Finding inspiration - Photography

I find myself stopping to look at something that captures my attention. One of my first actions is to pull out my camera or phone to try and capture the moment. It is how I try to remember the moment. Sometimes the image takes my breadth away and if I am lucky it helps inspire me to find words that I shape into a poem.

Yet in that moment if others are with me they scratch their head and sum it up as me being me... (Well there are a few who understand).  I met someone who inspires me in a number of ways. Through them I have met others who also inspire me. Now in that moment when they are by my side I do not need to explain why I need to stop. Why I need to capture the moment. Plus what they capture can take my breadth away. 

Thank you for inspiring me and for understanding that sometimes you have to stop to capture the moment. I feel lucky that I have been allowed to travel with you on your photographic exhibitions and learn from each of you.

Photo Shoot

Night time photo shoot with Otago photographic enthusiasts on the evening of Friday 19 June 2015 - Album https://flic.kr/s/aHske6k4KW.


Ship at night in Dunedin

Random thoughts about NDF 2010

I'm attending the National Digital Forum for the third year and I still continue to feel inspired by this diverse group of professionals whose aim seems to be serving society. The thoughts captured via twitter at #NDF2010 is just a snapshot of the discussions being covered. Most of the sessions seem to delve into this sector in a positive way.

Trying to find a balance between professional, creative and personal I always worry that one will take over the other - no more - time to accept that what I am professionally impacts upon my creative processes. Sometimes that is to the detriment of my creative life, yet what I achieve professionally often stimulates me in similar ways.

NDF is a gathering that leaves me wanting to achieve such great and wondrous things. I know that I will come back down to earth soon, but I will try my best to enjoy this inspirational ride.



This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Life has a funny way of rushing by

I just realised that I have not posted on Behind Dreaming since July. Life does have a funny way of seeming to drag while you are in the moment but then you realise months have gone past. With this year coming towards its conclusion it is time for a little bit of reflection.

Since July I have found so many things that inspire me. I am starting to pay attention to other poets more than I have before. This has made me realise that being a poet is not simply something that would be nice, it is who I am.

This week I spent some time putting together a Haiku for a unique challenge. I needed to write a Haiku which explores the Spirit of Open Access. For many poets out there the fact that they listed the structure as 17 syllables (5,7,5) would mean it was not a Haiku. However, this was not the point and it was an interesting challenge. This is another example of where I find inspiration for my poetry from my job. I ended up writing 4 Haiku and I have just realised I probably should have applied Creative Commons to them. Oh well, I am sure I can sort that out if any of them get selected.

Between my job, the paper I have been doing recently and also trying to put together a body of work that I can submit for publication - Behind Dreaming has been neglected. I constantly think about what I should post here, but get caught up with trying to find the perfect, informative thing to post. I think it is time to get over it ;-).

So as this year comes to an end I can not help ask - where to from here? I do not really know and in some ways that is both scary and exciting.

For me I think this year can be explained by both A Bottle of Happiness and Reconnecting :)

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.