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January 5, 2010

Jim Campbell’s OmLight Yoga Photography. ~ Sandja Brugmann.

An Engineer’s Journey of Rediscovery of Exploration, Creativity & Meaning.

Capturing the Essence of your Yoga Practice.

A desire to re-connect with his inner creativity and a deeper meaning in life were the driving forces that gave birth to Jim Campbell’s OmLight Photography.

The mixture of Jim’s previous passion with photography, his newly found meaning with life through yoga and his personal practice on the mat led him to want to “be of service” and offer his camera to CorePower Yoga to get a number of overdue teacher bio photos taken.

All the teachers gathered one afternoon, and as often happens when you put yogis together in a room, a spontaneous mix of play and exploration occured. Sterile headshot photo work turned into an impromptu group yoga asana exploration…and OmLight Photography was born.

When we get on the mat, our life is reflected in the mat as our mirror. We have to face ourselves, and it gives us an opportunity to work through the layers of stuff such as ego, sadness, anger, jealousy, frustrations, confusion etc. Yoga brings us into our bodies – our physical being, and out of our head. Surfing through our bodies, riding on the breath, we practice letting go and becoming our authentic and true selves. We practice self- and other love. We practice compassion and acceptance.

“Through my photography, I feel I become part of, a witness of, the person’s inner shining, true self expressions. It is a beautiful process. People almost forget that I am there with my camera capturing them in various yoga postures, as they loose themselves in their inner practice.I am full-filled from an intellectual perspective through my work as an engineer, however, in recent years, I have moved into more of a management role, and I felt less creatively fulfilled as I wasn’t creating and exploring at work any longer – life essence photography through yoga has brought that back into my life.”

As I look at my calendar of obligations for the day of Wednesday November 11th, it is slightly overwhelming from the moment I awake. One of those days. Rushing from meeting to meeting. Mostly wonderful meetings, no less. A social media meeting with one of my absolute favorite lifestyle e-boutiques Vickerey at the Dushanbee Teahouse. Attending trapeze class with Frequent Flyers at the Dairy Center for Performing Arts – and then rush to OmLight Photography to meet with Jim Campbell and his lovely assistant Justina. Deep breath. Deeeeep breath.

I wasn’t entirely centered as I arrive at Jim’s studio in North Boulder. As Jim’s voice talks me through a selection of Surya Namaskar A+B posture series and encourages deep relaxation and breathing, coming into my own yoga practice, I feel myself quickly melt into my yoga space. It’s almost as if he isn’t there, except for when Justina aids hair away from my eye or Jim is queuing me to optimize alignment and camera angle. I am surprised to find myself actually getting deeply into postures and my ujaii (oo-JAI-ay) breath.

My 10 year old daughter, Amilija, had come along to check it out. As we are playing around, we decide to do some partner yoga shots of her and I. Feeling her resting on my back, trusting in me fully, as I am in downwardfacing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), I am surprised to realize that her sacrum against mine is an intimate and softening experience. How often do we connect as human beings, mothers & daughters this way? My heart has gone thru extreme openings and awakenings the past months; this unexpectedly close loving and warming experience bringing me so close to my daughter in a way I had never thought about, breaks open my heart another inch or two. It makes me realize, how many beautiful and fulfilling ways exist in sharing ourselves and our hearts with loved ones and the world at large. Now, I certainly had not expected a spiritual experience this evening through capturing my yoga asanas on camera. This is an experience I can highly recommend for anyone; lovers, mothers & daughters, sisters and brothers and just for your own individual experience (also perfect as a holiday gift to someone very special). So here I am, talking about the process and experience – obviously, you will walk away with a lifelong visual capture of your own shining asana heart!

You do not need to be a Shiva Rea or Seane Corn to get your yoga portraiture taken – this is for anyone, who has any level of experience with yoga.

Details

* $199 for a one hour session for a single person, $249 for two or more people.

Included with your shoot is one 13×19 print, which can be 1, 2 or 4 images.

Various photos options for purchase is available after the shoot.

Leigh Goldberg – an experienced partner yoga teacher , will guide you and your partner through postures, while Jim Campbell captures the essence of beauty, play and expressions. Call for price.

Contact [email protected] for further questions, or to schedule your session. OmLight Photography.

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