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Entries in one word project (143)

Thursday
Aug122010

face to face

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to New York City and meet a few of the sisters in person for the first time ever.  One in particular was a most special meeting personally for me.  Meredith, camera shy momma, and I have been online friends for years now. Long before Shutter Sisters brought us together, we had "met" and formed a bond in this crazy internet world.  She living in Texas, and I living in Maine, never afforded us any face time until this day where we would finally meet in NYC.  It was unlike any other meeting I have had before. Usually I get nervous, not this time, not one bit.  I truly felt like it was any other day where I was meeting a dear old friend.  Like we had spent many days together, though in reality we never had.  We planned a full day in the city with another friend as our guide.  We met up at 9am, hugged, laughed at the reality of it all.  Friends - 3 years - hundreds of miles - now face to face.  Armed with our cameras, kinship, and a lust for this great city we were in, we set out on our adventure.  We walked miles.  We laughed tons.  In total I have 600 images from that one day.  Many touristy shots, urban life shots, bench shots, but this one image is one of my most favorite of the day.  We had just happened upon a used record store with a crate full of old vinyl albums outside.  Of course we each picked out an album and did a fun headcover, mine a Richard Pryor album and hers a Donna Summer album.  As Meredith lowered the record from her face, I kept shooting.  She bent over laughing at the silliness of the moment. I just love this shot of her; candid, real, happy, honest, in the moment, a memory forever saved in one click.  Her face, in the flesh, right there in front of me in real life and time.  A friendship come full circle face to face.

In honor of this month's One Word, faces, share a favorite face you've captured with us today.

Friday
Aug062010

When you're smiling...

“A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as no one needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.”
-- Author Unknown

 

We’re celebrating faces this month, and nothing brings more joy than a genuine beaming smile.

It’s Friday and summer is in full swing, so there should be a lot to smile about. What’s making you happy today?, show us your sweetest smile...

“When you’re smiling, When you’re smiling, The whole world smiles with you.....”

Monday
Aug022010

a face in the pell-mell

Hey, said Tracey. Can you do a post tomorrow for the OWP? The word is 'faces'.

Sure! I flipped through the images I've taken in the past couple of weeks, a blur of family gatherings and trips and cottages and beaches that's created a processing backlog of epic proportions. But I couldn't find much in the way of faces. Which is strange, really... or maybe not. My subjects of late don't tend to oblige or do anything other than tug on their eyelids or stick out tongues or run away or pull the Inglis family dash 'n giggle and so, to capture them, I have to be willing to *not* particularly capture faces, but scenes and action and stories instead.

But every now and then, aided by the momentary daze of exhaustion, I'm granted stillness. And in those dazey moments, if my camera is within reach, I get near-frantic with wanting to do something epic or unique or just really really really sharp. Because look. It's a FACE. Just a face. But when you only have 3.2 seconds, you can only want so much.

I try though it slips through my fingers, the portrait already running away from me before he does. I click two relatively straightforward shots. Then, in the last one I'm allowed, I try a little more abstraction, an unusual framing, an adjustment in position to create a more interesting background. One shot of quirk and then he's as gone as the pokey little puppy of our favourite book, running pell-mell.

I'm happy to capture the pell-mell, too. But when I get a face -- even for 3.2 seconds -- ahh. What a gift.

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Today, share with us your unscripted portraits. Those rare gifts of a face that's genuinely unaware of the camera, immersed in life, and true to a soul.

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Note from Tracey:

We are thrilled to be partnering up this month for the One Word Project with the amazing and inspiring photo community of I Heart Faces. What better word than faces to inspire you to shoot and share photos of the amazing faces in your life?  Check out our OWP about page for the scoop on how it all goes down each month.

And if you're going to be in NYC for BlogHer weekend, be sure to sign up for the I Heart Faces Photo Walk (Thursday, Aug 5th). You'll find all the details as well as how to sign up over on their site!

Wednesday
Jul212010

Tiny Treasures

The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart. ~ Author Unknown

I have an affinity for tiny treasures.

I guess it all started with my grandparents. Every year on my birthday they would give me something that was picked out with great care, especially for me: a piece of jade jewelry… an intricate charm for my charm bracelet… a porcelain figurine… a leather, gold trimmed first edition of a classic novel… the diamond earrings that my grandmother first got her ears pierced with… stationary embossed with my name. Just two weeks ago they gave me my great grandfather’s camera. What make these things treasures had nothing to do with their monetary value. They are treasures to me because whenever I look at them sitting on my bookshelf or hold them in my hands, I feel loved. With each item I fall back in time, just for a little while, and smile at the memory. Others might not be able to look at these same things and see the value and preciousness that I feel in my heart, but I know they feel this way about something in their life.

You treasure the sweet smile that emerges across your daughter’s face every time you read that book she loves to her.

You treasure the fragrance of the herbs you keep on your windowsill.

You treasure the note your husband left on the dining room table for you before he left for work.

You treasure the sound of the rain as it hits your roof.

You treasure the set of salt and pepper shakers you and your sweetie acquired on your last trip together.

You treasure the fact that kissing salt and pepper shakers is something you now collect.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that even if you don’t treasure tiny objects, you treasure something in your life that others don’t always see the value in. In some ways, isn’t that why you are a photographer, so you can capture those special moments and be able to treasure them always?

Today let us into your world and share something you treasure…

Picture and words courtesy of honorary sister / guest blogger Jade Sheldon of Flickr fame.

Saturday
Jul172010

treasures within

As we reflect on treasures this month, I can't help but think about how to explore that concept in portraiture.

Whether you see sweetness, joy, humor, curiosity, delight or fire! Show us how you capture the numerous treasures within!

ps: I'm blown away by all the treasures in the the SS pool! Do share yours.