C'est la vie.

I'd been planning this shoot for three months. Erin scoured the internet looking for the perfect outfit. I had everything shipped across the country a week ahead of time. Details were thought through and plans were made all the way down to the adorable retro cupcake "prop" truck. 

Then the day arrived. 

It poured. Except for these shoes, none of the outfits worked in person. The light in the painstakingly selected cabin was overcast gloom. Life was mocking our plans. As life does. Then that magical thing happened. You know, the thing that only happens when you let go of your tightly wound expectations?

Someone happened to have an umbrella. Alli busted out with her adorable green dress that was so versatile it even allowed her do high kicks (the high kicks of an eighteen year old I might add). And the day continued to come together as Erin ripped up some orange tights to widdle up into an impromptu belt. We all couldn't help but have a "C'est la Vie" attitude about everything. And in the end, I think that was the magic of it. 

Do you have any perfectly planned photos that went all wrong but then translated into all right? We'd love to see. 

Epiphanie Bags Give-away!

Summer is here. Let's celebrate with a give-away! Tell us about (or link to) your favorite vacation in the comments and you'll be entered to win an Epiphanie Camera Bag of your choice!

Winner will be chosen at random, and announced on this post tomorrow (June 3rd) before noon.

Good luck!  

**CONGRATULATIONS ERIN DANIELLE! You are the lucky Epiphanie bag winner! Thank you to all those who entered and shared your favorite vacation stories!

comfort zone

I’ve traveled quite a bit over the past couple of years. Each time I leave I swear to myself that I’m going to dedicate some time to take decent photographs. Each time I come back with an Obligatory Wing Shot from the flight, a few snaps of the people I’m with, and maybe one from my generic hotel room. Maybe it’s laziness, or awkwardness keeping me from venturing off to explore a new city or town. Or maybe it's a resistance to what’s uncomfortable. 

My definite comfort zone, when it comes to shooting, is people. As long as there is a face in my frame, I feel a sense of ease, paired with a sort of instinctual reflex about how to approach the situation. But when I'm trying to photograph a city, town, or landscape, I feel like I'm fumbling a around, not knowing exactly where to start. It makes me admire great documentary  photographers like Stephanie and Meredith, and so many others who are able to tell stories with their cameras regardless of whether they're photographing a person. 

And it makes me wonder, what’s your comfort zone? Do you feel an ease with people, or do you enjoy the control of being able to compose a still life? And if you’re good at photographing places, landscapes, frames sans faces, what are your tricks? What’s your approach? And what sorts of things are you looking for?  

gray

It had been a year since I'd photographed a senior portrait session. I'd forgotten how much I love that not child, not adult energy. Not black not white, but someone living in the finite space of endless possibility gray. We never know how small that space is until we look back one day to realize it's gone. Irretrievably. Not that I'd want to go back. I'm happy with the lessons I've lived. I like my life, even if it means taking on the thirty-six year old responsibilities. But I felt lucky to be around her for a few hours. The girl at the end of a childhood, on the verge of everything. She reminded me that, that space still exists. It just might look a little differently today.  

What about you? What sorts of things make you feel like the world is still full of possibility? 

opposite

Most of the time we take pictures because we want to preserve whatever is happening around us: a baby's smile, the sunrise, the first snow. Effort is made to capture things exactly as they are, so that the record of your moment can match and remind you of your fond memory. But sometimes what happens in the camera is wildly different from what happened in your mind. This image was taken on a slightly overcast, but extraordinarily happy day in Paris when I was visiting for the first time with my husband. We were trying to do and see everything in the two and a half days we had there. I snapped this moment quickly from my hip, thinking of not much more than trying to fit the magnitude of the building into the frame. I was delighted by the lovely out of focus ghost figures that emerged. But I was also surprised by the gloomy mood of the image. Because it doesn't match the memory I have for that day, which is light-hearted, and doused with a sense of adventure as we explored all of these magnificent buildings for the first time. 

Does that ever happen to you? Do you ever end up with a photograph that turns out to be the exact opposite of what you remember happened? We would love for you to share with us today.