Shutter Sisters

Exploring the Details

By

 

 

I do not travel to follow itineraries. I travel to see whatever I happen to see. All it takes is a willingness to wander, to make mistakes, to ask for help, to observe, to follow my instincts, to face fears and step outside my comfort zone. –Ordinary Sparkling Moments

 

Whenever anyone asks me what I do for a living, I always smile and say, “I am an artist”. Questions then follow about the kind of work I do and what inspires me, and while all of these exchanges are among the most pleasant for me (I mean really, I get to say I’m an artist…an artist!) I have lately been wondering if I should toss all formalities aside and try to express the more fundamental truth of what I do. More than being an artist, a writer or anything else, I am a wanderer, a dreamer, and an explorer. Whether I am on a journey across the Pacific or sitting in my studio pondering my place in the world, my fierce passion for explorations of any kind is what feeds my creative work more than anything else, and it is the tiniest of details in these wanderings that give me the deepest sense of delight.

 

I have been incredibly blessed to have traveled to many beautiful parts of the world, and on every excursion, there are two items that are always with me: my journal and my camera. I have been known to write journal entries as I’m walking down cracked sidewalks in Havana and as a woman obsessed with graffiti art in Buenos Aires. I am constantly writing, sketching, photographing and observing, trying to capture all the minutiae of new cities, unfamiliar neighborhoods and foreign cultures. Then when I arrive back home, notes, images and doodles in hand, I let all these bits and pieces spill forth so that I can re-assemble them in an entirely new way. I use my photography to express all the subtleties I saw, sensed and experienced in places where I could not understand the language yet still perhaps felt strangely at home.

 

To allow yourself to dive deep into the tiniest of details in any environment is to open yourself up to colors, images and textures that might go unnoticed if you’re always looking up at the skyscrapers, so to speak. There is so much to see and admire on the ground, in a drugstore window, in the layers of paint on an old building. I find that the more I let my eyes stay focused on one small area, the more I comprehend the real flavor of a city and a culture. In Tokyo, the artful details of their manhole covers helped me understand their appreciation for beauty. In Havana, the peeled paint, broken windows and piles of rubble let any visitor know this was a city lost in time. In Buenos Aires, the political nature of their graffiti gave me a glimpse of the tension still deeply felt by a city with a dark, complicated past. The personality, history and passions of any city, town or neighborhood can be found in its details, by looking in the most minuscule of spaces and letting that take up your entire field of vision.

 

You don’t need to travel across the globe to explore life’s details. This is a technique you can use anywhere, anytime, even in your own home. What if you took an afternoon to explore the details of your home with your camera? What would those images say about you, your family, your routines, your likes and dislikes? Giving time and attention to the smaller corners of your own living space with your camera can help hone the muscle that notices tiny sparkles in unexpected places. Then you can use those skills to capture all the peculiar, radiant, mysterious charms of any location, near or far, at any time of the year in any part of the world.

 

Take your time. Observe. Look closer. Let yourself get lost in the details.

 

Photo and guest post courtesy of artist extraordinaire Christine Mason Miller (aka Swirly Girl). Christine has graciously offered a copy of her book Ordinary Sparkling Moments to one lucky reader. If you want in on the action leave a comment here to be included in the drawing. 

Congratulations to Bridge of Ride the Waves of Life the winner of the wonderful offerings from Jen Lemen.

Comments

  4. Exactly! I too take time to observe the mini details in and around me, even the outside because all the beauty is hidden behind those details. That’s why there’s always a comfort in my life, I mean the comfort of small pleasures.
    So generous to offer this giveaway, lets see if I’d be lucky.. Thanks for the opportunity.

  7. Inspiring entry today. I’ll be looking for the extra in my surroundings today! I sometimes get lost in the bleak and the desolate…I’m sure there is soul within.

  10. It was while I was growing up in a small town that I realized the beauty of life was in noticing the details of my surroundings. There was nothing to do there but ponder, and I was a teenager who was sure that most of her thoughts were brilliant. It turns out most of them weren’t, but this one stuck.

    Now when I’m traveling, I feel so blessed to be able to take in the details of other people’s daily lives. I was very inspired by this post and I think I could learn a lot from Christine.

    http://www.avenuphotography.com

  17. I don’t love housecleaning. The vacuuming and floor washing all bore me and I have little interest in it. Fortunately my husband does the "big" clean. I love the small cleaning, where I handle and wipe the dust off all the little things in the house and I stand close to the art on the walls taking in how beautiful they are and remembering why they were bought in the first place.
    I think is why I’m loving my new macro lens so much.

  19. Since its winter time in Michigan, I’ve felt like "what on earth am I going to photography all winter". My children are already running when I get the camera out. This reminds me that I need to work harder at photographing the small things. There are plenty of small things at my house. Usually on the floor ready to be stepped on and cursed at, but there are plenty of small things.

  21. What would life be without the little details. As we loose ourselves to the fast pace of our lives, we loose our ability to take the time to pay attention to the details. Stopping to look closer gives us a moment to catch our breath, get centered and after a brief break we are ready to tackle life again. Loose yourself in the moment and you might just find something you have been missing!
    My detail pictures are of the ice that is slowly but steadily creeping in!
    http://pixels-n-pen.blogspot.com

  23. I think that getting my camera and learning to "live" with it has taught me to appreciate the details. I don’t know how many times I’ll be looking at a print I’ve taken and go "what’s that?" as I look closer and see something I didn’t even realize was there when I took the picture.

    Now, I look for those things BEFORE I snap. lol

  25. Great post! Shortly after my daughter was born, we went out and purchased a new camera and three new lenses. I was obviously not shooting weddings with a newborn, so I decided I would see what photos I could find in my house. It really opened my eyes to detail and it has paid off even in the portraits I’ve photographed since.

    I’d love a chance at the book!

  27. I believe that it’s the details that the artist sees, and reveals, that speak most about how the artist interprets beauty. And that we all see just a little bit differently, and that itself is beautiful.

  30. this is a beautiful post. thank you for sharing with us, dreamer/explorer. i always said i wanted to travel with my journal, my camera, and lots of tea in my suitcase. that’s it. onward to adventure.

  37. Love your reference to manhole covers in Japan as I’ve just started taking photos of them in the places I’m living and visiting here.

  43. Well said! Cool book, would love to own it!
    I agree with Marcie, God is in the details – life is in the details! I’m nearing "completion" of my noticing project this year, I’ve gone well over the number I thought I would take and don’t plan on stopping next year.

  49. i have always hesitated to call myself an artisit, that was alway s someone else. now that i am an artist i have given myself permission to see the world differently and the details have become very clear. thanks for the chance at receiving this great book

  52. This post reminded me of some of my favorite quotes:

    "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not" Emerson

    " A real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"

    "Eventually I realized that my home is within me and I can take it with me wherever I go, leaving me much freer than before"

  57. Getting a camera combined with blogging sure has made a difference to me … in noticing details. On walks, my husband notices the big things … while I’m always looking for the little things.

    Sure and I’d be most pleased to get that book so count me in!

  58. Wonderful advice…we are headed off for a vacation this Christmas so I’ll have to make sure and use some of the tips you suggest.
    – Donna

  65. Ooh! That book has been on my "covet list" since I first saw it! Thanks for the chance!

    I enjoyed your perspective on noticing the details of everyday life. I have a tendency to be so hyper-focused on my incessant To Do list that I forget to do that. Thanks for the reminder!

  66. I don’t know about the rest of you; but I’m so loving reading thru and looking at everyone’s photo’s. Incredible stuff out there.

    I have learned to really love the details esp since I’ve become one of the sisters. I am patiently..ok Not so patiently waiting for a macro lens =)

    But for now, I do what I can. Here are some of the precious details I love in my life.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodyangel/3062602794/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodyangel/3057043936/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodyangel/3056198091/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodyangel/3053254602/

  67. just last night i explored the details of my daughter’s room, her fear of the dark and her sleep experience.

    wwaddellphoto.com

  69. I love the quote, I love the moments when that is how I live, and long for more of them. Thank you.

  70. I never conisdered myself creative or artistic. 😉 I’m type A. I like label makers and filing systems. When I got my camera I discovered that I really enjoyed taking pictures. However, when I got my 50mm f1.8 lens… that’s when I discovered the DETAILS. That’s when I felt the creative side of myself begin to emerge for the first time in my life, at age 33! It has changed the way I look at everything… even when my camera isn’t in my hands. 🙂

    Thanks for a great post!!

  71. Thank you for the radiant post. It is always thrilling for me to discover that others share my passions in life (travel and art being my top two as well). I spent two weeks in India last year shooting every second of my adventures and breathlessly scribbling them down in shorthand in my journal. How reassuring to know I have kindred spirits doing the same!

  72. I especially love the details of nature….how all the leaves on a tree move together in the wind…like a dance. How the flowers turn their petals towards the sun. So many more….

  80. to be thankful for the "everyday" blessings. . .that’s one of the basic concepts I tried to instill in my children.
    taking a picture a day has really made me look at the "sparkle in the ordinary moments"

  85. Sometimes when I’m looking through the viewfinder on my camera I think I’m seeing things for the first time. Great post!

  90. Great post.. another opportunity to think about what exactly the important things are in life! (as found in the little things)

  91. Awesome post!!! I too, am very lucky to be able to travel. My camera and journal are always with me. Sometimes I’ll draw something that inspires me, more often I take a photo. You can do so much with a photo!! Blog about it, share it with family and friends, make prints or posters or other giftware featuring the image, you can collage it, journal it, scrapbook it, write a story about the photo…. 🙂

    Details are fun to capture and so are close-ups and macros.

    This is a book I have to read :)) Thanks for sharing and writing such a fabulous Blog.

  95. I am just beginning to step into what it means for me to be an artist. Thank you for your words and inspiration.

    I love Christine’s art and how she sees the sacred in the ordinary.

  96. When people ask me what I do, I’m starting to say that I am a musician…that’s a very scary thing for me to do. I am no longer just a student who sings a lot, I have chosen my career, and it is as a musician. And it’s letting me explore so many new things: my voice, myself, my colleagues, my world. And, like you, my journal and my camera are not far away while I do my exploration.

  97. Your book has been on my wishlist for so long.
    Have no clue as to why it is still on the list and not yet
    in my book case. If this comment isn’t changing anything to that
    situation i will have to do something about it soon 🙂

  98. Thanks for the inspiring post. I find the best events happen in the small ordinary moments. It would be a joy to win this book.

  100. Especially now that it’s winter, I’m trying to expand my perspective, while staying within my little block here at home. At first it seemed like a limitation, now I find it’s expanding my creativity. I love how you travel, though I’m not as good at meandering that way. There are stay at home dads who have business cards that say "gentleman of leisure", so why not have one for yourself that says "wanderer extraordinaire". That sounds wonderful!

  106. oh, am I happy Hanna shared your site with me! pretty pretty. real real.

    I was just noticing something the other day that’s around me all the time. And it is a beautiful thing. And recently I got a timeshare, and have been planning trips, so I’m starting a travel journal. But even while loving to travel and loving the anticipation, I am starting to train myself to practice seeing what’s Here and Now, because attentiveness is a behavior, and it can only benefit us in travel and in home. Attentiveness and listening.

    Thanks for a cool message, that’s come at a pivotal time.

  110. Ah, the universe provides synchronicity to me in marvelous ways…I was considering the kinds of ideas Christine has written about while driving to work this morning. I think the meaning of life is, after all, about all the ordinary moments which sparkle if we look at them in the right light.

    I’d love to win the book, but if not, it’s on my list of "must buys" for inspirational reading.

  113. Living on a farm in the middle of the desert (that’s sounds like a juxtaposition right there) we notice colors more htan ever because of the "beige country" we live in. Here are two examples from this past week. The first is a beautiful sunset over the mountains on the edge of our farm.

    http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2008/12/view-off-my-deck-on-monday.html

    In the second my daughter was very quick to catch me giving a kiss to my husband while we were trying to take photos in front of the only colorful backdrop around – our red horse barn.

    http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2008/12/he-hates-kissing-pictures.html

  118. What a great idea! I think I may have to do this at home. I love looking at common things in new ways. Maybe it’s a good way to practice using my new 70-200mm lens. I love the photo at the top of the post!

  130. I would really love to get a copy.
    Ordinary moments are the moments most of us have each day – let us try to get them sparkling!

  132. I’d love to be entered.

    While it doesn’t exactly fit the theme of detail (or maybe it does in an internal, rather than external, sense), I’ve been doing some self photography as I deal with the emotions from my recent cancer diagnosis.

    Please visit and tell me what you think!

    http://tmlens.blogspot.com

  135. When I travelled the globe, barefoot (years ago), I snapped and snapped and laughed. It’s only now when I look back at those photos (in my memory, I lost them all when my harddrive sang a final swansong) that I see those details: the political graffiti lining the buildings of Serbia, and the computer cables still dangling along the obliterated wall of a bombed building across the road. The teenagers dancing and sipping beer on the outskirts of the Red Square, with the old man hunched in the corner of the frame, clutching a bottle of vodka and covering his face from the wild whisky wind. Photos capturing those unseen details of a country resonate long after the visa stamp expires and fades.

  137. I loved this post.
    Sometimes I think that I am too much in the details, always noticing the small stuff. Not only, but still more than the big picture. But it’s a matter of phases. I was a big picture girl before…
    A small peek here:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3064129890/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3050926643/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3064114834/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3062482520/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3055636037/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3045143691/

  148. Seems that when I get lost in the details, I find a new self, or a facet of myself that I’d overlooked. Rather like lifting something up to find something misplaced just waiting underneath.

  149. This would be such a wonderful Christmas gift…for myself 🙂
    Seriously, learning to see is not as easy as it sounds…but there is beauty in the ordinary…

  151. What a great post to remind of us the details. Sometimes it’s not always the big picture. I would love to win a copy of her book,

  152. This post was inspiring and insightful. Thank you. This book looks like a treasure. I’ll keep my fingers crossed you chose me!

  153. Beyond my own personal travels, I think the greatest gift I have found is flickr …I have met amazing journalistic photographers who tell the stories of other cultures and peoples…this is my armchair (computer chair) to the world! To be able to interact with these creative talented individuals is incredibly humbling and inspiring…
    so yes, I would love to be "gifted" in this giveaway but if not, I feel incredibly "rich" and "enriched" already!

  159. I still have a lot to learn about photography but one of the things I noticed when I first started out on this journey was being surprised when looking at photos of familiar things and seeing things in the photo that I somehow had never seen in viewing it everyday. That process has helped train my eye to see things differently and to notice the details daily.

  161. I cannot even begin to describe how deeply this post has related to my soul. It has given even greater clarity to the journey path I am on. I am so thankful for it today, and will be revisiting it more than once to saturate myself fully in its wisdom. Thank you for this blessing.

  162. I’d love to have that kind of a relationship with photography- I’m trying to figure out how to become inspired :). Maybe this book would help?

  166. paying attention to details … is living in the present moment … here and now … looking in wonders and smiling at small, simple, unique things and moments that surround us … being part of that beauty … thank you for sharing your vision d’artiste