Holy Moly, there were so many amazing photos this week!! It has taken me FOREVER to narrow down my list! Wow!
Thank you to everyone who participated! All of the images were so much fun to look at!
In honor of Mother’s Day, I’m asking you to post “Mother” images next week! To participate, please post your photo to our Facebook wall (sized no smaller that 600 pixels wide) The winners will be featured here on the blog next Friday.
Have a great weekend everyone, and Happy Mother’s Day!!
- Sandra
Kate T. Parker Photography
Summer Murdock Photography
Celeste Pavlik
Jenna Reich
Two Poppies
erica moffitt | naki studios
Katie Jeanne Photography
A Beautiful Life Photo
Sweet Life Pictures
Annie Otzen Photography
Maria Manco Photography
Hi Bellow-ites & Happy Almost Friday!
Today I’m excited to share Emma Wood’s beautiful small camera work, byway of her Instagram photos (on IG she goes by @emma___wood (which contains 3 undersscores))
You might be familiar with Emma and her amazing work–maybe it’s because she was a Little Bellows guest blogger and a big camera feature last June.
Or, if those two instances don’t ring a bell, then maybe it’s Emma’s work with Clickin Moms, which she elaborates on in her interview at the end of this post.
Bottom line: Emma Wood is a busy busy lady!
When I was looking through Emma’s Instagram feed, I found it interesting that although her work is made byway of a modern device, her images have a distingctive vintage, almost painterly, quality.
Let me dust off my soapbox: Small cameras can make art too! And so I’m thinking Emma’s work should be printed big, I mean really big, as if her photographs were paintings.
For a glimpse into Emma’s process creating those images, be sure to check out her interview below, as well as her Instagram feed for some mobile photography inspiration!
Cheers,
Christina
Q: Where are you located?
EW: I live in a very small Village in the heart of Somerset in England. Not for much longer though, In a few months, my family and I will be moving to the UAE which will be exciting and something completely different. I’m looking forward to some desert pictures and lots of light.
Q: How has incorporating mobile photography into your personal work affected your day, either personally or professionally, or both?
EW: My mobile photography fits right in with my life. I find it a refreshingly raw and organic way to document the moments that are happening before my eyes every day. My husband works away from home and we’ve had a difficult year of living apart because of it, but we chat all of the time, so I always have my phone with me everywhere I go. It’s like a little extension of me, and my children will verify that – they joke that they don’t remember what my right hand looks like without my iphone. I usually take pictures of just the every day with my children, it’s nice for my Husband to see what’s going on at home, and it helps him to not feel so far away. I almost always edit my images in the school carpark. I have to get to my daughters school about 25 mins early so that I can find a parking spot, and instead of being bored, I love knowing that I’ll have time to edit my pictures. I then have another 20 mins to wait at my Sons school – time for a few more edits 
Q: Do you have a process or workflow for your mobile work? What is it? What apps do you use?
EW:I do absolutely have a process that works for me. I mainly use VSCO Cam, Afterlight and SquarereadyPro. Usually I’ll edit with VSCO, I love this app because it emulates film images and it just fits my style so well. I then take them into Afterlight where I will straighten, maybe add a touch of ‘Frost’ or a texture and then I crop. If I’m using a crop that isn’t square, I’ll always use SquarereadyPro to import my images into Instagram, that way I know that they’ll have the white background that I like. After that it’s off to Instagram where I post my images, the ones I like the best, I will share on Facebook. I hardly every use the filters on Instagram but I have used Hudson very occasionally. PicTapGo is another app that I’m trying out.
Q: What inspires you? (this can be anything or anyone-not necessarily limited to mobile photos)
EW: Life inspires me. From my children to a beautiful pocket of light. I probably take far too many pictures but I can’t get enough of recording moments that I find amazing. Little fragments of time that I don’t let pass me by. I’m probably a little obsessed, but I’m ok with that!
Q: Give me a handful of Instagram (or non-instagram) people whose work you admire.
Q: You’re pretty active on Clickin Moms, tell me about that.
EW: I love Clickinmoms, and feel blessed every day to be a Mentor over there. It’s changed me not just as a photographer but as a person. It’s the most amazing place full of wonderful, kind generous women who all want to learn, grow and share their love for photography. I’m writing a ClickinMoms workshop at the moment that’s due to run end of August, it’s very exciting and scary both at the same time.
Q:You have 7 children, do you photograph all of them? Do you have specific photos that you seek out from each kid, because they have a certain look or persona?
EW: Yes, I do have 7 children. All mine, all fruit-loops and it’s a crazy house but I love it. I don’t photograph them all all of the time because I’m very respectful of the fact that the older kids need and want their privacy. So if I ‘happen’ to take a picture of any of them, I ask permission before I post them anywhere. The little ones, you’ll see a lot more of because they’re always with me and because they don’t say no I’m making the most of the time that I have before I get the hand up in front of their faces or run a mile when they see my Iphone or camera. They each have their personalities which definitely makes a difference as to the kind of images that I capture. My youngest one is a real goof-ball and very cute with it, so we get some fun images, whereas my 7yr old daughter is more serious and emotional – which comes across in my images of her. But I know that they have played a huge role in allowing me to really find out what kind of a photographer I am. Without them, I wouldn’t be me.
Congratulations Sally Muir!!!! You are the winner of a brand new Kelly Moore B-Hobo bag! Please send me an email so that I can get all of your information and send you your pretty new bag! Woohoo!!
And because this is our birthday month, the giving continues!
This week we have a gift for everyone from our awesome new sponsor, Click Magazine, the new photo magazine for the modern phtograph[her] !!!
Click Magazine is giving a complimentary FULL issue of Click to each and every one of you! How great is that?! Just follow the link to get your FREE copy now!!
And, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter, because one week from today we’ll be raffling off a one-on-one culling session and portfolio review with me, Sandra Coan! I will turn my editorial eye on your portfolio and website and give you tips, help you cull and answer your question all in person (on the phone or by Skype!!) Woohoo! But in order to win, you must be on the list, so sign up today!
Have a great Wednesday everyone!
-Sandra
Get 14 days of Click FREE on your iPad or computer.
“on the last day of the world,i would want to plant a tree.”
- w.s. merwin
i have a serious case of the heavies. there are so many ways to say it, to feel it, to give it shape and form, to trace its origins. my mom always said i was so intense, she didn’t know what to do with me sometimes, the way i felt the world as a weight, the way it made me fly and broke my heart. as a toddler, i would sometimes clench every bit of my tiny body in a tremble. it was funny, but they worried. i also had the biggest smile for the people of my world; it took every muscle of my face to make it. my little boy has inherited the storm, and i meet it with thirty six years of learned, studied peace and unraveling. oh, the way the light looks next to the shadows – i find myself in that sliver where they meet, cutting through, opening me up, where grey is black and white, at once. there is so much broken, shattered and cracked and pieced together with hope, lost and falling away. i expect this, from within and without. i know how to reach to the very tips of my toes, to open up every vertebrae, to draw myself up, fix my stare, and look it all straight in the eye.
we are our toughest days as much as our best ones. it should be allowed. every sentence does not end with an exclamation mark. some trail off. some are swallowed down into the dark. no one is alone in that, nor are we putting a damper on life with that truth. so this is why i am typing this, and why maybe, someone is reading. because there were too many words living inside me, with only roots, waiting for water and light. i was the person who told you what you needed to hear, who smiled on the outside while my lips shook, who stopped and started in rattling jolts, who willed myself downstairs at twelve, at eighteen, at thirty, to conquer something that should never have felt like a battle. i know what the worst day feels like. i have had many. we all have them folded into our stories, or out on the horizon. but the worst, and most alive get mixed and shaken up together. when we add love, there is a fighting chance. we can survive. i have come to see all the shades of myself. i have come to know, intimately, the real things to fear. i live with the dark, i sleep under its curtain, i hold on, we hold hands, we dance it away if we are so lucky. and in that dancing i have found the kind of joy that spills over as tears down my face. my husband, my friends, they would all tell me that’s a rather serious way to put it. but i take my joy seriously too.
this week, my son turned three, i turned thirty six, we lost a dear family friend. the world made that silent cry – its beauty, our powerlessness, swimming through the waves together, peaks and valleys that rock us. that mix of what we can never expect, and what we know we can face. every year on my baby’s birthday, i have to face my own. so in this thousandth way, he sets me free, as i try with no luck to remember who i was before him. and i run my fingers through the summer sea of his hair and remember i do not have to. it is as easy as telling the truth. the night of my birthday, i lay awake in a cocoon of white sheets and four feet rubbing themselves to sleep, like tiny wings making a night song, my own reaching for their lullaby. i do not have to tell myself to remember these things anymore. this kind of awake is part of the bones i have made myself, in all the hurting, growing them, being a shepherd, an audience, a sun, a moon. in the most still times, there is a buzz under my skin. fear and love in one swift current. and in the wildest, i am still, in the longest second, stretching out through time. the beginning of love is a circle, and i am forever dizzy. i will always be afraid of the other shoe dropping. but as my wise dad always tells me, “there are an infinite number of shoes.” may they fall gently. may i learn to let them go.
About Amy Grace, A Beautiful Life Photo, based in San Diego, CA: Website | Facebook | Contact
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Nikki - Such an adorable family & session:)
Meghan - Thank you so much for this! I love Little Bellows and am honored to be featured!