Meet This Week's Judge: Stacie Turner

This week's judge is a master of emotion who proves time and again that the photographer is far more important than the tool. Learn more about Stacie Turner of Stacie Turner Photography here!

1. Tell us about yourself...
I have a husband, 7-year-old twins, an aggressively friendly cat and a lot of film. I hate being cold, an issue that has become more relevant with the winter that never ends, and am working towards making pictures that are less and less precise.

2. What ignited your passion for photography, and what fuels it now?
I grew up in a house with photographers so photography was something that was always around me. My step-father was an avid nature photographer and he and my mother owned a photo lab for 20 years. Our house had a darkroom in the basement and bottles of chemicals on the kitchen counter (never trust the generic cranberry juice jars - that's not cranberry juice!) Essentially, no ignition was needed. Now I shoot because I have no choice; if I'm not making pictures I get antsy and twitchy and slowly become depressed. It's pretty much film or Zoloft. 

3. What's in your camera bag right now, what do use the most? the least?
My camera bag is unpacked and all over my desk at the moment. What I use the most, however, are toy and vintage cameras. I have several holgas so I can have multiple speeds of film and both black and white and color options at my fingertips all the time. I just got a Brownie Six-20 box camera and am eager to take that out, once it warms up, and run a test roll through it. 

4. What's your dream project or shoot?
I would love to follow a national competitive figure skater around for a year and shoot a series of her (or him) as she practices on the ice, does off-ice work outs, goes to competitions, sits at the rink doing homework and so on. 

5. What is the biggest challenge you face as a photographer?
Balancing my personal work with commercially viable work.

6. If you had $500 to spend on photography...
How should you spend it? On advertising.
How do you wish you could spend it? A weekend in Maine sans family to just shoot.
How would you really spend it? Film.

7. Is there any one thing you wish someone had told you at the very beginning of your photography journey?
It's OK to have photography be a hobby you love rather than a business.

Thank you so much, Stacie, for being with us this week!