Something I absolutely love about the photography community is how much I learn and gain inspiration from folks practicing around me. I was catching up on some of my Viewfinders reading and I absolutely loved Deb’s post about finding themes in her work. It inspired me to go back through my last few months of photos, both client work and personal, to see what I could find in my own images. Sure enough, there it was, staring me right in the face. It wasn’t something I was unaware of, but it also isn’t something that I shoot or focus on intentionally.

I tend to shoot hands – hands holding, hands actively engaged in something, hands waiting, and hands learning how to be hands. There’s something so personal and intimate about hands, I think. Something about the involuntary movements and gestures that happen with hands when people aren’t thinking about them. Something about size differences from one person to another. Something about the closeness of being held.

I’ve been finding hands in my images for years, and I’m glad to know that it hasn’t gone away. Like I said, it isn’t something that I set out to intentionally shoot, but it’s a theme that draws me in over and over again. What do you see repeating in your work? Maybe it’s a certain color scheme or composition. Maybe it’s a repetition of subject matter like Deb and I both found. I’d love to hear about what you’re finding!

All the best,
Alison