what you don't see

I have to tell you how amazingly freeing it is to show you the photo above.  When I started writing this post and looking for photos that show the, “what you don’t see”, I started finding and laughing at all sorts of discarded photos in my computer files.  What you could perceive from the first fireplace photo is that my house is perfect enough to get this shot or as one comment I received on the fireplace photo, “It’s like you live in a magazine”. ..ha, not with four kids and a dog! That is just photography magic (and clever cropping) my dear friends. I’m pretty sure a magazine wouldn’t have an unfinished fireplace, dusty wood floors, a discarded newspaper and wires poking out where once there was a flat screen. There is so much we don’t see in photography.

 I took the “pretty” fireplace photo before we were finished because I needed inspiration.  Priming and painting an entire two story, floor to ceiling fireplace is not an easy task and taking this photo kept me focused. It reminded me that soon, hopefully soon, I would have a wonderful showpiece in the house in which to hang our family’s stockings and decorate with each new season.

Photos speak volumes in both what it shows and doesn’t show the viewer. Often times what you don’t see, the real shot,  is the most beautiful part.  I have a photo of one of our newly arrived chicks sitting on a window sill looking out.  In hindsight what I wish I had done was take a step back or two.  What you would have seen then was my sweet husbands’ hands cupped underneath the window sill, steadying himself there just in case miss chick decided to jump, simply because I had asked.  To me, that memory means so much more than the professional looking chick photo. It reminds me how real and wonderful life is outside the perfect point of focus.  How although a pretty picture has its place to keep us inspired, the not so perfect shots (or uncropped versions) shouldn’t be so easily discarded, because they too have a story to tell. The newspaper on the ottoman in the right side of the fireplace photo…my kids sharing a chair, laughing and reading the Sunday comics in pj’s.

A dear friend of mine posted this photo on flickr a few years ago. Out of  the hundreds of beautiful and perfect shots she has taken through the years, this one stands out most in mind.  Why?  Because it is so real.  It is her and I adore her.  It is her life on her farm summed up in a single photo and I find it so achingly beautiful. Today, show us the real, the perfectionist, the messy, the inspirational, the uncropped and the gorgeously, beautiful parts of YOU.

Images and words courtesy of the lovely Andie edwards.

Comments

[Marcie]

The chipped paint..the scratched floors - all of life's imperfection laid out for the world to see:
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/home/2011/10/4/slice-of-light.html

[Corinna]

I was JUST playing with this concept on a shoot this week. Sometimes it's just so funny to consider what's going on outside the frame.
http://www.birdwannawhistle.com/blog/2011/10/4/behind-the-scenes.html

[anngeedee]

Oh, the emotions that get stirred up with this one. I find myself clearing clutter, moving objects, using selective focus, etc to make the images look as if we don't live in chaos. I don't want to show you that our sink still has dirty dishes, that our laundry hasn't been folded, or that we walked in the door and dropped everything on the floor and counter so that we could race our littlest to the potty? But maybe I should. Maybe it would be like taking a deep breath and saying "That's life." Here's a shot that includes a tiny fraction of the mess that you don't see in most of my other pictures - and a little of me too. http://www.flickr.com/photos/anngeedee/4449654142/in/photostream

[autumn sun]

Andie, I think you DO live in a magazine. I've seen enough of your photos to know - your beautiful, clean white home.
here's my real
http://www.flickr.com/photos/autumnsun/6116967330/
and the cropped
http://www.flickr.com/photos/autumnsun/6116424563/
and even it's not clean and perfect - it's real.
it is interesting to see what's going on outside the frame - it is where the story is many times.
great post Andie

[Heather]

Love this post!

I see all sorts of lovely photos on blogs and magazines (not to mention TV, etc) where there is no clutter: no mail lying unread on the dining table, the miscellaneous article on the kitchen counters waiting to be put in their proper place, the electronic do-dads on the side table as a reminder to get the proper batteries.

These are images I envy, and have to consciously remind myself that they rarely reflect real life.

I live alone, am naturally tidy, and my home STILL doesn't look so clean, so streamlined, so elegant - unless it's after a marathon 3-day cleaning and organizing binge!

Still, I'm more than guilty of my own "camera housekeeping" when I take photos in my own space.

[Jennifée]

Thank you for sharing this! I know exactly what you mean - I rarely shoot scenes in my own home, other than small still lifes and vignettes, because displaying the mess of everyday life would in some sense expose more than just the physical untidiness. I probably need to get beoynd that, for my own sake.

It's much easier with other people's mess - this image, one of my favourites from this summer, is the mess left behind by three teenagers gone swimming:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennifee/5926388754

[Christian]

I really thought this was a trick and that it was a photo of the inside of a doll house! Very pretty, even the before shot! :)

[leaca]

I just posted one of my vacation. I did not crop it or edit it at all but it takes me to a place and time just how it is. So, I left it as is.

So, lovely to see you here Andie.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leacayoung/6219484394/

[Valerie]

The last two years I've gotten together with mama friends to take photos of our tots in their Halloween costumes. Goofy photos, but lots of fun. When I read this Shutter Sisters post, I instantly thought of bargain table fabrics hung from my bookshelves using C-clamps, tablecloths used as drapery, and ropes tying back my living room curtains to make sure enough light flows in. And loving mamas hovering just outside the camera frame to make sure the pumpkins don't topple. http://journeyleaf.typepad.com/journeyleaf/2010/11/halloween-tot-photo-day.html

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[lfrankenburg]

I like this, because whenever I flip through home furnishing magazines, or really just any magazine, I think; "why isn't my room so put together like that?" but in reality, it is like what you say, "a clever cropping" or a set. No one's lives are that perfect, but that is what makes both of these pictures so pretty.

[Sharon]

Isn't that the truth, Andie. We do get caught up in showing the beautiful instead of the real. And sometimes we really should get more real because life is a challenge. For the most part nothing seems more challenging than my kitchen counter! Still, I think the beauty pulls me along to always want something more out of myself. Out of life. And that is a very good thing : )

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