Carey Pace’s A Year of Nature
A well respected member of our forum and integral part of our education team, Carey Pace is never one to settle for the obvious. With her ever decisive eye, Carey has a way of seeing past the surface and digging far deeper to really use her voice to share her intended story. Though you are likely familiar with her 365 we featured back in September, you may not be as familiar with her latest project which has our senses firing on all cylinders as she shares the slices of beauty this amazing place we call home has to offer.
Read on to find how Carey drew on her personality strengths to create this collection:
When we moved midway through 2015 to a new state, leaving the only adult home I’d ever known behind, I was tempted to indulge the sadness at all the changes in my life. I chose to use photography to help me adjust to our new home and new life in Virginia. When I felt overwhelmed, I grabbed my camera and purposely sought out beauty. I chose to look for the little things all around me that were so significant and yet so easily overlooked. I had put so much energy into learning how to photography my kids that I’d never given photographing nature a second thought.
If you’ve ever taken the Strengths Finder questionnaire, you’ll know that one of the aspects of that is Context. It turns out, I’m super duper high in Context. The WHY behind your decisions is so important to me. I need to know your story. I need to know your motivations. I need to know where you came from in order to understand where you’re going. Until that test, I had no clue that everyone else in the world didn’t function like this! But I think it is my high propensity towards context that makes me adore these images of inanimate things in our world.
From day one in my photography, I considered myself a storyteller. It wasn’t until these images of the nature and our surroundings entered into my photography, however, that I feel my stories really found their voice. I believe these photos of the small pieces that frame our existence give context to our story, to our life. My stories are stronger with the foundation of the context in which they took place.
I didn’t start out the year intending to do a regular Project 365 and a Nature one. It more or less just happened. I don’t have a Surroundings or Nature image for every single day this year, but I have an awful lot. Now that I realize I’m doing this, I’m going to try to capture one of each daily. Just like with a regular 365, you aren’t going to create impactful images every single day… but it is in the process that you learn so much. Plus, it reminds me of the beauty that God placed in this world to point back towards him. That’s always, always a good thing.
These are a handful of my favorites from 2016 so far.
(I shoot with a Nikon D800, the Sigma 35mm f-1.4, and the Sigma 70-200 f-2.8)
You can find Carey Pace at the following spots:
// SITE //
// INSTAGRAM //
// FACEBOOK //
// BLOOM BEGINNINGS //
Also, if you have a project of your own that you’d like to share with our Everything Bloom readers, please contact us with your submission here. We’d love to share what you’ve been working on this year!