“Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.”

Sometimes images jump out at me and sometimes they take time to grow on me. It reminds me of the way I experience music.

I have discovered after years of finding favorite songs that if a song is popular and has a catchy beat, it appeals right away. It grabs you and makes you feel good the first time, the second time and maybe the third time you hear it.

But, I find often that if I listen to a pop song over and over, the luster wanes and soon that melodic, captivating tune is annoying and repetitive and tiresome.

On the other hand, a good song starts out slow. It takes time to get into your psyche and under your skin. The first time you hear it it doesn’t exactly jump out at you. Then no matter how many times you hear it, it’s magic and wonderful and pulls at your heart strings.

I find photography to work this way as well. I see so many images that are catchy and upbeat and popular but they just don’t hold a lasting appeal.

I am starting to learn to view my own photographs the same way: taking the time to see if they maintain a lasting captivation for me. This is a very important process in selecting images for a portfolio. It takes time and you have to be patient. It helps to get feedback from others as well.

Remember that a lot of the images you see pinned on Pinterest are pretty, pop culture and instant gratification images. Depending on what kind of images you desire to make, these may or may not be the best inspiration for you.

Be patient. Be quiet. Learn to trust your heart.

“Every love has its landscape. Thus place, which is always spoken of as though it only counts when you’re present, possesses you in its absence, takes on another life as a sense of place, a summoning in the imagination with all the atmospheric effect and association of a powerful emotion. The places inside matter as much as the ones outside. It is as though in the way places stay with you and that you long for them they become deities.”

— Rebecca Solnit, in A Field Guide To Getting Lost

[All the above images were shot on Kodak's Tmax 100 B&W print film, high contrast copy film 5069 or Polapan instant B&W slide film]

Another long term benefit was that the process was a real process. I learned a lot about photography quickly and it had such a strong impact on my photographic style that it still affects it today. I had to take every step carefully and purposefully to be rewarded with a good range of tones in my negatives. If I screwed up the exposure or the development time, my image quality suffered. It was very exciting when everything turned out just right.

I also had to handle the wet negatives carefully so they would not get scratched or full of dust. I had a special dust proof hanging bag in my apartment where I could be sure the rolls of film would be left undisturbed until they were ready to be cut down and sleeved.

When I photograph in B&W I see my images in B&W. When I frame something in the camera I am only looking at the range of tones, specific design elements and the composition. If the scene is flat as in an overcast day, I know I want to underexpose and over develop my entire roll of film to boost the contrast a bit in all the frames. Many of these types of technical details are taken into consideration before the image is even made.

I also decide which film to use depending on the amount of grain I want in my photographs to help with exposure times and tell the story better. Most of the time I use Tmax 100 or Tri-X 125 but sometimes I love using Tmax 3200.

However, even though I can make adjustments before I make my image in the camera, I know that the vision of that scene I have in my mind can be enhanced in post production as well. Ansel Adams made most of his iconic images this way. He knew how he wanted the final image to look in print and would make even more adjustments in the darkroom by dodging and burning specific areas of the image. But he could not do this effectively unless he created the perfect negative first.

Since the inception of digital photography one can now literally shoot one frame in color and the next in B&W, adjust color temperature or contrast range from frame to frame and never worry about scratches or dust! It still blows my mind when I think about it and even though I love digital photography and the challenge of making a magnificent image is still the same, my heart longs for the substance of film.

However, when I am considering image processing for my current clients whom I shoot all digital for (it’s more cost effective for business), I always think through my conversions to B&W.

—I don’t convert all the color proofs from a session and show both color and B&W for images. Each image is specifically selected to be converted to B&W for a reason. You are the photographer and you should make the choice.

—I do convert an image to B&W if the colors are distracting to the eye or are insignificant to the final message.

—I don’t convert an image to B&W if the colors in the photograph are symbolic, powerful or are an important part of the story.

—I do convert an image to B&W if the design elements and the subject stand out better making the image stronger in B&W.

—I do convert an image to B&W if the session I did speaks to nostalgia or is photo-journalistic in nature.

—I use careful consideration in using the new “B&W film” type presets that are so popular now. They are fun to play with but I carefully select them for only certain clients and projects.

The following images were converted to B&W for similar reasons. I feel they are both much stronger as B&W images. The original colors tend to distract the eye, disrupt the mood and distract from the composition. In both images, I felt the color was not important and did not contribute to the story I wanted to convey.

The important elements (the heart being carved in the dirt and beam of light on the ground and the pool of water with boy and his shadow) are emphasized in the B&W versions of each. The elements that pop out to the viewer are white. White jumps out to the viewer while black falls away so the contrast makes the image more readable. This is how our eyes and mind read photographs.

There is so much more to consider when converting your images to B&W. I will be discussing this with other important style, story telling and visioning thoughts in my LOUPE Photography Workshop this May. Join me and other photographers interested in realizing their vision to find out more.

I find when I write down my intentions in life I am more successful in reaching my goals. When I wanted to go sailing with my husband to Tahiti, I kept a journal and wrote a letter about myself in the future-relaxing on the deck of a sailboat anchored in a calm lagoon in a tropical paradise with no worries about finances, bills or work. Within a couple of years I was doing exactly as I had written sans a few minor details and extremely bumpy, scary, tumultuous, and emotional path to get there notwithstanding.

So, when I am working on a new fine art series, I always find it crucial to write down my thoughts and reasons behind the development of it. Eventually, after much trial and error and creative evolution I am able to publish an artist statement. It is at this moment when I finally have a strong vision for my images and can narrow down the existing images to only the ones that fit the statement. I can also then begin to create new images that are only suited to this well thought out vision.

Often, along the way, I have found that a series is no longer relevant to my growth and development as an artist and it might evolve into something else or completely disappear. More often I realize a new series that is tapping on my shoulder whispering in my ear and looking for attention.

I am working on a new series which has evolved over a period of time and is currently feeding ideas into another portrait series about children. I have found that I over think every little thing and so my fine art work involving people as subject has been the most challenging intellectual process for me ever.

The Faithful

The Faithful is an ongoing photographic series celebrating somewhat awkward, private, quiet moments. The images express my vision of the beloved wabi-sabiness of life; the delicate fragility of unaffected people in an honest moment.
They are Cartier-Bresson-type images where that certain decisive moment expresses the tenderness of life. It has taken me years to finally feel worthy of photographing people. In the process of learning to be comfortable as a voyeur, so to speak, I have learned to love the most unforced, open and whimsical portraits of people.
The camera cannot make those I photograph more beautiful than they already are. The images that are precisely amiss and express a natural beauty in humanity are the ones that often touch our hearts the most.