essential eyes

There's something fascinating about the human eye. I won't get into all the clichés and metaphors (the window to the soul! ok, sorry, that one slipped out...). And I won't get into the scientific make-up of the human eye (seriously, I have no idea what it's all about. I do know it has something to do with cones, but not ice cream cones). What I like about the human eye is its glossy-glass colour (blue, brown, grey, green, chocolate), its dark thin rim around the iris, and of course the ever expanding and retracting black pupil. Oh the black, dark pupil, it has so many things to hide, and teases us even more when sparkling with specular highlights! And we have the milky whites and the delicate eyelashes. There's nothing I like more than photographing a human eye! (but I say that about a lot of things...)

Eyes, more than anything, really get me excited about being able to see. They're such an amazing thing to look at, yet you need one to see one. Is that irony?

So when I photograph a person's face, I love using natural light and getting them to look up at me. It opens up the eye and reveals its best.


Posted by Gabrielle Touchette, f/action member.

...and now for something completely different...

Photography is an art form. Like knitting, graffiti or cooking, it is based on creativity. As with all creative acts, it happens from time to time that inspiration flows like molasses, shoots become bland and tasteless and one relies on the true but tried methods.

Scientists aren’t really sure what causes photographer’s block and there are many home remedies for curing the symptoms, but all they really boil down to is shaking things up. Recently I have found what may very well be the mother of all shake ups…. changing mediums and/or formats.

If you shoot digital, pick up a 35mm. If you’ve shot 35 already, find a medium format camera. Already done that? Go Large! If you’re used to shooting with a 5D, steal your little brother’s 3 mp Optio point and shoot and see if you still have ‘it’. Get the cheapest thrift store toy camera you can find (the kind that they don’t even make film for anymore) and mod it. Shove a roll of anything that fits inside and work your magic.

Whatever side of the scale you call yourself… gear head pixel peeper or artistic retro silver snob… go out and grab the favorite tool of the other side and light it on fire (figuratively, of course).

Having shot digital for too long, it took a plastic camera with no settings, no preview display, and 12 shots per roll to shake and bake my creative mind enough to give me the freedom and confidence to bring my camera absolutely everywhere I went and take any shot that came to mind. It was just the spice I needed to see things from a different point of viewfinder.