Lucky.
Lucky is my soul pony; we have this wonderful connection that lifts me up whenever I see him. He is a part of the therapeutic riding farm where I volunteer every Wednesday.
I’m supposed to be helping the children there and I do. But the thing is, the children and horses there help me just as much, if not more. It feeds my soul every week, and Lucky in particular makes me forget about my stress and feel a part of something wonderful.
So thanks, Lucky.
This one’s for Tony…
Tony and I have been having a debate recently regarding the ease at which someone can create a photo these days. At the touch of a button on an app for your iPhone, you can create crisp, clean photos or photos that look like they were taken 100 years ago. “Everyone’s a photographer now,” Tony says, and to some extent, I agree with him.
It is possible to create all kinds of effects with the touch of a button and I do it regularly. My primary professional camera, a Nikon D800, is heavy, and the lens that I have on it most of the time costs as much as the camera and is also very heavy. Consequently, I don’t carry it with me often. I use it for scheduled photo shoots, and that’s about it. For my daily use, I have my iPhone, which, I might add, I was very reluctant to use at first and fought the smartphone war for quite some time.
They say the best camera is the one that you have with you, and I tend to agree. My iPhone has allowed me to catch shots that I would have otherwise missed, and the clever photography apps that I have on it are quite fun to use. So I shoot more now thanks to it. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is a photographer and that I am cheating.
I think there’s much more to creating a good photo than just an app. The two things that make a good photo are lighting and composition, neither of which you can reproduce well with apps or post-photo manipulation tools. As a friend recently said, the best lens is your eye. That’s so true.
For me, before I take a photo–any photo, whether it’s on my iPhone or with my expensive camera–I size up the shot. I look at the lighting and consider the best possible composition. I think about what mood I am trying to create and why I’m taking the photo. I’m not random at all. Every photo I take I do so with purpose. If I take it and it doesn’t fulfill the purpose, I delete it. It’s the same thing I used to do in the darkroom as well, just much cheaper than buying loads of film and paper, ergo less wasteful. But the process is the same: deliberate and meaningful.
But just for Tony, today I used my Nikon and an old 17-24mm wide angle lens from 1982. The lens is completely manual, and in order to use it with my camera I have to adjust everything. I even have to focus manually. I have to set the aperture (on the lens itself) and shutter speed, control the white balance, set the ISO. There’s no technology available except for my eye and my knowledge of how to use light to create the shot I want. Even the dark edges are the result of lens falloff and not an app.
So here’s the result, right out of the camera with no post-production except for cropping due to the large size of the images. The photos are of a decaying wooden boat.
Pretty good for a 32-year-old lens, eh?
In the parking lot waiting for Tony to get off work. It’s cold and rainy, but I’ve got music and knitting to keep me occupied.
Remembering John Lennon, as it was 34 years ago tonight that he was murdered.
I have 3 totally different photos for today…
The first is my church.
I grew up going to church with my mother, Aunt Jane, and grandfather. When I left home though, I never found a church that had that same warm feeling as the one in which I grew up, so I just quit going. 30 years later, my daughter led me to this church, which I now call home. I can think when I’m there. I shut off the rest of the world and think quiet thoughts and try to pull some positive energy to myself. It’s warm in there, just like in my old church, and I feel safe and comforted.
Today I did a lot of thinking about my mother and her current struggles, being 83 years old and taking care of her two older sisters, both of whom need constant care. My mother has a beautiful voice and it’s what I remember most of going to church when I was young, her standing beside me in the pew singing. Today I thought of how nice it would be to have her beside me again instead of living out the rest of her burdened life two hours away from me.
I’m going to work on getting her here and helping her in any way I can. Sitting in church today, quietly and thoughtfully, gave me some ideas…
The second photo is a 2-photo collage of photographer Andy Tennille. I went to hear him speak today and it was wonderful. He photographs bands mostly, and has been featured in Rolling Stone magazine as well as a host of other magazines. He’s also Tom Petty’s personal photographer. He gave an inspirational and down-to-earth talk today, and I’m glad that I met him.
The third photo is Tony, my boyfriend of many years. He’s my partner and soul mate on this life’s journey, and I’m glad he’s around.
It’s cold and rainy today…
…so not much going on. Sitting and knitting most of the day, but I got out earlier and snapped a quick shot of the trees through my wet car window.
I’m cheating today…
These photos weren’t actually taken today, but I processed them today, so I’m going to count that as fair. I took them a couple of weeks ago, using some of my favorite models.
For me, processing means toning the photos to my liking. Fortunately, I work hard to make the lighting perfect before I take the photo, so I don’t have to mess with that part of it. But I want my photos to have a certain feeling to them, so toning them is usually the way that I achieve that.
I love photographing the human form and eliciting a strong emotion to the outcome. One of my models said that I have the ability to make her look both strong and dangerous and soft and feminine at the same time. I take that as a huge compliment, as that is what I am striving to do.
We are all vulnerable and strong, both qualities existing at the same time within us.
These are four of about 500 images.
With the speed of my life these days, I must admit it’s not easy to take a photo a day.
I don’t like to just shoot anything to post here, as that’s not satisfying to me and sort of defeats the purpose. I like to really think about what I am photographing and what it means to me. But on a day like today, that’s not easy.
I worked a 12-hour shift today, with only a small hour break in the middle. So my photos today were taken from my car en route to work after I dropped my son off from school. I knew it would be the only chance I had to photograph.
It really represents my life right now, the huge amount of time I spend in my car and outside of my home. These are buildings I pass along the way every single day. They are a part of my routine now.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I pull into the parking lot of the school where I work and face these beautiful, mysterious grasses. I photograph them often.
As night rolls in, I photograph one of my favorite subjects, bare trees.
These are the mighty willow oaks outside of Tony’s apartment.
Today is my daughter’s 19th birthday.
She is away at college so for the first time ever, I cannot be with her on her birthday, though I did get to see her yesterday.
In celebration of her beautiful spirit and heart, I went on the playground today at work and photographed some of the children. I then went to the church that is next door to our school to photograph a drumming circle there that some of our 4th grade students were participating in.
The church is over 100 years old, small, and lovely. I love photographing old churches. There is a mystery to them that captivates me.
Happy birthday, Emma. I love you dearly. xo
Mid-Century Me 