The Best Play Dough Recipe ever, can be found HERE.

Recently,a family member insisted on taking Buzzy’s picture. He refused. He got irritated and wouldn’t participate. I saved my soap box lecture for a more appropriate setting

[Using Playtime for Documenting]

There’s nothing fun about being told what to do, where to stand, to hold still, and to smile at a phone. And honestly, there isn’t much authenticity that comes from that either.

Any time you can instead integrate your camera into a moment that is already unfolding and interact like the camera’s not even there, you’ll get some great participation, authentic responses and everyone ends up happy.

Great moments are never forced.

My nature is such that I can only have a few things going on in my life or I feel totally out of control. However, my son’s nature thrives in high activity. He is happiest and most energized when he can go from one activity to the next. That being said, everyone still has a breaking point, but it’s so important to begin to know yourself well enough to understand what your own threshold is.

When pruning is necessary, here are a few questions that help me:

1. Does this activity nourish me?

Is it something that actually fuels my energy and my spirit? Or does being involved drain me and have any type of negative energy associated with it? (Negative energy could be guilt, comparisons, or unnecessary time away from more important activities or relationships.)

2. What is my motivation?

Do I have this in my life out of obligation? To impress others? Because I’ve been unwilling to delegate? Because I’ve resisted change, even though the time and season for this activity no longer align?

Or…do I feel personally called to this activity? Does it make my heart sing? Does it make me want to strive and improve?

Ultimately, I believe that deep down we already know what needs to be cut out.

We often spend a lot of time ignoring those feelings that try to tell us what would be a healthy choice for our life.

Want a fun way to find out what you already know?

Flip a coin.

Heads you keep the activity. Tails you cut it.

If the result fills you with relief, it was the right choice.

If the result finds you wishing the coin toss had gone the other way–you still find the answer that was already inside you.

So what are you going to prune? I’d love to hear!

We all have things to change in our life. Whether we need to prune out bad habits or add more nourishing ones.

We know…

But doing it??? It’s often easier said than done.

I’m currently reading the brilliant book The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. He introduces the concept of changing our habits by changing the activation energy required.

Activation energy is the amount of effort it takes to do something.

For the things you want to do less or quit, you need to increase the activation energy.

Make the task more challenging to do.

This means, for example, if I want to spend less time on Facebook, I need to make it much harder to get there in the first place. Deleting the app from my phone or ipad or disabling cookies so my computer won’t remember my password are ways to make it much harder to do that activity. Often times the very hassle is enough to change our mind about doing it. This example is a personal one for me. After I deleted the FB app from my phone and ipad, I was left to only checking Facebook on my desktop computer–which is upstairs and totally out of the way of all other day to day activity. My habit was significantly reduced immediately and I didn’t have to completely deprive myself either. I just made it impossible to participate at every waking moment of my life! Significant life improvement results followed

For the things I want to add into my life, I need to decrease the activation energy.

I need to make it as easy as possible to do that activity.

I have always struggled drinking water. I’m sure that I’ve been chronically dehydrated for probably 30 years. I’ve bought fancy water bottles, filters, and set numerous resolutions to no avail. Then I decided to simply fill up a large pitcher of water and leave it out on my kitchen counter all day long. My water intake has increased significantly because it’s so easy to see and remember.

How have you changed the activation energy in your life for positive results? I want to hear your story! Leave a comment and let me know!

Course Dates

May 20th-June 16th

Premium vs. Self Study

For most courses, there are two participation options.

Premium participation: students enjoy:

• A private Facebook group for peer interaction and direct access to an instructor for the duration of the course
• Weekly video feedback on your course assignments.

What do those videos look like?

You’ll now find real video feedback samples for each course on the respective course registration pages! (Look for the pink link!) Watch and learn from these videos to make the decision of what participation level is best for you.

2. Self Study participation: All self study students have full access to all course materials and self guide through the course experience.

I’d love to have you join us!

Have questions?

Send me an email at brooke@brookesnow.com and I’d be delighted to chat!

I’m such a strong believer that our feelings are clues to life happiness. If we’re not happy or experiencing discontent it is a big clue that something needs to change.

Continuing along the path I was on began to feel more and more inauthentic for me, so thus began a soul searching journey to figure out what I really needed to be doing so I could feel purposeful and passionate again.

Should I abandon photography? Should I abandon all the classes that I had worked so hard to create? I tend to be a bit dramatic in my self analysis (I’m either all into something or I’m totally done with it.) But opening my mind to the possibility that there was something more or different that I could contribute to the world began to illuminate my mind.

The most important question that I asked myself during this time, was how can I design my work to be something that contributes to my own personal growth and happiness?

For over four and a half years I have played the role of teaching photography. It has been incredible. I’ve loved it. But I had reached the point that I felt that I was giving and giving and giving and not growing anymore. My interests were broadening. My life challenges were changing. And if I was honest with myself, I had this deep desire to switch tracks a bit.

Photography is a wonderful thing, but there are more important parts of life. And for photography to truly be the most impactful tool that it can be, the person using the camera needs to be open to living life to their best, not just photographing it.

I found the answer to my discontent in December–thanks to lots of journaling, divine inspiration, and some pivotal conversations with friends and mentors. By the end of February I started Nation Building with Sarah Bray to bring to life my new vision. I temporarily quit Facebook, stopped blogging, and went to work.

Last week I quietly launched my new website, launched two new classes (both are free), and unveiled my new message. Things are still new, I’m still finding typo’s, and I could sit here for weeks and wait until every bit of it is perfect, but I can’t keep it to myself any longer!

In case you’re wondering, my photo classes aren’t going away In fact, I’m even more excited about my photography courses than I have been in a long time now that they are balanced out by my current Thriving Life course and other “Life” classes that are coming soon.

Discontent is such a valuable feeling. When it first comes it can be a bit disheartening, and if you don’t look for a solution then it can quickly drain your sense of purpose and meaning in what you’re pursuing. But it comes for the most beautiful reason: there’s a better way. There’s something more. There’s something bigger. There’s new possibility and growth that awaits you if you’re open to discovering what it may be.

If you’re experiencing discontent in your life right now, let this be a little spark of hope that it is actually a wonderful gift. Listen to your heart and open your mind to the possibility that there is something incredible just waiting to be discovered by you, that doing things differently or focusing on better things will indeed bring the contentment that you seek.

I hope you’ll come on this exciting new journey with me.

It could be said that I have a book buying problem, especially when it comes to photography books. I have read more books than I can count on everything from shutter speed to proper composition, but I must say, that I’ve never come upon a book that takes the approach that Elevate the Everyday portrays. It was a breath of fresh air to read about photography in a philosophical way that honors home life, motherhood, and finding value in your own unique story.

We live in a very visual world. We are exposed to other people’s photos everyday online, on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, and it can be very tempting to think our own lives are less than glamorous by comparison.

The thought that we each have our own unique story is what was most striking to me in this book. The idea that there is magic in our own life. 

This book brilliantly shows us how photography can be a great tool in helping us to see our own unique stories with gratitude and understanding.

With that main thought in mind, Tracey Clark details in her book both WHAT to photograph in our life as well as HOW.

What To Photograph

Three of my most favorite suggestions that Tracey suggests photographing include routines, spaces, and affections. (Though the book details several more!)

ROUTINE: Tracey points out that “The memories that we make as a family {in photos} aren’t usually found in the routines of our everyday life. They are usually found while on vacation from our everyday life. But the everyday is the foundation from which all the big and exciting memories grow.”

What a powerful thought! It’s exciting to realize that our life really is made up of those small everyday moments accumulating into something great. Taking the time to photograph those daily routines is a great place to begin to see the magic of your everyday life and personal story. Life really does slip by so fast, and it is often those small everyday things that we end up missing the most. Photographing them helps us to not only remember but to truly live in the present with a full sense of gratitude.

SPACES
Tracey tells us, “The majority of life as we know it happens within our own four walls. Each room in our home serves a purpose. The irony is, in the average collection of family photographs the traces of home that tell the sacred story of family life don’t always exist.”

Taking the time to see the stories that happen in the different spaces of our home or home’s away from home, can be a great consideration in finding those everyday stories to tell. What memories do we daily make in the kitchen, the bedroom, the playroom, the car, the bathroom, or even the backyard? Those spaces each hold unique daily experiences that make up our lives.

AFFECTIONS
What are your favorite things? What are your children’s favorite things at the moment? Sometimes the objects of our affection stay constant but most often they change with the season or the stage of life. Our affections are the very essence of who we are, for they represent where we put our time and our love. Perhaps it’s a sport, maybe it’s a favorite toy or a blanket. Maybe it’s a pop star or a fantasy book series. Regardless, documenting our affections represents a significant part of our life story.

How to Photograph Our Stories

Knowing “what” to photograph is only the beginning of this exciting adventure. Tracey then leads you through many creative ways to consider “how” to photograph your images to add that artistic flare that is the secret of turning a snapshot into something much more compelling.

Tips on using your camera: If the camera has been a bit of a mystery to you, Tracey takes the time to explain the basic function of many of the different modes on the camera, helping you to take advantage of many of the features that can artistically improve your photos that you may not have been aware of before. Though the bulk of the book is not about how to operate the camera (there are plenty of books like that already written), you will find those necessary little gems here if you need it.

Beyond the technical, Tracey dives into significant creative and compositional tips that can make an impact on the quality of your photos.

My favorite tip for how to photograph is to consider a creative use of framing.

FRAMING: Tracey points out how this is especially important when using your cell phone camera. She says, “Because the technical elements are stripped away from your mobile camera, creative framing becomes the key.”

Looking for ways to creatively frame your photo could include shooting from a high perspective, a low perspective, shooting through something, hiding behind something. All of these different perspectives help to add visual interest to the photograph and draw the eye to your subject. It’s a great secret for making an otherwise mundane snapshot into something more exciting. Because this tip is not a technical one, Tracey says, “…it’s a great way to get out of snapshot mode while tapping into your creativity.”

In summary, Elevate the Everyday: A Photographic Guide to Picturing Motherhood, delivers on the promise of its inspired title. If you are looking for a fresh approach to photographing your own life in a way that helps you value and appreciate the intricacies of your everyday life, you’ll want to be sure to get your own copy. For what could be better than learning to see your own life as magical, just the way it is? Exactly.

I don’t.  Something tells me mine was probably something serious like a piano or something. I just remember that even at that young age, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a Music Professor.  Yes, a Professor. Can you feel the adventure?!?

Buzzy is light years more playful than I am was.  His current fetish is Mr. Potato Heads and creating what he fondly calls, “Picasso’s”.

It’s the perfect toy because it can also be destroyed and torn apart and you can build it all over again in a new way.

Brooke Snow is a Lifestyle photographer in Cache Valley, Utah. She loves a clean house, coconut oil on toast, and any music by Rachmoninoff.

Brooke teaches inspiring online photography classes that bring you confidence in your skills and creativity.

A time that you felt the most creative thought, the most wonder, the most directed in your decisions? A time of personal enlightenment?

The last several months I have struggled with discontent. Okay, let’s be honest. The last YEAR Maybe longer…

I finally asked myself the above questions and was a little surprised by my answer.

My most inspiring time of life? I would have to admit that it was 1999-2005. My college undergraduate experience.

Me. Circa 2004 in live performance for my Junior Recital. Image by Ron Adair.

• I was a Music Major at USU and was so in love with my major that I would sit on the front row of every class and tap my feet in anticipation for class to start. (Total music geek!)
• I had phenomenal instructors who were passionate about their calling as a teacher. It was not unusual for me to leave a class or private lesson with major life applications that I could draw from their simple music instruction.
• I journaled a lot.
• I drove to and from campus in silence because I had so many great things to think about.
• I spent about 8 hours a day creating/performing music that was inspiring in its message and its craft.
• I had really great friends.

SIDE NOTE: I was also insanely busy, constantly studying and doing homework or practicing, freaking out about deadlines or tests, going through the usual college heart aches and insecurities, and over working myself.

But overall, I was essentially happy and inspired the majority of the time.

Why do I not feel that way now? What has changed?

Obviously, I’m no longer a student on a campus, but in many ways I’m an even better student now than I was then. I take regular classes both online and in my community, not to mention I read voraciously. Getting information and being in a learning environment was not the difference.

I am married now and have a family. But that shouldn’t matter either.

I’m actually less busy now than I was in college–so technically that should be working in my favor too.

What is the difference? As soon as the thought came, I immediately knew it was true.

Distraction. My level of distraction has significantly changed.

Those early college years I didn’t have a cell phone. Facebook didn’t exist yet. I had an email account but it was not even close to being the major player it is today. Blogging was something I’d only heard about but didn’t have time or interest for. The first ipod I saw was in my senior year and it was still considered an expensive luxury item.

But really, no one was plugged in all that much yet. We’d ride the campus bus and talk to people. We’d walk across campus and talk to our friends. We made eye contact. We were left to our own thoughts during any moment of downtime.

That was the difference.

Significant.

I wanted that back. I wanted to reclaim the enlightened life I led back then.

I wanted my mind back…you know, when I could think through entire thoughts and get some depth out of them without buzzing in my brain to the next thing to check.

But how do you do that and co exist with the world we live in today? I can’t go cold turkey on digital technology, nor do I want to.

It’s a problem that both scares and fascinates me. I’m making it a matter of personal study and research to find some answers.

How do you cope?

Do you feel that you live slow enough to take in regular moments of enlightenment and take advantage of digital distractions? Can you have both? Is your most inspired time of life right now? I want to know! I’ll be actively responding to this conversation for the next 24 hours HERE. Please share your thoughts!

Brooke Snow is a Lifestyle photographer in Cache Valley, Utah. She is by nature, overly introspective. She listens to Gregorian chant in the morning, Jack Johnson in the afternoon and in the evening?  She makes her own music! You should hear her yodel

Brooke teaches inspiring online photography classes that bring you confidence in your skills and creativity.

I haven’t photographed my home life in over three months.

Yes, that means that I missed my 3 year old’s birthday, and all of the holidays with my camera.

I just didn’t feel like bringing it out.

Do you ever go through peaks and valley’s with your passion?

I’m sure there is a parallel of my apathy and the side effects of living through the dead of winter.

But how to get the spark back?

I’ve been grateful for the brightness and inspiration that I’ve found this week in Davina Fear’s Familyness Photo Workshop.  I hoped that by participating I might catch a bit of magic in my heart again to photograph our family story.

One thing that I have loved so far about the workshop, is how Davina describes looking for YOUR STORY.

It’s easy to go out and try to copy someone else’s story that you saw posted on a blog or Facebook.  Just like it’s easy to believe that our life should look different than it does.  Davina is teaching us how to see our own unique stories that happen in our homes everyday.  And not just to SEE them, but to LOVE them, and to LIVE them through our photos.

For this week’s assignment I wanted to photograph one of our stories and use it to create a VIRTUAL THANK YOU CARD (pictured above).

Buzzy received some amazingly fun gifts for Christmas.  I’m actually pretty terrible at sending handwritten thank you cards in the mail.  Instead of beating myself up again this year for being a slacker, I decided to play to my strengths.  I may not send a thank you card in the mail, but I could make a virtual card featuring Buzzy playing with his gifts and make an image look like a card!

Well, wallah!

We had fun.

We played.

We got great photos to say thanks with.

And most of all, I felt a spark.

And the camera is still out.

It’s time to climb again.

Brooke Snow is a Lifestyle photographer in Cache Valley, Utah. She loves squeaky cheese (cheese curds), a daily dose of solitude, and trips to the family farm 3 miles away.

Brooke teaches inspiring online photography classes that bring you confidence in your skills and creativity.

Davina Fear is not only one of my favorite photographers, she’s one of my favorite people.  I’m thrilled to be able to share her with you today live and in person!

True Artist Interview

I invited Davina to an interview for a few key reasons:

1.  The idea of Convergence & What makes YOU unique.

We’re often told to find our unique voices as artists.  That can be a bit of a vague allure to many of us and it’s quite the journey to discover what really does make us stand apart from the crowd.  I’m personally convinced that where photography is concerned, our “unique voice” most often has nothing to do with the photography side of things (gasp!).  Styles and photos can easily look similar, but the artist themselves are not.  Pulling in our outside interests and talents can often be an electrifying answer of how to find what makes you different.

Davina Fear has a background in Marriage and Family Science.  Listen in to see how she uses this unique passion of hers in her photography and her business.

2.  Using photography to invite a happier family life in your own home.

“Familyness”, as Davina affectionately calls the combination of Family+Happiness, can be achieved as we learn to see the magic of our own story in our own homes.  Finding ways to use photography as a tool for strengthening relationships is an exciting and meaningful adventure, and I can’t think of anyone better suited to the subject, than lovely Davina

Don’t see the video? Click HERE!

THE INTERVIEW

Some highlights:

2:25 Davina shares her own story of how she came to be a photographer.

5:16 What is “Familyness”?  How can we achieve familyness in our own homes?

7:00 Convergence.  How Davina combined her interest in Marriage and Family Science into photography. (Very inspiring ideas you can easily incorporate into your work!)

12:15 Bringing the idea of “Familyness” into photographing your own home life.

13:51 Ideas for shooting different personalities.

18:12 Davina’s Familyness Photo Course.

I’m really excited about Davina’s Familyness Photo Course.  (That starts this coming Monday, January 20th!!) It’s not just about taking better photo’s of your family, but it’s about cultivating and strengthening those family relationships in the process.  I’ve never seen another course out there that has that added measure of depth that makes this course both fun and meaningful.

Davina has even given all my readers a special code to use to save $30 on tuition! Wahoo!  Use the code FPW30brooke

Want a peek into Davina’s own story of Familyness?  Check out her inspiring photos below:

Thank you Davina for sharing your philosophies with us today!  Do you have a question or comment for Davina?  Please leave it below!