a little danger goes a long way

No great art has ever been made without the artist having known danger.
Rainer Maria Rilke

The other day, I stumbled upon this quote and immediately jotted it down. It made me think about how I approach my photography and how I can elevate it to the next level, maybe even call it ‘a-r-t’.

Real danger lies right in there for me. In fact, if I catch myself trying to make “art”, not to mention “great art”, I freeze. What I love about Photography is actually the opposite of that. I fell in love with the medium, because it freed me. It distracted me from the greater goal and allowed me to simply get lost in the wonder of capturing a moment.

Still though, who am I to challenge Rilke, right? :) And when I think of it, the fact that Photography is an experience of ease for me is what allows me to face the risks I constantly need to take, in order to get those shots that come to me in my dreams. Danger is still there. It is in the thrill of taking on a new client, in producing and shooting an assignment, in the boldness of approaching strangers, and in how I climb on the fence or lay across the cement floor, just for the sake of a better angle. My best memories and results are truly from times when I took a risk, when I faced a little danger, when I went in with abandon and conviction, trusting that it was worth working through the fear, in order to get the mighty shot. (Above: first time shooting fashion with animals!)

So, can you share with us today, what danger looks like for you? Whether it is taking a risk with your equipment, your angle, your technique or even your personality, show us how you work it!

on doing something different

Until now I've been fits-and-spurts with my camera. A hundred (or two, or three) at once. Every couple of weeks if even that, fifteen or twenty shared on flickr at the same time. A daily photo practice? Distant. Deluded. I figured I'd try just the same, starting with a photoblog that might, maybe, lend a little more accountability than flickr.

Daily practice on the mind and days later, we notice bright blue eggs in a robin's nest tucked into a nearby cedar. And so we started with regular peeking. Three days ago they hatched. Three days ago I put my camera by the front door. Two days ago I saw this. Today I saw this.

In the spirit of today's most excellent giveaway, I'd like to know: what have you done differently lately in your photography? Are you playing with ISO or white balance? Do you have some new actions, a coveted lens? Did you take a course, discover some new inspiration? Or are you just trying out a new practice?

Comment here between now and midnight Thursday 5/ 20 for a chance to win a 16x24" fine art print of one of YOUR images on the famed watercolour cotton rag paper by Hahnemuhle, courtesy the wonderful (and internationally-shipping) Atlantic Photo Supply, one of the oldest and most reputable labs in Canada. This is the paper I use. It's beyond gorgeous. You'll see your photography in a whole new way, with one of these prints.

The only question: will you keep it for bragging rights, or will you gift it to some lucky loved one? Go!

Congratulations to Erika, our 93rd commenter! You've won the fine art print. Atlantic Photo Supply will be in touch to make it happen -- can't wait to hear how it goes. Anyone who is interested in the cotton rag paper of Hahnemuhle -- the favourite of the printing artists at Atlantic Photo Supply -- can go here to order any print you like and have it internationally shipped. Thanks everyone for playing along!

get your mobile moment on tv network ovation

Two years ago I was hard at work on Project 365, hauling around my hefty digital SLR in a backpack that served as my purse each day for 365 days. And while that experience taught me to move through the day in a more observant way, the weight of that camera held me back, though I didn't realize it at the time.

When I saw something that moved me, I'd have to take the backpack off, fumble with it to extract my camera, turn the camera on and take off the lens cap, manually adjust the settings, make a few images, turn the camera off, figure out where I put the lens cap and put it back on the camera, squeeze the camera back into my backpack, and put the pack back on my back. And the images had no where to go. They sat on my camera until I got home and squeezed in the time to plug in my USB cable, download the images to my computer, process them, export them, and then upload them to my blog to share the experience. And if I remembered, I might tweet a link to the post to my Twitter followers. This process could easily take 24 hours or more.

Since January, I'm once again shooting everyday but in a very different way. I'm shooting, processing and sharing images exclusively with my iPhone. Now, don't get me wrong, my iPhone has not replaced my SLR, but it's expanding my creative capacity. It's freed me up to make and share images more spontaneously as I move through the day. So now, when I see that fleeting magic moment, I can very quickly lift my iPhone, shoot, process, post the image to my iPhoneography journal powered by Posterous (via email), and see a link to the image automatically appear as a tweet in my Twitter stream. This entire process takes less than 60 seconds and keeps my creativity firing more frequently each day.

In fact, had it not been for my iPhone, I wouldn't have been able to share real-time images documenting Odette's much anticipated reunion with her daughters from Rwanda and the tenderness of a heroic Jen Lemen with all of you on Twitter. Sure, I made my best images from that week-long documentary experience with my SLR, but the iPhone images served a critical purpose... they connected nearly 3,000 of us in the moment as the moment occured.

* * *

So now it's your chance to document the corners of your world with your iPhone or your cell phone for Ovations Framed Art Race 2010 competition. Upload your most creative cell phone images to the Ovation community for a chance to be showcased in a My Art spot on air. But you've got to move fast, the deadline to get your shots in is tomorrow, May 8! Good luck

body type

Let's talk camera bodies! A few weeks ago I had a first hand experience with shutter death. It was quick (and totally unexpected... um, and not so much painless.) It left me without so much as a goodbye from my beloved Nikon. It also left my hands empty and found my heart wanting.

Well, now what am I supposed to do? How do I create without the perfection of glass and mirror? I did what my heart insisted. I started a project.

This blend of photography and words might manifest a camera. But what camera? I've been pouring over all the reviews... but what I really want is the opinion of fellow Shutter Sisters shooting every day just like me.

So let's sit down and chat about camera bodies, shall we? What's your opinion? Share it in the comments today. Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Polaroid? Let us know your favorite camera. What do you shoot with every day? What camera would you never leave home without? I want to hear your suggestions, your stories, your thoughts on what camera body you own or would love to own.

Unedited Human Emotion

I used to shy away from making images of people, despite my fascination with human beings. I didn't like how people ran to the bathroom to put on lipstick or how they instinctively repositioned themselves to smooth out wrinkles and cover exposed seams. It just felt fake, and I didn't want to be the composer. Beyond that, I had fears of bumping up against the invisible boundary of someone's space and documenting accidental (true) expressions that might be uncomfortable for them.

Throughout most of my Project 365 experience in 2008, I found myself shooting freely in nature most often. I could creep in the woods, or linger along the fenceline on the farm and quiety hunt for compositions when the spirit moved me. My subject was completely under my control, and I could take my time to manually focus and tweak the settings on my camera to craft the ideal image. I didn't have to think fast, deal with motion (sans slight winds), and burden my camera with the weight of an external mount flash. There was nothing artificial about shooting in nature, and it felt really comfortable for me.

But that was the problem. I was comfortable. And as I studied the images in my Project 365 archive, I found that I was emotionally so much more drawn to the smaller set of images I had made of my children – images of them immersed in the action of just being a kid. Messy hair. Chapped lips. Bounces on a trampoline. Spontaneous laughter. And the more I began to document my children, the more comfortable and exhilirated I felt bumping up against that invisible barrier and discovering a gesture or natural expression that showed me the beauty of unedited human emotion. It excited me.

For the past 12 months, I've been almost exclusively drawn to documenting people in their natural environments and my approach to shooting has changed so much. I keep a loser grip over composition in exchange for a tighter auto-focus on capturing natural movements, expressions and interactions between people in a space. I shoot much more often with my Speedlight SB-600 (external mount flash) because people are typically found in rooms where natural light is not optimal. And more often than not, there is a super wide lens on my camera body so I can place the viewer in the scene with my subject.

Do you find that your focus and approach to photography is shifting? Do share.