What to expect- An inside view of the first month

January 3 — Wolf Moon (Supermoon):

Theme: Listening to the Call

“The year begins not with noise, but with a quiet growl beneath the ribs.”

Overview

The Wolf Moon calls you back to instinct — the part of you that knows before you plan, that sees before you name.
This month, you’ll sharpen your creative senses, build your visual vocabulary, and let your intuition lead the camera.
It’s about noticing what you crave — creatively and emotionally — and trusting that craving as a compass.

Theme: Reclaiming Instinct

Starting the year tuned inward — to the quiet urges, ideas, and curiosities that call from beneath routine.
Creative Focus

• Reconnecting with intuition and creative voice

• Photographing beginnings and in-betweens

• Making an intuitive vision board (not of goals, but of feelings)

• Starting your first personal project of the year

• Building technical confidence through mindful shooting practice

Photography Lessons

1. The Art of Beginning

Photograph thresholds — doors, windows, first light, half-open drawers, your own reflection before you’re fully awake.
Let the images whisper, not shout. This is your visual declaration of beginning again.

2. Intuitive Seeing

• Go for a walk with your camera or phone.

• Every time something catches your attention — even slightly — stop and photograph it.

• Don’t analyze, don’t scroll, don’t fix. Just follow the pull.
  By the end, you’ll have a map of your instincts.

3. Self-Portrait Prompt — “The Call Within”

Create a self-portrait that captures the moment before you move.

• Think of yourself as the wolf at the edge of the forest — alert, waiting, sensing.

• This doesn’t have to show your full face or body. Try photographing your hand reaching toward light, your reflection in glass, your breath on a window.

• If you prefer anonymity, use blur, double exposure, or a mirror to fragment the image.

💡 Reflection: What part of you feels ready to emerge this year — and what part is still listening?

4. Technical Lesson — Working with Winter Light

Skill focus: Exposure control + using available indoor light

In January, light is scarce but full of nuance — cooler, lower, and directional.

• Find the edge of the light. Position yourself where sunlight grazes across your space rather than floods it.

• Meter for the highlights. Slight underexposure will preserve texture and mood.

• Experiment with ISO. Don’t fear a little noise; it adds a soft grit that suits the season.

• Try a slow shutter self-portrait. Set your camera to 1/4–1 second and move slightly — let motion express instinct.

🧪 Challenge: Create two versions of the same photo — one technically “correct” and one instinctively “felt.” Compare how they communicate differently.

5. Vision Board as Art Practice

Instead of goals, think sensations.

• Collect textures, words, and colors that feel like the year you want to live in.

• Add snippets of your own photographs, magazine cutouts, and natural elements (thread, leaves, fabric).

• Assemble on paper, a pinboard, or digitally.

• Photograph your finished board and title it like a poem — something open-ended, e.g., “The Year I Remembered the Sound of My Own Voice.”

Artist Spotlights: The Wolves Before Us

(Each can inform your vision board and practice.)

Photography: Francesca Woodman

Raw, intuitive, and deeply personal imagery.

Use blur or partial framing to explore vulnerability.

Painting: Leonora Carrington

Built her own mythology through surrealist symbolism.

Add a symbolic animal or recurring motif to your images.

Collage: Lorna Simpson

Combines fragments of identity and memory.

Cut up your own prints and reassemble them into something new.

Textile: Sheila Hicks

Works with thread and instinct — tactile storytelling.

Photograph close-ups of fabric or fibre as landscapes.

Writing: Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Teaches women to reclaim instinct.

Read one parable; write a caption inspired by its imagery.

Reflection Prompts

• What kind of creative hunger is stirring beneath the surface?

• When was the last time you made something just for you?

• What rule or expectation are you ready to break?

• How might instinct, not discipline, guide your next photo?

Community Prompts

• Share one image that feels like a beginning.

• Post your intuitive vision board or a detail from it.

• Reflect: What’s one thing you’re calling in creatively this year?

• Optional discussion: How does your creative instinct show up — a whisper, a spark, a physical pull?