A View Through the Lens

The camera lens is a window to the world. It is receptive to creative sparks and often provides a source of inspiration when you least expect it. Yesterday, my camera and I set out on a new digital adventure after being invited by Michelle Barnes to a ditty challenge (that was provided by the popular New York City artist and author Douglas Florian). I must admit when I first read the creative prompt I had to pause to think what does this mean for me.

My ditty challenge is to write a poem about nothing.~Douglas Florian

Michelle did provide a model, a wonderful poem, The Story of Nothing, she wrote for her daughter's birthday. You can read it here.

Since I was undressing my Christmas tree yesterday, I decided that my bare tree could be my model. It cooperated. I took the photo, cropped it, and then looked at what was left-a big nothing of green branches. Because the notion of being a connected educator is looming in my mind (#NYEDChat is having a convo, Be the Digital Change, on Monday night as a warm-up for #DigCitSummitUK on January 23rd), I envisioned a poem that would incorporate those events. In order to capture the feeling I needed to bring my photo into PicMonkey, my go-to digital tool. After a few minutes of digitalizing the photo from the original nothing, I came up with something-a globe that would connect my ideas. Next, I needed connectors to overlay the globe. Voila, I found the branch image to signify the starkness of winter (an idea stemming from a virtual winter gallery that I will be designing). Next, came the word weaving. Ideas were swirling. I liked the word expanse that popped up and I wanted to use the word nothing so I continued to play with these ideas. Revision is an important phase of my process so that took some time. A micropoem emerged from the original nothing to something for Michelle's ditty challenge and DigiLit Sunday's post. All it took was a bit of imagination, a wonderful model, the camera on my iPhone, a digital tool, and the creative sparks to pull everything together. 

Here is my finished view through another lens. I hope you see some of the fir branches peeking through the globe. What is your thought on nothing?

Today's digital inspiration and post are being offered to the following:

Today's Little Ditty~Michelle H. Barnes

DigiLit Sunday hosted by Margaret Simon