Well, she looked like she was about 7 anyway. I was at a soccer game in the park next door to where I live. This is a Hispanic neighborhood and the park is always full of people hanging out, celebrating birthdays, jumping on moonwalks, playing soccer, volleyball and basketball. I love to walk through the park in my bare feet at night to wind down before bed.

Last night, while I stood captivated by the skill of the soccer players, a little voice came from somewhere around my knees, “Querría un chocolate?” I told her, “No, gracias,” and watched as she quietly went from one person to another. No fear in her face. No remorse when she didn’t get a sale. And by the third person she sold a chocolate.

Wow! The perfect salesperson. She had something people wanted, but she didn’t push. And she didn’t discriminate between one person or the next; she just quietly asked them all.

I started thinking about how I tend to believe that selling is rude. I don’t want to “get in people’s faces” and annoy them. What I witnessed was just the opposite: I didn’t want a chocolate, but did I think that girl was rude or annoying? Not for a second. In fact, I was inspired by her.

How about you? Have you ever seen that selling can be simple, even heartwarming?

Have you ever noticed how much of a difference your point of reference makes? It all has to do with who you identify yourself to be.

Someone who identifies himself as a victim sees injustice everywhere. Another person who sees herself as a giver finds lots of needs to be filled everywhere she goes. Another person who thinks of herself as an academic, sees students and teachers and logic everywhere.

What you believe yourself to be is what you’ll see around you. The mind loves to find examples to prove that you are right. If you are unhappy, your mind will find a million reasons. When you are clear, the same reasons can be used to prove your happiness.

This physical world is exactly what we experience it to be, with reference to who we believe we are.

Have you ever looked at the stars and galaxies and thought, “I am very small.” You feel small because you imagine yourself to be a tiny body on a tiny planet in vast ocean of space.

Imagine for a second that you took a different point of view for the same experience. If you imagine yourself not as a body but as your consciousness, then the experience of that galaxy would be within your consciousness. The galaxy would be a blip in your awareness. In that case the tables have been turned. You are huge and the galaxy is tiny.

Point of view is everything in photography. What role does point of view play for you?

I heard a great saying this morning:

“The grass does not grow faster when you pull on it.” (African saying)

One of the reasons that Nature is inspiring to me is that it is natural! Grass doesn’t try to be anything else.

Life is simple, isn’t it?

When we stop trying to be something… we may realize that we already are amazing.

Last week’s newsletter featured a number of animals that came across my path. It’s funny how easily we identify with animals, yet we really have no clue what the world is like for them.

We see an eye and think we know what they are thinking, feeling, seeing. We see an expression which reminds us of emotions that we know. But do we really?

How sure are you that you even understand the humans in your life?

All I really know is what I think and how I feel. And maybe that’s all I ever need to know…

How can we really see from another point of view except our own? Yet we never stop projecting what it must be like.

How do you project what you are thinking onto someone else?

Have you ever been for a professional portrait? You know the lights I’m talking about… big umbrellas, soft-boxes, and believe me there are many more.

But is good lighting good enough to make a portrait? Sometimes, yes. I’ve seen it. And sometimes not.

My friend, Susan Stanton Rotman, tells this story:

“My old site had a professional photo, taken about 3 1/2 years ago (seen above). 140 shots and we could not get a photo that really looked like me, so we went with the best we could do. It was professionally lit and photographed, but just seemed like it wasn’t me. I immediately, and consistently since then, received comments that the photo did not look like me, it didn’t capture me, etc…”

I’m not so sure the photographer who took the picture really knew his lighting, but assuming he did, I agree that the image feels flat and misses something.

It’s interesting because Susan is an intuitive counselor, or psychic if you will. She helps businesses and individuals uncover their own subtle direction and develop their intuition. For a person like that, inner light is probably the most important thing that should be conveyed in a professional photograph. So when it’s lacking (above) it’s sorely noticed.

Susan continues:

“One of the most frequent comments was that there is a “light” or radiant quality that people experience with me, and the photo didn’t get it. I just assumed that is because a photo is a frozen and static moment in time, and couldn’t capture the aliveness of the real person. At least with me.”

“Then this past August my daughter took an impromptu snapshot of me, sitting on the front porch of the second floor apartment of one of my other daughter’s home, holding my 2 day old granddaughter–and voila! The light was there. One shot, not by a professional, no lighting or filters, just a natural image.”

Now, even from a professional point of view, this image is well lit. The backlight is excellent while the face does not fall into shadow. There is light wrapping around from behind and it creates depth to the features of the face.

But above and beyond the better lighting, there is a sparkle in Susan’s eye. There is a relaxed happiness that comes through and makes me feel connected and draws me in. I want to look longer at the image.

This is how you photograph an open heart. The photographer and the subject both need to have that openness for it to come through in the image. In this case you can see the love between daughter (photographer) and mother (Susan). As they say, a lens points both ways.

Now look at the image from which the previous one was cropped. A 2-day old granddaughter in Susan’s arms. If that couldn’t light-up her soul, I don’t know what could.

Susan says, “Very interesting how there is an intangible, vibrational quality that projects who a person is, along with the image, and how hard it can be to capture!”

Or I might add, “how easy!”

You can see this image on Susan’s website. I had a consult with her once, she’s good.