white space

One of the main things I look for on any photo shoot is simplicity. Too many elements turn anything into a mess. Whether it's a painting, a photograph, or an outfit, it's definitely possible to have too much of a good thing. I remember learning about white space years ago in an art class. It always seemed to make the difference between designs that worked, and ones that flopped. One design looked planned, and well-thought-out. While, another one looked cluttered and confusing, with no real point.

I think life is the same way. We can spend our days accumulating props, without having a purpose or design. After a while, it's like including too many fonts on a page. Each one might be beautiful. But without a plan, even your favorite elements lose appeal. I bet if we could see life in the tangible way that we see a photograph, it would be more clear. What's working. What's not. What needs to be cropped. Minimized. Maximized. Altered. Most of all, I bet we'd see how important the White Space is.

Any thoughts about the White Space in your life or photographs?

Using Layers and Masks to Create Soft Effects

I love, love working with Anna. She's not only a great model, but due to our closeness and ability to read each other's minds, we always seem to create fabulous photographs together.  After her aunt passed away, we talked about doing a series of photographs with her aunt's robe, which further evolved into photographing her newest tattoo, a branch of vibrant cherry blossoms.

Because of her bright hair, the intense color of the blossoms, and the unique hue of the silk robe, I wanted to mute the rest of the image as much as possible. In addition to lighting and color manipulations, I also used Photoshop layers to create soft blurred areas.

First, I opened my layers palette (Window > Layers). At this time there was only one layer, my original photo. I selected the layer and dragged it to the New Layer button , creating a duplicate layer for manipulating.

I blurred the new layer with a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur).  Focusing on the background -- since this would be the blurriest point of my image -- I adjusted the slider to the desired level.

Now it was time to erase the portions of the blurred layer to reveal the focused portions of the layer below it. Rather than use the eraser tool, I used a mask to give me more control and flexibility.

Here's how :

1. I dragged my top (blurred) layer to the Mask button. (When you do this, you will see a new black thumbnail appear to the right of the image thumbnail in the layer.)
2. I clicked the black thumbnail to select the mask. (When you do this, you will see the foreground and background palette colors switch to black and white.)
3. Next, I switched my palette foreground color to black and "painted" the portions of the layer I wanted hidden. I did this with varied brush sizes and experimented with opacities to get the blur exactly where and how I wanted it.
4. When I messed up, changed my mind, or wanted to dilute the opacity, I switched my foreground color to white to reveal the portions of the layer I wanted to show through.

You can use layers and masks for lots of things!  I frequently use them to cut an inch or two off tummies, remove double chins, delete ex-boyfriends from pictures -- experiment and have fun!

barometer rising

Every time I leave the house I give the glass a tap-tap-tap, watch the needle twitch and tell fortunes with as much magic as a ouija board at a seventh grade sleepover party.

The old barometer tells me what weather’s brewing in the atmosphere of this craggy, rocky seashore in a way that’s tactile, romantic—at least compared to the goofy banter and shit-eating grins of the local news.

Often I’ve wondered what it would be like to have a barometer of life. Some leatherbound, vintage typeface and needle that would forecast episodes of catastrophe (premature babies imminent) or achievement (clear skies following credit line payoff) or vice (periods of rum at times heavy, visibility near zero).

The last one’s a joke. I haven’t taken to bottle. Yet.

With a barometer of life I’d at least know when to batten down the hatches, when to hoist up the spinnaker to fly on light and friendly winds.

But knowing all defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? Because the whole point of living is trial by fire, to gain heart-bursting perspective through the lens of hindsight—not foresight.

One Sweet Shot - March 2008

Hey sisters, it’s One Sweet Shot Sunday again! Welcome to our monthly inspirational link fest!

My pick this month is the gorgeous photo above captured by the lovely and talented Gayla Trial of You Grow Girl. I was fortunate enough to get to speak on a panel that she moderated at BlogHer last summer which was quite a pleasure. If you aren't yet familiar with her website,  I encourage you to pop over and dig around (the oldest pun in the gardener’s book I know) to discover her wonderfully earthy and soulful images.

And now, on to the other honorees of this edition of One Sweet Shot:

Vixen’s Den is honoring this shot from ProjectMommy.

Write Mama Write is honoring this shot from Steph.

Maggie is honoring this shot from christinator5 .

Rebecca is honoring this shot of her Winter Beauty.

Shelli is honoring this shot from Springtree Road.

Hay is honoring this shot from mommymac.

Lawyer Mama and Maile are both honoring this shot from happy girl lucky.

Redness is honoring this shot from Corey Amaro.

Val is honoring this shot from Jo.

Mrs. Eaves is honoring this shot from Vixen’s Den.

Krystyn is honoring this shot from Beebee Mod.

Andrea is honoring both this shot from romanlily and this one from she saw things.

And Mandi is honoring this shot from Amy Shaba.

To all of you that submitted your honorees, thank you. To all of you that were honored, let this be a little dose of feel good on this fine Sunday. And to the rest of you, sit back and enjoy the clicks!

pay it forward

I got to thinking while I was in the shower the other day. Does anyone else do most of their thinking in the shower? Anyway as I was lathering, rinsing, and repeating I got to thinking about photography (big surprise!). Usually my thoughts on photography have to do with myself, and the pending success of this new business venture. What do I love about photography? How does it make me feel? What do I need to accomplish today? But on this day, with loofah in hand, I realized that one of the best things about being a photographer is having the ability to bring joy to other people. It’s a meaningful thing to be able to provide someone with beautiful photographs of a particular moment in their lives. Whether it’s capturing a little girl squeezing her big brother or the tiny hands and feet of a newborn baby, I think that’s what excites me most about photography.

As a graphic designer I have spent a few years working for advertising agencies (stay with me, this is going somewhere). In Chicago I spent a lot of my time designing circular ads for big name retailers, like the ones that come in the Sunday paper. A co-worker once told a story that, as she was walking to the bus stop one morning she saw some garbage blowing toward her along the curb. As it came closer she realized that it was one of the circular ads that she had spent months working so hard to perfect. She had been spending her days producing garbage and now it was staring her in the face. Now, of course, I’m not saying that people who work in advertising have meaningless jobs. But, it’s never feels good to think about the work you do as meaningless or pointless and that is how I sometimes felt working in that particular situation.

So, as I had my moment of realization in the shower, it was nice to think that my interest in photography might impact others in a positive way. I feel like I can contribute to the happiness of others while contributing to my own, which is so important in my book.

But the best part is that there are tons of ways to use photography to make other people happy (and in turn, make yourself happy). You could make a gift for someone using a photo you took. Or take pictures at a party and then mail them to the host later. Also, a lot of animal shelters need volunteers to photograph the animals for their website.

How have you used your photography skills to benefit someone else? Or do you have any other ideas on how we can use photography to "pay it forward"?