snippets & a strap

from the salt mine road December 2011

I love to think of photos as tiny snippets of my life. Slices ... moments captured forever by me & my camera. I think a passionate observer of life documents everything. The beautiful, the mundane, the simple, the funny ... and over time a collection of these snippets becomes this wonderful visual tale of you. It shows you who you are & what you love. It shows you what you care about in a way that's not unlike a gratitude journal or a diary.

I would say my photographs* are easily my most cherished things (cats, dogs, Prince's & Mlou's exempt) because my stream of photographs tells the tale of my life ... what's not to cherish about that?

Two photographers that I swoon over & admire tremendously are Susannah Conway & Jenna Park from Sweet Fine Day - both of them fantastic at capturing the snippets of their own lives. You don't need to have a fancy-pants camera to be a passionate observer - Susannah's recent book tour incredibly gorgeous photo stream was taken with her iphone (I think) - apparently the new iphone camera is incredible. Jealous - I'm not a cell phone girl & it would be a bit crazy to buy a cell phone for the camera & the access to instagram - but just saying ... camera envy - big time.

& a strap -  the most important accessory for you the passionate observer

Because you'll want to carry your camera everywhere & all the time a great, comfortable, wide, long over the shoulder so-your-camera-sits-on-your-hip-at-the-side is essential. Trust me - no more hanging around your neck thumping on your chest - this kind of strap allows you to take most shots without removing the camera from your body - gives you maximum flexibility - and it's subtle, not obvious for those of us. The strap is the workhouse, the great protector of your tool. So find yourself a good strap. The strap I use now (removed from my beloved Madam O) is the strap that came on a messenger bag  - kind of like this or this

Week 1 challenge - check out Susannah & Jenna's blogs & over the next week take lots of photos and by next Wednesday post a series of 10 snippets from your life ... from your week. Think of how the 10 photos you post will work as a series of photos. It could be 10 different views of one thing, or a series of vastly different images strung together. Experiment with how close you get to your subject & always look for beautiful light.

Thanks to all of you. I'm really excited to be venturing on our passionate observer's journey.

Remember leave a comment on the welcome post with a link to your blog and I'll add you to the link list in the sidebar of members & I'll try and figure out how to get the html for the passionate observers badge if you'd like to add it to your blog.

* check back to the early days of my photo blog and you'll see that my photos were very ho-hum in the beginning - the more you take photos the better you'll get and the sooner you'll discover your own unique vision.