GROWING OLD “GRAY”CEFULLY: PHOTOGRAPHER LORI BROOKES TO PRESENT PHOTO SAFARI WORKSHOP JUNE 27 IN BOULEVARD

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Lori Brookes
photographer Lori Brookes

By: Dennis Moore

June 15, 2009 (Boulevard)--Sacred Rocks Reserve in Boulevard, a 163-acre wilderness reserve with RV and tent camping sites, is offering lovers of nature and photography a one-day photo “safari” workshop with award winning photographer Lori Brookes. The event will be held from 9AM to 4PM on Saturday, June 27, 2009. Cost is $75 per person for the event and includes lunch.

 

Site fees for car/tent campers ($27 per night) and RV campers ($37 per night) are additional. A dormitory style bunkhouse that sleeps ten is also available at a cost of $15 per person per night. Participants must make a reservation in advance for the workshop, as space is limited. The workshop will include two photo sessions on Sacred Rocks’ 163-acre nature reserve and a group review.

“In being still and present to our surroundings, we deepen the experience of seeing by allowing nature, objects, people, and other beings come into focus,” says Brookes. “Then we have a chance as photographers to capture those transient moments with a sense of wonderment, awe and love.” After a thirteen-year career in banking and finance, Brookes returned to school and got her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at the age of 40. She has since worked as a designer for an architectural firm, co-created a new line of children’s clothing, and worked as creative director for a marketing firm.

After The Fires

Local San Diego photographer Brookes is the epitome of growing old gracefully. This award-winning photographer, best known for her “Sunflower” photo titled After The Fires, which was taken two years after the “Cedar Fires” that devastated San Diego County in late 2003, seems to exemplify acceptance of the belief that it is our nature and God’s plan that we all grow old. Some of us run from that simple fact, by coloring our graying hair, and submitting to face lifts and other surgical procedures. I actually started to dye the gray streaks in my moustache after my 15-year old daughter commented to me that it might make me look younger. Vanity! It was quite enlightening to sit before this lady and listen to her philosophy of life, particularly in regard to aging.

She is now working on a photo-journal dedicated to the celebration of women who are embracing their age, gray hairs and all. It was refreshing in this day and age to listen to someone talk about all the positive aspects of aging. There is a life lesson for all of us in her message and philosophy. Brookes’ photo-journal, which she calls AGING “Gray”cefully, is a compilation of life lessons, through the camera lens. Shei says that title was divinely given to her, and that it is interesting how many people still only see the word gracefully!

Rita

In her pictures of four aging women, one of which is of Susan Bainbridge, a notable East County artist, Brookes demonstrates the beauty of aging, exemplified by the graying streaks throughout her models’ hair. In the photo journals of the women of AGING “Gray”cefully, Brookes describes Valerie Boles as the “lovely long hair godiva,” also a talented artist-jewelry designer. Rita Monares, another model, revealed that her husband, Charles, convinced her to join him in grayness, further stating, “very sweet.”

All of the women profiled in AGING “Gray”cefully are accomplished women in their own right, with one common thread; their celebration of being women who are embracing their age and finding beauty in this transition through life’s years. If there is such a thing as “a picture is worth a thousand words,” one only need to look through the photo-journal of Lori Brookes to discover this truth.

Eiffel Tower

She has an innate ability to capture through the lens of a camera the subtleties of life, as in her picture of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. She describes her picture of the aforementioned sunflower, titled; After the Fires, thusly: “I came across this solitary sunflower during a fundraising tour of private residences that were built or designed by James Hubbell. The sunflower was beaming against the backdrop of the charred Manzanita landscape. In that instant, the sunflower portrayed the essence of the cycle of nature, life and faith. Giving pause to understand the realization that even the darkness of a tragic event, this too shall pass and signs of life will once again spring up from the ashes.” In a way, that is a parallel to Brookes’ AGING “Gray”cefully, for it is looking at beauty in the most unlikely of places. There is a type of mystical quality, or poetry, to Lori’s photography. She says of it herself; “I don’t rely on a lot of fancy, technical tricks,” further stating; What I am after is life as it is happening.”

Each time that Lori does a show she makes a contribution to some worthy cause, such as prevention and cure of multiple schlerosis or breast cancer. She will do the same for her show at Sacred Rocks. She says that Sacred Rocks Reserve is the “Perfect venue for what she wants to do.”

Sacred Rocks Reserve is located near Boulevard, California, approximately 60 miles east of San Diego along interstate 8, at the head of the Pacific Crest Trail. Sacred Rocks is located at 1331 Shasta Way in Boulevard, California, 91905. For more information, call: (619) 766-4480 or visit: www.sacredrocksreserve.com. Participants must make a reservation in advance of the workshop, as space is limited. RSVP: To make a reservation: sacredrocks@gmail.com or call (619) 766-4480.

 

 

 

Dennis Moore is a writer and author, having written a book about Chicago politics, The City That Works, Power, Politics and Corruption in Chicago. He is also a member of the San Diego Writers/Editors Guild, along with being the President of Contracts & Agency, LLC, a consulting and marketing firm. He can be reached at contractsagency@gmail.com or you can follow him on Twitter at: @DennisMoore8.


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Lori Brookes

After her article in the East County Magazine in regard to her photography and scheduled workshop at Sacred Rocks Resort, Lori Brookes secured a televised interview on the local San Diego NBC station. Lori indicated to the author of her story in the East County Magazine, Dennis Moore, that her TV appearance was her 2 minutes and 43 seconds of fame. Prior to appearing on the TV show, Lori Brookes would be the guest of the author, Dennis Moore, at the monthly meeting of his San Diego Writers/Editors Guild. Lori says she plan to join the organization.