On alternating weeks one of us chooses a one word theme to be interpreted fresh each day. Some interpretations will be straight forward, others you may have to think about. Each Sunday, there will be a new post comprised of the previous weeks match ups, Andrea’s on the left, Melissa’s on the right, as well as that weeks theme word. Now for a little about us.
Andrea- Growing up, I wanted to work for Disney. I would pause my VHS’s to draw Zazu and Simba and all the others with my colored pencils and got giddy when art class rolled around each week. And then one day came Toy Story. So I went to college, because my digital skills are only slightly better than my grandma’s, and majored in something solidly more marketable than visual art – philosophy. Not surprisingly, I followed my undergraduate years up with more graduate ones.
This is my maiden voyage with a camera. Painting is my favorite medium, but I’m finding that creativity is always dangerous and tests you. Staring at a blank canvas you get a little afraid. You wonder if you can do it once more. And picking up a new media – well, the challenges are everywhere. But what I love especially is that making art is like keeping up your journal. Pour into it what you believe and what you don’t know and it will help you find your way.
Melissa- it wasn’t until a few years ago that I even realized I had an artistic brain. I never could quite decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, even while take college courses for one discipline I would change to another, until I no longer remember how many majors I declared. I knew I liked to write, I liked taking pictures, and love family. I thought about a career in journalism, I imaged myself documenting wars, famine, genocide in foreign countries with names too hard to pronounce in the english dialect. I unfortunately have a phobia of germs and disease and am sure I will contract something slowly and painfully fatal should I end up in any one of the above situations, so I didn’t follow through. Yes, I tend to be a bit dramatic.
Instead I married, had four children, five if you count the one I’m married to, and satisfied my creative urges with domestic creations. Along the way I was gifted the DSLR I lusted for (a sweet rebel xt) and obsessively learned the ins and outs of how it works, how to achieve what I envisioned, and eventually starting a photography business. Photography is my outlet, my work, my play my enigma and my friend. My camera is my baby, often has ridden in the passenger seat of my car to be at the ready should something catch my eye. Buckled in of course.
My hope is the structured exercise of interpreting a theme stretches me, grows me and causes me to think harder, longer, and better about my photography. To take more than just clients images and to keep any photography block away.
My camera is a canon 40D, my favorite lens is a 16-35 f2.8L (I though I also use a 50 1.8f and a 70-200 f4L quite often), I love using natural light and avoid flashes unless absolutely necessary.
