Mindful Awareness Meditation at the Hammer Museum

Attend In Person Or Online Through The Hammer Website

By Dolores Quintana

The Hammer Museum invites individuals interested in the benefits of mindful awareness meditation to participate in person or online every Thursday at 12:30 PM in the Billy Wilder Theater. This weekly half-hour session is open to people of all levels of experience and led by Diana Winston and other instructors from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center.

Mindful awareness meditation involves actively and openly observing one’s physical, mental, and emotional experiences in the present moment. The practice has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve attention, boost the immune system, reduce emotional reactivity, and promote a general sense of health and well-being.

Attendees can participate in person at the Billy Wilder Theater or tune in to the live broadcast of the session on the Hammer

Would You Open Your Home To

Museum’s website. To join the live stream, interested individuals can simply visit the website at 12:30 p.m. on Thursdays and click the Play button that will appear in the center of the live stream screen.

The weekly sessions are an excellent opportunity for individuals to learn more about mindfulness meditation and its potential benefits. Past audio sessions are also available on the MARC website, where attendees can download the UCLA Mindful app to access the content.

Read the Hammer’s full COVID-19 safety guidelines.

Location: Billy Wilder Theater

Ticketing: This drop-in session is not ticketed. Attendance is free. Doors open at 12:15 p.m.

Parking: Valet parking is available on Lindbrook Drive for $10 cash only. Selfparking is available under the museum. Rates are $8 for the first three hours with museum validation, and $3 for each additional 20 minutes, with a $20 daily maximum. There is a $7 flat rate after 6 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends.

Read our food, bag check, and photo policies.

Santa Monica Photographer Carol Summers Captures Scenic, Colorful, and Compelling, Shots Dynamic, Colorful, Inspiring and Lovely Photos

Dynamic, colorful, inspiring and lovely. Those are some words that describe the images found on Naturescape Photography from Santa Monica photographer Carol Summers.

At the age of 10, Carol could be seen with a camera around her neck, having a lot of fun, taking pictures of people and places. While being a script supervisor on various television shows was her primary career for many years, she returned to her life-long interest in photography and turned it into a successful business.

Naturescape Photography hosts a bountiful collection of 60+ photos for sale, taken in many different locations, including Santa Monica, Central California, Canada and the UK.

On a quick trip up the coast to Central California and the coastal city of Pacific Grove, Carol captured lots of fascinating images full of serenely scenic color and drama.

“If a location is popular with tourists and locals, you can assume that everyone has taken their picture of it. I create my version of the scene, which hopefully will stand out from others. It’s very satisfying as a photographer when people take a longer look at my images and ask questions about the story behind it. I don’t want a photo to be of something — I want it to be about something,” Carol explained.

Her photographs, such as “Crashing Waves on Asilomar State Beach” or the mesmerizing jellyfish images at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, evoke feelings of power, beauty, and even meditation. Carol discovered a love for aquariums and sea life behind the glass, which differ from her coastal favorites, but still capture her love of color, detail and mood.

“Rainbow Reef” at Ripley’s Aquarium of Toronto is a gorgeous display of eco-friendly sea life with a million moving parts. The sand tiger shark image showcases the strength of that life within the aquarium. The Pacific sea nettle jellyfish ignite a wonderous and colorful power and beauty, although you don’t want to be stung by them!

“Obviously, you can’t control every variable to make that ‘perfect photo,’ which, in the end, is largely subjective. But you learn to take advantage of what you can control, especially when you’re only at a location for a short time,” she said. “My favorite outdoor images are often the ones taken in dramatic weather –drizzly, windy, overcast, moody.”

While Carol loves her Fujifilm camera, she found a saving grace in her iPhone 14 Pro Max for those captures she would have missed when not having her camera nearby.

“The raw files that I get from the iPhone are full of detail that makes them easy to work with If I don’t have my camera, I always have my iPhone,” she said.

A long-time photography enthusiast, she likes to stay up to date with editing software, watch video tutorials, and take the occasional peek at what other photographers are doing.

“We all try to creatively capture and preserve stories in the form of images that will last for a very long time,” she said.

The landscape prints can be purchased from naturescape-photography.com, where you can check out all the details. They could be a great complement to your home space, workspace, or commercial/residential staging space.

You may also contact Carol by email or by using the QR codes below: