On finding your own way

 

In my bio you won’t find the words “I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was a child.” You won’t find the words “I’ve been an artist all my life.”

Because I haven’t.

At school I couldn’t draw or paint or stitch and if you’d asked me three years ago, when I was still working as a stockbroker, I would have told you that I wasn’t creative in the slightest. So when I decided, at the age of 32, to quit my job and go to art school to study photography it was as much of a surprise to me as it was to everyone around me.

But something was calling to me. Quietly at first, and then insistently. I was being drawn towards something that I couldn’t yet understand.

I adored being an art student, but I felt like a fraud. Still, I would try my best and hope for the extraordinary to happen. And happen it did.

One day, while sitting in the library pouring over late 19th century children’s book illustrations and lamenting my lack of ability to produce anything as wonderful, I began to wonder if I could create my own “photo illustrations.” Why couldn’t I use my camera to tell imaginary stories? Stories that had no beginning or end, but just a middle. Just a moment frozen in time, leaving the viewer to put the story in context, to create their own story.

This was the moment my series, “Tales from the Moors Country,” came into being. I took as my starting point the local myths and legends of Northern England and I created a series of silent and still stories that I submitted as my final portfolio piece.

They were all self portraits because I found that I just worked better when there was no one else around. Something I’d been waiting my whole life to share was finding its way to the surface and I couldn’t explain it to anyone else. But, more than that, I didn’t want to share it. It was such an incredible release of energy and I wanted to absorb every second of it.

Although my tutors found the work fascinating, I really think that they didn’t know what to do with me. No one could give me any advice on what to do with my work beyond suggesting I might try fashion photography, which was not an avenue I felt confident pursuing.

So I just started selling prints of my work at a local artists market. And then I added a line of greetings cards. Uplifted by the joy of seeing people respond to my work, I gained confidence and approached some local galleries. Then I tried entering some juried shows. And now, before I really know how it happened, I am a self portrait photographer.

That’s not something that any school careers counsellor would have recommended and it’s not something I could have chosen for myself when I quit my financial services career. It’s one of those magical things that happens when you just let go and allow the story to have an ending you didn’t envision.

So believe in happy endings. Believe in magic. Believe in hard work, dedication and the delicious joy of finding that thing you can’t not do. Believe in your dream. Because If a hopeless “non-creative” like me can find her own way, then I promise you, so can you.

Let's all share images today that remind us to believe in all these things and more....

Words and images courtesy of special guest Nicola Taylor. She can be found at www.nicolataylorphotographer.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter as @ZennicPhoto

a moment in between

I've been busier than ever this summer with travel. Some work, some play, some more work and so it's been going and will continue to go through the next few months. Traveling means a lot of moments spent in between. Now that summer is clearly in full swing, chances are I'm not the only one who has been taking a trip or two. My guess is you've been on a journey yourself, of one kind or another.

Today, as we begin a new week of stolen moments, let's see your travel shots; your moments between point A and point B where a click of your shutter says it all.

carnation pink

We are tickled pink to be sharing this excerpt from Susannah Conway's new book, This I Know: Notes on Unravelling the Heart.

Words and images have always been the currency of my creative life, but it was years before I could stand up and say, Yes, I am a writer, Yes, I am a photographer, as if I had to achieve a certain level of success before I earned the right to call myself either. When I say I am a writer I mean I use words to convey the truth in my heart. When I say I am a photographer I mean I use cameras to record and interpret the world around me. Of my two passions it’s my photography skills I feel most confident about. For as long as I can remember I have “seen” photos wherever I go, noticing small details, colors, the lines and shapes that marry so well in a flat image. I notice how branches scratch across a blue sky; how the space between the cushions looks so soft and safe. There’s a list in my head of my must-take shots, and I can’t walk past a construction site without snapping the side of a rusty truck, a constellation of colors found in deceptively mundane places. My eyes don’t judge what they see—there’s no hierarchy of beauty when everything piques your interest. 

For a time I thought that being a real photographer meant I needed to join associations and offer my hourly services to paying clients. So I tried it for a year, making postcards and advertisements, networking with the mothers at local schools, photographing christenings and birthday parties and families on the beach. And there were moments of real fulfillment—when clients loved their portraits and called to thank me, when I felt I’d captured something truthful in a family group—but the work drained me more than any job I’ve ever had, my introverted self, exhausted by having to be “on” all the time. I’d turned my passion into a job, trying to fit into a mold that wasn’t designed for me. So I spent less and less time on the marketing, until the phone stopped ringing and I recycled the postcards. Although it felt like a failure, I couldn’t ignore the relief.

Photography is more accessible than perhaps it’s ever been, with camera phones and social media feeding an unending stream of images into the ether. While potentially we’re all photographers now, in truth it’s never as simple as owning a camera. For me, a photographer is a person who expresses themselves using the photographic medium. They don’t have to sell their images, or have clients or commissions—they are simply compelled to translate what they see and feel into a photograph. Most forms of creative expression require specific tools, but if you were to take away the paintbrushes and the cameras, the loom, the guitar and the stage, you’d be left with a bunch of people who are compelled to act on their creative impulses. 

You are left with artists. 

I believe we are all artists at our core, all of us endlessly creative, using our lives as canvases, our imaginations as tools. Children are born artists, seeing the potential in every cardboard box and dried leaf, remaking their world as fast as they discover it. We don’t lose that innate creativity, but many of us repress it, weighed down by all the grown-up responsibility adulthood brings. But with a camera, a pencil, a ball of yarn, we can make something out of nothing; dinner served with a flourish, a bed made with vintage linens, a garden border planted with red tulips. We simply need to open our eyes and put some thought into the details. We are the curators of our lives—we decide what they look like.

Susannah Conway is the author of This I Know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart (SKIRT!, June 2012). A photographer, writer and e-course creator, her classes have been enjoyed by thousands of people from around the world. Co-author of Instant Love: How to Make Magic and Memories with Polaroids (Chronicle Books, 2012), Susannah helps others reconnect to their true selves, using photography as the key to open the door. You can read more about her shenanigans on her blog at SusannahConway.com and connect with her on Twitter: @SusannahConway.

Share with us some carnation pink details from your world today as we continue to celebrate color month! When you leave your comment here between now and Wed midnight EST, you'll be enetered to win a copy of Susannah's book This I Know.  

The 'Non' Pose

 It seems you can always find someone willing to do something different or silly for a photo.  For awhile, photos of people jumping on hotel beds seemed to be the thing.  So much so, they've devoted a whole website to it (I so know you're going to check it out!).  More recently, planking was the popular thing to do.  It's so popular, here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

 Planking (or the Lying Down Game) is an activity consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. Both hands must touch the sides of the body. Having a photograph taken of the participant and posted on the Internet is an integral part of the game.

I, myself, haven't tried jumping on hotel beds (well, not for a photo to be posted on the internet, anyway. Oh, and it wasn't me.  It was my kids, I swear) nor have I tried planking.  What I have recently photographed is people doing a 'non' pose, which usually consists of people (or person) standing still, arms down at their sides and not smiling.  It can be anywhere from one person or more.  You can even find a Flickr group for the 'non' pose.  I tend to like this one the best because unlike hotel bed jumping or planking, I seriously doubt there's much chance for being injured (though there's always a first time, I suppose!).

When I did the above prom shoot I explained to the kids what I wanted to do but I could tell by the look on their faces that they thought it was a strange request.  However, once I shot the photo and they saw it, they were quite pleased with it.  It's different, and I like it.  Or, as my girlfriend commented when she saw my photo, "Very 'Children of the Corn'-esque, but I like it!".  Hey, works for me. :)

How about you? Have any hotel bed jumping shots, planking pics or photos with uncoventional poses? If so, share away!  We'd love to see them. 

Illusions

Meet Sophie....my brother's very silly labradoodle...and Ben's bestie. The other day when we were out on our walk. The pups were playing away in the lake. I crouched down low and proceeded to snap some pics...Sophie caught eye of the phone and headed straight toward it. Click, click....

I was surprised to see the result when I arrived home. It appears as though she is walking on water. It's amazing what happens when we experiment a little with position, perspective..... etc. This was a happy accident, but it's inspired me to get a little more creative while snapping pics of the puppy dogs.

Today, share a little illusion... or perhaps a happy accident of your own. I'd love to see.