the muse of connection

1. wildflowers and sunshine via instagram, 2. flare me. first iphone selfie. this is a whole new learning curve!, 3. 横顔, 4. Ghost leaf, 5. Open the doors...., 6. green, 7. Bad mother alert, 8. Untitled, 9. Watching Monsters Inc, 10. Paper thin, 11. Fresh cut peonies, 12. sunflower

A few weeks ago I went right out and got myself an iphone. It wasn’t exactly that simple or that easy. It came after months—ok years—of deliberating, debating and planning. And after all that, I still hesitated. Until one day, I didn’t.  And then, it was that easy. I walked right in and got myself an iphone.

I cannot claim it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me, but I will say, it’s pretty great. The ironic thing is, it has absolutely nothing to do with the phone. As you can probably guess, it has everything to do with the camera. But not just any camera. The camera that gets transformed by the apps.

I’m not a gadget and gear girl nor a techie so I haven’t taken much time to load up on igoods. But what I have found are some of the super-fun photo apps that I had only dreamed of using.  Enter Instagram; my new favorite photo toy.

Yes, I am having a blast with it. The whole world looks like a photo to me now (even more so than usual) but in a totally different light.  I am seeing all the things I want to share. I am compelled to capture all the stories I want to tell. Because the most compelling part of Instagram is its instant connection to the rest of the world. Sure, it comes with and easy and awesome 1-click edit tool that turns your snap into a little work of art. But the fact that almost immediately after you shoot, your image is shared. And—just like that—you’re connected. Your image is shared. Your vision is expressed. Your story is told.

I am fascinated by this new wave of creative connection. Of sharing without saying a word. Of shooting exactly what we want to share, when you want to share it. It’s empowering, it’s liberating and it’s really fun.

In the name of our many muses and the many ways we connect with each other, let’s share some of our favorite visual stories and let's comment! Let’s click around today and really see each other for who we are; sisters who find joy, strength, encouragement and inspiration through our connections.

Share your links, comment, tweet, facebook, flickr, instagram; let’s talk today in all of these places. Let’s show each other how much our connection means! If you want to hashtag it, use #ssconnect. It will be like our own secret handshake. I can’t wait to see you out there connecting!

Oh, and please, come find me on Instagram! I’m traceyclark (how totally original of me). See you there!

Mobile May and Our Final Book Giveaway

There's something about these suspended moments of awkwardness that move me. Like when you press the pause button and catch an odd glance of something that seemed so smooth in play. I love this about still photography, and especially about iPhoneography... watching motion and pausing the action to preserve and study a sliver of time. Shot with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app with Float film and the John S lens. Sharpened using the Photo fx app.

I've enjoyed following your images in the One Word Project flickr group and featuring a few of our mobile favorites in the One Word Project journal so much this month. Congratulations to keribevan and petit gris, week 4 winners of my new book, "The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity." On this last day of May, leave a comment about your thoughts or tips on mobile photography by 11:59pm PT and we'll enter your name in a drawing to win the last book of Mobile May.

Many thanks to our gracious sponsor Pixiq. Pixiq, an imprint of Sterling Publishing, is not only the US & Canada publisher of "The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity" but an awesome online resource for all things photography.

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Congratulations to Marilyn Johnson! Many thanks for your thoughts and for playing along throughout Mobile May.

Back to the Basics

Two months ago I lost my Nikon D90.  Too many flights across too many countries and somehow it was gone--stolen? forgotten? I'm still not sure.  All I know is that eighteen hours later as I gathered up my things in the plane, my camera bag was nowhere to be found.  Three thousand dollars worth of lenses, body and gear disappeared into thin air.

Knowing it would be quite a long time before I'd hold a replacement camera in my hands, I did the only thing left for a photographer to do.  I picked up my phone, wiped the tiny camera lens off on the back of my jeans and filled the frame with something I loved.  Point, click, shoot.  No comparison to choosing f-stops, changing lenses or messing around with the ISO, but photography just the same.  

My phone took on new meaning, and I started to actually enjoy what I could do with basically only one tool left in my toolbox: composition.  It took me back to the very beginning, when the only thing I focused on was what to put in the frame.  I felt energized at how simple the whole process was.  And I started shooting even more than I had with my D90.  The camera--I mean, phone--was on me every single day anyway.  Anything and everything I ever wanted to shoot was fair game.

I still don't know when (or exactly how) my next "real" camera will come to me, but I'm starting not to care. This little phone in my back pocket is revitalizing my love of our craft, and I honestly don't think after this, my photography will ever be quite the same.

Do you use your phone to shoot?  Share your favorite on the fly images in the comments below.  And if you're not sure where to start with this new emerging genre, check out Stephanie's The Art of IPhoneography.  You'll be inspired to get out and make a whole new world of images.

Looking up

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky." Jimi Hendrix

Perfect Blue. Fiery Red. Filled with stars. Dark. Bright. Cloudy.

I believe the sky is a portal into our divinity.

It reflects our moods, it shows the uncertain nature of our existance...

It holds us all together under the same dome. All the same.

All granted the same beauty, the same immenseness...

Vast. Far beyond.

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Today, take a break from your daily hustle and from the pressure to stay grounded.

Do yourself a favor. Stop everything and just look up and marvel.

Then of course, shoot some pictures and share them with us, please.

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?