Peter McKinnon

Lifestyle blogs and vlogs offer a nice break from the world

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 7 Comments

Let’s be honest, as “lifestyle” or “family” bloggers we often share our thoughts on our blogs as a way to escape from life, as well as a way to help others escape.

I know I’ve often looked at YouTubers who share videos about aspects of their lives, like gardening or books they read, or places they go and thought, “Why are they sharing this?! Who cares?!” But then I sit there watching anyhow. Why do I watch? Well, because I know that these videos don’t represent all of the person’s life and that they aren’t happy all of the time, but that the videos are a chance for them to escape. I also see these videos as a chance for me to escape too. Life is crazy. The world is crazy. The news is a nightmare. Sometimes I feel like my brain is trying to gnaw its way out of my head just to get away from it all.

That’s when something like a YouTube video about pretty much nothing comes in handy.

I was watching the vlogger from Roots and Refuge Homestead the other day, and while she normally showcases her planting process and updates on her garden and farm, she took a break to talk about some grief she was walking through after the loss of a friend. She gave advice about “grieving well” but also said she doesn’t usually share about the down times in her life because she said she wanted her channel to be a place of refuge for her viewers, which was why she didn’t normally dwell on the struggles in her life too much.

(I am going to leave a link to that post below because it was a very sincere outreach to her viewers. It is at the end of the rest of the video, if you want to fast forward.)

What Jess said in that post made sense to me. I’ve often sat down to write a blog post and have almost let my ugly spill out all over the page (in the past I did let it and I’ve since tried to delete some of those or curb the ugly in them a bit). I try my best to keep the ugly in the pages of my journal, though, not because I want people to think my life is perfect, but sometimes, well, to be quite frank — isn’t it nice to just be able to wander into a blog or onto a video or into a book and forget about the world for a few minutes?

Sure, there have been a couple of times I’ve spouted off a bit about politics, but I’ve later regretted it. I’d love to be like Jess from Roots and Refuge and just offer a place of refuge for readers sometimes. To accomplish that I write stupid and silly posts sometimes. They are posts that some might read and say, “Well, who cares what her random thoughts are?” Just like I did with the videos about someone visiting a bookstore and looking at books.

Videos and posts like that aren’t necessarily going to change the world but they can offer a break from the craziness of that world.

To clarify, no one has ever said my posts are stupid or pointless. Sometimes I imagine they are a little bit pointless and a little silly (not necessarily stupid. I was just teasing about that part.) but don’t we all need a bit of pointless and silly in our lives to remind us that there is some good in the world, that there are places of refuge if not for our physical bodies, for our hearts, minds, and soul?

I think my fellow bloggers know the answer to that question.

Below is a link to that Roots and Refuge video I was talking about and links to a couple other “light” vloggers I watch. I’ve also included a link to some jazz music to listen to while reading or writing or taking a snooze.

Feel free to escape life for a little while. I’m sure you could use a mental vacation like I can and if you have any cool lifestyle, reading, or artsy-type YouTube channels you watch, leave me a link or name in the comments.

Roots and Refuge:

Darling Desi with a warning — she’s just a bit young for me. That’s not a bad thing but I can’t always relate to her or her tastes.

Photography:

https://youtu.be/r25IWquxe9s

Farming/homesteading:

Animals/Conservation (and one of my daughter’s all-time favorite channels)

Sciency Stuff:

Historical Cooking:


Reading/writing/snoozing music:

Creative Tuesday: Just take the photos already

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 1 Comment

So many people want to be a photographer but are stuck on the idea the photo has to be technically perfect. They want their child to sit just right or the light to hit just so or the moment to be simply perfect and if they can’t do that then forget it – the photo isn’t taken.

Maybe because I like to photograph moments more than poses, and had to focus on them when I worked for newspapers, the lack of perfection in a photo bothers me less than it does some photographers. When I look back at my photos over the years I sometimes mentally scold myself for a technical error, knowing my aperture was set wrong or my ISO could have been raised or lowered, but normally my attention is on the moment captured rather than the technical aspects.

I don’t want to look back at my memories from a special time in my life and pat myself on the back for nailing focus. I want to look back at those photos and remember how I felt, what was happening, who was there. I look at photography in a similar way to art – it’s about how the art makes me feel not how it was made.

DSC_2617-Edit

DSC_0290-2DSC_0008A local art teacher recently shared a photo of a painting by a student of his on Facebook. The painting was of a woman singing and I actually scrolled past it but then flung the cursor back up to take a better look at it. As I stared at it for a while I found it left me with a relaxed, easy going feeling, something I needed in the midst of a stressful week. I could hear the smooth jazz music and the velvet tones of the singer’s voice and imagined a cup of hot tea in front of me.

Someone else could have looked at it and said they saw technical errors (I doubt many would have) or that the singer wasn’t as “realistic looking” as some might think it should be, but none of that mattered to me because what was important to me was how the painting made me feel. What if that young painter had given up on her work because she decided, in her own mind, that her work wasn’t good enough? What if she had decided that because something didn’t look technically right, the painting could never touch anyone emotionally? She would have been wrong and if she hadn’t finished the painting she would have robbed me of those few moments of respite I was given that day by looking at the painting.

But because she picked up that paintbrush and painted what she felt, not only what she saw and knew, a soul, my soul was touched.

So pick up that camera.

Pick up that paintbrush.

Pick up that pen.

Put those fingers on the keyboard.

Just paint the painting, take the photos, write the words, create what you feel in your heart, not only what you know in your head.

You may not touch millions or thousands or hundreds or even fifty people but if you even touch one – isn’t that worth it?

For more inspiration to get out and create already check out YouTube entrepreneur and photographer Peter McKinnon talking about the power of an idea.

It's better to create something

To follow my work you can catch me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/lisahoweler or at my photography site at www.lisahowelerphotography.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lisahoweler.

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