Playing with Lightroom – New Work

The_Beauty_of_Impermanence_sound from Rebekah Younger on Vimeo.

I created this video to demonstrate how to format slideshows in Adobe Lightroom for one of my classes, using recent work. I am in a good mood, on this first day of spring, yet somehow my experience of these images drifts to the ending and the poignancy of fleeting beauty.  Perhaps the influence is that I am reading, A Year to Live by Stephen Levine which challenges the reader to live their life for one year as if it were their last.

My contemplative photography practice began, after heart bypass surgery, with photographing flowers in transition.  It is an ongoing theme in my work on so many levels.

I get to experience the transitory beauty of flowers weekly in Ikebana classes with Sensei Soho Sakai.  What a treat to play with flowers at least once a week and practice between classes.  The Bay area is a cacophony of flora from a variety of climates, especially lush with the rain.  I noticed today that the wisteria are blooming. It hardly feels like the first day of spring, with roses and lilacs in bloom.  Yet here we are at March 20! For my friends back in Maine, who still have at least a month before there are blooms, this video is especially for you.

Wishing you a joyous Spring! I hope you enjoy the images in this video.  Do comment about how you feel viewing it. Or offer any questions or comments about my process.