There is something wonky happening in my reader, and for some reason I was not receiving some of my feeds. Thank goodness not all were gone as I had noticed on my friend Jill's blog that she had signed up for develop on fridays. (Jill, to those unaware, is very talented and motivates me in a very quiet and confident way. When in doubt, I go to Jill's blog, or send her a note. She is very generous with her talent and I am so very grateful.)
Anyway ...
When I saw her post, I naturally followed the links and realized that my feed to Paislee Press was broken! Eek. On January 13th, yes, 13th, 16 days ago! Liz had introduced Jefra Starr Linn to lead the develop on fridays series of instructional photography exercises. I couldn't possibly miss this!
Immediately I set off to print off all the previously posted entries, joined the Flickr group, realized I had already joined the Facebook group and got myself signed up on the message board. (If you're there, you can find me under the original user name: Lee) and I have now spent this past week playing catch up. So much fun!
The Flickr group is immensely inspiring and visually stunning. I am so fortunate to learn from such a talented pool of photographers - amateur and pro; the Facebook group is equally enjoyable; the message board really holds the "meat" of it all with plenty of interaction.
The post on January 16th, which ended with Jefra writing: "this is what we want from you. we want you to bring yourselves and be completely honest to yorself about what you love and how you shoot. come naked. well, emotionally." If I wasn't interested at that point, which I was, now I was hooked. I am ready to be emotionally bare in my photography.
This is going to be fun.
Assignment 1: VOICE
According to Jefra: "your "voice" is how you uniquely express the way you see things. It is uniquely expressed through your work". And I loved the quote she cited from the writer J. L. Blackwater, "we all have voices in our head. Artists actually listen to them on a regular basis." Indeed.
There's oodles of other good stuff, but here is my take on the assignment. We were to take at least 75 photos of ONE THING. Then we were to fine the one photo, the one photo, of all photos that best represented how you see what you see. Then post the top five runners-up in order to provide some context.
The subject that best represents my voice is my joy and fear of being a parent. I laugh with my kids and occasionally at them, I cry with and for them, I encourage them and teach them, I scold them, I enjoy them and they frustrate me. My voice will be heard, it will be heard through my children and what it is they decide to contribute to the world around them. I see them for exactly who they are and I think they are wonderful. I decided a long time ago not to raise children, I'm raising people who will become adults. There is a difference.
Naturally my subject choice is my children. The problem, and part of my frustration, they no longer want to model-on-demand. So, I made Caden continue his homework under the glare of the kitchen table light while I snapped away and he did his best to ignore what I was doing.
Here is my choice:
The shoot went along it's merry way, and I managed to come up with:
1st runner up:
2nd runner up:
3rd runner up:
I know I'm supposed to show five runner up photos, but I have to say the rest really are pretty crappy. So true that it takes about 50 photos to get into your rhythm, then pick from the last 25. This was my first photo:
really different from the one chosen, eh?
Not only did I do the assignment once, I did it THREE times. I'm liking the results!
If you're participating, be sure to say "hi" here or on the message board. Until the next assignment ... have a wonderful week and let your voice be seen!
