On my refrigerator is a photograph I took of my daughter Lily right before she turned two. A few months ago, while my husband Adam was cleaning out the basement, he found it and handed it to me, a big smile on his face. “Do you remember this?” he asked. “Yeah, I do,” I said, taking the photo in my hand. “I took this at that restaurant on the Causeway. We were sitting outside, but they made us move in because it was too windy and the umbrellas were almost bending in half.” I looked closer …
photography
Falling in Love with Flare (and How to Photograph It)
I’m going to make a confession: I’m a sun flare junkie. I love turning my camera toward the sun, catching just enough of the light in my lens, and pressing the shutter once I know that rainbow swirl is locked in the frame. It makes me giddy. Last spring, I was in the woods photographing a client late in the afternoon. She wore a crown of baby’s breath and looked amazing. I had her stand with her back to the sun, told her how to position her body and hands, then said, “What I really want is to …
A Brief History of My Life with Film (and Random Photos from March )
I shot my first roll of film in August 2010, and I fell in love. Before that, I hadn't shot a film camera since college before digital photography was the norm. I took a film photography class and learned that I was terrible at developing my own negatives, then put the camera away until 2010. By then I was totally smitten with photographing everything and wanted to dip my toe back into the world of 35mm film. It was so much better than I remembered. At first it was kind of awful. The …
365 | February and March Favorites
Here we are, three months into the year, and my 365 project is still alive and kicking. I'm going to be honest and confess that I've missed a couple of days, but I'm also going to admit that I'm not sweating it. The thing is, when I'm done with this project, I'm going to have a huge collection of photographs that tell the story of this year and missing a day here or there (or being lazy and totally phoning it in some days and taking yet another self portrait in the mirror) isn't going to make …
March Film at The Village Bakery
Earlier in March. I ordered five rolls of film, four of which are still cooling in my fridge. The fifth was promptly loaded in my camera. My plan this year was to shoot a roll of film each month, which seemed simple enough. Then January and February got insanely busy and slipped away with no film photographs. As much as I like digital photography (and need it for my business), film is still my one true love. It felt great to carry around my little Pentax this month. It felt great to drop my …