Shutter Sisters

a face in the pell-mell

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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!

Comments

  1. What a great word for this month..and what a wonderful ‘face’ you captured. Just recently – I’ve been playing with candid ‘faces’ of my own. Here are a few:
    http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=1246
    http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=1245
    http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=1245
    http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=1243
    http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=1242

  6. Look at those eyelashes!

    I don’t take a lot of portraits or people shots. I tend to like to go off by myself to take photos. It’s a meditation for me. But then I’m disappointed by my lack of people shots 🙂

    I took this one recently of my daughter while I was trying to photograph her blowing bubbles. When she looked at those photos in the viewfinder, she thought she looked like a fish and couldn’t stop laughing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superdewa/4847402136/

  34. I’m a still-life photographer, yet I can’t resist my toddler son’s face. It’s a whole new photography ball game — working fast and trying my best to stick with natural light even through my subject is a moving target. So many of the images blur. But I love the softness. He’s approaching two very quickly, yet the baby softness is still in that gorgeous little face.

    http://journeyleaf.typepad.com/journeyleaf/2010/07/crumby.html

  38. what a fabulous post! i can certainly relate to the pell-mell abandon you speak of, indeed.
    and "faces" as a theme for the OWP? i think i’m in love!

    some unscripted portraits for today:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_r/4741752221/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_r/3872588928/in/set-72157607454214429/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_r/4049740692/in/set-72157607454214429/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_r/4537151117/in/set-72157607454214429/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_r/4365581607/in/set-72157607454214429/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_r/3530869636/in/set-72157607454214429/
    i guess you could say i <3 faces too!

  50. Outstanding post but I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject?
    I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little
    bit more. Appreciate it!

  51. Вау, эту мысль предложила администрации страницы моя сестра.
    Ее действительно интересует эта тема,
    обещаю передать ей ваши отзывы.

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