Oh, baby

Who doesn't love babies?! When photographing babies this age, I just follow their lead.  They most definitely run the show.  I may not always get that 'perfect' baby shot, but when this little beauty (who just happens to be my niece) started with the faces, the opportunity was too good to pass up, so I snapped away.  It may not have been what I was looking for, but it's most definitely a keeper.

Today, show us your not-so-perfect shots that worked out for you anyway.  I know you've got 'em.  We all do! 

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playful you

"It is a happy talent to know how to play."- Emerson

Today's one word prompt is whimsy. Whimsy can be a tricky thing for us "adults".  As children we were once endless fountains of play, pretend, imagination and fun.  We paid little to no attention to what we looked like,  or who was watching.  None of that mattered. All that mattered was the play.  As a mom I get to witness this wealth of carefree-ness each day in my children,  I spend hours photographing their play and joy.  Photographing myself in that same spirit of play was so much harder. What would I look like? (Why did i care?) Someone might see me! (maybe it would make them smile) So little by little I began to practice being more playful in front of my camera.  Capturing myself in moments of joy and whimsy through self portraiture.  Some days pulling in my little muses for a little photo fun. They are the masters of the silly faces!

When Meredith and I embarked on creating our first self portrait e-course,  we sat down and came up with a list of themes, one of them was "whimsy".  Funny thing about that theme,  so many women balked at the idea of capturing their silly side,  that "whimsy"  was just not them...  but you know what?  Once they took a deep breath, and leaped into the fun, they wound up loving some of those images the most.  Seems all we all needed was a little nudge, permission to throw off the shackles of adulthood and just be silly. 

Today I challenge you to capture yourself in the joy. Blow bubbles. Hula hoop. Make funny faces. Put on a mask. Maybe a fuzzy mustache. How about a tutu. Photobomb a friend. Sticking out your tongue and crossing your eyes is encouraged here. Get silly with a friend or your family. Watch the laughter unfold. Share your images and thoughts with me here and don't forget to tag your images, #shuttersisters.

Today get in touch with that little girl inside you.  She will thank you for it.

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Interested in digging a little deeper into self portraiture?  Meredith Winn and I are launching our brand new e-course this fall, NOW YOU : Digging Deeper.  Registration is open now.  Class begins soon.  Join us!

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Congratulations to Amy Gillard documentary moment winner of the book Lens on Life: Documenting Your World Through Photography by Stephanie Calabrese Roberts. Thanks for all of your submissions!

play

My son's high school marching band hosted a carwash a couple of weekends back.  They started at 9 a.m. and washed car after car until they stopped at 2 o'clock.  It was a typical hot Southern California weekend and once the last car was washed and dried and sent on it's way, buckets were filled with water and it was every man for himself.  My son may have gotten in a good toss of water onto his band teacher but being the prepared teacher that he is, he was laying in wait with a hose.  Be it a child or an adult, who doesn't love to play with buckets of water and hoses on a hot summer day? Truly, one is never too young or too old to play, and that is always a good thing.  

We are ready to elevate the everyday this month! Show us your images of play and add them to the One Word Project pool on Flickr. And be sure to tag your images this month with #sselevate.

weekending by Suzanne Scheve

 

Suzanne Scheve shoots images like this with her Canon Powershot SD1200 digital Elph and spends her weekends chilling out with her daughter, dog and camera. You can find her Suzanne (aka Manchesterlass) on her blog.

Are you chilling out this weekend? Share your weekending shot with us.

up for interpretation

I was lucky enough to get to spend the majority of my spring break on a beautiful, pristine, sunshiny beach at the tip of Baja, Mexico. It was heaven. Sifting through my images, all I see are blue blue skies, blue blue water and golden golden sand. With 99% sunshine, even the  sunsets are vibrant. Soft light on that beach was nearly non-existent. It was just the quality of how the light was; clean, bright, un-filtered. In a word, vibrant.

I'm not complaining. Not one single bit. But what I find curious is how I am chosing to interpret my vacation images. We had next to no internet access so there were only a very select number of images that would even load through my Instragram. Most of the them were shot or altered in a way that didn't showcase the blue blues or golden goldens. The first was shot upon arrival, near dark (which was the only time the light got soft). Another was captured upon waking; the soft, dreamy view from my bed in the morning. And my favorite was one of my daughter in the water, captured at the peak of bright, vibrant light and color (and yet, it's a black and white). Go figure.

As I mused on which image I would share today, I found this gem from my iPhone. The original was, of course, saturated with the bright blue sky and yet my choice was to dial it way down, to give it a vintage postcard feel (via Lightroom) which in other words means to interpret it in a totally different way than it came straight out of the camera.

As photographers, we are artists. And as artists we have the option to manipulate our images the way we want to. We can use our photo editing tools the same way painters use paint. We are the masters of our photographic vision. Personally, I don't know why I edit images like I do. I just do what feels right for each image and follow my creative bliss.

Have you ever thought about your process of processing? Do you use a heavy hand? Are you more subtle? Do you love acclassic black and white or SOOC? Share with us what you find and link to an image that shows off your favorite interpretation today.