The Mindful Migraine

Now that I have a little more time on my hands (with the PhD finished), and after I hilariously botched up my selfies for the “kiddy craft for migraines” post, I decided to learn a little more about how to take photographs… just on my phone… nothing fancy… or too hard.

So, I borrowed a book from the library. It’s called “Hashtag Authentic” by Sara Tasker. I hadn’t heard of her before (but I don’t get out much) – she was apparently a bit of a Big Thing on Instagram for years, famous for her earthy, moody, photos she took on her phone of her home, her daughter, and her holidays.

Her Instagram is here: @MeAndOrla | Instagram

Her Substack (including podcast) is here: Entre Nous | Sara | Substack

[All her pages seem fairly quiet and post-free at the moment, so perhaps she’s retired her camera… and there is half a post hidden behind a pay wall that suggests she has been sick… regardless, her book was a good read, and the images online give you a general idea of what she’s aiming for in her approach.]

Tips from the book included her main advice – get out there and have a go – as well as some more technical advice about framing, lighting, and using ‘thirds’ (where the main focus of the picture is positioned one-third up or two-thirds from the left and so on).

What was interesting was that she advocates being you – being #authentic – but also, reminds you that for your photos to be powerful enough to be shared, they ought to tell a story, make people feel something, and be worthy of people’s time and attention.

Below is a picture of her book cover – as is – and also a second picture that is also on an Amazon sales page, but this time, it uses some of her advice; include your hand, contextual / lifestyle props, sunlight and shade falling across the surface of what you’re interested in…

As I was wondering if I could have a go, I came across a page in the book with several navy blue images (close ups of flowers, painted hands, and a cheers-to-the-ocean-cup-of-coffee (as you do)) – I stopped reading, and thought “I have a lot of navy blue things in my house” and I started with a photo of the open book on my kitchen counter (without the lifestyle props and shadow play – oops):

[Image source: Amazon x 2 and me]

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With some of the book chapter titles in mind – “magic in the mundane” / “start with what you have” / “finding inspiration in your everyday life” – I stood up and wandered around the house with my phone-camera… I didn’t overthink it too much (“you’re blue – you’ll do”), but I did try to position the camera in an interesting way, looking for symmetry OR off-centeredness, clarity OR smudginess, strange shapes OR material details…

Here’s the 18 photos that I took (including one where I put a drinking glass in front of the camera lens and took a selfie and another of me where I learnt how to use the camera’s timer (while sitting under a clock!)):

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The one with my shadow puppet under the clothesline reminds me a bit of the paradigm shift I experienced while looking at a Bird of Paradise last year!

Some of the photos work better than others. The USBs, for example, are caught under too many hand shadows from the competing overhead lights, the drink bottle is just off center, and the leftover rice in the bowl is a bit ick…

But I had a great time being a photographer for half an hour, glancing around for more blue, then taking a few moments to turn my camera this-way-that to snap my picture.

Ms Tasker would probably approve of some but not all of the images. As she writes, take photos of “moments, not things” – “When we shoot moments instead of things we capture the feelings as well as the facts.” (page 24-25)

I know what she means, and it makes sense – BUT – for me, the navy blue backpack photographed in the laundry IS just an object – but it’s also much MORE – it’s my daughter’s school backpack, that’s been hung there while we figure out what to do with it (she finished high school a couple of months ago but I’m not quite ready to let go of my little girl). The sneakers are just sneakers, and yet, the flung out laces scream, “gotta go Mom”, as I visualize my other daughter taking them off and running inside to do whatever is more important than tidying up! And the USB collection is a group of more ‘things’ except they are MY things – my PhD files all collected while I try to decide how best to store the 5 years’ worth of information… the fact that they are placed under competing shadows feels accidentally insightful (given that Covid happened and I was sick with chronic migraine for 3 of those 5 years)…

The feelings are there, just not the sort that the public might understand.

I look at the photos and think “#authentic” – but others might not.

What I thought was a bit of fun in her book was the “Finding your style” chapter. You run through a series of word-ranges and decide which ones suit you best, for example:

curated / causal

detailed / minimal

vintage / modern

fun / poignant

…and so on.

From the list above, I would say that I was curated (because I went looking for blue) but my subjects were very causal, the images are minimalistic (there’s usually only one thing per picture), and I guess they fall towards the modern, poignant end…?

When I choose images to put at the start of each blog post, I go to the blog’s “Pexels” library for royalty free images produced by professionals. I start with a word search for a theme. So for today, for example, it was “phone photography.” Next, I scan through the options, and yes, I’ll be honest, I have a “vibe” that I’m looking for.

This is a blog about mindfulness and migraines (read by people with sore heads), written by a 50-year-old lady… so the sorts of style statements that run through the back of my mind include: muted, classic, friendly, warm, mature, restful, moody but not melancholy…

Looking back at my blog home page, there’s lots of muddy shades of browns and khaki, as well as some blues and purples that match the healing mandala I created for myself at the beginning of my get-well-initiative.

Sometimes, I end up with a choice that is very vibrant, and I wonder if I should swap it out. Often I do, but sometimes the image says “keep me” so I do that and accept that it might ruin the balance I have otherwise achieved on my homepage… but it also stops it from becoming too stale.

Lastly, one of the prompts Ms Tasker gives for when “your life just doesn’t feel Instagram-worthy” …. is …. “do something worth photographing.” (p47)

I wasn’t feeling 100% on the day I decided to play photographer, so I stayed home and made do with my own surroundings, but in a way, that makes my images all the more #authentic. I should of course try to go out and photograph the real world beyond my front door… and in fact I have – I just remembered – I wrote a whole post about the photos I took on the beach while walking my dogs: “Sandcastles for pain relief.”

Do what you can, when you can… if you want to be the real you, then keep it real.

Oh, and don’t forget to have #fun – because that’s the best hashtag there is!

Take care caring, Linda xx

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PS – I wrote before about how The Getty Museum uploaded royalty free images you can use (here) but I have since discovered several museums and art galleries do the same thing including MoMA UK, The Smithsonian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art… and, and… google your little heart out people – and seek out the images that make you smile 🙂