Shutter Sisters

the invisible photographer

By

The revelation with a new wide-angle (wider than my beloved nifty fifty) lens? The previously elusive arm’s-length portrait. Note the absence of the word ‘self’ because it’s not just about capturing photos of me, but of noting my presence in the midst of a captured day. And the crapshoot nature of a manual exposure that shoots into unknown light behind our heads, the best-guess aim and the dubious focusing? Just fun stuff.

Mama: present! (raises hand)

This monday, show us you’re here. Show us your arm’s-length portraits, and tell us what about that moment had you turn the camera that way.

Comments

  1. There is something intimate and fun about having a camera turned arm’s length from you shooting a portrait… When my husband and I are out on an adventure, we are often shooting these pictures. (usually multiple times because I cut heads off often!) http://aliandsethinthecity.blogspot.com/2009/05/yankees-baseball-game.html

    And there are also the ones I shoot of myself, alone… Usually cutting off something…
    http://aliandsethinthecity.blogspot.com/2009/04/blue.html

  2. "’here. you better put this on."
    she throws me her 8yo’s pink motorcycle helmet and i put it straight on. it fits like a tight leather glove and i can’t stop grinning.
    "hop on", she urges as the misters rev up and speed off ahead of us.
    "just a sec! i need to do something first…"
    arms out, focus (hope for the best), shoot.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_r/3506058304/in/set-72157607454198345/
    then i fling my leg over, hop on the back of her vespa and… we’re off.
    i *was* there. see?

  7. I have a love-hate relationship with arms-length sp’s… probably because I only have a point & shoot and the photos are usually less than flattering. 🙂 However, some moments just call for taking the risk. This was one of them… I was on a solo walk during a meditation retreat in Monte Oliveto, Italy. I had a view of the Tuscan Hills revealing itself before me and knew that, in the future, I would want "proof" that it wasn’t all a dream:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jagspace/3541805681/in/set-72157603913313770/

    (I managed to salvage this shot thanks to the magic of Picnik :-))

  13. I love taking the arm’s-length self-portrait. It is a bit of a challenge for me to make it look as non-arm’s-lengthy as possible. I was recently lucky enough to go to Tel Aviv and had to take a minute to photograph myself on the beach.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/swandive00/3486776293/

    (If nothing else, the arm’s-length portrait always ensures a consistency you can’t get by handing a kindly stranger your camera and having them click the shutter)

  16. taking arms length photos with my fifty has become a running family joke – i literally do not have long enough arms to get far enough away & when i do manage – it takes 5-10 shots to get what i want in the photo (usually my bb boy on my lap)…

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbeat/3474614384/

    so when we do arm’s length – is usually by husband who does the honours – capturing our family moments (this on the first hike with bb boy to the mountain lodge where we had our second date & 2 years later where i told my hub we were pregnant… )

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbeat/3369214861/?reuploaded=1

  24. this is SOOC, one of the first arms-length self-portraits i took with my first digital camera, back in April 2006. i was in one of the most beautiful places imaginable, and i wanted to be IN the photos–but i was hiking/hobbling alone that day (four blisters per foot). photographer: present!
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilybeth29/528598084/in/set-72157594587515983/

    i take these kinds of shots all the time! thanks for the challenge to look back on them. i probably would have taken one today…but it’s night now and my camera’s not actually that great.

  27. We were in Hawaii right after my husband got back from Kuwait. He had been gone 3 and a half months and we hadn’t even been married a full year yet. We celebrated his home coming with a trip to Hawaii. I wanted a picture of us kissing and no one was around. I held up my camera and by some miracle got this shot! I instantly fell in love with it!

    http://roundyclan.blogspot.com/2009/05/looking-back-some-more.html

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