Coming home to my camera

Over the past year or so, my DSLR has been gathering dust. It hasn’t been intentional. I have just gotten more and more accustomed to using my iPhone for all of my daily photography. Easy, efficient, and synched to Instagram, I have found the convenience of my phone camera beyond sufficient to satisfy my creative cravings. That was until the past week or so. I can’t really explain it but I have been feeling a little photographically parched. To try to quench my thirst I decided to pull out the DSLR and play over the weekend.

I totally forgot what I had been missing.

Minutes turned into hours as I lost myself in my photography process. Light—click—aperture—click lenses, focus, the feel of the big camera in my hand—click click click. It felt so good. The featured shot above came straight out of the camera. It was the first of that day and it’s my favorite. I felt so at home and so happy. This doesn’t surprise me. I know my artistic rhythm calls for a new muse time and again. Who knew that the muse I needed next was in my camera bag, just waiting for me to return?

What’s your muse these days? What’s beckoning you?

camera

Oh cameras... None of us would be here if it wasn't for our camera or cameras.

Our camera is the extension of our eyes enabling us to see the world in different ways… pressing the shutter and grabbing that moment.

Let's celebrate our tools today and elevate them... they deserve shine.

Share your camera photos today - will hide behind it? will you peek out? Will you create a portrait holding it? - will it be lying around in your special place? - will you highlight your collection?…

Oh my gosh there are so many possibilities, let see what you've got….

the best camera

Sometimes I'm amazed at just how many ways there are to get at an image. How many different types of cameras, lenses, films, techniques and processes there are. It's endless. Considering choices can be as exhilarating (and overwhelming) as a trip to the art supply store. If you don't know what kind of art you want to make before you walk in that front door, you could spend hours and hours contemplating the possibilities. And perhaps leave a little more confused than when you first came in.

Like so many, my roots are in film photography. Then, somewhere along the way, I fell down a lovely digital hole. Then rediscovered 35mm film, dipped my toe into medium format before falling completely head over heels in love with instant photography. These days, my appetite for different cameras and processes is nearly insatiable. I want to know more, I want to try everything. Everything. I see a photograph I love, research the camera it was taken with and often fall down a rabbit hole so deep I have trouble finding my way out. It's like learning bits and pieces of a hundred different languages. I'm fluent in a few but have only picked up an occasional word or phrase here and there from others. I speak the languages I know with confidence but hold the new ones just under my tongue and savor the possibilities.

This means I am almost always traveling with a small army of cameras. Which is as challenging (and as comical) as you might think. Packing for a big trip means figuring out just how many cameras will fit in that carry-on suitcase. It means foregoing an extra pair of shoes (or okay, maybe clothes and shoes altogether). It's a commitment. But for me, choice is paramount and rarely have I regretted the packing of any extra camera or lens, any surplus packs or rolls of film. However, the whole scenario can also be a little crippling. Sometimes, when you have so many different tools at your fingertips, you fumble when it comes time to choose. The more I shoot, the more I realize just how important simplicity is, how choosing a particular camera is as much a part of the artistic process as composing an image. It's as essential as choosing the right words, the right language for what you want to say. Choose wisely, choose thoughtfully and accept the fact that you can't speak seven different languages at once.

I will probably always travel with a small ever-changing gaggle of cameras. But when it comes time to shoot, I'll choose just one and commit. Whether it's an unwieldy polaroid pack film camera, a DSLR with a monster lens or something that fits in the palm of the hand (hello, iphone), I'll choose just one and commit. Because while a world of choice is a lovely thing, everyone knows that the best camera is the one you have in your hands.

What cameras best speak your language? Is there a camera or technique that you're dying to try? Please do share your thoughts and images with us today.

Pick me up

I've had a rough couple of days. You know the ones. Where everything goes wrong and there's not enough time and you just don't handle things well. Where you lose your cool and let everything get the best of you. The days when you just look forward to bed. I know we've all been there but somehow it doesn't make it any less disheartening.

I was wallowing around, groaning and grumbling about what was probably nothing discernable to anyone, while my husband opened a package that came in the mail. As he pulled out a bundled wad of newspaper about the size of a grapefruit, he slowly uncovered a small box made of polished metal and shiny black plastic.

"I got this for you because...because...you're having a bad day", he said soft and kind with his gentle smile and extended his offering to me.

I went from miserable to grateful in an instant. As I studied the pristine vintage Kodak Brownie Reflex 20, I marveled and smiled back. Totally speechless.

"And look, " he continued, as he lifted the lid that covered the large viewfinder at the top, "it's just like you wanted."

Indeed. There is was, a viewfinder that framed the beautiful world outside of my muddled head; saturated color, bold shapes, bright light and clarity. Like a child, I began to squeal with delight and so began the instantaneous shift from pity party to creative celebration.

Playing with my new toy for about an hour pulled me out of my mood. Not for good unfortunately, for I do believe that hormones will have the best of me for a few more days, but certainly for long enough to be reminded that sometimes a kind gesture, a simple spark, a tiny new way to see the world is all it takes to shine light on the darkest places.

Tell me, when was the last time you had a shift like this, from blue to blush? Was it something someone said? What it using your own camera to mine out the gems of your life? Share with us they way you've experienced your own kind of "pick me up".

Image of me holding my new muse (above) courtesy of my 8 year old daughter via my iphone.

the decisive moment

"Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."  -Henri Cartier Bresson

I was standing on the fourth floor of the High Museum of Art when this moment unfolded. I had one eye on my son in a neighboring room, one eye on my daughter a few steps away. I was fiddling with my scarf, with my braids, fiddling with the contents of my purse, fiddling with my camera. My mind was in a dozen different places but when I looked up, I saw it. The painting, the woman on the bench, the light in between. It was, by very definition, a decisive moment. If I'd hesitated at all, I would have missed it.

Instead, I reached for my SX-70, looked through the viewfinder, adjusted the focus. Steadied my hands and hit that little red button. Two seconds later, the woman walked away. The space filled with people, the light shifted. The whole scene evaporated. The only proof of its existence, this photograph. It doesn't happen like that for me very often but when it does, it's a thrill. Which is why I am always sharpening my brain, training my eyes to see this way, to seek out these moments, these fractions of seconds, whether I have my camera with me or not.

What decisive moments have you captured lately? Please do share a few with us today.

(The image above was shot with a polaroid sx-70 using Impossible Project PX 600 Silver Shade UV+ film)