getting grounded

It always had a negative connotation growing up... "being grounded" was a forced solitude. As an adult now I find myself using that word in attempt to help me find my place. Getting grounded helps me find balance and breath. Most often I look down exactly where I am standing. I look at my feet on the ground and gather up my surroundings.

This is the daily ritual of visiting the brook. With only my iphone in hand, the colors really jumped out at me: dancing and begging to be photographed. The blue water, the orange leaves... this is the season that's fleeting as fast as we are enjoying it. As I take a step, I move towards forward momentum and transition. This: the symbolic shift, the bridge, the place I cross over.

What's it look like in your part of the world? Where do you stand? What are you moving towards... what are you moving away from? Let your photography today reveal more of your path. Shoot straight down today, link your photos in the comments below or use the hashtag #fromwhereistand and we can all get grounded together.

small snippets

Sometimes days are long and time is short. Sometimes we have more to-dos, work, and responsibility than we even have time for. Sometimes we are far too busy to muse, ponder or reflect. This is what life feels like for me these days. And when it gets like this I find it hard to pick up my camera, to update my blog or even to blurt something out on facebook. But my story being written every day of my life, whether I have time to acknowledge it or not. The things that happen, the people I meet, the places I go, the time I spend...it all means something. It's all a part of my story.

I am finding lately that it doesn't take much to document my life these days. As a matter of fact, these small snippets of my days and nights captured with a simple camera phone are enough. This is what my life is like right now. Tiny slivers of light. Stolen moments in time. Amidst a very tight schedule my story is being written.

And as you go about your daily life, whatever it looks like, yours is being written too.

Today, as we end what has been an inspiring month of stories, share a small snippet today. Something that may have only taken a split second to capture but means the world.

Today we want to give a very special thank you to Paper Coterie for affording us so many lovely giveaways and encouraging all of us to tell our stories. We are giving away our last $100 gift certificate today. Please leave a comment here for your chance to win.

Growing Old

he's engaged in normal conversation,
like every visit they share.
they've come regularly since days of bare feet and braids,
since days of excited footsteps pattering on tile.
now they sit,
texting on their phones as he talks to the tops of their heads.
they nod and say the right things,
always leaving him with an emptiness-
he sees his age in their eyes.
they go through the ritual of playing their latest piano pieces,
his most cherished part of their visits...
for as soon as he hears the nocturne on the out-of-tune keys,

he's a dashing young man clad in a starched uniform,
with gleaming war medals clinking as he walks.
the room is filled with respectful eyes
watching him sip a cocktail while conducting business in murmured words.

then, the front doors open,
and she steps in.
heads turn, and he puts down his drink to take in her presence.
her eyes sparkle as she locks a gaze with him.
she crosses the room,
places her warm hand over his,
and smiles.

with her beside him,
his youth could never be taken away...

the nocturne ends.
the children resume their mechanical conversations
until his granddaughter, their mother, picks them up.
as soon as she arrives,
they softly kiss his cheek and rush out the door.
she walks across the room, 
sits next to him,
places her warm hand over his,
and smiles.
she has her grandmother's eyes,
he thinks as they sparkle back at him.
and for now,

he feels young again

* * *

Image and poem by 17-year-old Suzanna Hodges, niece of Shutter Sister Stephanie Roberts. Suzanna made this image of her great grandfather using Tiltshiftfocus, PhotoShop Express, and Instagram apps on her iTouch. Do images ignite your imagination in the form of visual poetry?

We are giving away one $100 Paper Coterie gift card EVERY SINGLE DAY of September! Share a comment each day before midnight EST for your chance to win that day's random drawing. Be sure to leave links to your story shots.

(art)ifacts

Your environment can be deceiving. Just when you think there's nothing new left to discover in the familiar, there just might be something interesting to see. Take a few moments today to explore a familiar environment – your kitchen sink, the back porch, a corner of your cluttered desk, a glance across your bedroom, or the view on your drive to school. Stop and study the placement of artifacts and compose something artful without touching your subject. What do you see?

Scissors for cutting tops off freeze pops and a swatter for the flies. I shot this image on the barn beside the pool using the Hipstamatic app (Blanko film and John S lens). I then sharpened it a bit using the Photo fx app.

You read it here first: some telephones are telephone-cameras. Telephone-cameras! Telephones, but also cameras! At the same time!

I bet if you look back on Shutter Sisters, ever single contributor has posted that one where she goes, "Lookmynewphone!" <Shutter Sister notes the icon that says CAMERA> "Oh, oh my! Oh gosh." <Shutter Sister bites knuckle> "What about my art? My training? My 24-70? OOOH!" <Shutter Sister squeals> "HIPSTAGRAM APP! TOY CAMERA APP! MANUAL EXPOSURE APP!"

Okay so fine. The squeal is over the top. Shutter Sisters do not squeal. Not like that, unless in the company of Jen Lemen, an Epiphanie bag, or Kristin's vintage leather strap.

I was doubtful. Cellphones made me cranky. They never seemed to be able to usefully penetrate whatever magnetic forcefield that surrounds a five-foot radius of my body.

Then, approximately three decades after everyone else and only because you can't find a payphone anymore let alone a quarter, I got an iPhone.

Then I noted the CAMERA icon. I sniffed at it. I took a few shots. I signed up for Instagram. And a cropping app. And a light meter app. And three processing apps. And ... um. This, uhhh. Well it's really kind of neat. It's a thing that, uhhh. It's a t-t-toy camera app.

I'm still skimming the surface of it all, unsure of what to put through what. I'm poring through Stephanie's book. So far, I'm just transfixed by how the iPhone changes how I see. It's not the same as having a 7D in my hands. It's more discreet, less burdened. It fits in my pocket. It can't create what I want it to, but it's adding to my eye. Take away the 24-70, the 1.8, the heft of what's proper, and what you're left with is strictly compositional. In shooting, there's not much else to think about other than framing. And so I do, with greater attentiveness and vigor than I have in a while.

<DONE>

Share your favourite point-and-shoot or mobile device shot of late. Has iphoneography changed how or what you shoot when you return to your SLR? Have you gotten the hang of it yet -- has it replaced photography you'd otherwise approach differently, or has it added a new niche of photos to your portfolio or social spaces that you didn't used to capture?