Photo Contest!

by Nina

Ann Wackelin's Class of Women Ages 50-62, Sweden
yoga_pearl on Instagram

Our Editor-in-Chief (me) has decided that we need some photos of older women doing yoga for our blog!

It was a post on Facebook by yoga teacher and blogger Linda Sama Karl that got me started on this. She was pointing out something I already knew, which was that while a significant proportion of the population who is doing yoga in the west consists of middle-aged and older women, this group tends to get overlooked by the media. In real life, I see beautiful older women doing yoga—beautifully—in every single yoga class that I attend. But, as we all know, images of older women doing yoga—or anything for that matter—don’t sell products, or so the received wisdom tells us. So we rarely see images that look like us in yoga magazines, yoga videos, articles in other magazines about yoga, or ads for yoga products. But, guess what? I’m actually not trying to sell anything here except the tools and philosophy of Yoga for Healthy Aging. So I can do whatever I want. And Linda’s post got me thinking that it would do us all some good, young and old alike, to have some great images of older women doing yoga out there, both on this blog and on Facebook. 

Second, you may have noticed that the photos on the blog aren’t very diverse (no offense, Baxter). That’s not because I hadn’t thought about having women on the blog, it’s just because I’ve been a bit lazy—or perhaps just too busy —about getting those photographs. I’m not a good photographer myself, but I did have Brad take a few photographs of Sandy Carmellini, age 53, a while back. 

So even though I have really wanted more diversity (including of race and body type), I just never got around to doing much about it. Now that Facebook discussion has jolted me out of my complacency and given me the idea that I could ask you—our readers—to help me with this project. What do you think? Want to join in by contributing one or more photos?

To be eligible, your photo must meet the following specifications:

1. Portray a woman or women over 50 doing a yoga pose (of any level of difficulty) or meditating. Any body type or race (diversity is encouraged!).
2. Be a digital photograph (or scan) in a reasonably high resolution and in focus.
3. Have a reasonably attractive physical surrounding (either outside or inside). So no messy rooms, even if we sometimes do yoga in messy rooms. Pets are allowed (though I have a limit on how many cats I can take). Urban environments are as good as nature shots.
4. If the photo is a single woman doing a yoga pose, the alignment must be one that I consider to be healthy. And no body parts can be cropped off, unless in a super artistic fashion.
5. Be aesthetically pleasing.
6. You must either be in the photo or have taken the photo (that way, I can have your official permission to use it).

Here are some examples of winning photos submitted to me recently after I left a comment on a Facebook post saying I realized I needed some good photos of older women doing yoga. 

Tina Kaufman, Age 70

Linda Sama Karl, Age 59 metta-yoga.com

To submit your photos, you can either email them to me (see Contact Us) or submit via our Yoga for Healthy Aging Facebook Page. There is no deadline because you will not be competing against each other. Multiple submissions allowed. All photos that meet the specifications will be winners!

The prizes? I will use these photos in our posts, with your name, age, and a web address, if desired. I hope there will be a huge number of prizes.

And you should feel free to “borrow” these photographs and give them even more exposure, as long as you give appropriate credits.

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