The magic of still photography
Posted in ashtanga yoga on 07/30/2009 07:33 am by karenI videorecorded mayurasana this morning. The beauty part is that I can capture stills from when I was actually airborne. Less beautiful is my framing — you’ll note I cut off my head. Still, if you add it all up, I spent about 4 or 5 discontinuous seconds aloft. Which means that if I don’t have to do my five breaths aloft sequentially, and if it’s okay to be holding on to the pose by the skin of my teeth, dangerously close to bumping my head on the floor, well then, I think I have this nailed. 
Kidding, obviously. Need to get my head up; need to get my feet up. I haven’t been so amused by a pose for a long time. I’ve been scared by some poses lately, sure — but this one is just pure fun.
07/30/2009 at 9:42 am
Karen, that’s great! It took me forever to get Mayurasana (partly due to some seriously bad instruction when I first “learned” it). Once given the right information, it still took me a long time to figure out how to not roll off my belly- side to side, crashing on the floor, etc. Your success is early and significant, you’ll be rockin’ the Mayurasana soon!
07/30/2009 at 9:46 am
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07/30/2009 at 10:24 am
Supta kurmasana shoulders.
Best. Mayurasana. Advice. Ever.
07/30/2009 at 11:12 am
No, I saw this on Penn and Teller, there’s a fork lift truck just off shot holding you up.
But seriously, NICE JOB, i struggle with this, very hit and miss, most of the time I keep sliding off my arms, been better this week though.
Was thinking about Vatyanasana in your last post. Used to think it was a bit mad (do you get Father Ted in the states? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMYtgAV8l8&feature=channel ) But then i was thinking, how the heck else would you get into it?
07/30/2009 at 12:03 pm
I totally feel you on the scary asana bit. Second is weird like that. Kind of crazy, kind of fun, kind of scary — totally pushing the limits!
Elise
07/30/2009 at 12:54 pm
what’s the video link, grimmly?
all i get is ‘this video is unavailable in your country due to copyright restrictions’
that will teach me, living in this weird place of mine no one’s ever heard of
and karen, really lovely what you can acheive there, and the photo, even without the head (or perhaps because of that) looks kind of artsy, i like it
plus great shorts of course
07/30/2009 at 12:59 pm
Shorts! LOL! I’ve been wearing capris to the shala lately, Fatou. I can get my leg behind my head well enough these days that a layer of fabric isn’t the difference between getting the pose and not getting the pose. For a while there it had to be shorts and using the spray bottle to get my shoulders slick. Did I feel like a dope using the spray bottle for LBH? Yup. But this practice is about reckoning with one’s own dopiness, right?
07/30/2009 at 1:04 pm
And the YouTube link won’t work in my country, either! What is it, Grimmly? I can search “Father Ted” on YouTube and it brings up a bunch of clips…
07/30/2009 at 2:28 pm
Father Ted is a comedy about two RC Priests in a middle of nowhere Parish in Ireland. Had/has a cult following. The star killed himself, very sad. Anyway he said mad a lot which made me think of it. Very very funny.
07/30/2009 at 7:33 pm
There’s a pic of Petri doing Mayurasana in a flyer for a workshop he’s doing in Chicago in September (hunt around on http://www.yogaview.com) and he TOTALLY has the Supta K shoulders going on.