light/dark

You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.

~ Arlo Guthrie

Show us your light today - and if possible, your dark, all in the same frame.

***Don't forget to leave a comment here for a chance at our daily $100.00 gift giveaway fabulously sponsored by Paper Coterie, and keep on shooting and sharing your stories in the Shutter Sisters One Word Project Pool on Flickr for an opportunity to be chosen as the One Word of the day for a second chance at $100.00 from Paper Coterie. SO FUN!

You read it here first: some telephones are telephone-cameras. Telephone-cameras! Telephones, but also cameras! At the same time!

I bet if you look back on Shutter Sisters, ever single contributor has posted that one where she goes, "Lookmynewphone!" <Shutter Sister notes the icon that says CAMERA> "Oh, oh my! Oh gosh." <Shutter Sister bites knuckle> "What about my art? My training? My 24-70? OOOH!" <Shutter Sister squeals> "HIPSTAGRAM APP! TOY CAMERA APP! MANUAL EXPOSURE APP!"

Okay so fine. The squeal is over the top. Shutter Sisters do not squeal. Not like that, unless in the company of Jen Lemen, an Epiphanie bag, or Kristin's vintage leather strap.

I was doubtful. Cellphones made me cranky. They never seemed to be able to usefully penetrate whatever magnetic forcefield that surrounds a five-foot radius of my body.

Then, approximately three decades after everyone else and only because you can't find a payphone anymore let alone a quarter, I got an iPhone.

Then I noted the CAMERA icon. I sniffed at it. I took a few shots. I signed up for Instagram. And a cropping app. And a light meter app. And three processing apps. And ... um. This, uhhh. Well it's really kind of neat. It's a thing that, uhhh. It's a t-t-toy camera app.

I'm still skimming the surface of it all, unsure of what to put through what. I'm poring through Stephanie's book. So far, I'm just transfixed by how the iPhone changes how I see. It's not the same as having a 7D in my hands. It's more discreet, less burdened. It fits in my pocket. It can't create what I want it to, but it's adding to my eye. Take away the 24-70, the 1.8, the heft of what's proper, and what you're left with is strictly compositional. In shooting, there's not much else to think about other than framing. And so I do, with greater attentiveness and vigor than I have in a while.

<DONE>

Share your favourite point-and-shoot or mobile device shot of late. Has iphoneography changed how or what you shoot when you return to your SLR? Have you gotten the hang of it yet -- has it replaced photography you'd otherwise approach differently, or has it added a new niche of photos to your portfolio or social spaces that you didn't used to capture?

toasted

Everyone but me teased her about it, the way she liked her marshmallows. I like them that way too. The picture of impatience. Everyone else jockeying for the slowest coals, turning, turning, turning, waiting, bemoaning ash and imperfections and a crooked stick. Meanwhile, one so-what-if-it-lights-on-fire kind of girl eyes the work of another approvingly.

Today's the very last of July's One Word: life. Show us a photo-metaphor for how you like it.

on fearlessness

The context of could you take my portrait would help, because it was fair to assume that she wanted me with her, that we were collaborators. But I wasn't sure it would be enough. When I lifted the camera to my face, would I see the burden, the fear of glass, the uncertainty of self? Would I be able to get past it, taking something of her?

I've felt that way with someone else's camera focused on me. That gulp. Eek. It's not a great day for this. You feel all tight-of-breath and you worry what you're showing, what's being seen. Intimacy, trust, and self-acceptance (or lack of it). And then you become conscious of all those things and then it shows - oh crap it's showing - and you become convinced that you're just not photogenic, just not x-enough or y-enough.

This day, I lifted the camera to see her, wondering how it would go. Aperture, exposure. Turned a bit. The wind picked up, and she smiled, and the rest of the day went like that. She didn't hesitate, and so neither did I. We played. She taught me about the mutual gift of fearlessness. From now on I'm going to cultivate it, in others and in myself. Because it's just like Karen says. We are all beautiful.

Today, share with us your portraits, and your thoughts on capturing people in all their comforts and discomforts. Have you found that sweet, fearless spot yet? Have you photographed despite a lack of it?

a call for happiness

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~ Nathanial Hawthorne (1804-1864)

For both Canada and the U.S., it's been a holiday weekend of camp tents, shortcake, flags, fireworks, and sunshine. Show us butterflies of happiness from wherever you are.