life is but a dream

As I travel my creative path, everyone once in a while I call on a new muse. And sometimes I don't even know I've invited something else in to change my perspective, shake things up, or give me a whole new way of thinking. It's almost as if I intuitively know that I need a little something to get me out of my usual way of seeing or being and *poof* some new muse comes to do just that.

Such has been the case with my experimentation with shooting out of focus. It's nothing new for me, I've done it before but as a photographer, I'm usually thinking about where to focus and what to focus on rather than thinking about how to throw my entire shot out of focus.

I'm glad when the glimmers of creative muses come my way. When I am reawakened to all the wonder of my everyday life. When it feels like a beautiful dream. When around each corner lies a brand new adventure.

I encourage you to call on your own muse for the next week. Perhaps the muse need only be your life? Ali Edwards' A Week in the Life begins on Monday. It seems like just the thing to get us to focus (or not) on our amazing, everyday lives.

Share your favorite muse today. Anything from subject matter, to tool, to technique...it's all magic when you're open to it.

shadows

1. shadow love, 2. shadow me, 3. Shadows, 4. Shadow People, 5. sister shadows, 6. soothing shadows

"In photography, there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated" - August Sander

Enjoy the longer days, soak in the light, grab your cameras, capture shadows.

Photos from our Shutter Sisters Flickr Group

reoccurring themes

Sometimes we don't really notice patterns when we're too close them. Day in and day out we carry on with our routines and rhythms, repeating actions, activities, habits and rituals. We wake and walk and work. We lift our forks to eat, our pens to write, children to love, our cameras to click. Every day with little fanfare.

I've recognized my love affair with coffee mugs for years. The shape, the feel, the message, the color, the rim, the handle. I notice and take note of all of these things each time I lift my mug to sip. And yet, it wasn't until I began to use my iphone (and instagram) that I really noticed how much I really observe the beauty, simplicity, and poetic and hopeful aesthetics of this simple everyday object and how this one seeminly mundane item takes center stage in so many of my photographs.

Is there something you have found that often takes the center of your attention? The subject matter of your images that occurs again and again in ways that might even surprise you?

Take a good look at what it is that captures your eye and your lens and share with us the reoccurring themes of your daily work.

obstructed view

I raced the sunset last night; home to grab my camera and back up to the highest hill in town in anticipation of the last light and color of the evening.

I made it in time but was disappointed by the view. How was it that I forgot about the fence up there that stood between myself and the expansive sky?

Regardless the obstacle, I shot a number of images. Looking up, across, vertical, horizontal and finally, through. And of all the shots, there was something about the shot that included the obstruction that captured my interest. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. In this case, it kind of worked.

Have you ever taken a risk and shot anyway, even when conditions weren't right, the scene not what you expected? Today share a view that clicked for you, regardless the obstacles.

a twist on reality

Usually the reflection is more intriguing than the reality. Three figures gather under streetlights. I watch them walk upside down painting themselves onto my watery canvas. I wait for the wind to settle into a calm ripple and one figure walks off alone leaving two together. A story grows in my head, much more interesting than the real life conversation they're having. This is my twist on reality.

I invert the image to make it how i envisioned it to be. Grasses fringe the sky and reflections turn to paint. A boring evening by the pond turns fantastical with imagination.

Today it's a study of abstraction. Show me how you abstract, reflect, invert, and refract light. Wake me from this dream with your own twist on reality.