Shutter Sisters

Pure Magic

By

 

Over the last few weeks I, like many of you have been shooting more than ever just to keep up with my 365 attempt and now, the One Word Project. And although it’s taken some adjusting to eek out time from my maxed out daily routine, I am finding the extra moments I am spending with my camera soulfully gratifying and creatively invigorating.

 

Shooting everyday helps keeps me accountable while visually translating my word opens my mind and pleasantly challenges me to keep focused on my intentions. The trouble is that now I’ve got all these photos to deal with. Uploading, processing, exporting, and more uploading can stifle anyone’s photo flow. I can feel a collective nod as I type these words.

 

I don’t have any grand answer to making these many steps any less daunting but I can tell you that if you can figure out a way to make them more efficient (or non-existent even) you’re onto something.

 

Enter the Straight Out Of the Camera concept (aka SOOC).

 

Remember the old days when you got what you got and there was no easy way to change it? It’s kinda like that. And although I wouldn’t give up my editing software to safe my life, I am rediscovering my appreciation for an image just the way it was captured. No enhancement. No manipulation. No nothing. Just you, your camera, and the subject at hand. And if all goes well some magic.

 

If I told you that getting back to the SOOC way of shooting is totally liberating, would you believe me? Are you willing to give it a go? If for no other reason but to take some of that editing time off of your plate? I’m not suggesting switching over completely. I love Lightroom too much for that. But perhaps just putting that little extra something into each shot…giving yourself a chance to love what you are creating as it happens, straight out of the camera.

 

Do share a favorite SOOC today and remind us of that kind of magic.

 

Comments

  5. I LOVE this shot. I’m new to any sort of decent camera but have an inkling that I may be an SOOC girl. I’m finding it hugely satisfying.

  8. I am still a SOOC person becasue I can not figure out my photoshop and with 2 little ones running around the house, its all I can do to keep up with 365, I heart faces and ABC photo mem

  10. Thankfully I’m just lazy enough and my computer is just slow enough that there’s no way I can post process my photos, apart from a small tweak in white balance if it’s off. I call it my "composition challenge" to make it feel like an asset to my photographic journey ;o)

    I’m honored to be the featured oneword today, what a wonderful way to start off my very early morning!

    http://traceyclark.com/shuttersisters/onewordproject/2009/2/3/depth-by-tumblieweed.html

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/28479290@N05/3245723376/

  11. Okay, this one – http://mindwhisperingsphotography.blogspot.com/ – probably doesn’t count, cause I did make it b&w after the fact, BUT I paused to breathe (my oneword) before taking it and took only one shot. I keep mentally referring back to Susannah’s (unraveling photography) post from a while back and noticing that indeed, when I take shot after shot of one thing, usually the first one is my keeper. And if I pause and take another, closer look, that shot’s often a keeper too. So I’m working on reeling in that greedy pointer finger that seemingly devours what I see in frantic (I’m gonna lose this moment) clicks…

  13. i’ve not had much time lately. i struggle with this as well. i find myself zoning out by the end of the day, just to recuperate. one way i zone out is by editing photos. (it’s just plain fun, and i’ve got no tv) alot of my old photos are SOOC. i must say you’ve inspired me to get off the screen and back into my heart tracey!

    here are two of my favorite SOOC photos
    http://flickr.com/photos/camerashymomma/2850318244/
    http://flickr.com/photos/camerashymomma/2925575208/

  16. Who knew that the way I take all of my photos had an acronym: SOOC! At some point I’ll have to learn how to use post-processing methods, but I’m a ‘for fun’ photographer and will learn more from my mistakes than from fixing them, or so I tell myself 🙂

  22. Just recently, I posted 2 pure SOC (no cropping either) that I was pleased with. i very rarely do any enhancements the images I post, but I usually crop. My daughter believes in framing in the camera and until recently would never do anything to her images – not even level adjustments. So I think she taught me to be more careful with the framing of an image.

    http://spreadingwings08.blogspot.com/2009/02/ripples-ruffles.html
    http://spreadingwings08.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-of-painting.html

  25. I tend to be one of those almost anal people about making the image "right on" sooc. It’s only been since getting Lightroom that I have begun to tweak them a bit. But for the most part, nearly all my photos are sooc. The thing I LOVE doing is turning them into black and white or sepia more than other kinds of enhancement or manipulation. That said, I have several sooc favourites so I’ll give you two that are fairly recent postings:

    Spruce tears:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/27458974@N00/3233753903/

    and Charlotte’s home:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/27458974@N00/3216461556/

    Enjoy the magic!
    http://dianeschuller.aminus3.com/"

  33. I didn’t think I had a good non-edited shot. I guess I did. I’m good at seeing what can be. sometimes, I get a shot back, and it’s not what I thought it was, so I am learning to give myself permission to create, to see what I missed. Still, every once in a while, I find exactly what I saw in my camera.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/8702729@N02/3250289819/

    Great post. I come here every day for inspiration! I’m having wonderful inspiration overload!

  34. I completely agree. After a while it can get overwhelming to worry about post processing everything, especially when you take so many photos each day. One thing I notice about my photos SOOC is that I wish that they were a little more vibrant or saturated. I use a canon rebel and I used a friends Nikon recently and the blues of the sky were so much more BLUE. Does anyone know if there is a set of parameters in camera that will capture colors as more saturated? Is this something one could download onto the camera? Thanks in advance for any advice!

    Here’s an SOOC shot of a praying mantis I took this fall:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/aimabo/2866102495/in/set-72157607352148841/

  45. Feeling nostalgic, are we?! 🙂

    The vast majority of my Flickr photos are SOOC. I’m still using a P&S and only discovered post-processing using Picnik a few months ago. And I just got Photoshop Elements for my b’day in December, but haven’t really figured it out yet! Here are two of my favourites where I wouldn’t change a thing:

    Sunset in Florence
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jagspace/2266640151/in/set-72157603913313770/
    Floral macro
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jagspace/2651800046/in/set-72157606064294651/
    xox

  49. It’s hard not to edit on these days, because the images we can find inside the previous images we had, with all these great tools now, are great. That’s what drives me in editing, anyway.
    But still, I shoot film, and I love it, and never edit anything from there.
    And I have a few SOOC shots from the digital…:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3175731572/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/2910446266/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3166795155/

  51. I’m actually trying to focus on SOOC shots during this year of daily picture and one word pictures. Here’s one I took today but it’s a little darker than I wanted (that’s why I love Lightroom, too!) I should have bracketed it to see what I liked, I wanted the dimmer interior and greener exterior – just not quite this dark. Oh well. It’s all about learning, right?

    http://flickr.com/photos/16869615@N03/3251563879/

  57. this is actually very timely for me…in the last couple of weeks i have had far less time to spend at my computer but have really needed to have at least a little creative time to keep me sane…i have been looking at my photos in a whole new way…right out of the camera, resized and uploaded…no adjustments…no fixing…no effects…just posting them as they came off the card…and i am discovering an appreciation for what it was i seeing at the time…

    yesterday’s post with sooc pics to share…

    http://breatheasme.com/2009/02/03/sunshine-on-my-shoulders/

  61. I absolutely love this picture. It’s gorgeous. And I totally agree. Sometimes photo editing is wonderful but SOOC is oh, so liberating!!!
    Terrific photo!!