A Call to Calm

February 20, 2017 Dorija Parsley

Taking care of ones inner well-being is like tidying up the house and sweeping off the dust – you gotta do it frequently. Like any well functioning system is not just coincidentally well-organised and constantly maintained, the connection with the inner world and a certain tuning of the inner voices has also to be maintained more often than I ever thought.

Inspiration Heaps // Blue Hour Picnic

October 6, 2016 Dorija Parsley

I will write you how it really went. Manuel and I have been planing to meet up for a photo session long before meeting in person. Sending each other pinboards with inspiring photos of wonderful photographers via messenger we seemed to be planing a huge thing there - with body paint, with plants, with glitter, with smoke, mirrors, blankets, coal.. But when the day came to meet up (after postponing or cancelling it for a great amount of times) I got all indecisive and that said - simply lacking any inspiration or focus at all for the kind of scenery I wished to produce. Last second we decided to get the bus to the riverside and combine our artistic evening with a picnic. Until we got to the right spot, the perfect sunset hour just slipped out of our sights, though not stopping us from playing around with the light leftovers.There were bike riders passing by the place we sat at the water, the big field of meadow got all silent, fresh and moist after the dew had fallen. We took the given freedom - in no rush having a french style baguette-cheese-tomato dinner between the tall grass, then running around the empty fields, experimenting with smoke bombs, LED lights. Back then though I thought "what a pity - I have this beautiful evening, wonderful people but no ideas in my head". But the way my friend models were relaxed changed the flow of the evening into a magical result, at least for me.

Dorija Apple Parsley_Maren&Manu-8744.jpg

Dorija Apple Parsley_Maren&Manu-8756.jpg

I realised just shortly before the session that it's a very different thing all together to photograph a man as the main subject. I have rarely done it for a variety of reasons - women tend to join me in a session faster or on more simple ways than men, I guess. Also, it's a different message when you combine let's say flower blossoms with a girl than with a man (see, there's no link there for that kind of a session because I simply haven't done it yet, and I wish I had! though it was hard in the past - I remember I once tried placing an ex-lover in front of a blossom bush. He gave me 3 minutes. And after never again.)

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It was wonderful - a closing session like this of the warm sleeveless season and birkenstocked feet in the fields. Inspiration isn't always there, sometimes you have to gently invite her to come over, no force though. It's like a campsite cup: you hold it up, maybe it'll be filled with something delicious, maybe not, come anything - be grateful. Only when you don't have the right time for her - inspiration is aggressively there, annoying and teasing. Sometimes you just need this one shot to get your artsy ego happy for the night. At least we were more picnicking, laughing and joking than forcing anything. And after all - things just happened. And I'm thankful to the Fairy of All Beautiful for putting the right props together for me in the one right shutter speed moment.

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Thank you my two older and newer friends. By the way - Manuel is a starting out model and Maren is the heart of her fox band. Some tech details: shot with Nikon D7000 + Sigma Art 35mm f1,4

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September Gift // Desktop Wallpaper Giveaway

September 2, 2016 Dorija Parsley

The month September where I grew up will forever mean one thing - it’s school time once again, kids, set your alarm clocks to an early hour again, get new notebooks-rulers-cartridges in the office supply shop and be ready for some rainy afternoons filled with homework to do. It was a certain sweet but also depressing feeling of hopelessness at the same time. To get back to school and hang out with friends in the break times in the cafeteria was one good thing. But knowing that that’s actually the end of the long sunny summer days and it’s only gonna get worse and wet and dark, and the next summer is like an eternity far away if it’s there at all, made me pretty mental.

In short: those few days before September 1st - they were heavily confusing.In a way I’m actually happy the twelve school years are long over but I’ll always remember them in a sweet hate-love manner.

Bottom line is - we need a new vibe for September. And that is why I want to wrapt it up into one sheeny mantle of a cozy mood. I imagine him to feel lush emerald, calming, silently inspiring and soft, with its way more gentle sunlight and refreshing moisty breezes. I prepared a desktop wallpaper that reflects these sensations and reminds me everyday of what I want September to feel like.

Nonetheless - I want to share it with you as you can join my idea by simply enlarging and downloading this photo-graphic calendar wallpaper that I made (or downloading it over here). And if you set it to your desktop picture - please send me a screenshot to see how it looks like, because I’m very curious!

Enjoy the beginning of autumn and a gentle change of the seasons. And - go more to botanical gardens! It's overall calming and a beautiful place for photographic meditations.

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Photos made with Nikon D7000 + Sigma Art 35mm f1,4, in this botanical garden. Graphics made with Wacom Intuos on ArtRage Lite.

Photography Adventure #3: Meadow Magic

August 10, 2015 Dorija Parsley

From my left way up to the dark sky and down on my right I see the borders of our galaxy. The milky way all blooming in an August nights gloom. I live my dream - I live at the sea. Not only at the sea - I live IN the sea. Helgoland isn’t set at the water, it is far away in the north sea and contains out of sea shores as it is such a tiny piece of land. Often I make a late night run or walk around the island just to remember where I am and what my personal paradise feels like. while letting some music on my earphones give the rhythm to my steps, with my hips I start invisibly dancing. The beauty and whole sense of living here is to have the treasure just seconds away from the home door. It is above fantastic to be able to reach the beach and escape to the meditation zone within minutes.

When I go out past sunset it is like going to my very own personal Church. Here is where in my mind I pray in positive vibrations rather than thoughts, and above all I sense gratefulness. Here I sense - God remembers what I crave for, and I don’t really need to think in sentences. Stars replace candles, last bits of the setting sun replace all the golden framed imagery and the the smell of salted waves seals the whole deal of sacredness.

My Church feels more like a safety zone that way. I remember my own dreams and my real me doesn’t have to hide anymore neither fit in some kind of shapes.

The lighthouse scans the sky in ever same steps reminding us of how far away we actually are. The windmills in the far north join my earphone music with their collectively blinking red lights.

When I start heading home I am clean and free again. Super free, filled with air and freedom for the eye in such a tiny closed pinch of land miles and miles away from mainland. No real place to escape, and yet feeling more free and connected than ever.

How ever life goes on and no matter how much longer I stay here, this island will always stay the place for me, where I found peace and for a few seconds there decoded the sense of life.

Photos underneath of when Indre Winterrain was visiting and we went out for more photographic adventure.

Helgoland Friday

July 11, 2015 Dorija Parsley

oh how delightful it is. the silence, the calmness of island life. sometimes is does get on your nerves a lot, but then again, in those good mood moments and days, life is so blissful and beautiful on an island..on a friday afternoon i met Nadja for a tour in the Helgoland ornithological station - second oldest in the world. in there many voluntary helpers work for the sake of gathering information about the most seldom bird kinds of Europe and World. they help the wild breeding couples with their babies, like the guillemots, which jump out of their nests into the water in order to learn to fly (they actually jump into the sea so they can learn to fly from there and survive on the fish they find on the surfice of the water). the little hour of nature joy was followed by a delightful best friday night Bulgarian dinner which Nadja made specially for me. pure relaxing, pure joking, talking sense and nonsense.. and water-colouring!

Nadja is in love with this picture and the magic of lens aperture =)

i love this one picture on the right with the casual relaxing legs. i love the little details of the couch cover and the socks. hyper coziness when i see it. and then i lit the candles, so the water colouring could start.

a little jump to the day before. on Thursday we went out to watch the storm and waves around the island as we had a storm passing this area and cutting off any ship connection to the mainland for two days. so, wearing a winter coat again, we walked around the edges to experience the wind playing with our bodies and all sorts of greenery.

these water coloured flowers actually made me think about painting beautiful things again. and do it happened the night after.

back to Friday. after leaving Nadja's place i saw the sunset hour coming closer, the water so still after the stormy days, fresh summer breeze back up again. i decided to go for a kind of a sunset run session which was constantly interrupted by the beauty of every corner - i needed to stop and snap a picture on my phone. after all, all i can say is - i love this island, i love being a part of this nature, i love to be so much excited by the sky every time i go for a run. i love to be interrupted by the crazy sheep standing somewhere on the hill in bizarre compositions. right now - i just adore the smell of the rose hip along the beach. it's insane that this can be and is my nearly every day life at the moment. i recommend it to everyone. cities are great, but this - water all over in the horizon, sand on my skin, the greenery smell, seashells on strings.. this is actually the life environment i was wishing for. and somehow - i got it.

i wish all a good weekend.

ps: and leave some thoughts in a comment. i always appreciate <3