A Re-Creative Photo Pilgrimage

A couple of days ago I unwittingly stumbled across a rather inspiring website. www.tasramar.com From what I've encountered so far on the site it is aimed at inspiring people to become the most and best they can be. The author of the site, Tasra, is also a photographer; she uses her photography to share the beauty she sees in people and the world with others. On her site she has issued a 365 day photo challenge. To take one photo per day for one full year. This really caught my attention as I have been wanting to get more into photography again now that I have finished college. I don't have a fantastic camera, more than a point and shoot, but no SLR - just a Canon PowerShot S3 IS. But it is more than enough to help me share how I see the world and help me to re-create the photographer's eye I had almost forgotten I had.

I chose to name this blog "a re-creative photo pilgrimage" because I have recently become enamored of the concept of the pilgrimage. Dictionary.com defines a pilgrimage to be a long journey undertaken as a quest or with a specific votive purpose. I think this fits the goals I have for my photos and for my life. So many people today talk about life as a journey. But a simple journey can be of no great importance. A pilgrimage on the other hand has a clear definition, purpose, and goals often related to the depth and breadth of life and full of personal and often spiritual meaning.

Let me introduce you to my goals in this project.

1. To reconnect with my creative, visual and artistic side. I have spent the last several years studying science. As much as I enjoy what I have learned, I have missed the artistic creative process and the subtleties and intuitive nature of it.
2. To reconnect with my friends far away at home. I am currently living in Taiwan teaching science and math at an international school. I am naturally a very visual person but this makes it difficult sometimes to keep up with friends and family at home who I rarely see. I'm hoping this project will help me reconnect as I share what inspires the photos I take daily - so that people at home can see what's happening in my life and can, hopefully, reciprocate and I can enjoy their lives despite the vast ocean separating us.
3. To communicate visually to everyone the beauty apparent and tragedy ignored of the lives of the people and places around us everyday. Every person needs someone to reach out to them. We all live beautiful lives that are often full of pain, both obvious and hidden. Yet we fear to reach out because we ourselves are in pain. But the beauty found in nature and in the people who we meet daily who have overcome obstacles can inspire us to overcome our own insecurities and reach new heights.