through the unknown and trust in your instincts. Know that you have the power to pull yourself up should you fall, the ingenuity to break new ground, and the love of self to know it is worth it. The greatest things in this world are achieved through personal exploration. Do what you love because you love it. Don’t search the internet for an instruction manual. If you should fall, you will get back up. Falling is not failing, it is a lesson learned on the way to success.

Move bravely on your journey, and you may soon find others following in your footsteps.