still with life

I'm still on this abstract kick. Waiting for spring, maybe. I'll cop to that. In the meantime, inanimate things around the house speak to me, asking to be turned into something else. Or into an idea, an emotion, stripped of everything else until it becomes movement, colour, singularity.

Today, find something around the house, put it in pretty light, get close, and see what you can make of it. Try thinking beyond things that are already pretty, though this pop-up book comes close. Rather than reaching for a favourite memento or vase of flowers or a bowl of fruit, find a pile of lego or a coil of string or an empty glass bottle. Make it into more than itself, or show me some past moment where photography felt like that: the animation of inanimate things.

out of hibernation

A blizzard, then an ice storm. Then rain, then a cold snap, and everything freezes solid. Foliage is dead and buried, brittle or frozen. Everything hibernates.

Go ahead, says February. Find my beautiful. And I'm not talking about that salt-weathered barn in the middle of that field. No standing half a mile back. Get up close. Make something of nothing.

I've got a bit of a plan now. A wide-open aperture, a deliberate shoving through of foreground, a focusing on the middle. Lying in snow, stalks tangled up in my camera strap. It makes camera into brush, composition into canvas.

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It doesn't matter what you think you're shooting. What's in front of you is not your photographic subject. Your photographic subject is whatever that thing or person or scene evokes. Your subject is the feeling, the story, or the questions you raise by capturing that thing or person or scene one way versus another. Let's strip this down and test it. Here's a bunch of stuff.

I looked at the table in front of me. A coil of wire, some reflective paper, a pad of steel wool, some bolts, unraveled wool, crumpled paper and too much else to make sense of. I looked back up at the instructor.

Take whatever looks interesting, and photograph any of these subjects. She pushed a paper across the table to the group of us.

Loneliness
Love
Cold
Warm
Fear
Safety

It doesn't matter what materials you use. What matters is your creative intention in arranging and capturing them.

I choose 'cold' and photographed it. And I forgot it until now, or at least forgot the connection between that abstract photography course and what I'm looking for when I'm outdoors in February. I'm not looking for pretty subjects. I'm looking for shape and line, company and loneliness.

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The first time I did it, it was an experiment, an exercise in blurring eyes and looking to see what else I'd found other than a withered, mid-winter hosta. I've been on hiatus from Shutter Sisters for a while, and now I'm back at the very peak of my photographic dry season (which I write about every year without fail, each time with that whiny, northeastern lilt). And so I remembered the basics.

Have you ever abstracted subjects to their elements? Have you set out with the intention to construct a photograph of colour - just colour - or line, shape, texture, or space? I'd love to see. Either that, or just tell me how you're doing and what you're shooting. It's been too long.

totally random

The more you seek out photo ops, the more you find them. Once you open your eyes to really seeing the world around you, everything you come accross represents inspiration and possibility.

And, chances are, you'll also find a million more random things than you'd ever thought were possible.

Case in point: Exhibit A.

My daughter and I discovered this on our walk. There are no better words perhaps than "so random".

Today, let's see what totally random shots you've captured! You know, the ones that defy any sense or meaning. Humor us!

space for space

At the MOMA in New York City, my attention was divided.

There was art, sure. It stares right back at you. But more than what hangs on the walls, it was the building -- and watching people and light move through it -- that was masterpiece.

"Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern." ~ Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947), Dialogues (1954)

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Today, share with us some unexpected art. Lines found in nature, pleasing shape, abstracts, spaces, or the literal -- a capture of something created. Tell us about your own experience in absorbing the world as art -- intended, or not.

happy accidents

As photographers, we often don't have control over our subject matter. Moving targets, such as children and animals don't always give us the liberty to stop and compose an image exactly how we imagine. This sort of unpredictability lends itself to happy accidents. It's always fun to download your images and find that one surprise image that makes you gasp with delight.

This shot of a busy farm cat was one of my recent happy accidents. I love the way he matches that gray and white gravel. Not to mention the few sprigs of grass that coordinate with his bright green eyes. I couldn't have planned it better myself!

Please share your happy accidents with us.