A contribution from Sarah Ann Loreth. Sarah is a fine art photographer from New Hampshire, who specializes in self-portraiture, conceptual portraiture, and fashion. To find out more about her work, visit her photostream and check out her website.

Last January, Brooke Shaden joined forces with an organization called Blossomy to travel to Kolkata, India, to help teach photography to survivors of human trafficking giving them a chance to learn to create and tell their stories. Her time in India was filled with love, kindness, and building confidences. With the help of Blossomy, Brooke is looking to bring a school of photography to provide free education as well as the opportunity for a future in a career that can provide self assurance and hope.

Tell me a bit about yourself and your art.

If nothing else, I’ve always had an overabundance of passion and inspiration. I started photography five years ago and when I did, it became an all-consuming force in my life that has lead me down the path of self-discovery. I create self-portraits so that I can see myself as a character. I love to explore my imagination, as strange as it might be. My childhood was filled with written words formed into stories and poetry. Later in college I studied filmmaking, but it wasn’t until I graduated that photography became my calling, and I work at it every day, trying to fulfill my passion.

How did you get involved with this project?

I was emailed out of the blue by an organization called Blossomy to teach photography to survivors of human trafficking in Kolkata, India. I went in with the idea that the camera is simply a tool that they can use to tell their individual stories, of which there are many and each one so important.

What was your experience like in India?

Eye-opening. Passionate. There was love. There was exploration. There was understanding, for myself and others. I used what I know about storytelling to try and help others to tell their own stories… and in the process, I realized that I still have so much to learn about myself and others. It is a different world over there. Values are placed on different things. Even my images were interpreted in drastically different ways. I found peace in simple things, found beauty in disturbing things, and realized that every place in the world has something to teach us all. I went in with that confidence, that I could teach something to someone else and in turn, they could teach me something as well.

How were you able to use photography to share good in the world?

At the heart of most photography is a story, and I took that inspiration into the classroom to figure out what stories the young women I taught wanted to tell. Some shared stories of heartache and others shared stories of hope. In the end, each of those stories was translated into a self-portrait that they completely designed and photographed. I believe that if more people take this approach – that photography can be used for storytelling and healing – so many people will be exposed to the possibilities of self-expression.

Is there a specific memory you would like to share?

I remember sitting in a circle with the women I was teaching, and I asked them to tell a story in their own words. It could be anything, I told them, whether it really happened or not. One of the stories was incredibly symbolic, where she told of a penguin who got lost from her family and fell in the ocean and thought she would die alone, until she woke up and realized it was all a dream. I have thought about that story so much since then – about how moving it is to see someone tell a story that seems completely made up and fantastic, but understand that it is all a metaphor. We all use the same language at the heart of it all, and I will take her story with me for the rest of my life.

Has the trip changed how you see the world?

Yes, very much so. I went into it skeptically, wondering if I would be one of those people who left thinking that something fundamental had changed about me… but it did. I realized how much work there is to do. I realized how one person really can make a difference, and I’m not necessarily talking about myself. Each person I spoke to on that trip made me realize something about myself! So imagine if more people got involved, even in very small ways, to help others, the world could be a community, and that community could be very inspiring.

Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to tell us about?

I do, which I feel quite shy about because I get very nervous to ask for things…but here it goes! I am helping to start a school in Kolkata India for survivors of human trafficking. What I realized upon visiting was that so many people going through the system leave the shelter homes but have no where to go, and some end up back in the trade. Photography is my passion, and I believe that by creating a school there would give an opportunity to those people after the shelter homes, an option for a future.

The school is self-sustaining, as there will be a studio attached to it which generates income to pay the instructors as well as those creating the images. If a student takes one full year of the course, they can either go back to teach the course or work in the studio, thus being paid for their work and creating a future for themselves. We are looking for $25,000 and I know that if every person just donated one dollar to this cause, we could fund it and change so many lives.

Thank you Brooke for sharing your story! Best of luck to you!

Photos from Brooke Shaden.

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“At first glance, some people think my images are from space — you know, planets, stars and what not,” says photographer Richard Heeks. “Others have mistaken them for cells or microorganisms… something you’d see in a microscope.”

“But when they find out they’re actually bubbles,” he tells The Weekly Flickr in the accompanying video, “they’re both baffled and amazed that something so small and ordinary can be so beautiful!”

Richard’s love of capturing images of bubbles happened randomly in 2007, at a time when he was obsessed with taking photographs of eyes.

“I began noticing just how beautiful eyes were,” Richard explains. “I tried to take really close-up photographs of my wife’s eyes… I noticed that I could see my own reflection in her eye, and the landscape around us. It was stunning.”

“At the time my nieces, who were only 5 and 7 years-old, were blowing bubbles, and I noticed how they had such weird reflections,” Richard remembers. “Using my experience from photographing eyes, I tried to photograph the bubbles and their internal reflections. I got some OK shots, but later I looked up other bubble photos on Flickr, and I realized that I was doing pretty well. Within a few weeks, I was hooked!”

From that point on, Richard put together photo shoots on nice sunny days when the air was still at his home in Saltaire, England. He’d spend hours blowing bubbles, concocting different soap mixtures and photographing the results.

“One day a bubble accidentally burst as I was trying to photograph it,” Richard says. “I looked at the photograph carefully and realized that I had photographed something that I had never seen before; something that you could not see with your naked eye. I realized that I might be able to capture the process of a bubble bursting.”

Richard asked his wife to help pop bubbles with her finger while he photographed them. Richard said it was very hit or miss, but after a day’s worth of shooting, he captured some really clear and beautiful shots of the bubbles mid-burst.

“From then on, I became obsessed,” Richard admits. “I began doing more and more photo shoots, trying to get something different every time. In 2010, I started playing around a bit, getting closer and closer [to the bubbles], capturing macro bubbles. Later that year, I also photographed bubbles inside bubbles. I watched a few YouTube videos and saw how easily you could just blow on a bubble, which would create a smaller bubble within it! So I tried it myself and got some beautiful results.”

In 2011, Richard bought a special mixture from a bubble shop in London that allowed him to make Zubbles — colored soap bubbles. After a couple attempts, Richard’s bubbles ended up being blue and definitely had a different look to them. Their reflections, which were a bit clearer and more shiny — became popular on his Flickr page.

Despite always coming up with new ideas to form new and beautiful photographs, Richard admits there’s no guarantee it will actually work out.

“I would say that much of what I do is serendipitous,” Richard says. “Bubbles are extremely complex, and I’m often surprised by the outcomes. Luck plays a big part. I have to wait and rely on the weather. The light can do weird and beautiful things, such as influencing the colors and creating beautiful flares – but it can also be distracting. I can seek out beautiful places to take the photos. I can also choose particular camera settings or which bubble mixture I take along, but I can only capture what the bubble gives me at a particular moment in time.”

The reactions Richard has received has been overwhelming positive.

“Bubbles are familiar and simple, in that lots of people played with bubbles when they were children,” Richard says. “So everyone appreciates them. I often get requests from scientist, who are interested in the bubbles’ spheres and natural forms. They’ve used my photographs in journals, magazines and presentations. I’ve also been approached by bubble performers — people who are experts in working with bubbles in shows, etc. We’ve collaborated together on what mixtures work well, etc. It’s great to share ideas with these people.”

Richard has been blowing bubbles for over five years and confesses he never gets bored of them. He has no plans to stop and knows there are different kinds of bubbles (forms, shapes, colors) to capture.

“Blowing the bubbles is a nice tactile experience,” Richard says. “Watching bubbles fly around in the wind is beautiful. It’s just a very pleasant thing to do and to watch. And if I can photograph the things that I can see and experience, then that’s pretty cool. I love to get caught up in the experience of running around after bubbles, and just enjoying the experience of being in the moment.”

Visit Richard’s photostream to see more of his photography.

Previous episode: Tiny worlds in drops of water

Do you want to be featured on The Weekly Flickr? We are looking for your photos that amaze, excite, delight and inspire. Share them with us in the The Weekly Flickr Group, or tweet us at @TheWeeklyFlickr.

For this week’s #FlickrFriday theme, #DorothysRedShoes, we’d like you to dive into the world of The Wizard of Oz and discover Dorothy Gale’s red shoes. Spot them in the streets, ask your friends to pose, take a photo of your own "magical" shoes and turn it into a movie scene with some Photoshop sorcery.

Take a shot from today until next Friday when we announce the new theme, and submit it to the group for a chance to be featured. You can also invite your friends to participate by reteweeting us or sharing our status.

To see last week’s recap post, follow the yellow brick road to our #MyFavoriteMovieScene selection.

#FlickrFriday is a weekly photography project that challenges your creativity. For a chance to be featured on FlickrBlog, follow follow the Flickr photostream, @flickr on Twitter & like us on Facebook and look for the weekly theme announcement every Friday. Browse the Flickr Friday category for past installations of the series.

CC-BY source photo from GabPRR.

Our last Flickr Friday theme was all about movies, art direction and scene composition. The theme was #MyFavoriteMovieScene, and these are some of our favorite submissions to the Flickr Friday group.

Many of you also took the time to pick your favorites and present them in the galleries of favorites thread that you shouldn’t miss out on. It’s never too late: We invite you to go through the pool, create a gallery of your favorite contributions and share it.

Photos from Andrezza Dias Haddaway, emil antonowsky, Kakadu, simonturkas, moke076, Jouss_, Sky Noir, ekidreki, Levuriste Teigneux, reway2007, and Gret B..

#FlickrFriday is a weekly photography project that challenges your creativity. For a chance to be featured on FlickrBlog, follow follow the Flickr photostream, @flickr on Twitter & like us on Facebook and look for the weekly theme announcement every Friday. Browse the Flickr Friday category for past installations of the series.

Ominous clouds swept above Sydney, Australia, and subsequently produced lightning and commute-halting downpours on the picturesque city, while photographers captured the striking storm visuals.

See, and share, more photos: Dramatic Storm Down Under gallery | Project Weather group

Photos from sharpy73, SJ Allen, andrew_such, john cowper, and rolfekolbe.

The neon colors, exuberant crowds, and grand processions — Rio’s world famous Sambadrome fills with carnival joy every year in March. Those in the sensually indulgent extravaganza represent around 200 samba schools, the competing parade groups from local neighborhoods. Their entire presentation during the festivities is judged for creativity, music, and thematic portrayal.  Considered to be the largest carnival of all, this annual showdown and widespread celebration attracts enormous attendance that can reach two million people in the main event and on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s cultural hub that will host the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

See, and share, more photos: Rio Carnival gallery | Brazil Photos group.

Photos from Boaz Guttman, Deco Rodrigues, Riotur, Kimie_Shima, and Fifty-Fifty Clown.

Our #TwitterTuesday theme was #Airplane, and you shared your best photos with us. We loved your broad approach to the subject, showing us light trails and landings, take-offs and interior shots, as well as beautiful views from within the aircrafts you were on.

We thank everyone who submitted a photo and highly recommend checking out all of them in our Twitter feed. To see the next challenge delivered directly to your feed, follow us on Twitter or on Flickr. We’ll be back on Friday with the week-long #FlickrFriday challenge and on Tuesday with the new #TwitterTuesday theme.

Photos from Éole, -Harm-, John Carleton, iSayer ©, nan palmero, Kelson, capwell, Meriol Lehmann, ianwyliephoto, NJ-P, and Drekisath.

There is an army of 1,600 paper pandas occupying the streets of Taipei, Taiwan, attracting the attention of many people, including some of you who were busy taking photos and sharing them on Flickr.

The Pandas World Tour Taipei originated in 2008 when the WWF invited French artist Paulo Grangeon to show 1,600 handmade paper pandas in major European cities to highlight the danger of extinction of pandas and other species. It is the first time for these paper pandas to visit Asia.

You can see and share more photos of the Pandas World Tour Taipei in our image search.

Photos from TEIA – 台灣環境資訊協會, 霞客 丁, Benson & LiLing, and 阿靳.

Count on seeing eye-catching costumes and parades in photos every March on Flickr from Europe. Millions of revelers annually join festivals that precede the observance of Lent, and we can almost hear cheers from partying scenes caught on camera at these raucous occasions. So if you miss the chance to attend these events, explore the photography offered here for a vicarious experience of this month’s pageantry.

What stands out this year? Italy’s Carnevale di Viareggio features astonishingly well-constructed floats, including politician caricatures and a freaky clown-themed tank. And in Germany, a wooden trike with horns should receive a barbarian applause.

What about Mardi Gras in New Orleans? Or the hubbub in Rio? Stay tuned with what’s coming up soon here on our blog. We got you covered.

See, and share, more photos in Europe’s Carnivals and Karneval in Deutschland group.

Photos from Mauro Pellegrini, Fabrizio, ianuab, uwekulick, and tchukk.

The Yashica Mat was released in 1957. It’s a twin-lens reflex medium-format camera featuring a wind lever and auto-cocking shutter. Designed for 6x6cm medium format film, it enjoys great popularity among analog film lovers.

On Flickr, we have a great community around the Yashica Mats, so whether you are just getting into medium format shooting or are already a subject matter expert, we’re sure you can find great tips and advice from other members as well as fantastic inspiration in one of our dedicated Yashica groups.

The photos above are just a small selection of city scenes from the diverse pool of analog gems, including portrait, landscape, and nature shots, in the Yashica Mat group.

Photos from CuriousLight, Nathan Congleton, and 2..