The Gratitude Gallery 3.0 | ginnykoppenholphoto

The Growing Club's Gratitude Gallery December 2020

www.thegrowingclub.co.uk

A phone photography gratitude practice, designed as a mood-boosting creative group activity, during these challenging times.

The Growing Club CIC is a not-for-profit organisation based in Lancaster, founded by Jane Binnion. The Growing Club provides a fantastic range of skills training and opportunities for women, using a creative and alternative peer support model. There is a strong wellbeing ethos within the organisation.

Jane felt that the Gratitude Gallery would be an excellent course to provide for women who wanted to learn phone photography skills and develop a gratitude practice in the process. Over 4 weekly online sessions (and the days in between), the 10 women used their new photography skills to create daily photos of aspects of their life that they're grateful for.

This collection of images is the culmination of our month together and represents the vast array of these moments of appreciation, experienced and captured. A few of the group members have also chosen a favourite image to tell you more about.

A Walk After the Rain

I took this photo on Saturday, on a walk from my home, along the prom into Morecambe with my 11-year-old daughter. It was a 40 minute walk for us, where we had the chance to talk without all the distractions of modern life. I am grateful for this time together in a beautiful environment. I took this photo initially because I was interested in how the puddles on the ground reflected the structure of the staircase. I edited this photo to further enhance the lines and shadows that were captured by the bright post-rain sunshine. I like how the softness of the background is a contrast to the architectural linear foreground, and how the wheeling gulls give the image a sense of movement.

Tamsin

Direction

I'm grateful for direction in life. Often any route in life isn't ever straight forward, however with support we can often make it towards a destination with guidance. Whether that be a road sign, a conversation or even a lesson learnt.

Natasha

Moonlight

I took this photo at the start of this course, so I hadn't learnt any skills! But just deciding to do it had me lifting my head and noticing what was around me, after a (too long) period of having my head down on auto pilot.
This image made me happy because I saw the beautiful bright moon and the welcoming winter cosyness of lights on in homes, when it was cold and dark outside .

Jane

Thursday new moon on evening winter walk

Snapseeding My Boy

This is a photograph of my eldest – Harvey - Snapseeded to death! I’m grateful for having all my boys at home and love this photo because it started as a candid and slightly mundane photo of Harvey in his pjs then became something else via Snapseed. I’ve loved some ‘flow’ time using Snapseed, I find it really cathartic, tapping into some creativity that has lain buried and dormant for a few years.

Hilary

My Favourite Beings

I managed to capture the moment the cat finally took treats from my son's hand, I have no doubt that one day they will be great friends. It's great to see the cat slowly (after 15 months) starting to trust Oliver, well enough to eat her favourite treats. I am so grateful for these three and love them more than anything else in the world!

Kaleigh

Old Technology,

New Technology

Old technology, the landline.

New technology a zoom gig on the Mac.

Sue

Old Technology, New Technology - Sue Atk

Overlay Snowman

The snowman on the tree was double-exposured with last week's 'lonely tree of bright candy-coloured lights' which was my first successful double-exposure attempt.

Claire