My Favourite Photographs - June 2018

I love being a photographer, I am happy when I'm shooting, I love looking at photographs, thinking about them, learning about photographers, the whole shebang. However, like probably a lot of people who engage in creative work, it's easy to get into a rut. It can be hard to get inspired, or push yourself further, to do better. To be completely honest, sometimes it can be hard to feel like your work has any purpose and you're left with a lot of existential feelings about your life (that might just be me). I heard a photographer say on a recent podcast, that photography is essentially meaningless, so just enjoy it for what it is, which is my aim here. Now, this is not to say photographs aren't important  - I've seen photographs bring a lot of joy and happiness to my clients and they'll have and enjoy them for years to come. What it is meant to say that is that ultimately a photograph is not inherently meaningful (photographs aren't not saving lives or fixing climate change) and you're not breaking ground simply by clicking a shutter. So don't make too big a deal out of being in a rut - just go out there and do it. 

To challenge to myself, I thought it would be fun and good for me as a photographer to start posting my favourite photographs from each month. These will range from personal photographs, photographs from weddings, family shoots, even cell phone images, if they really speak to me (there are actually a lot of photographers doing really great work on mobile phones, here's one example). I will also talk about why I like the photograph and that will also range as well - they might be personally meaningful or something that I feel proud of compositionally or technically. 

THE ONE RULE: 

• The image has to be taken in within the last month. I did cheat this month (I know! first month) and there are two images from May, but it's the end of May and well... it's my blog, I can do what I want. But seriously, I will try to keep myself to the last month. I think this will help me shoot more for myself, not just for paid gigs. Which is kind of the whole point of this exercise. 

Let me know what you think - always happy to hear feedback if you've got it. 

- Liz 

I feel like this image is classic Liz. A picture I didn't quite mean to take, but one that when I saw while editing, I thought that same thing I often think, "oh, there's something there." She was shaking her hair out to put it back up, and like a lot of images, it looks like more than it maybe is. But for me, that's what I think is so cool about photography - finding something magical in mundane actions or movements. 

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Posed images are never my go-to favourite images. Lots of clients love them, of course, because they're nice to have. I have many of my own family - but I never gravitate toward them while editing. This image of these two sisters, though, there's something about how the younger sister is resting her head on the older sister's shoulder, it just seems so comfortable and natural. I loved it as soon as I saw it. 

This one has absolutely no artsy stuff for me to talk about, really. It's just my dad blowing out the candles on his birthday this year. 

I photographed a wedding in June that offered a challenge while photographing the bride and her bridesmaids getting ready - the space was fairly cramped, all the rooms emptied out onto one small square of floor outside the bathroom at the top of the stairs, and it was relatively dark. Shooting really close, but also really wide, is something Viara and I do a lot at weddings, because there's so much going on at times. You can read a bit more about that on the Our Style page at Quirky Love. I love the layers you can achieve with a wide angle and I liked here how it captured three people, all in various positions, but with one face in good focus as a grounding point for the image. 

What can I say? The food was really good at this wedding and we all ate A LOT. I also love a good visual joke. Sleeping lady and parent chasing running kid? I will always take that picture. 

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Viara and I are (at least we like to think) sort of known for the attention we give to wedding parties. I don't mean the bridal party, I mean the drunken, lively dancing after the dinner. We stay WAY later than the average photographer and we enjoy the energy and surrealism of the images we achieve. In the above image, I really like the symmetry that's happening with these two faces lined up in profile with similar expressions. Also, the initial puzzle of the image: I know they're dancing. But perhaps if you didn't have any context, you might not know they were dancing and it might just be a picture that takes you a few seconds to figure out. I love a mystery in a picture :)