chasing chance

My favorite photography subjects are my two young boys and birds, all types, as long as they flit and scurry and FLY (sorry ostriches). Capturing either can be both breath-holding and heart-thumping because these subjects do not stay still for long. And I don't want them to. I don't want to capture their stillness; I want to capture the fitful, unpredictable beauty of their wildness. I want to capture them taking off.

I am not a peaceful person by nature. And therefore, I don't feel it is my calling to shoot photos of the calm and soothing landscapes of this life. A pretty still life here and there, sure. Who can resist? But what I have found in taking photos over the past few years is that I love to chase chance with my camera. I love not knowing what's going to happen next. I love the challenge of waiting for the moment, and I love waiting to see what arbitrary magic the shots will reveal. My favorite photos have come from such moments.

As for finding some peace, well, for me, the peace is actually what comes as I gaze upon the outcome, a colorful moment frozen before my eyes. I find my peace (and my thrill) in the capturing, as I see them, of the random and wild little miracles in my life. Then I can continue to live the unstill life I am quite possibly destined to live, but I can also find some serenity in what unfolds. The way I see it, to steal a few potent words from Wendell Berry's poem "The Broken Ground": "What is left is what is." Well hello, peace.

As with most artful motives, there is a dilemma at the core of this methodology: do you snap quickly (and wildly) without regard to mechanics of photography in hopes that you'll capture the magic. Is this just downright lazy and amateur? Or do you pick up your camera gently, think wisely, swirl the dial to the appropriate numerology, take aim, check focus, hold your breath, and hope that in doing everything right, the magic will reveal itself—that's if the subject's still around to capture after all that? I have to say I don't have an answer here. I've had luck with both. But luck is exactly what it is for me. So, at what point, do you decide to prop up the luck with practice, knowledge, and applied expertise? Or do you? Maybe you just keep following the magic.

I'd love to see how you've captured "wildness"—may it be in nature or your everyday life. Do tell us is if your capture was luck, finely tuned technique, or a combination of the two.

Photo and words shared by Honorary Shutter Sister Sheri Reed of happinest  and today is pretty .

A Thousand Words

Defiance.  Sadness.  The tiniest smile.  Hope. 

I have no idea what this girl was thinking when I snapped this picture, but I recognize the contours of my own soul in those oceans of eyes, in the way she sees into me with boldness and calm.  I have thought of her a hundred times since then, wondering what she wanted to tell me, wondering why the headmistress would not translate for her, when so many other girls were given their say.

Sometimes our pictures capture a moment, other times an emotion.  This picture captures the proverbial thousand words.  I am waiting for the day when that look can become an honest exchange between two human beings who share so many things.   I am waiting for the day when my own thousand words convey in her own language how much she stays with me, how much my heart is changed every day by the things she could not say.

+++++++

What photo this Friday focuses on the eyes, the window to some dear one's soul?  Let us see your shots and sit in the beauty of everything left unsaid.

What Dreams May Come

I rarely remember my dreams.  But the other night I do remember that I dreamed I was on a boat, a huge cruise type boat.  The captain was yelling at everyone to grab an oar because we needed to row home.  The only thing that I could find was a roll of toilet paper.  But the captain kept yelling, "Row!"  Then I woke up.  Wish I knew what it meant because they say your dreams have meanings.  Like, if you dream you are being chased it means that you are feeling threatened by someone or some emotion.  I checked my cabinets, I have plenty of toilet paper.  

Photos can represent dreams in so many ways.  By the subject, the composition, the post processing.  An image can be surreal or ethereal, and therefore be dream like.  I love images that take me away, make me wonder what's going on in that world.  I want to put my ear to the picture and hear the sounds.  What dreamy images do you have or can you create?  Do you remember your dreams and can you represent one in a photo?  Or maybe someone is dreaming.  Come on, spill the dreams here. 

 

This guest post comes our way from the lovely Melody of HipMomma's Journal.

 

Iconic Summer

We just got back from a week of traveling across the midwest to visit with our closest friends and family. Our trip included every favorite summer activity imaginable including camping, barbecuing, playing baseball, going to the beach, dining al fresco and spending time with friends. One of our stops along the way was a two day camping trip with our good friends and their two daughters. We spent our days chatting by the fire, throwing a Frisbee, and completely relaxing. There's nothing like watching two little girls experiencing summer at it's finest, unknowingly living the memories that they will look back on fondly. I've never seen pure and utter bliss like I did when the girls bit into those s'mores. I grabbed my camera and as I clicked away they didn't even know I was there. It's like they were in a s'more trance. To me, the image above represents summer.

Which photo represents your idea of the perfect summer? 

out of body

I believe in the photographer's magic — the ability to stir the soul with light and shape and colour. To create grand visual moments out of small and simple things...  ~Amyn Nasser

Children dancing...twirling, sashaying, floating.  A blur of movement gently takes her soul by the hand as a glow of light infuses her existence with energy, and shadows hauntingly whisper a summon, "dance with us".  She is flesh, yet the magic softly clicks, clicks, clicks as though the magician were present in spirit only...body vacated by her dancing soul.  The music ends, body and soul reunite...all the while her human eye never saw.  But her magic did.  One pink toenail.

Please share a link in comments to your out of body photography moment...your one pink toenail shot.  We each have at least one image presumed to be captured by accident.  Me, I believe in magic.  Do you?

Photo and words courtesy of today's Honorary Sister/Guest Blogger Melody of Slurping Life.