Shutter Sisters

instant capture

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I was riding the bus home after a photoshoot, with my camera on my lap browsing through the photos I had just taken.  Suddenly, I spied a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye, and I quickly switched my camera to shooting mode and just barely captured this shot above of the sunny footwear exiting the bus.  Even though I only caught a glimpse of the real thing, gazing at this photo makes me smile and wonder about the owner of those pretty bright yellow shoes, how happy she must have been to slide into them after a long Chicago winter.

Sometimes, photography is about meditative and deliberate practice.  Other times, however, it’s about being a quick draw and capturing that flash of visual joy at just the right moment before it’s gone.  Whether it’s the suspension of disbelief or a sweet display of affection, some instants are over in a blink of an eye or (preferably) the click of a shutter. 

Please share with us today evidence of those swiftly passing moments that you happened to capture before they became mere deposits in your memory bank.

sunday school: lightroom presets for night owls

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It’s probably obvious to most people who know me well (virtually or in the flesh) that I am a creature of the night.  This is partly due to necessity; I work full-time 30 miles from home in a corporate office setting, and therefore, especially during the winter, my daylight hours of freedom are quite limited.  Fortunately, I live in a big city that stays brightly lit long after the sun has gone down, and since I’ve always been a night owl, I have no problem claiming the title of streetlight photographer.

I’ve done quite a bit of night photography on the streets around Chicago these past couple winter months, so I created a set of Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets specifically for processing photos that were taken under streetlights or other kinds of orange-ish (tungsten) artificial dim lighting. 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. 

These presets will not impact exposure and brighness, so you’ll want to adjust those setting either before or after applying the presets to get the results you want.  Also, since these are specifically for night-time shots that may have required a high ISO, the noise reduction settings will not be impacted by the presets, as you will want to adjust those yourself depending on your personal tolerance for noise.  And while these presets were developed for RAW (uncompressed) files, most of them should work for JPEG files as well; you’ll just need to tweak a little more here and there.

Night photography can be challenging, but it’s also a boon for those who like to get creative in the digital darkroom.  Do you have a night image that you processed in an interesting way?  Please share your tips and links to images.  Or if you happen to try out any of these presets on a night shot collecting dust in your archives, please do show us your results.

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Edited To Add: These presets are for use with Adobe Lightroom 2.  Unfortunately, these are not actions and can’t be used in Photoshop.  You can download a trial version of Lightroom here to try out for 30 days.

Sunday School: A Time to Click, A Time to Wait

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The show let out at a quarter to midnight.  I should’ve gone straight home since I would need to be up at six the next morning for work.  It was cold, I was tired and hungry and my feet felt like they were made of lead, but I felt a strong flutter of anticipation; my inner photo detector was going off loudly, and I knew better than to ignore it.   I listened to that still small voice that spoke not in words but in sensations–the tightening of my chest, the wave of nostalgia washing over me, the rollercoaster in my stomach–signs that clearly told me that there was a photograph I needed to take that night, and if I were patient and still, I would know.

And so I waited, standing at my favorite Six Corners with my camera ready.  I clicked the shutter a few times here and there, but for the most part, I simply kept watch and waited. Then I saw them, crossing the street towards me, a young couple walking in the warmth of contented familiarity, and they paused in front of me, waiting for the light that would take them to the next corner.  The moment I saw the cloud of smoke and breath intermingled–a ghost given up to the cold clear night–I quickly aimed my camera and clicked.  THIS was the photo I was waiting for.  I can’t explain to you how I knew, but I did.

There is a time to click, click, click away, and there is a time to be still and vigilant for that one moment you’ve been waiting for.  To me, it is a spiritual practice, this business of being still, especially since I have a shutter-happy index finger.  To practice pure presence in that time and place, to soak it in and relish deliberate slowness; it is meditation, it is prayer, and it is a gift to myself.

If your usual modus operandi is to shoot randomly and often, try waiting 5 minutes in between shutter clicks.  Try waiting 10 minutes.  Experience a different way of seeing the world, savoring bits and pieces until the big picture comes into focus.  It’s not something I do often, but when I do, the reward of the wait is oh-so worth it.

Do you have images that were the result of meditative and deliberate waiting?  Have you ever kept watch in anticipation of the right moment? Please share with us the fruit of your patience.

This Is How the Universe Says ‘I Love You’

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You cannot convince me not to love this photo.  And yet, this was one of those shots that I almost deleted the  moment I captured it without even looking at the result because I had not meant to take a 1 second exposure.   When I finally saw the image for the first time on my monitor at home, however, I was instantaneously smitten.  Yes, it’s blurry and partially blown-out and not anything like what I thought I wanted to capture, but upon first sight, I knew it was perfect.

Was it merely good luck or a happy accident that produced this photo?  Perhaps a little of both.  Nevertheless, I prefer to see it as the Universe’s way of whispering ‘I Love You’ to little old me.   It’s probably not evident to anyone else, but what I recognize in this photo is the fluttering of my heart as I witnessed beauty unfolding before my eyes, the beauty I am woven into as part of my little community of love and faith.  In between the blur and fuzz, I see grace and hope embodied in the bended knees of people I cherish dearly, people who bow their heads in love not to ideology or religiosity or unexamined faith but to the humble task of leaning on one another and carrying each other’s burdens.

The Universe knew I would never think to take a long exposure, and so she intervened on my behalf and left me this little love note, and for that I am ever so grateful.  It is personally more powerful and more meaningful than any image I could have captured with my own human eyes.

Please share with us today your images of serendipity/luck/happy accidents/gently whispered messages from the Universe, those images that unexpectedly made your heart skip a beat.

treasure hunt

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Perhaps the arctic winds have been howling in your neck of the woods.  Or you’re still trying to catch up after the holiday frenzy.  Maybe work has been crazy, leaving you exhausted at the end of each day.  Or you’re trudging through the valley of creative doldrums.  For whatever reason, you find yourself unable or uninspired to lift your camera to your eye. 

If this sounds like you, fear not!  Banish the guilt and take heart; it’s time you went on a treasure hunt.  Where, you ask?  Why, through all those unedited-yet-undeleted archives, of course!  I’ll bet you won’t have to go very far to uncover an image you somehow overlooked that will brighten your day.  Or maybe you’ll find a shot worth playing around with to see where it leads.  Get creative with the way you process it, maybe do something you normally wouldn’t do, like converting it to black and white, or (if you use Lightroom) try out a preset or two that you normally wouldn’t use, or experiment with textures.  You may be pleasantly surprised by the results and perhaps even newly inspired to dust off the old camera again.

Do you like to go on treasure hunts through your archives?  Please share with us what you’ve found.  Or, if this is something you’ve never done, I encourage you to try it and come back here to share the hidden gem or diamond in the rough you’ve polished up!

Breaking My Own Rules

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I don’t like to think of myself as a “by-the-book” photographer.  I never learned “the rules” of photography, mainly because of my inability to read non-fiction.  Over the years that I’ve been shooting, however, I must admit that I’ve developed a few unwritten rules for myself when it comes to photography.  One of my big ones is to avoid shooting with an ISO greater than 800, even though my camera is capable of shooting at much higher ISO settings. In fact, I try to shoot at ISO200 or lower if I can.  Sometimes, though, you have to break even your own personal rules to capture the essence of the moment.

The night I took the photo above, I had been shooting all evening with a speedlight at a comfortably low ISO of 200.  However, when I looked across the room and saw my dear friend Amy as she shared a perfect moment with her son, I didn’t think that a flash-illuminated shot would do justice to what I was witnessing. I wanted to capture the scene just the way it was–dim but warm lighting and all.  So I took off my flash and cranked the ISO to 1000.  I know that’s still low compared to many other people’s standards, but to me it was going beyond my ISO comfort zone.  I’m so glad I broke my own rule, though, because this photo will always remind me of the peace and contentment I felt when I looked at the closeness my friend and her son were sharing in that moment.

As we embark on a new year and a new decade, I hope to challenge myself as a photographer by rewriting my own personal photography rules and by breaking the ones I’ve already set up for myself.  How about you? Do you have rules that you try to follow when you’re behind the camera?  And have you ever broken your own rules and surprised yourself with the results?  Please share with us your rule-breaking stories and images.

sunday school: ’tis the season to make bokeh

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For photographers like me, if there’s one thing we drool over during the holiday season, it’s the seemingly infinite sources of itty bitty points of light EVERYWHERE, from one’s own home, to the neighbor’s bejeweled trees, to the local mall. And itty bitty points of light mean one thing to us, do they not?  BOKEH BUBBLES.*  That’s right, folks.  If the festive side of Christmas annoys you or stresses you out, look on the bright side–there are endless opportunities for blowing bokeh bubbles into your images.

If you’ve ever wondered how to capture the kind of magical bokeh characterized by dreamy floating balls of colored light, this is the perfect time to experiment and learn by trial-and-error.  Just keep in mind these few basics, and you’ll be an expert bokeh bubble blower in no time!

  • Shaped bokeh is created by the blurring of highlights, such as small points of light or reflections of light.  This is why sunlight poking through summer tree leaves makes for pretty bokeh.
  • The shape of the bokeh is determined by the shape of your lens’s aperture.  If you like your bokeh nice and round, try shooting wide open with a fast prime lens like the popular 50mm f/1.8.  If you want to get a hexagon shaped bokeh, try a narrower aperture such as f/4.5.
  • The key is to position your lens with your subjects in the foreground with the points of light (such as Christmas tree lights) in the background so that when you focus on your main subjects, the lights behind them will blur into magical bubbles of bokeh.
  • You can experiment with the size of your bokeh by changing the depth of field or focal length of your lens or by modifying the distance between your lens and the subjects and the distance between the subjects and the points of light behind them. 

I’ve seen some great bokeh bubbles that make use of the abundant little lights of the holiday season.  If you have images of such bokeh that you’d like to share, we’d love to see them.  And if you have any tips on capturing the magic of bokeh, please do share those as well!

*By bokeh bubbles, I am referring to the shaped bokeh of blurred highlights, as opposed to creamy bokeh, which is just smooth blur.

Sometimes? Life Calls For Ice Cream

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It was the middle of November, and I was hitting a wall.  So much going on in my life, some good, some difficult, and all of it pulling my limbs in every which direction.  My husband had an event going on that night, and of course my daughter didn’t want to miss out.  I should stay home and get some work done, my inner logic reasoned.  I’ll regret it come this weekend if I don’t.  Luckily for me, something a tad unusual happened; a sudden surge of spontaneity took over and hushed my common sense.  I decided to go out and have fun with my family.  I decided to say yes to myself, to what I really wanted.  And when my daughter asked to go out for ice cream that night?  I said yes to that, too. 

I believe this image is a sweet reward for having done so.

I’m learning that when I have these little urges to veer off the usual path, I should listen to my inner guide, because more than likely, there is magic waiting to be discovered in the hidden cover of mystery.  Sometimes the magic is profound and life-changing, and other times it’s the simple pleasure of enjoying the unlikely ice cream cone on a cold November evening with your 5 year old sprite of a child.

When was the last time you chose to be spontaneous and said yes to yourself?  Wasn’t it sooo worth it?  Please share your stories and any images you were rewarded with!

a thank you note

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As I ponder on Gratitude, our One Word for November, I can’t help but think about all the wonderful photographers I’m surrounded by here in the Shutter Sisters community.  When I became a contributor almost two years ago, I didn’t realize how much I would grow as a person and as a photographer as a result.  Every time I look through our collective body of work, I’m amazed and humbled.

What a gift it is to be party of a community that supports and encouragees you, challenges you to grow, shares in your joys and sorrows. 

So today, I want to thank all of you, my fellow photographers and photography lovers who have taught me so much about not just how to take a good picture but also about friendship and generosity and sisterhood.

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In the spirit of generosity, Memolio is giving away 5 more books today! But first, the winners of last weeks Memolio giveaway are

xantheberkeley, Amanda, Nancy Orozco, Jo and Toni. Congrats sisters!

Leave a comment today to be in the next random drawing for 1 of 5 free Memolio books!

sunday school: more fun with lightroom presets

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Last winter, I shared a post on Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets along with a free set of 15 presets that I had developed.  I thought it was about time I created some new presets for the Shutter Sisters community, so I’ve gathered up my favorites from recent months and packaged them into a new set of 11, which you can see examples of in the photo above.

To see larger photos of these examples, you can go to this gallery of images and click on any thumbnail to see a larger version.  To download a zip file of these presets, click here.  You can view instructions on downloading presets here.  FYI, most of the presets I’ve created this time around are non-destructive to the basic tone settings (i.e., exposure, recovery, fill light, black, brightness and contrast), so you will most likely want to play with those settings after applying the preset.

Something I’ve learned about creating your own develop presets since last year’s post is that you can pick and choose which settings you want to save as the preset.  For example, if you don’t want to impact the original photo’s basic tone, you can unselect items such as exposure, fill light, black, brightness, etc., and the preset will not affect those settings when applied. 

I also find that when you’re developing new presets, it’s a good idea to use a photo that’s already properly exposed SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera).  I also like using a photo that contains a person (to see the impact on skin tone) as well trees or grass (to see if the greens look like they are a part of nature).  I try to apply a new preset to a variety of photos to make sure the effects are consistent with what I was trying to achieve.

I love seeing how presets I created weeks or months ago can still be applied to new photographs.  Sometimes, I’ll see a photo I’d taken SOOC, and I’ll know right away which of my presets to use to achieve the affect I want.  I can spend hours playing around with just one image, marveling at the different mood created by changing the saturation, or the highlight tone, or the vignette, or hues, or on and on and on.

If you’ve been having fun with Lightroom Presets since the last time we talked about them, we’d love to see what you’ve been up to!