water, water everywhere

I've always loved the organic nature of water -- I've even dedicated an entire project to it on my blog.  So last week, when the temperatures in Houston were hovering near the 100s and I decided to take my daughter and her friend to play in the fountains of Discovery Green in downtown Houston,  I relished the opportunity to shoot some more water shots.

So on these hazy, lazy days of summer, share with us your own water shots, whether they be of a glass filled with icecubes, or a serene beach shot.

friendship is beautiful

Earlier this week on my blog, I wrote about an experience I had photographing two friends.  My friend Katherine decided that she wanted to paint the final words of her book on our friend Jenny's body, and she asked me to photograph her doing so.

I know.  I know.

The thing is, as strange as it sounds, because of our friendship, the entire experience didn't feel odd at all -- it actually felt very natural.  But what surprised us the most was the way that people have responded to the final product -- the comments we've each received have been overwhelmingly positive and supportive.  And Katherine, Jenny and I are pretty stunned by this.

The thing is, I suspect that what people are really responding to is the easy friendship that exists between Katherine and Jenny -- a warmth that is so apparent when you look at the set of photographs that resulted from the shoot.  So today, I'd love to see a bit more of this kind of friendship:  share with us in the comments below your photographic evidence of the warmth between two good friends.

what's your favourite lens?

This past weekend, I attended a conference with fellow Shutter Sister Tracey Clark.  At one point in the conference, an attendee approached us:

"I have a question:  I'm about to buy a new lens.  What's your favourite lens to shoot with?"

Both Tracey and I both hesitated before answering.  The truth is that my "favourite" tends to move around a lot -- sometimes, when I'm in portrait-taking mode, my 24-85 mm is all I can see.  If I've been tapping in my inner photojournalist, I adore my 70-200mm lens.  And when I'm all about getting in close, my 60mm Nikkor Micro is the only one that gets any air time.

Finally, Tracey spoke:  "You know what?  I'm really enjoying my Lensbaby," she said.

And then I added, "Recently, I've dusted off an ancient, fully manual 50mm f1.4, and I'm loving the images that it can capture (like the shot above)."

What about you?  What's your favourite lens these days?

how i got my very first gallery exhibit

Last night, I had my very first gallery exhibit.  In describing the experience on my blog, I keep repeating words like "amazing." "Exhilarating." "Humbling."  It was one of my goals for 2009, and I have to say, I've now been bitten by the bug: I want more! More!  For those of you who've ever dreamt of attending a gallery opening of your own work, I highly recommend it.

This morning, I was trying to think of how this opportunity came to me (and how I can make it happen again), and admittedly, there was a great deal of luck involved.  But I did do a few things that I think helped the luck along, so I thought I'd share them here with you, in case you're ever of the mind to pursue a gallery opportunity.  And so, in no particular order:

1.  Join an organization.  As soon as I quit my job to pursue writing and photography full time, one of the first thing I did was join the American Society for Media Photographers as well as a local organization, Spacetaker.  At the time, my motivation to join these organization was mostly to connect with other photographers, and hopefully find a mentor; however, I admit that I have yet to attend one local meeting.  Still, I think the gallery where my work is currently being exhibited contacted one of these organizations and got their e-mail list, which is how I managed to receive an e-mail (along with countless other local photographers, I imagine), informing us of their upcoming photography show, and inviting us to submit.  It turns out that joining a local organization is a great way to "get your name out there."

2.  Shoot with projects in mind.  One of the things I've done recently is to shoot with projects in mind:  if I come up with an idea for a project, or I'm about to experience something new, I don't just shoot one image, but I shoot a series of images.  For example, the work that appeared in the show last night was the result of a series of shots I did when visiting a friend's ranch for the first time (and using my Kodak Duaflex viewfinder for the shots, to give them a special effect).  When the gallery contacted me, I therefore had a body of work ready to go to pitch to them as an idea for an exhibit.  Happily, they accepted.

3.  Group your projects together, and get them up on a website.  On my particular website, I have a section entitled "Projects" where the projects of which I'm most proud live.  Admittedly, my website is pretty fancy, but I don't think it has to be.  Many blogging software programs have "gallery" options for photographs, and there are some great websites that are designed just for photographers (SmugMug comes to mind).  The point is to put your projects somewhere where you can send a potential gallery a link for them to look through the images at their leisure.

And that's pretty much what I did -- again, in my case, serendipity had a lot to do with it.  I'd love to hear what those of you who are more seasoned did to get your first gallery showing -- please share in the comments.  And for those of you who've never shown your work publicly, is this something you dream of doing?  What additional tips might you all have to share?

friday's featured resource: photo style recipes from pottery barn

Recently on my own site, I talked about how, even with as much as I enjoy the holidays, I always feel a sense of relief at the beginning of the year.  What I didn't mention, however, was how much I go into nesting mode.  I think it has something to do with taking down the Christmas tree: after putting everything away, and seeing my house go back to the way it was before we decked the halls, I feel an urge to move things around a little, make a few adjustments.  Redecorate a bit.

Since I truly don't have lots of money to spend on redecorating (does anyone?), and, well, I've been known to take a photograph or two, I've decided to see how I can enhance our home using photographs.  What's sort of strange is that in general, I don't display my photography at home, save for a couple of family snapshots here and there.  But really, why not use my photographs to help make my house feel more like home?  It feels like a no-brainer, right?

And so, a couple of days ago, I dusted off a book that I purchased a few months ago, on a whim. Photos (style recipes) is a publication from Pottery Barn, and is chock full of really lovely ideas to store your photographs, display them in your home, advice on how to mat, frame and hang photographs -- even some ideas on how to assimilate and create collages of vacation snapshots.  I've already pulled a couple of ideas out of the book, and I'm loving the changes I've made to our fireplace mantle and our breakfast area, all for a pretty nominal fee of printing a few photographs and purchasing some standard frames.

While the book is available on Amazon, I can't find it on the Pottery Barn site, or anywhere else for that matter -- so it could be the book is out of print.  I really can't recommend it enough, so be sure to snap it up if you can.

And on a related note, I'm curious:  do you display your photographs in your home?  Are your displays limited to portraits of your family, or do you frame your art photography pieces as well?