Chris Orwig Exercise 10 {Your Self-Portrait - Outdoors}

I have to confess, I didn't have much time for this exercise this week.  I'm a single mom, and I'm homeschooling four kids.  I know others do it but it's just a tad much for me.  So I hurried and only made two instead of ten outdoor self-portraits, and the weather wasn't cooperating, so I shot them in the backyard.  The first one was a very generic shot of me sitting under a tree and I didn't like it.  There was no interest in the photo.  The second one is the one below.  I put the camera in the grass and turned on the self-timer.  I'm actually looking at some flowers in the grass, not the trampoline, and maybe a kid or two in the trampoline would have heightened the interest but truth is, I had three minutes and that's all I could do in three minutes.  I actually like it.  I tried it in B&W, just because I always do, and it lost any and all appeal.  Just boring, no interesting lines, no nothing.  This color one works because it has the grass in the foreground, the blue sky (for a minute or two between showers), the popping blues of the trampolines and the sandbox cover (in case you were wondering what that is in the background). Self-portraits, as noted last week, do require a lot of thought and pre-planning.  Spontaneous snapping doesn't work very well.  Thinking outside the box always works better.

Maybe next time, I will try to look at the camera...

As always, don't forget to check out the blogs and websites of my photog friends for their results.

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily

Chris Orwig Exercise 10 {Your self-portrait}

Oh, well.  I knew this was coming and pretending to forget didn't make it go away.  The exercise for this week was -- gulp! -- a self portrait.  That is even worse than getting photographed by a professional - after all, THEY know what they are doing, THEY can direct you and tell you that this look you practiced in front of the mirror is actually not very cool at all. Additionally, Chris Orwig is upping the ante by asking us to do not a single self portrait but 10 each of three different kinds: reflection, outdoors, at arm's length.   I thought it best to divide this exercise into three parts, so here are my 10 reflection self-portraits.  Just one note:  I live in the countryside and there aren't that many reflective surfaces around.  It's not like in a big city, where you get tons of mirrors and shop windows and whatnot.  I didn't think it was the sense of the exercise to go somewhere else but to work with what I had.  Just to keep that in mind.

As an inspiration, Orwig gives a list of photographers to check out.  My favorite by far was Vivian Maier.  She's really mastered the art of the self-portrait.  I could look at those photos all day long.  But now, for mine:

1. This photograph was taken in the reflection of a framed picture.  The picture shows Gandzasar Monastery in Nagorno Karabakh, from a trip we took there in 2007 (I believe).  I had to take it off the wall in order to put some homeschooling posters up, and the frame fell and the glass shattered the next day.  If you look closely, you can see the shards.  I aligned my legs roughly parallel to the lines of the roofs, and placed my body in the central structure of the monastery.  I didn't want to make it too contrived but there is intent in the composition.

2. This is my Dali impression. The reflective surface is a digital frame, turned off.  The little blurred statue is a work of a local artist who died recently.  I love his work and my parents, who were friends with him and his family, gave this statue to us for our wedding present.  The melting lines of my face and the graceful lines of the statue are in clear juxtaposition to the sharp angles and straight lines of the frame.

3. This one is a classic - the view in the car mirror. I thought that double reflection made it a bit more interesting.

4. We have a chain of little round mirrors in one of the old apple trees in the backyard.  They catch the light and produce little lightspots that dance through the garden.  The end piece is rectangular.  This was a very tricky shot - it was blustery and the mirrors swung back and forward and went in and out of focus.  I had the camera on manual focus, of course. This is the only one of a series of 15 or so that was acceptable.

5. A reflection in our living room window.  Maybe I ought to have cleaned up the couch first - the kids love the window bench behind the couch and pile pillows and blankets there for a cozy reading nook. I decided this one was better in black and white since the pillows are very colorful and took the focus away from the reflection.  The double panes of the window created a blurred reflection.

6. Another window reflection - this time, in one of the windows of my Dad's hunting cabin in the woods.  Again, the double panes blurr the reflection lines.

7. Near the cabin is a large pond.  We walked there and disovered tons of dead frogs - they die after they... spawn.  Very stinky.  It was hard to find a space without bloated, drifting frog cadavers.

8. A simple mirror reflection, in our downstairs bathroom.

9. A picture frame reflection.  Reflections on roundish surfaces are tricky.

10.  The final reflection in our Kingfisher kitchen shelf.  Also in the reflection: our homeschooling bulletin board.

Gosh, these are more pictures of me in a few days than in the past 10 years!  Some things I learned from this exercise:

• Pointing the camera blindly is hard. I had to do a lot of trial and error to get this right.  I found that I have to see the camera in the reflection because otherwise the camera doesn't see me.  When you give it a moment's thought - angles of light reflection - that makes perfect sense.  Never thought that my 10th grade physics course would come in handy one day.
• It's better to look into the lens instead of into one's own eyes, it creates a more natural look.
• One absolutely has to use manual focus.
• It's impossible to do this without putting lots of thought into the composition and technical aspects of the image.  That, of course, was the main goal of this exercise to begin with.

So tell me:  Which one is your favorite self-portrait?

As always, don't forget to check out the blogs and websites of my photog friends for their results.  Not all of them are still doing the exercises - many are just too busy at this time of the year -- it's wedding season!  But their blogs are always worth a look, so do go and enjoy:

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily

Chris Orwig Exercise 9 {Your Portrait}

This week we are all over the experience of being photographed.  I think this is one of the most important exercises in this series.  If you don't know how it feels to be in front of the camera, you will have a hard time developing the sort of empathy you need to make people - especially moms - feel comfortable while being photographed.  And let me tell you one thing: if you are not comfortable, it WILL show. A few weeks back, I had the great opportunity to be photographed by not one, not two, but three of my favorite photographers.  How lucky am I!  We were all in New York City, meeting for a photography retreat, and as part of our shooting exercise we had two of us volunteer our families and ourselves to be photographed.

At this point in time, I had been traveling with my family for over four weeks.  Our clothes were all dirty, and I hadn't brought anything nice to begin with.  I showed up for the meeting in old clothing, without any makeup on.  My roots were showing. I simply had forgotten that morning when I left the hotel for my friend Jen's apartment that I was to be photographed later that SAME day.  In an abstract way, I knew, of course.  I suppose I suppressed it or I would have never left the hotel that morning, in my old ratty jeans that were the only pair of pants I had brought on this trip.   When I then saw my friend Jen, beautifully made up with shiny hair and perfect makeup, her kids' clothing color-coordinated but not too matched... I knew our shoot was only going to be a catastrophe.

Here's a secret:  I have body issues.  Also, baby fat that is still with me three years after Leah's birth.  I often look tired and haggard due to too many sleepless nights and too little water drinking.  I have a double chin.  I hate being in front of the camera because I cannot control how I look.  I don't know which way to turn or whether I look better from the left or the right.  I start making faces, fidgeting, biting my teeth... all of which looks horrible, of course.

So, I didn't expect anything good at all.  Also, when we arrived at the location - beautiful Bethesda Fountain in Grand Central Park, a wonderful suggestion by Leslie - my family was already waiting and had to wait for another 45 minutes since we photographed Jen and her family first.  At this point, I saw this all falling apart.  There was no way my kids could hold it together for so long, I was frazzled and hot, and ready to call it quits.

But I didn't.

As we got the kids together, and I surreptitiously wiped at my daughter's jeans which were covered with mud, I did something that is really hard for me to do when cameras are around: I surrendered control.  The first ten minutes, I just watched my friends photograph my kids, and miracle of miracles, my kids cooperated.  They followed suggestions, offered their own suggestions, laughed, had fun.  Oh, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all!

Then my husband and I were incorporated into the pictures and... it was fun!  Imagine that! It was exciting and thrilling, and I listened to my friends telling me to turn every which way.  And you know what?  I love the images.  All my friends have their own style, so the pictures came out very different even if it was the exact same moment from the same angle.  I got some amazing shots out of this session, the muddy knees didn't feature too prominently, and in the close-ups, my wonderful friends did cover up the roots a bit.

I learned a lot that day.  I also learned a lot that I do differently now in my own shoots.  I angle my subjects, make them lean forward to get rid of double chins, bend those limbs and keep the arms away from the body.

I learned that when you get those images, and they are lovely, it makes your day.  It's such a joy to receive beautiful images of yourself and your family.  It's a gift.  I love my job all the more for that in particular.

So, a big thank you to Elaine, Leslie, and Noelle.  You are my rocking ladies!  Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the gift of my photos.  I shall treasure them, and what you taught me that day, forever.

 by Elaine Janet

by Binkies + Noseprints Photography

by Noelle Soroka Photography

Don't forget to check out their blogs and websites for amazing results:

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily DC Group -- the results of those members without a blog are posted here

Chris Orwig Exerice 8 {Drawing a visual map}

This week's exercise was all about reflecting on our lives --  on where we are, where we're coming from, and where we want to go. I really hate self-reflection like that.  It seems to me like a huge waste of time. I should rather pick up the upstairs bathroom, or wash the dishes. However, Chris Orwig writes how he insists on this exercise with his students and that often those who resist most, are very grateful for doing it afterwards.  Ooookay.  I can try.

It's not a fun exercise but it's meant to lead you away from the mainstream so many photographers follow and help you "overcome following someone else's lead".  That is, I think, especially important for photographers who are just starting out in a world full of highly talented experts who love to give advice.  Disconnecting from the mainstream requires a conscious effort of will -- at least, for me it does.

It's also not a good exercise to share because when you do it honestly, there will be lot of uncovered issues you don't really want the world to know about.

So, what can I tell you?  I did the exercise.  I made a word self-portrait.  I looked at tragedy and loss in my life.  I looked at my interests and passions, my connections and my goals.

Here is something I can tell you:

I love creating.  I noticed that when I don't photograph, I do something else - like crocheting a blanket for my daughter, knitting some socks for my husband, doing some fun arts and crafts stuff, painting the walls, planting flowers.  Some years back, I did a challenge where I had to do something creative every day for the month of April.  I love looking back at all the beautiful creations I made and am a bit sad that I don't do more these days.  Granted, I didn't homeschool my kids back then and the three boys were gone all morning to school and kindergarten, and Leah still took naps.

But I know that when I cannot be creative, I become deeply unhappy.  That's kind of funny because I would never describe myself as a creative person.  Serious disconnect, eh?

A blanket I am currently making for my daughter

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily DC Group -- the results of those members without a blog are posted here

Chris Orwig Exercise 3 {Defining Your Style}

This was such a long exercise, and life kept interfering, that I'm very late with my results.  So, before the week is over, here are my results: 1:  Brainstorm about physical objects, write a list of 25 items.  Circle the top 5.

I had a really hard time finding 25 objects that I liked.  While I'm certainly not an immaterial girl, I caught myself writing down places rather than things.  Scratch the spice market in Yerevan.  Scratch the Grotto on Saipan.   Scratch Nagorno-Karabakh.   Scratch the brass bazaar in Istanbul.  Things.  Things!!

So, while the objects below certainly are things I like, I am much more drawn to places.  That makes perfect sense in my life as an Expat.  I may have mentioned to my husband once or twice how I'm getting a bit tired of moving around all the time, of the uncertainty that is our life, of the never knowing what the next month will bring.  But the truth is, if I were to settle down permanently, I'd be getting itchy feet again pretty quickly.

1. Moleskin note books.

I adore notebooks and I love Moleskins more than all the rest.  And really, my Moleskin address book will never run out of battery or crash on me!

Source: moleskine.com via Claudia on Pinterest

 2. Bowls

What's not to love?  I like bowls more than any other kind of ceramics and I own dozens of them - striped, vintage, modern, bought in a Parisian market, bought on the local crafts fair, handmade, machine-made, with flower patterns - as long as it is a bowl, I'm happy.  One day, I will have a cabinet full of bowls just like this:

Source: curateandlove.blogspot.com via Claudia on Pinterest

 3.  Letterpress

What kind of letterpress?  Any kind, really.  I love the texture, the feel, the look of it.  It's beautiful and luxurious.

Source: bellafigura.com via Claudia on Pinterest

4. Books

That one speaks for itself, I suppose.

Source: iwastesomuchtime.com via Claudia on Pinterest

5. Hammocks

I mean, really.  There's just no way not to love hammocks.  Especially strung between a plum and an apple tree, in the summer, in my backyard... Ah.  Bliss.  (Although I would also take the house pictured below with all those hammock.  I'm not choosy.)

Source: hausandhome.blogspot.com via Claudia on Pinterest

2. Create color palettes for winter, spring, summer, and fall.  Write about the moods each season evokes in you.  Here is something funny about me:  I like all the seasons.  What I like is the change, the constant moving from spring to summer to fall to winter.  There is always the promise of something new just around the corner.  I think I could not live in a place that has no seasons.  I would just wither away. (All palettes are from Design Seeds.)

Winter:

My winter palette definitely includes a nice evergreen and lot of whites and browns, and bright reds.  I know, that's fairly traditional, isn't it?

Winter for me is all about cold outside and warmth inside (hence, the fireplace), about hearty food (stews), about family and coziness.  I love winter.

Spring:

Spring colors for me are fresh, bright, vibrant.  The greens have lots of yellow in it, and there are pinks and lilacs and blues.  Flower colors!  Spring for me is all about freshness, about rain showers and new plant shoots.  It feels hopeful, light and bright coming out of the winter darkness.  It's happiness and full of energy.

Summer:

Summers are all about blue - the blue of the sea, of the swimming pool, of the lake. And a splash of bright yellow -- even though I don't like yellow at all, in the summer, it has its definite place.  What's a beach without yellow? Summers mean relaxation, enjoyment, contentment, happiness.  Ironically enough, summer feels cool to me.  The cool of the shadows, the cool of the water, the cool of the house after the heat outside.  Summers have pools in them, and hammocks strung under the trees, busy bees and long days.

Fall:

Harvest time!  Canning ripe fruit, shelling walnuts, baking fresh plum cake.  Time to prepare for the winter and take in the last glorious sunshine.  This season has my most favorite light:  the golden sunshine of September and October.  I got married in October on a sunny, warm fall day.  The next day was foggy and gloomy and perfect in its own right.  I really like that about fall.

3. Describe the ideal weather for your ideal photo shoot.

My ideal weather would be a sunny day with lots of white puffy clouds, two hours before sunset.  It's the change from a sunny day into that relaxed long summer evening feeling,  a magical hour with magical light.  Ideally, it would be on the beach.  Aah.

4. Pick some music that goes well with the pictures you'd like to make.

Something happy and fun:  Connect the Dots, by Rabbit.  Or something by Mozart.

5. Make a comparison of your style to food:

Source: marthastewart.com via Lauren on Pinterest

A summer fruit salad - fresh and sweet and uncomplicated.    And how ironic that this image that jumped out to me on Pinterest would come from Martha Stewart! I like her crisp and uncluttered images a lot, so that's a fit.

Result:  Being able to verbalize the essence of the images you want to make.  This helps you to have a clear vision of the style that is uniquely yours.

Um, yeah.  That's where this blog post got stuck weeks and weeks ago.  But now I know!  My images are bright, fresh, uncluttered, airy.

This exercise took long (weeks!) but it was very valuable to me.  I think I finally can pin down my style!  Yay!

As always, do check out my photog friends and their take on this exercise:

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily DC Group -- the results of those members without a blog are posted here

Chris Orwig - Exercise 7 {Descriptive Portraits}

The 7th installment?  This clearly means I'm bad at blogging while traveling.  I did take a lot of photos with the assignments in mind, though, so that I can catch up once I get back home.  Which, incidentally, I am - so here we go. Let's start with the one that was due yesterday.  It makes me feel better when I am starting with the not-so-late one.  Read here at Leslie's blog about the objective:  Making 10 descriptive portraits based on inspiration from the written word.

A while ago, the kids and I read "The Saturdays" by Elizabeth Enright.  It's a story about four kids (so right there, that resonated with us) living in New York City and their adventures in the city.  The book is set back in the good old days, in the 1930s.  Later in the story, the kids go on vacation at the seashore and stay in an old lighthouse. What could be better?  My kids were green with envy.

A few weeks ago, we went to St. Augustine in Florida, and while I couldn't find a lighthouse to stay in, we did get a beach cottage for two days.  My children adore the beach.  Nothing tops the beach, nothing.  I shot their pictures with the quoted paragraph in mind.  I hope we are creating childhood memories just like that!

10 portraits (the word "portrait" applied rather loosely, I confess):

As always, don't forget to go to these blogs and read their take on today's exercise:

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily DC Group -- the results of those members without a blog are posted here

Chris Orwig - Exercise 2 {Clarifying your craft}

Here is Leslie's post on the second exercise of Chris Orwig's book People Pictures.  (Which you should totally buy, okay?)  We were not required to shoot images this week but to look, to search, to think, and to come up with a quote.  It would have been faster to just take a picture, really. I dutifully went out to get four magazines with images I like.  That in itself was an interesting exercise: I had a really hard time to find  magazines that contained pictures that spoke to me.   More often than not I got overwhelmed by all the cluttered pages full of advertisements.  German magazines have a lot less of that, by the way, and I find them visually more attractive.   I discovered that I like uncluttered images, close-up shots of kids, clean images with good colors or in a crisp black and white that center on the child and his world.  Those images are harder to find in magazines than you might think.   I spent a frustrating hour at the local Barnes&Noble, only to come home with two magazines that sort of worked for me.... but not really.

Then Greta of GSG Photography suggested to use Pinterest as our collection device.  What a brilliant idea!  I already had a board of "Photography Inspiration" which was a good starting point.  I spent some delightful hours going through other people's pins and found a ton of inspirational photos that show exactly what I love in children's photography.  Have a quick look at my board here.  As you can see, my latest favorite is Meg Bitton.  Her images are clean, the colors are spot on, and they capture something more than just a cute face.   Her entire portfolio is very inspiring to me.  Another constant inspiration are my DC Ladies -- see their blog links below.  Poke around a bit on their blogs and look at the beautiful work they create.  Aren't they fabulous?

One quote from People Pictures that struck me deeply:  "The problem with most of us is that we are too soft.  We follow popular opinion and listen to the voices that predetermine what is good or bad.  We defer to the experts and neglect to nurture our own talents."  Um, yup.  I tend to do that a lot.  My husband keeps telling me not to listen to what others say so much and as so often, he is right.  I do tend to try to make everybody happy around me, and I have a hard time just sticking up for myself and even more so, for my photography.   You don't like it this way?  Oh, let me change it.

So this is my hardest challenge.  It took some hard thinking for me to find what exactly my vision is and how I want my images to look.   It took some hard thinking to say to myself: "So that person doesn't like this image?  Whatever. I like it."  I need to say that more often, Whatever.

Oh, and the quote.  Now, that was hard.  I'm not sure I nailed it but for further inspiration, I read parts of Susan Sontag's "On Photography" which is a book so stuffed with quotable sentences that it requires slow and careful reading.  It's fantastic.  I found myself nodding and agreeing with just about everything I read so far.

So, what do I want my photographs to be?  I want them to be frozen moments of life.  I want my clients to hang those images on their walls.   I want to document stories.  Especially since I'm mostly shooting Expats, I want to chronicle the life of children and families in the country where they are.  I want them to take those images and remember the times in that country.

Here's my quote:  Photographing children is the mindful capture of spontaneity.  That's an original.  I hope -- it seems really hard to say something original about photography.

Don't forget to go to these blogs and read their take on today's exercise:

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet What Eyes See Daily DC Group -- the results of those members without a blog are posted here

Two edits

As promised yesterday, here are two edits for the image I took for the photo exercise. The first one is bumping up the contrast, lightening the shadows a bit and adjusting the colors.  I used Florabella's "Pollyanna" action for this and tweaked it quite a bit to my liking.  I find most of her actions render my images way too bright as I tend to shoot bright already.  So I always have to darken her actions, and I also lower the opacity of the actions down to just a few percent.  A hint more than anything, really.  I used to love heavily edited images but as my technique is getting better, I spend less and less time editing.  My most common adjustment is the white balance.  Note to self: work on the white balance!  Btw, yes, his eyes are really that lovely green color.  He has my Mom's beautiful eyes, lucky kid.

The second edit is a conversion to B&W.  Again, I used  a Florabella action, this one called "B/W Film" from her Luxe II collection.

Which is your favorite?

Chris Orwig Exercise #1

My DC Ladies are part of my life.  I went to the MeRa Koh Confidence workshop in October 2011 in Washington and it's been an amazing experience.  The best two things I got out of this: the ability to shoot entirely in Manual (it's second nature by now), and the wonderful friendship of all those ladies I met there.  I also came away with some serious lens cravings.  Anyway.  We have a closed Facebook group that is very active, and it's so nice to share everyday photo frustrations and triumphs with a group that is both knowledgeable and gracious.  The talent in this group is just mind-blowing, and more than a bit humbling. Leslie of Binkies + Noseprints in DC is one of those talented women.  Not only does she take the most wonderful images but she also has seemingly boundless energy.  She is extremely creative and always comes up with new ideas and not only that (I come up with new ideas all the time) but she executes those ideas.  That's where I usually fall short.  A few weeks back, we all read Chris Orwig's photo book "People Pictures".   It's a beautiful and inspirational book full of sound advice.  It also contains 30 photography exercises.  I thought, What a good idea, I should do that one day.  And then promptly forgot about it.  Leslie, on the other hand, took this idea and ran.  Then, she got us to run with her!  We'll be posting our results on our blogs every Monday.   Follow the links under the image to see the images of the other photographers - I'm really looking forward to see the variety of takes on the challenges.

So, without much ado, my result of exercise no. 1:  10 portraits in 10 minutes.

The goal was to shoot someone for 10 minutes, creating 10 portraits, using only a fixed lens and manual focus.   Then, one was to choose one image that captured the subject in an authentic way, without being posed.

I tried it first with Leah which utterly failed.  Three-year-olds in my house don't stay on target for 10 minutes.  Alan, my oldest, was more cooperative.  I made some images I really liked -- I actually did get 10 portraits out of this session! -- but ultimately chose the one below.  It catches him like he is right now, on the cusp of adolescence, a bit moody and withdrawn at times, with glimpses of what he will be like as a teenager, his hair all wild and standing up in tufts. I took this image at the very end of the 10 minutes, when he grew bored and didn't want to   I didn't do much to the image, just adjusted the contrast and exposure a bit.  Tomorrow, I will post two edits, one in BW which I adore and will probably put up on my wall.

The shoot felt frantic and chaotic (I had all four kids underfoot) and maybe I should have chosen a more composed subject.  Manual focus was hard!  I caught myself focusing with the center mark and then recomposing - which is what I usually with auto focus.  It's not necessary with manual focus, of course, but it's like muscle memory, almost impossible to suppress.  I shot the images inside Alan's bedroom which has great light but is small.  I was backed up against the wall and should have lowered my aperture to get both eyes into focus.  I tend to shoot tight, and I tend to shoot with a shallow DOF.  It does make for difficult focusing.  So his left eye is a bit soft. Hm.

Do click on the links under the image to see the results of the others in the group.   Enjoy and come back next week for another installment!

Binkies + Noseprints Abbey Road Designs GSG Photography Elaine Janet Lizzy Slade DC Group -- the results of those members without a blog are posted here