I'm fairly certain that if you had 36 hours in Frankfurt with one of your dearest friends and lovely temperate weather, you would also spend your time drinking beer, eating at great restaurants and wandering around aimlessly with your cameras while chatting endlessly. I can guarantee that you would also find the old but functional people-lift in your hotel irresistible. A mini-album of our fun.
It is a little sad and daunting to come to the end of a long-term project. As I nearly cross the finish line for our second 52 week collaboration, I find myself with much to think about, both in life and photography (and where the two meet). And so, our theme for week 50 struck me as particularly relevant because I am feeling very out of focus at the moment.
Intentionally out of focus imagery can be beautiful and I do have a few scattered throughout my portfolio. I love the soft ambiance and anonymity they evoke. However, shooting out of focus images is not truly my style, so in an effort to shake off all that has been clouding over my brain these past few months, I used a beautiful sunset at the Great Salt Lake this weekend to create a sense of softness but with some identifiable focal plane. All of my mumblings aside, at the very least, who doesn't enjoy a beautiful sunset?
Please head over to Who We Become and see everyone else's perspectives. And since some of my friends were with me in Utah, you may get another look at this lovely scene.
We are kicking off our second full year of the One Circle - six dear friends, one special shot and an excuse to do something together. Behind the scenes we are also embarking on an artist study and a few other projects but how those will be featured remain to be seen. For my One shot this month, there are actually two, but of the same moment.
I had a great visit with one of my oldest and dearest friends today, and as she conversed with my son over why, if he likes eggs and likes rice, he might have also enjoyed the fried rice they made to celebrate Chinese New Year at pre-school (he begs to differ), she noted that it was the Year of the Horse. This I knew. However, apparently the last few years have been water signs and the Horse is a dry sign, of wood or of the earth, which means this may be a year of great movement or activity. This seemed appropriate, given that after ten years in our old apartment, we have officially moved to a new location in the city. I love our new home but it does not have the views of the old digs, so I was thrilled that, on one of our last nights there, the clouds broke and I got to enjoy one final spectacular sunset. The images do it no justice but this little farewell will remain close to my heart.
Please continue around our little circle to see how my sweet friends are starting off the new year, starting in Chicago with the ever talented Jessica Remus! And if these seem to be a bit of an odd shape, they were shot in keeping with my P52 goals of playing with aspect ratios - you can read more about this in my next post.
It is week 15 for P52.2: Framed and we continue our exploration of perspective and how our technical choices impact the viewpoint we present in our images. Our goal this week was subject isolation, either through the use of a telephoto lens or strategic shooting with a wide angle to render the subject front and center without a lot of context for storytelling. The first image is probably a more successful example of this strategy - it is a telephoto shot with minimal distortion, and the viewer can intuit much about my vantage point with only the evening sky as additional context. The second image was taken with a wide angle lens, but all that is in focus is the shallow foreground - his face and his breath. The image does not need the background to tell its chilly narrative.
Please head over to Who We Become to see how everyone else interpreted this week's theme.
Another month has passed already? Settling on my "one" shot for the month of February was difficult but I knew it would likely come from the series of shots I took this particular evening. While in Rhode Island, my camera and I got a bit of a dunking from a rogue wave while out watching the sun go down in frigid temperatures. It's not every day I am at the water's edge to witness such a sunset, and I was not about to miss it, windchill of 6F notwithstanding. I am happy to report, all of my fingers remain intact.
Please visit my five dear friends who are joining me in this project. to see what their one shot of February will be, starting in Chicago with Jessica Remus in Chicago. Jessica has an exquisite talent for capturing the essence of childhood in her photography.
