RGW Inspiration: Words and Images

How to be loved Needing a bit more love in your life?  Now, you know the way things work, to get anything you're going to have to give it. If you are feeling a lack, it isn't that you aren't lovable, it is just that you need more practice! For anything to exist in your life you need to create it. This starts with loving others more. The more you practice, the more you open yourself to the love around you and the potential to receive then grows with it. You can practice on those around you for whom you already feel some affinity––but to earn real love, start practicing on the tougher cases around you. Like the garbage man who picks up your trash regularly. Like the person who cut you off on the freeway yesterday. Like the kid who keyed your new car. Like the homeless man who smells of sweat and urine. Open your heart to continue to love everyone around you despite whether you feel they've earned it or not and watch the love grow in your own life. It is one of those bits...

The Artist Inside Technique is how you remove the body's obstructions to the heart's expression. The myth of "talent". I have often had people, when I tell them I am an artist, look at me with a sort of awestruck reverence––that is completely misplaced. Everyone is an artist inside. Some have just worked at it harder than others and it shows. There isn't a single thing that I do that cannot be learned, practiced and achieved to great success by anyone (barring physical limitations). So, if you have ever told yourself that you have no talent, or that you could never be as good as someone else you admire, let's just call a halt to that kind of thinking right now. I can guarantee that, if you still believe that others have some god-given gift that you don't have, you will never be an artist. But, it is the only thing that will stand in your way. 90% of the deterrent that is keeping you from being the artist you wish to be is your consideration that you cann...

The Three You are three. –– The person you are. –– The person they think you are. –– The person you think you are. ... Of the three, the last one is the only one that has the potential to hold you back the most. (rgw) #FloralFriday with thanks to Tamara Pruessner Eustace James Beth Akerman Kiki Nelson and FloralFriday #rgwoodpost #photography #googleplusphotos #inspiration   #FlowerFriday #flowerphotography #floralphotography #hqspflowers

Happy Raise your hand if you already knew that the decision to be happy always precedes the actual occurrence of happy ... ;o)) –– Love posting to themes? You might enjoy these great themes with excellent curators! Themes and hashtags are not necessarily about getting more attention, but are a valuable indexing method, which help others find relevant posts via clickable links as well as a great way to meet like-minded people. I tend to only promote those themes with active, caring curators. For the Macro Monday subtheme, HAPPY #MacroMonday with thanks to Kerry Murphy, Jennifer Eden, Kelli Seeger Kim  and Jake Easley #Macro4All with thanks to Walter Soestbergen Bill Urwin, Chris Levers  Mark O'Callaghan and Macro4All #ColorMeWeekly ColorMe Weekly with thanks to Rosie Nixon #rgwoodpost #canonphotography #canonphotographer #digitalphotography #naturephotography #color #colors #inspiration #canonphotography #macrophotography  #creative #flowerphotography #floralphotography ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀...

Open to the Potential ––– Life: 10% is circumstance. The other 90% is your reaction to it, your attitude and what you decide to do with it  …………. ––––– #FloralFriday with thanks to Tamara Pruessner #BreakfastClub with huge thanks to Gemma Costa and Breakfast Club 10000 PHOTOGRAPHERS / #10000photographersaroundtheworld  with thanks to Robert SKREINER and Nikola Nikolski #hqspmacro with thanks to Vinod Krishnamoorthy Rinus Bakker Vishal Kumar and HQSP Macro #hqspflowers with thanks to HQSP Flowers Marina Versaci Carina Marsh Larry Henley and Werner Polwein Macro4All   #Macro4All with thanks toWalter Soestbergen and Shane Williams #rgwoodpost #naturephotography NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY #colors   #inspiration #canonphotography #canonphotographer #macrophotography #flowerphotography #floralphotography #TGIF

Change the World; I Dare You ––– There's a Buckminster Fuller quote that says it all to me: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."   Ever since I got on social media, since day one, my whole thrust/purpose/goal/intention ... whatever you want to call it ... has been to change the world. Yes, indeedy.  I know that I sound a bit like a self-deluding airhead when I say such things, but I bought completely an idea that was circulated––that to achieve anything, one has to shoot much farther than the target.   I decided to keep everything that I put out into the world as positive as I could muster for that day. That was to stand in the face of everything that was pulling this world down. Bad news; bad attitudes; bad behavior. I don't tackle all of that stuff head on, I merely change the focus. So maybe I only change the lives of 20, 200 or 2000 in my whole life ... that's...

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own." ~ Benjamin Disraeli  Why I mentor others here at G+: A while back, I was searching for my purpose in life. At the time, I was mentoring at an online art community. Over and over again, I would get comments from people such as, "I would love to be an artist, but I have no talent"; "I wish I were gifted, but clearly I wasn't meant to be an artist"… and there was real sadness and disappointment in their commentary. But I knew the truth, that where I started from gave no indication of "talent" in my early years, and that what I had gone through showed me clearly that art was an inherent part of our nature as human beings. Yet this concept was lost in current society and wasn't being nurtured.  There is a lie being perpetuated in society that I call the "myth of talent". The Myth of Talent I have often had people, when I tell t...

––– Show a Little Kindness ––– A rare verbal image post from me, but I've been encountering so many folks lately that have been using less than favorable words to describe themselves, it had to be said … and loudly. You are the best friend that you have, and you deserve the kindness you bestow upon others.  …………. ––––– #FloralFriday with thanks to Tamara Pruessner #BreakfastClub with huge thanks to Gemma Costa and Breakfast Club 10000 PHOTOGRAPHERS around the World / #10000photographersaroundtheworld  with thanks to Robert SKREINER Macro4All     #rgwoodpost #naturephotography #inspiration #macrophotography #flowerphotography #floralphotography #waterdropsphotography #waterdrop ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Please feel free to ask me, if you would like this image available for print at robingriggswood.smugmug.com ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

A Full Heart ––– A heart doesn't actually break … ever. It only feels like it. To obviate the pain one can feel from a broken heart, it is only necessary to fill it with so much love, that when some of it goes, you don't feel like it is everything. This year, resolve to love more … that has always been the best way to fill a heart.  …………. ––––– #FloralFriday with thanks to Tamara Pruessner #BreakfastClub with huge thanks to dear Gemma Costa and Breakfast Club 10000 PHOTOGRAPHERS / #10000photographersaroundtheworld  with thanks to Robert SKREINER   #rgwoodpost #truth #inspiration #naturephotography #macrophotography #macro4all #flowerphotography #floralphotography

You're going to need to reach for what you want ––– Do you remember when you were little and you couldn't wait to grow up and make all your own decisions … go where you wanted to go; do what you wanted to do? It's here … right now. Go for it. ––––– #FloralFriday ––––– #rgwoodpost #canonphotography #canonphotographers #digitalphotography   #naturephotography #macrophotography #flowerphotography   #floralphotography   #AutumnPhotography   #inspiration   ––––– Please feel free to ask me, if you would like this image available for print at robingriggswood.smugmug.com

In Love With Light & Color To really learn something well, it really helps to love it. Find something that you love and photograph it. It can be as hard or simple as you choose.  Find someone's work that you admire and try to copy it.  Find out what it is you like about it. What is the most favorite thing that you have in your house right now? Shoot it!  If you want to create a portrait of one of your loved ones, but feel that is too hard right now, capturing one eye as it crinkles from a smile, or the corner of their mouth. Find something that you love or admire and try to capture it with your camera.  Do a different one each day. If you love it, then figure out what you love about it and capture that element. The key here is ... if you love it, fight for it! ––––– #InspirationalSaturday with thanks to curators Charlotte Therese Björnström  Mylah Nazario  and Khrystiane Friedli  #AllThingsOrange with thanks to curators Nina Piccoli  Kenneth Williams  and Lauren Kelly   #Break...