Wounds Are Soothed

September 16, 2025 by Donna Hopkins

I had to return to the orthopedist for a repeat x-ray of my wrist and thumb. Good news, no fracture. Less good news, significant sprain. I’ll need to allow time for the ligaments to heal and that means limiting how often and how long I lift a heavy camera and lens. I think to myself, this injury is no match for my determination (or my stubborn nature). As if by divine intervention, when I went to take pictures today, I discovered I had left the memory card at home, still in the card reader attached to the desktop computer. Oh, well. I took a few iPhone photos on this rainy day and realized with great joy that I can practice this lovely way of seeing regardless of the tool in hand. The wounds from my fall are soothed. By the lightness of the camera. And the ease of the work.

Organically Obsessed

September 15, 2025 by Donna Hopkins

This is a feeling I love: being organically obsessed with something and sharing that feeling with someone else. Especially, when it’s someone who “gets it” (and by extension, gets me). I want to swap secrets and bond over mutual infatuations with things like taking pictures of cantaloupe or left over orange slices. That is, how to make pictures on those days when you don’t go anywhere or do anything that is even remotely interesting. And yet, still, this is the day you are presented with. And if you are like me, you are happy when someone tags along with you while you pick up fruit from the grocery store or gas the car or stop by the library. I am not trying to convince you that this is fine art or some high-brow endeavor. Instead, I am sharing an honest reflection of what it feels like to be alive today.

Nature Style

September 14, 2025 by Donna Hopkins

I am not a nature photographer, but when nature comes to live in and around my own home, I take notice. I do not own a macro lens and that style of photography isn’t really my thing, so I had to do a bit of scrambling to figure out how to best photograph the katydid and the moth in the natural setting of our front porch. This kind of experimentation feels like play, and working with creative constraints often brings out the best in me (not just technically but also emotionally, allowing me to celebrate what I can do even when things are not perfect).

Katydid & Alocasia Silver Dragon Plant, September 2025

Rabbit Foot's Fern & Brown-shaded Grey Moth, September 2025

*Katydid on Front Porch Window Screen, September 2025*

Sharing an excerpt from a new favorite non-fiction book, Nature Style: Cultivating wellbeing at home with plants, by Alana Langan & Jacqui Vidal (photography by Annette O’Brien).

Most people don’t need convincing to get out in nature. Without even realising it, we’re inherently drawn to the natural world. That’s biophilia.
The word ‘biophilia’ was first introduced in the 1960s by social psychologist Erich Fromm and later popularised by biologist Edward Osborne Wilson in his 1984 book, Biophilia. Wilson explored the theory that humans have an innate desire to connect with other forms of life; a deep-seated affinity with the natural world that has built up over the course of human evolution. Biophilia can be summed up as an intuitive love of life and living systems.
Biophilia encourages us to slow down and pay attention to our surroundings. Maybe you can smell wisteria on the breeze through an open window, or feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. Perhaps you can hear a chorus of birdsong outside, or notice the calming effects of a walk in the forest. In its multitude of forms, biophilia soothes us deep within.

Longing for Love and Connection

September 13, 2025 by Donna Hopkins

“Life, in its complex ebb and flow, often defies immediate classification as good or bad. Instead, it beckons us to focus on living and loving in the present, with hindsight providing the lens through which we truly comprehend the fullness of our growth and experiences.” —Brian Kanagaki

One minute I was walking along the sidewalk, camera across my body, arms swinging, head swiveling. The next minute I was sprawled out along the concrete, bloodied and bruised. I failed to notice an unexpected stepped up curb that was part of a cut-out for wheelchair access near the crosswalk. I didn’t fall down so much as trip up. Abrasions on my right hand, right knee and elbow. Bruise on right hip. Camera miraculously unharmed except for a small ding on the body; still working. I hobbled back to the car where my husband helped to clean me up and apply all of the emergency band aids he always carries in his wallet (that’s another story). Once I recovered from the initial shock of the fall, I realized my thumb and wrist were throbbing. One trip to Ortho On Call (truly an amazing facility) and an x-ray later, it looks like I have strained my CMC (carpometacarpal) joint. This joint is located at the base of the thumb and is involved in pinching and grasping. I will have a repeat x-ray this week to make sure there is no hidden fracture of one of the small bones in the area (the scaphoid bone). This is a very inconvenient injury for a photographer and her dominant hand. I am grateful that I was not more seriously injured and that my expensive camera survived, too!

I am supposed to be wearing a splint, but my hand hurts worse in the splint than out. So I am resting and avoiding overuse and the movements that cause pain. And taking a few pictures because this is the most healing thing I can do for myself. Always.

I am in the sweet spot where I take pictures of anything I notice or am drawn to and simply let the photos sit. I name them and cull them (though even this has changed; do I keep the photo with my fingers in focus and the wound in softer focus? maybe so.) I process the pictures a little here and there, making them suit my vision. I live with them. I wonder how they will weave themselves into future projects and collections. For now, I know they help me to feel love and connection. The things I long for.