Looking In

When you live in a big city like Chicago, you tend to go as fast as you can from point A to point B, without paying much attention to what's in between, especially during the cold and blustery winter months.  Drivers with their car windows rolled up, cyclists with helmets steadied against the wind, and pedestrians disguised in hats and scarves with their collars turned up--they're all moving as fast as they can, and you really can't blame them in the Windy City. 

I, on the other hand, even after 30 years in the city, prefer to slowly meander, with my camera in hand.  I've got weeks of illnesses under my belt this winter to prove it.  One of my favorite things to do is looking in the windows of the storefronts and businesses that line Chicago's many busy streets.  You'd be surprised at the treasure trove of images waiting for you behind those foggy/frosty panes of glass, as well as the images reflecting back at you.

If you ever find yourself at a loss for photos, try taking a little saunter down any street in a business district or a city, and I'm sure you'll find a plethora of images you'll want to take home with you, if not in your tote bag then in your camera.  Here are some examples in our Flickr pool for inspiration.

Please share with us today your photos of Looking In, or any other image captured during a leisurely stroll between Point A and Point B (and Point C and Point D and etc...).

Friday's Featured Resource: Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets

For most of my shutterbugging days, I've been quite resistant to using photo editing software, and I was quite happy, thank you, with what I could do in Picasa.  When my sister-in-law asked me to shoot her wedding, however, I thought such an event deserved something with a little more finesse (not to mention the power to salvage at least some of my mistakes).  Lured by Adobe Lightroom's 30 day free trial, I decided to give it a try.  I figured I'd use it for the free month to edit the photos from the wedding and then go back to using Picasa.  Little did I know how deeply and hopelessly I would fall in love with Lightroom.

There are so many great features in Lightroom, but today I want to share my latest preoccupation with Lightroom: develop presets.  Presets are similar to "actions" in Photoshop in that you can save a series of effects and settings in a file that you can apply to other photos with a single click.  Presets can be as simple as adding just a little boost to your exposure and contrast, or they can be more creative, changing anything and everything from tone curves to color hue/saturation/luminance to vignetting to sharpening to noise reduction to split toning to camera calibration for color and on and on and on.

Since the one word I chose for the month of February is "EXPERIMENT," I've been doing just that with my photos in Lightroom and creating presets to share with all of you. The photo above shows the original photo that I started with in the upper left hand corner, and the other fifteen thumbnails are of the presets I made applied to the photo. To see larger photos, click here for the gallery (which was created in Lightroom, by the way).  You can download a zip file of the presets here and find instructions for installing them here.  I'm not a pro by any means, but I thought I might share the fun and inspire some of you to try your hand at creating your own presets or to just experiment in Lightroom.  I've actually learned a lot about how Lightroom works by examining the changes applied by other people's presets.  Plus, you can tweak any changes applied by a preset to suit your own fancy and get as creative as you'd like.

There are also numerous free presets on various websites, such as Presets Heaven, Lightroom Killer Tips, or on Flickr's Presetting Lightroom group. I found some really practical presets on the onOne Software site, which also has some helpful video tutorials.

Please note that presets are generally best applied to RAW (digital negative) files. You can use them on JPEGs, but all the effects will be exaggerated since they were meant for uncompressed data files. You can still get the gist of the preset and modify things like exposure or brightness to make them work on JPEG files.

If you've never used Lightroom and are curious, you can try it free for 30 days.  But I have to warn you...once you've tried it, you may never be able to go back to life without it.

If any of you are using presets or have created your own, please share with us your favorite images that show off what the presets can do.  I know I've seen some cool examples in our Flickr group pool.  Or, if you have tips on using presets or have a favorite collection of presets we can check out, please do share.

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Special thanks to my Shutter Sisters Superha, Mika and Laura (of Dolcepics) for their feedback on my presets in preparation for this post!

Upping the Ante

 

Photo taken with my new Lensbaby Composer

We all have our irrational fears and insecurities that hold us back from taking the next step in our respective life journies.  When it comes to photography, I admit that I have many fears.  One big one is that I'll wake up one morning and find that I'm unable to "see" photos through my camera, that I've lost my intuitive approach to capturing the image I'm after.  Another fear is that I will totally mess up a photoshoot, or that people won't like the photos I share, or that every image I take will just start looking the same.

While the year is still newly fresh and dreamily hopeful, I'd like to face some of these fears.  Instead of playing it safe, I'm choosing to up the ante.  I want to challenge myself to learn new things, even if it means I may have to read a book or manual or two, or that I'll have to finally overcome my life-long avoidance of familiarizing myself with the basic laws of physics.  I plan on taking more shooting assignments.  I'm going to figure out how to find my sweet spot on my new Lensbaby.  I want to capture lensflare that I actually like.  I'll try to shoot with a visionary purpose at least some of the time, instead of the haphazard, aimless route I normally depend on.

I don't know if all this is too much to hope for, but I'll be darned if I don't at least TRY.

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Speaking of new challenges and to-do's, we at Shutter Sisters are excited to launch our newest feature: The One Word Project.  Many of you have already shared  what your One Word will be for this month.  If you haven't already and would like to join in, see complete details here.  The word-of-the-month for February is yours to choose, and you can submit your One Word inspired photos to the Shutter Sisters Flickr group for your chance to be selected as the daily OWP featured photographer.  February's OWP is graciously being sponsored by LENSBABY, so one lucky participant will win a Lensbaby Composer at the end of the month!

If you've already begun participating in the One Word Project, please share something you've captured so far.  Or share with us an image in which you succeeded in upping the ante by doing something new or challenging.

A Thousand (Whispered) Words

Let's be honest, people.  There's a plethora of technically and aesthetically UNideal things about this photo.  For starters, no one's in clear focus.  The angle's a bit off kilter.  The black blob of a window frame is taking up a good quarter third of the shot.  The steam on the window is making Cadence's dress look all smudgy.  And that blurry hand is partially obscuring my friend Heather, the should've-been primary subject.  Overall, it looks like I accidentally clicked the shutter while tripping up the steps to my friend Mikey's porch.  For all I know, that may be exactly what happened.

Someone whose heartstrings are not attached to the people and moment captured in this photo may have very easily deleted the shot without a second thought.  For me, however, it was an instant favorite.  It's got magic crackling, the slice-of-life quality, that softer side.  You see, this one image conjures up for me a treasure trove of little personal tidbits and intimate moments that only I and my friends from that night are privy to.  For example, I know that there are adorable toadstools on the front of Cadenc's seemingly smudged dress, which I had found hiding forgotten and forlorn in the back of her closet that very evening.  Heather is entertaining all the guests doing goofy tricks on a big silver exercise ball.  The steam on the windows was made partly by the warmth in our hearts and partly from the indescribably delicious Ghanaian stew our host Mikey had made. That blurry hand belongs to my beloved and easily enthused friend Johnny, who was probably cheering on his much loved Heather.  Friendships spanning multiple states and continents, backyard chickens and bicycles, first kisses and percussive jam sessions--the stories are all there, in the hushed whispers of faded colors, soft light, subtle lines and dark shadows.  It doesn't bother me at all that I may be the only one who can hear them.

Mistakes, milestones or pure magic, share with us your images that whisper a thousand words--even if it's in your ears alone.  And in honor of National Delurking Day which was this past Monday, if you've never commented or shared an image of yours with us before, I invite you to jump in and join the party.  We'd be delighted if you'd say hello and perhaps share a link to an image that speaks to you.

We'd also like to mention that we will be honoring the big changes that America will be making this Tuesday. We will be participating in a special inaugural photo and post project that was brought to our attention by Alice at Peapods. We encourage you to join us. One photo - 44 words. Sounds great to us!

Carpe Diem

Since I am primarily a documentary photographer, my subjects do not come to me of their own volition; I usually have to go out and discover them for myself.  For a person like me who is painfully shy, that means I often experience quite a bit of anxiety whenever I pull out my camera in public.  Sometimes, I get all self-conscious when I'm merely shooting the facade of a building and not even trying to shoot strangers. 

This happened to me a couple days ago when I was walking by an old dive bar/music venue that my husband and I had gone to when we were dating.  I took a few photos of the front of the building and was trying to get some shots through the window of the midday patrons sitting at the bar, when suddenly the door swung open, and an employee came out to have a smoke.  I immediately walked a few steps away, turned my back and pretended to be deeply engrossed in going through the photos on my camera.  I couldn't have been more obvious about trying to hide my photographic desires, but what happened next was still quite unexpected.

"Do you want to come in and take some photos of the inside?" asked the guy as he finished his smoke break.  I looked up from my camera, feeling my cheeks burn red, and answered, "Really??"

"Sure, c'mon in!"

Initially, my social anxiety almost won out, and I was about to decline.  I quickly realized, however, that I was being offered an unusual opportunity, and I shyly followed the man into the bar.  What I saw inside bathed in the glow of the wintry midafternoon light took my breath away.  From the dingy worn-out floors to the vibrant colors of the murals and decor, this was clearly not the nocturnal interior cloaked in the dimness of the too few incandescent lights that I had been familiar with.  Boy, was I glad I decided to seize the day instead of walking away.

What I realized from this experience was that I was more willing to shoot freely when someone else gave me permission to do so.  Well, what if what I really need is to give myself permission to keep my camera out in the open?  What would happen if the next time I'm in a public place where the irresistable images are just waiting for me to take them home, I gave myself permission to be not so fearful?  What if I simply took my camera out and started shooting?  What if I chose to seize the day EVERY day?  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't regret it.

I know {erin darcy photogrpahy}, {robin accidentally} and jeroldssis would agree.  How about you?  Please share with us your links to images that you seized from your day.