Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: yoga

Heart Opener
Heart Opener — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/250
There was much and more I did not know about yoga before standing on a mat at my first class in November 2017. Outside of its ancient roots blossoming out of India, its possession of spiritual essence, and lots of bending and stretching, I was wholly ignorant. Turns out I was wrong about what it was I thought I knew. Such is the joy in actually diving into a thing. The ebb and flow of learning and growth coupled with failure—necessary failure—the kind that leads you down a path of humility while bringing you back on the road of learning and growth. Yoga is an excellent roadmap for life. It has had millennia to perfect itself.
In any asana class, the kind where you work the body through physical poses in time with your breath, you know heart openers are A Thing. I did not know this of course, but learned quick. Heart openers are everywhere inside a yoga studio near you. Whether through back bends, twists, or folds, constant coaching and callouts to open the heart—your heart. Such a concept dovetails beautifully with dharma talks choosing to keep the heart at the center of everything: The center of your life, your purpose, your power, and your love. Heart open. Heart center. Lift your heart. Open your heart. Let your light shine on your heart. Feel your life toward the sky. Steady coaching and reinforcement connected to movement and breath work communicates the criticality of an open heart. Loud and clear it lifts a veil on both your physical and emotional being. It’s powerful stuff.
Soon you take this lesson with you off the mat. Focusing on your heart becomes A Thing. Cultivating it. Protecting it. Honoring it. You come to understand the importance of keeping your heart open for others and for yourself. This is the love that will save the world.
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April 15, 2020
Double Down
Double Down — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/160
Yoga, photography, and the sun all went down on Cedar Run Dock Road last night. I sprinkled in some comfort zone stretching people shooting with the familiar task of landscape marsh photography. In need of fresh content for a forthcoming issue of Bay Magazine, friend and entrepreneur, Adam Binder of Aperion Yoga, sought assistance from my girlfriend Rose and me. Rose would provide the modeling and yoga talent and I the camera.
With good natural light, a fresh breeze, and warm temperatures we had ideal conditions for what amounted to a near 45 minute photo shoot. We wasted little time and worked through a dozen or so different partner poses, and I made a total of 162 frames all with my 35mm lens. I was shooting wide open at f/1.4 to shorten depth of field and bring the sharper focus to our yogis. I’m satisfied with how this strategy played out. Of course my inexperience was showing when Adam requested coaching and direction on posing, facial expressions, hand position, etc. Being a novice to photographing people I had little to offer, but things still worked out well enough.
Adam’s basic requirements consisted of producing a vertical photograph with an 8.5 x 11 crop factor, his yoga mat visible—they are beautiful, by the way—and “pop.” With that, I did my best. Tonight, I am posting what is easily the most abstract of the poses photographed. All credit to Rose and her creative inclination to line the mat up along the double yellow road lines, where she entered an L shaped handstand while Adam was in downward facing dog behind her. While in the pose Rose rested her feet upon Adam’s hips. It is fascinating to look into this pose low to the ground and head on, it’s difficult to puzzle out the positioning. The presence of hands and feet leaves the viewer curious, wanting more. It brings interest into further exploring the photograph to piece together how their shared alignments works.
Beyond the mystery of the partner pose there are things to discuss about composition. Dominating the frame, Rose’s asana creates a tall isosceles triangle. This mirrors the Aperion logo, an equilateral triangle, seen along her black waistband. More than that, however, is the sense of place framing our models. The road surface, its double yellow lines moving through the pose and jogging ever so gently to the left, flanked on each side by marsh grasses grounds the yogis in nature. Further backdropped by late day light moments before sunset. Rose’s pastel pants atop the frame make a perfect counterbalance to the well matched pastel yoga mat at the bottom of the picture. Rose’s array of tattoos build another layer, with the Sanskrit tattoo running vertical down her back connected to the top of the photo to the bottom. Despite everything going on here simplicity and balance still somehow win the day. This is the kind of paradox that makes art so fascinating and enigmatic.
July 31, 2019
Now Is the Time for Yoga
Partner X — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 800 | EXP 1/80
Or at least to photograph it. While I began my own yoga journey in November 2017—an asana out of my comfort zone—I took another pose out my safe space earlier this December. Before I further mix metaphors let me get to it. Adam Binder, entrepreneur and founder of Apeiron Yoga, after what I can only assume was some serious cajoling by Rose Dease, tapped me for a photo shoot. The goal was simple: show off his sweet line of yoga mats. Of course the showing off would spring from some well practiced and comely yogis modeling asanas atop said mats.
Followers of this blog may immediately recognize the incongruity here. I do not photograph much that is neither a bug, flower, or landscape, and I most certainly do not photograph people. I lack a flash, lighting equipment, and any kind of sense of how to use those tools. But most inhibiting, I lack ease or grace when it comes to being around people. The up close intimacy demanded in portrait work only exacerbates this limitation. I can feel my awkwardness in typing this. A smooth dude at ease in his own skin, I am not.
Despite all that I gave it a shot. (Do you have any more puns?) And you know what? It wasn’t too bad. Situated at Bask Hot Yoga’s Brick location, we found ourselves in a beautiful space. An open space, bathed in warm white light, with a lattice work wall piece and altar at room center. Hot yoga is Bask’s thing, so the room was toasty. As soon as I walked through the front door I knew my choice of attire was bad: jeans, t-shirt, and dress shoes were a miss for a balmy room hanging in the mid-80s. This was great for our yogis to loosen up, but not great for my sweat stains. But glass half full this and a dark rainy day were the only drawbacks of an otherwise product power session that went on the better part of 3 hours. (We were hoping for some great, natural light to make up for my manual lighting limitation, but alas.)
The Warriors Five — 14mm | f/2.8 | ISO 800 | EXP 1/60
Here are some highlights from the session:
- I walked away with 755 exposures—and some weren’t half bad
- This style of shooting is physically demanding; no sitting around waiting for the sun to set while your camera rests atop a tripod
- Getting low worked out; much of the shoot had my lying prone with my camera and lens propped up on my elbows
- Good direction is key—I had knowledgable peeps calling out poses and keeping things moving
- My focus was too soft
- High key was a good choice
- We should have done more poses with my 14mm lens and the full group—the 35mm and 14mm primes worked better than I thought for this kind of work; Canon’s 24mm prime would have been money
- I need to learn to use a flash and lighting
- While you are only getting a small taste here, the photos came out better than I expected—though my expectations were admittedly low
Disclosure: Sweet Live Limitless hooded sweatshirt aside, this was an unpaid photo session and unpaid written endorsement. However, having used Aperion mats in hot yoga I can report they not only look and feel great, they provide excellent grip when the body and sweat starts flowing.
December 30, 2018