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)

be the creative director of your work

As photographers we are constantly changing and growing. As we discover more about the world, we instinctively discover more about ourselves. Our tastes, likes, dislikes, wants and needs, all influence who we are as people, and who we are as people ultimately shapes who we are as photographers.

For a time, I was confused about who I was as a photographer. When I first started shooting, I would just photograph things that interested me or the things that I instinctively thought would make a good composition. Yet, if someone asked me what type of photographer I was, I had no idea and couldn’t give him or her an answer. I was stuck. I was stuck in the black hole of comparison. Trapped by other people’s images and ideas and felt as though my own vision was being drowned in a sea of bokeh circles and 50mm macro shots. When I started to become bored by my own images, I realised that something had to change.

I realised that I was paying too much attention to the crowd and not enough to my own vision and voice. Who was I shooting for? What story was I trying to tell? I had started shooting for myself in the beginning, and then somewhere along the way I got caught up in the crowd. It was time for me to go back to what was important to me.

Once I let go, I felt free again. I felt like my whole world opened up and I could start shooting for me. It was liberating. Over time, I started to pay attention to what I truly liked about photography, what gave me goose bumps when viewing other people’s photography and what gave me most satisfaction when shooting for myself. By paying attention to my own likes and dislikes, I started to gather pieces of the puzzle that pulled together my own photography style.

I have been shooting this way for a long time now and it’s what makes me happy. I am particular about what I shoot, when I shoot and how I shoot. Every image is sketched out in my mind before I shoot it and they may not all work or have meaning for others, but to me, they tell my story and share my voice.

Through photographing this way over time, my style has developed. I have a set of adjectives I use to describe my photography and I remind myself of those when I shoot. Style is never finished and can always be improved upon. It takes many years to perfect and I am always working on reaching that objective.

I do know this; to nurture style, one must have a goal. We need to figure out where we are now, where we want to be and how we can close the gap between the two. It’s a work in progress and cannot be achieved overnight. We are the creative directors of our own work and we are the only ones who can speak with our own unique voice.

Do you have a clear vision and voice that you share with others?

Please share images that you think best represent you or your style with us!

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Today Amanda is giving away one spot in her Shoot By Design: Refining Your Photography Style photography e-course where she will teach you all she knows about molding your signature style, finding your own voice, share technical tips to get the best out of your camera and show you how to creates strong, passionate images. Leave a comment here before Tuesday 24th 12pm PST to win a place in the Shoot By Design Spring session, starting on March 5th!

You can find out more about Amanda's work on her portfolio and popular blog Mocking Bird. She is also the co-author of the anticipated Instant Love: How To Make Magic and Memories with Polaroids (with Jen Altman and Susannah Conway) published by Chronicle Books.

The winner of the giveaway is Mary! Congratulations, you will receive an email from Amanda shortly.

Vantage Point

"If the photographer could not move his subject, he could move his camera. To see the subject clearly--often to see it at all--he had to abandon normal vantage point, and shoot his picture from above, or below, or from too close, or too far away, or from the back side, inverting the order of things' importance, or with the nominal subject of his picture half hidden. from his photographs, he learned that the appearance of the world was richer and less simple than his mind would have guessed. He discovered that his pictures could reveal not only the clarity but the obscurity of things, and that these mysterious and evasive images could also, in their own terms, seem ordered and meaningful." 

-- from 'The Photographer's Eye' by John Szarkowski

If photography has taught me anything at all, it's that unexpected angles often tell the most spectacular stories. Tell me, when was the last time you were forced to switch up your vantage point? Please do share an image or a story with us today. 

when space speaks

While looking through my photos I see a pattern: I'm either zooming way in for the smallest hint of detail or pulling way back to gather in the view. 

I've mentioned negative space here before, and how I love the freedom of it. White space lets your mind wander. So, how does empty space in portraits help tell a story? There is emotion in the distance of it. The tinyness of them out in the big world. The hint of hands being held. The farawayness of conversations shared.

Today give yourself some space, and put your loved ones right in the middle of it. See what it does for your story and theirs. Share your thoughts and images in the comments!

creating a story

"She carries a lot of suitcases but all of them are empty because she's expecting to completely fill them with life by the end of this trip & then she'll come home & sort everything out & do it all again." ~ story people

Have you ever imagined a shot before actually taking it?  An idea born in your mind at first, but then with a little creativity, perhaps a few props, have you ever just gone for it and composed what you imagined?  I am not someone who composes a lot of shots. Somehow I feel silly doing it, or perhaps it just takes too much time for my short attention span brain, but once upon a time I actually did it. If you could have seen me you would have gotten a good laugh.  I had no tripod.  I had no remote.  (those are my feet in that shot, I swear) What I did have was his burning vision in my mind.  I had recently gotten this vintage argus camera, I had found that red suitcase on the side of the road. (I am an admitted sucker for old things, lost things, & found things. I feel they hold stories all their own.) There was this lone abandoned cabin that set back off the road.  That was the place, those were the props, and now all that was left was me gathering up my courage and risking looking a little silly to compose this shot.  I gathered some bricks and rocks to prop up my camera at the height I needed, I turned on my timer, and ran back and forth more than a few times til I got just what I wanted.  Oh, and that cabin?  Yes it sits back off a road alright, off a major road, with a gas station across the street, with people pumping gas... I can only imagine what they must have thought.  I know they saw me, they were staring.  I am sure the conversation might have gone a little like this, "What the heck is that girl doing?!?!"  "She keeps running back and forth to something and jumping up with that suitcase!" "Poor thing, she is has lost her marbles."  Let them think what they will, at the very least I am sure they all had a good laugh at my expense, and a good story to tell when they got home. No matter, I got the shot I envisioned.  I am still proud of this shot and the silly story behind it all these years later. 

Show us a story you composed in your lens.  Have you ever had a vision and just gone for it?  If not, are you inspired to try? Go ahead!  I can't wait to see what you come up with. And who knows, you may just gain a great story as well as a great shot.

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Don't forget to leave a comment here today! With your comment comes the chance to win a very special September gift; a $100 gift certificate courtesy of Paper Coterie in honor of the Everyday Storytellers and our One Word Project this month; story.