center stage

  

There's a small corner of my house that acts as studio and stage for many of my photographic vingnettes. Sliding glass doors to the right give me my main light source. A smaller window on the left offers a burst of fill light, or rim light (pun intended for my mug collection). Dark brown dining room table anchors my frame. A lovely pale blue wall, a china cabinet and cream colored drapes all vie for the backdrop (which I use is dictated by the subject at hand). I use this little area at home almost every day, for morning coffee, as a desk, for family dinner and of course, my photography.

My most recent muse is a loaner-mug. I actually borrowed this sweet tea mug (a la Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf) from a friend so I could capture it in "the studio". It deserved a moment in the limelight. 

After capturing it in a number of different ways, it was this shot that felt just right. It's not often that I would choose a perfect centering of my subject. Centered is usually the last compositional technique I resort too. But, in this case, the light that illuminated the mug, the dark, dramatic background, the soft lines accentuated by a shallow depth of field all work together to bring the magic right to center stage.

Sometimes the only way to be is front and center.

Have you framed a shot lately that communicated the same thing? Something that left you no better choice than to reveal it as is, no apologies, smack dab in the middle of your shot? We'd love to see your center stage shots.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

taken with iphone on instagram using nashville filter

Since the birth of my daughter, my life has changed significantly, and so I've had to make some adjustments to my photo taking habits as well. The bulky SLR has been put away until I go back to shooting professional assignments, the SX70 (and it's convenient flat design) found its place inside the diaper bag, and my trusty iphone became my camera of choice! I spend most of my days now shooting the trivial, celebrating my baby's expressions, our home, how the light changes in every room of the house throughout the day, and even my silly face! I do it a lot. All day actually! It's easy and it's fun. There is no editing, no cropping, no raw images clogging my disk space, and (god forbid!) no retouching. Who has time for that? Iphoneography is completely effortless... Yet, those special moments can still be captured all the same.

Gosh! Will phones ever replace cameras? Absolutely not. We love cameras of all kinds and shapes way too much! But do we need expensive, fancy or hip cameras to take good photos? No more, sisters, no more. Shooting is indeed a lot less about technical process and a lot more about shooting constantly and training our eye to capture the beauty we see. When we shoot from that perspective, we can pick up any piece of equipment and make magic. And as it turns out, that magic can happen even with the help of a tiny little device that fits in our back pocket!

Any other iphoneography enthusiasts out there? If you are an iphone geek like me, you must check out Instagram! This little app is revolutionizing the way we take pictures! It combines the photo community aspect of Flickr, one click filters for post processing, and Twitter chatter. The community is quite supportive as well and you can automatically post your images to flickr, twitter, facebook, posterous and tumblr too! If you want to check it out and look me up, I'm @alessandracave. I'd love to follow your photo taking journey that way.

So tell me... Would you share with us the best of your phone pics with us today?

A Legacy

Watch this. 

Those words and a link to a video of Vivian Maier was all that was in an email that my friend had sent to me.  As I watched the short video piece, I was mesmerized and intrigued by this unkown woman.  In 2007 John Maloof purchased from an art auction a box that had been owned by Vivian containing over 30,000 negatives dating back as early as the 1950s. He decided to develop some of the photos (like the one above and the self portrait below) and what he has found is an absolutely amazing treasure.

In John's research on Vivian, he learned that she had never married or had children and was a very private person. She died alone at the age of 82 in a nursing home, her photographs never seen by anyone until now. So incredible is Vivian's photography that there will be a showing of her work next month at the Chicago Cultural Center.  John was able to purchase even more of her negatives and now has over 100,000 of her negatives and hundreds of undeveloped rolls of film which he plans to put into a book or make a documentary about Vivian.

Two things came to mind after learning of Vivian.  First, how sad that this wonderfully talented woman died alone, having never shared her gift of photography with anyone, ever.  If she had, I wonder how different her legacy might have been.  She very well may have helped pave the way for woman in photography all those years ago in a time when female photographers were a rare commodity.

Second, after seeing Vivian's story, I began thinking of what my legacy might be.  Yes, I would be remembered as a wonderful wife and mother but there is more to me than that.  I'm a photographer, too.  It's a large part of who I am.  If something were to happen to me tomorrow, would I have anything to show for it? Sure I would - and there are hundreds and hundreds of photos on numerous hard drives to prove that.  More importantly, would my husband or friends know how to gain access to them? No, they wouldn't and that is about to change. Some of the hundreds of photos on my hard drives will now be printed, matted and framed, put into books or given to friends.  What good is it to keep all of them stored and never shared with anyone? When I am gone, I want people to say that I was a wonderful wife, mother and photographer. 

What about you? What do you want your legacy to be? If you could choose one photograph (or two or three or more!) that you would want people to remember you as the wonderful photographer you are, please share.  Let us know you, too. 

You can see more of Vivian Maier's photography on the blog, Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work.

Update on Friday, December 31, 2010 by Chris Sneddon

Since I've become so intrigued by Vivan Maier, I've learned that John Maloof is trying to raise funds to make a documentary film about Vivian.  If you'd like to donate to the making of the film, stop by Kickstarter to see a quick video by John describing just what it is he wants to do.  I think it's a great investment!

-Chris Sneddon

graphic nature

When I first looked at this image I saw only the subject matter; my daughter in her new walking shoes and our camera shy canine on our evening gratitude walk. But there was something more that was drawing me in. As I studied the image, going beyond the subject matter, I noticed how frame was divided. Do you see it? Yep. There's an uncanny perfect symmetry to the shot that was holding my attention.

Graphic elements like line, shape, repetition, etc. can be highly effective compositional tools in photography and more specifically, graphic symmetry can bring harmony and balance to our imagery.

Have you found balance in a photo you've captured lately? Share something where symmetry made the shot.

for the love of prints

I hold the photo up to the webcam and there's silence as my entire family gathers in the kitchen 1500 miles away from where I now sit. At first there's silence and then everyone bursts into chatter all at the same time as their eyes adjust to the image on the screen. "Where did you find that?" ...  "Look at how young she is!" ... "That looks like you!" ...

We, as photographers, are keepers of treasures.

I have an obsession. And I know I am in good company here. We all take tons of photos. (The above is a recent stack of 200+ prints from a three day weekend spent in NYC) I am an everyday shooter, as are many of you. This means alot of hard drive, alot of archives, alot of backup, and hopefully alot of prints. 

My love in real life is in the texture of a photograph in my hands, something I can actually hold. 

As photographers, we are the family documentarians. How has the digital age changed the role of the photographer? I take this job seriously. My brothers used to joke me about it, but now everytime I show up with an image, a memory, a 2x2 inch square of photobooth paper; they realize my deep photo love and they appreciate it even more because I am bringing the past to light for them to enjoy as well. An image in hand can touch your heart more deeply than an image on a computer screen. Printed photographs are gifts.

We've talked storage before. But what I want to know is: do you print your photos like in the days before digital? Do you have a shoebox, an album, a wall of photos? What I want to provide for my son is what I find in my own parents home now as a grown woman. Yes, albums of our lives documented. Yes, milestones and favorites framed on the wall. But the biggest gift to me is the side table. The drawer in the upstairs office that is crammed with photos all randomly tossed in there. Photos mailed from lives in other states, photos carried to nursing homes and back from funerals, photos of lives spent in day to day beauty. It's a treasure chest to me. I grab handfuls of photographs everytime I go visit, I sit down with a lap full of faces and memories and outtakes. And each time I do, I find something new. All equally important. All coming into my life at the most important juncture. When pictures speak more than a thousand words, these scraps of kodak paper float down on me like dreams.

Many of us have a memory lane. Do you? Some of us come to see our parents and generations before them with an entire set of new eyes. Show me today, great basement finds, a favorite oldie, or even the photograph you took just last month that you keep telling yourself you'll print up someday. And think about making that someday today, your future self will thank you.