Image courtesy of Angie Arthur

As we wrap up a month full of fresh faces, we are pleased to share some words from the two lovely ladies behind the I Heart Faces community, Angie Arthur and Amy Locurto about how it all began and what inspires them:

I Heart Faces was started by a random connection we made with each other through our love of blogging and photography. We "met" each other through the comments section on another photographer's blog, made an instant connection and had that wonderful circumstance happen when you immediately become friends with someone else. A few months after we first met, Angie sent Amy an email asking her what she thought about starting a blog that revolved around photographing people. The idea completely mushroomed into something much bigger (and better!) than we ever imagined. The entire concept of I Heart Faces was created, designed and implemented before we had ever met one another in person or even spoken on the phone together! When we finally were able to meet at a conference months later it was like we had known each other our entire lives. Our husbands thought the entire situation was a bit bizarre, but for us it was just meant to be.

All along we knew that we wanted I Heart Faces to be something that would be fun and inspiring for other photographers no matter what their level of photography experience was. Through I Heart Faces we have not only learned a ton ourselves about photography, but have gained an amazing community of friends and support. It just proves that taking the time to do something you're passionate about can really pay off in the end and bring you more joy than you ever imagined.

 Image courtesy of Amy Luturo

Angie & Amy answer our six questions:

Where do you look for inspiration?

We've found that we are surrounded by inspiration right in our community through the photographers that enter photos into our weekly challenges, the Guest Judges that we interview and feature on our site and the thriving community that we interact with daily. We have a few men in our community (we heart them a bunch!) but we mainly seem to attract women as an audience. It is a thrill to see these women encourage, support and love one another through their personal photography journey.

What aspect of your photography are you constantly working on, trying to improve?

Being creative with our work. Both of us are very creative people and hate it when we feel like we're stuck in a rut. We've found that the weekly photo challenge themes spur us forward to continually come up with new ideas and unique ways of shooting so that we will have an interesting photo to enter into the challenge that week.

If you could go anywhere in the world for an epic, weeklong photo excursion all by your luxuriously unhurried self - regardless of money, time or childcare issues - where would you go and why?

We have both talked about taking a group of our fans on a trip to Italy someday (how fun would that be?!) Deep down though, our greatest wish would be to go along on a missions trip as the official photographer or to go on a Bloggers Trip for Compassion International. Making a difference with our photography would be a dream come true!

What is your photo philosophy?

We both respond strongly to a photojournalistic style of photography. We think it's extremely important to learn to have your camera with you at all times so that you can be ready to capture the little moments that truly matter. While we enjoy photographing nature and buildings, our true passion is (obviously!) photographing faces.

Are there women out there you consider to be your "shutter sisters"?

Oh wow, are there! We have an entire community of women now that have surrounded us with love and who lift us up in encouragement daily. By far, one of the best parts of I Heart Faces are the emails we receive when women pour out their heart and describe how much the encouragement and love they have received from our community has completely changed their lives and allowed them to pursue dreams that they never imagined being able to follow. It gives us chills to know that we might have made a beautiful difference in the life of someone else. That's why we're extra excited about our upcoming I Heart Faces Photography Workshop! We hope to encourage women to "Dream Big" and purse their passion to the fullest! We'll be opening up for registration in September and can't wait!

A special thanks to Angie and Amy for joining us at Shutter Sisters this month for an awesome One Word Project. Since September's word will be announced tomorrow, let's squeeze in a few more shiny happy faces today! Say Cheese!