Shutter Sisters

right at home

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I am not sure what it is that transforms a place from being just another space to somewhere that feels like home. Maybe it’s when you know it is safe to hang up your armor of defenses at the door. Or when you realize that you leave little bits of your heart behind whenever you spend time there. Or perhaps it’s when you see your child plop down on a futon with a familiarity as if she has spent countless hours hanging out on that piece of furniture.

I love this photo of my daughter making herself right at home in my friends’ apartment. To me, it is actually a perfect depiction of how I feel about that space, the affection and love I hold for that locale and for the friends who live there. It is a reminder that I photograph the spaces I inhabit because the photos become repositories of the memories knit together by love and friendship and laughter and conversation in that very place.

Please share with us your images of the places where you can hang your heart, the places that make you feel right at home, whether you actually live there or not.

Milestones

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My daughter Cadence attended her first school dance on Friday, and I got to be her lucky date. This is an important milestone to me because I believe strongly in the phrase “struggle all day; dance all night,” and seeing her on the dancefloor with her friends made my heart swell with pride and joy.

As I thought about our One Word for the month of December–savor–I realized that Cadence has been experiencing some significant milestones this year, and this thought made me want to savor each one of those. I believe that capturing moments like the one above in the photo is one way I can savor these important milestones of hers.

Share with us today images of milestones that you have savored–whether in your own life or in your children’s lives or anyone elses’s.

sign of the times

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We are living in interesting times here in the United States. This is the first time in my adult memory that there have been continuous public demonstrations by a significant number of people across the country resisting and challenging the status quo. Occupy Wall Street has taken on a life of its own and spread to many other cities and towns and neighborhoods.

As an activist photographer, I have been watching the Occupy phenomenon here in Chicago and documenting when I can. I hear a lot of talk about how we are the 99% who are being oppressed by the top 1%.  And while that may be technically true, I know that within that broad category of the 99%, oppression is not experienced in the same way or equally. People of color, women, those who are queer/trans, undocumented immigrants, people with disabilities, those who are homeless or in prison–these people experience oppression differently from those who come from privileged backgrounds.

As we ponder on being thankful this month, I would challenge us to also recognize the various privileges we benefit from, whether we are conscious of them or not. If we’re going to live like we are all in this together (like the sign in the photo states), we need to see that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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As photographers, we have the opportunity to document and share with the world the work that is happening within our own communities, whether it’s a rally or protest against injustice, the occupation of public space, or the everyday hard work of community organizers and residents. Please share with us today your stories and/or images of those who work in love and struggle in your own communities so that we can be reminded that we are, indeed, all in this together.

piecing it all together

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I thought I’d have it figured out by now, this “knowing yourself” business. And yet here I am, once again questioning and challenging the construct of self that I’ve held onto for so long. I’ve been stripping away the layers of how others define me, how I’ve been socialized to define myself, and I’m trying to piece it all back together again. I am learning to embrace my unfinishedness and to walk comfortably with the idea that my identify is more fluid and flexible than I give it credit for and that I will never be finished with the work of self-discovery and reflection.

In continuing with the exploration of our word of the month “YOU,” please share with us stories of how you’ve changed the way you see or define yourself, and feel free to share images that represent any aspect of yourself.

finding the words

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Ever get the feeling your photos are trying to tell you something? Sometimes, sage advice can be found in the images we capture. You may not grasp the wisdom at the moment you snap the shutter, and it may not be until weeks later, as you browse your archives, that the words jump out at you from the screen and you have your a-ha!-this-is-what-i-need-to-do moment. Pictures may speak a thousand words, but sometimes you only need two very specific ones.

What words have you found in your images that capture the counsel or truth you need to hear right now? Please show us!

the moments in between

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My friends had just finished a soccer game in the gloaming, and we had been taking “team” photos in the fading light of this merry band of futbol players. While I think the posed shots were a ton of fun, I have to say that my heart is drawn to the candids in between the “formal” shots. To me, that’s where my favorite stories are in photography–those moments in between people’s awareness of the camera, those moments in between the subject’s consciously exhibiting the persona that they want the camera to capture, those moments in between the awkwardness for those who are uncomfortable in front of a lens.

I love the light in this photo, that light in between day and night, that last glimmer of sun fading into the darkness. I love the chaos in this photo, everybody doing their own thing or trying to spell the letters AMC [for Allied Media Conference which was where we were at] before the photographers yell at everyone to get in position and to hold still. I love that I can still feel the love and joy and magic of this moment, even now…

Share with us today your images of those “moments in between,” however you want to interpret that.

Public Service Announcement…With Hearts

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I was walking down the street on my own, shuffling through my mixed bag of thoughts, reflecting on the events of the night. I was feeling kinda down, truth be told, and that’s probably why my eyes were on the ground when I saw this in the photo above. I immediately stopped in my tracks. My initial reaction was, “Aw, how sweeet,” (semi-sarcastic) until I saw the note scrawled beneath the stenciling (“No, no, I love you, I LOVE YOU”), and then I laughed out loud. This little exchange between anonymous street artist and anonymous passerby reminded me of a Facebook exchange I had with a dear friend that went along the lines of “You da BEST” “No, YOU da BEST!” “No, YOU!” and so on…That memory put a smile on my face.

Had I been walking with my head up and a spring in my step, I probably would have walked right over this little message from the universe. I’m not saying that just because I saw this note, I immediately felt embraced and loved by humankind. What it DID do was to remind me that just a block away was a taqueria where some beloved friends were waiting for me, and for the moment, that was more than enough.

Have you ever been surprised by an image that you normally would have missed had you not just happened to be looking in that direction? Has your heart been changed by paying attention to the details? Please share with us your images and stories.

shooting for transformation

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You thought you were going to change the world with your photography, didn’t you? You stepped into that struggle, camera in hand, thinking you would “help” these people by telling their stories through your lens. You meant well, you truly wanted to help, but guess what? It wasn’t about YOU. It still isn’t about YOU. It’s about US. It’s about SOLIDARITY. It’s about the intersectionality of all the struggles of all who are oppressed. It’s about how there can’t be justice for one until there is justice for all. It’s about letting people tell their own stories, even if you are the one behind the camera, framing the image and clicking the shutter, because we all know that we as photographers can control the story we tell by what we choose to capture and share.

And if you can get over yourself and open your eyes and your ears and your heart, YOU are the one who will be transformed, the one who will be humbled by the stories of The People, the one who will no longer show up as the aloof photojournalist but as a brother or sister in solidarity, the one who is there because you recognize that your liberation is tied to the liberation of all who struggle, the one who will never be the same.

“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together… ” ~ Aboriginal Activist

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And when I use the term “you” above, I am talking about myself. This is the story of my own personal experience documenting social justice movements in Chicago for the past six months. I write about this after having experienced May Day, which is celebrated around the world on May 1st as International Worker’s Day and here in Chicago as a day to also highlight immigrant rights, which are also worker’s rights, which are also human rights.

I really thought my photography was going to change the world, I really did. What I learned instead, was that I was the one in need of transformation.

How has photography changed you? Please share your stories of transformation or images that have had a transformative effect on your heart.

sunday school: lightroom presets for the {unapologetically} nostalgic

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She wants a puppy, just like any other happy-go-lucky six-and-a-half-year-old little girl. Alas, I am in no position to get a dog of her own, so we visit Mayu, my friend’s lovely and playful Peruvian pup. The sun peeks out, slightly warming the frigid March air, giving us hope that spring is finally remembering to return to us.

Someone once characterized my photography as being “nostalgic.” I like that description. It’s true; one of the reasons I take photos is because I am nostalgic-to-the-core, and unapologetically so. I sometimes exhibit this side of me in the way I choose to edit my photos in Adobe Lightroom, by applying “vintage-esque” effects that accentuate my emotional ties to the memory captured in the photo.

To celebrate spring finally coming back to the Windy City (fingers-crossed/knock-on-wood…), I’ve created a set of spring-and-nostalgia-inspired Lightroom Develop Presets for you to play around with. To see larger photos of these examples, you can go to this gallery of images and click on any thumbnail on that page to see a larger version.  To download a zip file of these presets, click here.  You can view instructions on installing presets here. Please note that these presets were developed for RAW (uncompressed) files, but most of them should work for JPEG files as well; you’ll just need to tweak a little more here and there. You’ll also want to change the basic exposure/brightness to your liking, as most of these presets do not affect those settings.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only nostalgic vintage-effects-loving photographer around here. Please share with us today your favorite vintage editing effects, or, if you’re a Lightroom user, try one of these presets and share the results with us!

For No Obvious Reason

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I can’t tell you why exactly, but I love this photo. I don’t know much about rules of aesthetics that determine whether a photograph should or shouldn’t be pleasing to the eye, and quite frankly, I don’t really care about the rules. What I can tell you is that the first time I saw this photo, I was instantly smitten. Perhaps it’s because looking at it made me develop a narrative about the woman on her phone. Maybe it has to do with the perspective from which the photo was taken. Or it could be because nothing is really in focus in this picture. There is no specific reason for me to like this photo, but I can’t deny that I do find it beautiful, and that to me is more important than if a bunch of rules deem it to be a photo worthy of my admiration.

Today, share with us your images that you instantly fell in love with for no obvious reason. Who knows; maybe we’ll be smitten as well.