incognito

I saw her walking up the beach.  Her red dress blowing in the wind.  As she got closer I spied it,  a vivid tattoo covering her calf.  She did not see me,  I was on my beach blanket shooting the waves and my kids as they played on the beach.  I wanted to stop her and ask her all about her tattoo, what it was, did it have a special meaning, but see I tend to be shy approaching total strangers.  Lucky for me I had my telephoto lens on at the time so i clicked a few shots as she strode past,  she completely unaware that I was having this little conversation in my head about her and her interesting tattoo.  

Are you drawn to photographing strangers? passerby's? A couple in a cafe? An interesting face and story?

The 100 strangers project has intrigued me.   I am drawn to those of you who are braver than I and walk up introduce yourself and ask to take someone's photo.  You get their name and maybe a little something more,  making the world a little smaller by doing so.  I am hoping to become brave enough to attempt this project myself one day.  Any sisters out there currently in this project?  Please share your feelings with us here today.  Do you find it easy?  Or does each new stranger give you butterflies in your stomach?

Today go out and shoot someone you don't know.  Either incognito like me, or maybe you are ready to go up and say "hello" and get a wonderful stranger portrait and share it with us here. Or perhaps you have a favorite stranger shot in your archives you'd like to share.  I can't wait to see who you've captured in your lens...

centered

I almost never place a subject in the center of the frame. When I asked her to lay the baby in the middle of the blanket, it was because I was intending for her and her husband to crawl down beside him. Then I looked down to see the baby, so content and small against the large expanse of white. It seemed almost awkward for him not to be kicking or fussing, which matched the also awkward cropping. After looking again, I realized it wasn't awkward at all. For this new family, he was indeed the center: of their attention, their thoughts, their love...right where he belonged.

Do you have any images which might be technically off, but still somehow work for you? If so, we'd love to see.

Also, in celebration of all the little centers of our attention in our lives, I want to let you know about my friend Katy who is doing a huge give-away on her blog right now. Some of the main ways you can enter involve taking photos of your little ones. So it might be right up your alley, plus a chance to win a $1000 gift certificate to Southwest, or a $2000 shopping spree.

Good luck and have fun! :)

signs

I love signs. I love the little splashes of color they bring into my everyday life. I love how versatile they are, the imagery they evoke, and the many stories they inspire.

And I was pleasantly surprised while browsing our Shutter Sisters Flickr Pool to find out that I'm not the only one! Check this Neat Vintage Shell Shop Sign, this beautiful sign, the great composition of this one, this one is a classic and this one makes me squeal with delight.

What about you? Do you love photographing signs? If yes, please do share your thoughts and images in the comment section below.

coconut

Coconut by Paul Hostovsky.

"Bear with me I want to tell you something about happiness it’s hard to get at but the thing is I wasn’t looking I was looking somewhere else when my son found it in the fruit section and came running holding it out in his small hands asking me what it was and could we keep it it only cost 99 cents hairy and brown hard as a rock and something swishing around inside and what on earth and where on earth and this was happiness this little ball of interest beating inside his chest this interestedness beaming out from his face pleading happiness and because I wasn’t happy I said to put it back because I didn’t want it because we didn’t need it and because he was happy he started to cry right there in aisle five so when we got it home we put it in the middle of the kitchen table and sat on either side of it and began to consider how to get inside of it."

Happiness and its pursuit can be so abstract and somewhat of an illusion, so I really like the idea of trying to characterize how it manifests itself in our everyday life.

For me for instance, happiness was in how this poem inspired me and made me run out of the house this afternoon in search of coconuts, with my heart full of wonder. It was in finally finding a whole box of them hiding under the shelves of a little Mexican market. It was in catching myself sitting on the floor of the store taking pictures while other shoppers wondered what the heck I was doing. It was in coming home with two coconuts without knowing how I was going to get into them. It was in asking my husband for help, watching him google it, then seeing him come back with a screw driver and a hammer. It was in taking the time to do a silly spontaneous project like this, and it was in how the two of us found ourselves in our kitchen, at the end of an ordinary day, along with the coconuts, finally open.

Can you share with us any images of how you've captured tangible happiness around you?

a city's embrace

On Sunday bloggers scattered -- some to the airport, others to shop. Many ended up at the Art Institute of Chicago. I stood in front of Picasso's Nude Under a Pine Tree as a couple approached.

I love this one, said the woman. Their eyes travelled over the canvas. She continued, speaking softly as though in a church. He didn't see a nose or legs or breasts. He saw bodies and faces as shapes, as triangles and squares. And so that's how he painted them.

In Chicago I couldn't get enough of line and shape. Containers of electricity all standing poised, perhaps slightly forward, into the wind. We were all overwhelmed. There were tears, and there was delight and mischief. But most of all there was recognition.

I know you! I see you. Come over here. You are shaped like me.

Empty spaces smile, waiting to be filled.

+++

Today, think like Picasso. Show me photographs that crackle with line and shape -- and not just explicitly. Blur your eyes from simple subjects and see blocks of colour, balance, interplay. And share!

Pictured above, clockwise l-r: Chicago reflected in the mirrorball; serenity at the Art Institute; downtown seen through an Institute window; the lovely Jenny the Bloggess.