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The 2018 DIY Photo Calendar is Here

November 3, 2017 By shutter sisters

It’s that time of year again! We’re continuing the annual tradition of sharing another DIY Photo Calendar Template. Yay! Make one for yourself and make some for your friends and family. It’s the perfect way to showcase and share your amazing photography.

Visit the Calendar Page HERE then click the Download Button to get started!

If you’d like to share news of the template on social media, feel free to use these images below and link to shuttersisters.com. Thanks for spreading the photo calendar love!

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The 2017 DIY Photo Calendar Template

November 28, 2016 By shutter sisters

 

We’ve created a DIY Photo Calendar Template for so many years, we couldn’t break the tradition. Using the template is the perfect way to showcase your photographic talents and share your creativity with those you love.

This year we collaborated with Photography for the Journey and are offering the calendar there. The design is lovely and we’re super excited to share it with you!

Pop over to the Photography for the Journey and click on the middle circle to download the file.

Share your calendar creations using the tag #shuttersisters and/or #pftj so we can get a look at your holiday handiwork!

Happy Holidays!

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Photography for the Journey Workshop

September 2, 2016 By shutter sisters

Photography for the Journey Tracey Clark Danielle Cohen

Photography for the Journey Workshop with Tracey Clark + Danielle Cohen

Autumn 2016 Series #1 – Photo Foundation

3 Thursdays – 9:30am – 12:30pm

September 15th, 22nd, 29th

Costa Mesa, California

$200

This creative workshop is designed for women who want to learn more about photography, their cameras, and how to take better pictures.

Photographers Danielle Cohen and Tracey Clark (founder of Shutter Sisters) will unpack the elements of photography with their unique and accessible approach that will encourage, educate and empower you in elevating your photo skills. From technical tips and tricks to lessons on how to take a great photograph (including light, composition, perspective, framing and conveying emotion) this workshop will give you the camera confidence you need to capture more creative and meaningful photographs.

A small, intimate class size, a comfortable, relaxed setting, and a nurturing, supportive environment, ensures you will leave each week feeling inspired, energized and excited to capture the world around you through your lens. Enlightening photography lessons and  fun creative photo assignments will encourage creative exploration and help you get the most out of each session of the workshop.

Join Danielle and Tracey this September for the Photography for the Journey Workshop and fill your creative cup! Coffee (or tea) and delicious snacks will be provided.

We begin on Sept 15th at 9:30. All cameras welcome (even mobile phones). Class size is limited. Sign up today.

photography for the journey Danielle Cohen Tracey Clark

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The 2016 Calendar : An Annual Tradition

November 22, 2015 By shutter sisters

2016 DIY Photo Calendar

It just wouldn’t feel like the holidays without offering our annual DIY photo calendar!

So excited to be sharing a new one with you all for 2016.

Click on the icon below for the immediate download.

(A simple instruction sheet is included in the folder.)

diy Calendar 2016 button

Enjoy and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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The Beauty and Bounty of #GiftingGrace

April 24, 2015 By shutter sisters

As we celebrate another week of #GiftingGrace, we are featuring our 5 weekly recipients of Bella Grace Magazine. Such fun to give and receive, isn’t it? We are deeply moved by all the images that are being dedicated in our photo sharing circle. It makes our hearts swell with gratitude. Here are a few true beauties!

GiftingGrace by SusanBlanda

GiftingGrace by SusanBlanda

GiftingGrace by DeepRiverStudio

GiftingGrace by DeepRiverStudio

GiftingGrace by annabelle_roa

GiftingGrace by annabelle_roa

GiftingGrace by ann_thedreamery

GiftingGrace by ann_thedreamery

GiftingGrace by RunnerKimHall

GiftingGrace by RunnerKimHall

We have another week left to share our grace-inspired images with those we want to encourage and inspire! Read all about it on our announcement post and join us in the sharing circle with the tags #GiftingGrace and #BellaGraceMagazine. We are really enjoying working with Stampington & Company in this meaningful way; turning our attention and our lenses toward grace.

 

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#GiftingGrace with Bella Grace Magazine for Week 2

April 17, 2015 By shutter sisters

Another lovely week full of beautiful images and sweet photo dedications of #GiftingGrace. These gorgeous shots are perfect examples of how  grace can be found in the often quiet and unexpected places.  Thanks to Bella Grace Magazine for gifting these 5 ladies copies of the latest issue.

#GiftingGrace by Mallien

#GiftingGrace by Mallien

GiftingGrace by Thirty2flavors

GiftingGrace by Thirty2flavors

GiftingGrace by SiobhanWolf

GiftingGrace by SiobhanWolf

GiftingGrace by LindsayCrandall

GiftingGrace by LindsayCrandall

GiftingGrace by CarmenMariez

GiftingGrace by CarmenMariez

We’ve still got a few more weeks to celebrate this photo sharing circle so be sure to submit your images by using the #giftinggrace & #bellagracemagazine. Don’t forget to follow @BellaGraceMagazine on Instagram. Such inspiration!

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#GiftingGrace and Receiving Bella Grace

April 10, 2015 By shutter sisters

Thank you all for participating in our #GiftingGrace photo sharing circle this week. We are excited to share images from this week’s 5 chosen recipients of the latest issue of Bella Grace Magazine. It’s a treasure, for sure. As are these lovely shots.

#GiftingGrace image by @anniestril

#GiftingGrace image by @anniestril

#giftinggrace by @soonie_2

#GiftingGrace image by @soonie_2

#GiftingGrace image by @believinginhope

#GiftingGrace image by @believinginhope

#GiftingGrace image by @lolafalola

#GiftingGrace image by @lolafalola

#GiftingGrace image by @nerdeyeopen

#GiftingGrace image by @nerdeyeopen

We encourage you to join in the #GiftingGrace goodness by sharing your own grace-inspired images and dedicating them to special people in your life! It’s easy and it means so much. Check out the details in our blog post announcement and how much we are inspired by the beauty of Bella Grace Magazine.

Congratulations to today’s recipients! We will be gifting 5 more issues next Friday. Hooray for gifting!

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Announcing #GiftingGrace : Inspired by Bella Grace Magazine

April 6, 2015 By shutter sisters

Shutter Sisters GiftingGrace Inspired by Bella Grace Magazine Oh, April! What a glorious month you are; ushering out the bare and chilly winter while welcoming in the slow and sure warmth of spring. At this threshold of the new season we look forward to more than just a change in the weather, we long to discover and experience all things fresh, new and beautiful. With every glimpse of sunny sky, every sprig that shoots up and every blossom that begins to bud, we can feel the gifts being bestowed upon us; hope, promise and grace. We, here at Shutter Sisters, can think of no better way to celebrate this transformative and tender turn of the seasons than by savoring and sharing these gifts. And we’ve got the sweetest way to do just that! Together with our friends at Stampington, we invite you to participate in a month-long creative outpouring of gratitude called #GiftingGrace. Inspired by the authentic and abundant beauty of Stampington & Company’s newest publication, Bella Grace Magazine, we encourage you to join us in capturing your own grace-inspired images and sharing them with and dedicating them to your sister-friends. It is through #GiftingGrace that we can give encouragement and inspiration to those we care about, one beautiful picture at a time. It is in that giving that we also receive. By playing along, you have a chance to be gifted with one of the many copies of the spring issue of Bella Grace Magazine. There will be 5 copies given away each week.  We told you this was going to be sweet! The rules are simple:

  1. Follow both @BellaGraceMagazine and @ShutterSisters on Instagram
  2. Tag your Instagram images with the hashtags #GiftingGrace & #BellaGraceMagazine
  3. Dedicate your #GiftingGrace image(s) to a friend or friends that you want to encourage and inspire by naming them in your caption. We ask that you also tag them to do the same so that the gifts of grace can continually blossom and bloom throughout all of April.
  4. There are no limits to the number of images you tag or the dedications you make. The giving is endless!

The benefits are great:

  1. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we will be featuring hand-selected #GiftingGrace images via the Shutter Sisters Instagram feed (giving you photo credit, of course).
  2. Each Friday we will list 5 recipients of the Bella Grace Magazine giveaways via Instagram.
  3. We will feature some selected #GiftingGrace images on the Shutter Sisters blog

The fine print is clear:

  1. We will notify each magazine winner via Instagram so be sure to check your IG message inbox if you see your name on Friday’s post. We will ask for your mailing address for shipping.
  2. By tagging your images you are giving Shutter Sisters, Bella Grace Magazine and Stampington permission to use your images for #GiftingGrace features and project promotions via any/all of the listed brand’s social media outlets (including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the brand’s blogs). You will be given photo credit.

Hooray for spring! Hooray for grace! Hooray for giving (and for receiving)! Now, let’s lift our lenses and share the images that will surely make our sister-spirits soar.

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behind the book : an interview with daniela bowker

February 23, 2015 By shutter sisters

Social Photography by Daniela Bowker

We got a chance to catch up with Daniela Bowker, editor at Photocritic, and are excited to share her latest book!

Shutter Sisters: Tell Us About Your Book.

Daniela Bowker:  Social Photography : Make All Your Smartphone Photos One in a Billion (Ilex Press, April 2014) was conceived to help people take and share better smartphone photos.

With so many images flooding a plethora of social media sites, the aim is to show people how best to use their smartphone cameras and the gamut of photography-related apps to make photos that people want to look at, and then how to share them appropriately via different social media channels. After all, the people who follow you on Twitter might not be the same people who follow you on Facebook, and knowing your audience is the half of the recipe to having your photos noticed; the first half is the great photo.

SS: What did you enjoy the most about writing Social Photography?

DB: Despite the high-tech nature of smartphone photography, in-app editing, and social media sharing, smartphone photography can be reduced to the essentials: tell your story, look for the light, compose your scene. It was a pleasure to revert to these basics and teach people the foundations of great photography in a way that really can make a difference.

SS: Had you written any other books before?
DB:  I am the co-author of  Michael Freeman’s Photo School: Composition (co-author), Ilex Press, 2012 and the author of Surreal Photography: Creating the Impossible, Ilex Press, 2013.

SS: What was the most challenging part of writing Social Photography specifically?

DB: Social media platforms update, apps come, go, and are revised. Ensuring that the book was written in such a way to maintain accuracy, despite these inevitable changes was a challenge. There were at least two major revisions to the manuscript made during the writing and editing process, following significant updates to apps featured in the book.

Bee by Daniela Bowker

SS: What is your favorite photo you shared in the book?  Why is it your favorite?

DB: Selecting my favourite photo from the book has been quite a struggle. So let’s go with the bumblebee collecting pollen from the asparagus fern. It was taken on my father’s allotment using my iPhone. Bees can be tricky to capture–they move so fast–and it was taken around midday when the sun was high in the sky, but it came together beautifully.

Is there a way for the book’s readers, or anyone else, to get involved?

Of course! It’s a book about social photography! Grab yourself an EyeEm, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, or Twitter account, and start sharing your photos. You can follow me in most of these places, too. And don’t forget that I’m the editor of Photocritic, where you can pick up more photography hints, tips, and help.

I’m especially fond of the “Where to Share” flowchart from the book (click on it below for a larger version).

Where to share

“The key to acquiring social media followers doesn’t rely on alchemy or bribery. It’s about being interested, interesting, and interactive.” – Daniela Bowker

Social Photography Cover by Danila Bowker

Buy the book:  Social Photography : Make All Your Smartphone Photos One in a Billion (Ilex Press, April 2014)

Daniela BowkerAbout Danila Bowker: Daniela Bowker started taking photos when she was five and writing before that. After studying ancient history and then training as a teacher, she realized that what she really wanted to do was write. So now that’s what she does. Her almost-daily commentary on the photography world is found at Photocritic and at Photocritic Photography School. She has a raucous laugh, a mild shoe obsession, and a bicycle called Elspeth.

 

Find Daniela Bowker : WEBSITE : INSTAGRAM :  TWITTER : FLICKR : EYE EM :PHOTOCRITIC

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behind the book : an interview with Honey Lazar

December 23, 2014 By shutter sisters

image_1_Lazar

It is with great pleasure that we speak with photographer & author Honey Lazar about her inspiring and uplifting book.

Shutter Sisters: Tell Us About Your Book.

Honey Lazar: My book is called Loving Aunt Ruth: Recipes for A Well Lived Life. Kristin Ohlson, Author, The Soil Will Save Us, wrote the jacket text for the book, which I’ll share.

Everyone wants unconditional love. Loving Aunt Ruth invites you to share in it.

Ruth Moss’s life was filled with pain and loss, but she responded by reaching out to the world with love. Her niece, photographer, Honey Lazar, asked Aunt Ruth if she could document her life in pictures and, in the process, become an audience to her wisdom. Her lessons in love are revealed in text as well as in Lazar’s intimate photographs. She believes Aunt Ruth and other loving exemplars provide a uniquely powerful guide to living well.

SS: Tell us why you wrote the book, Loving Aunt Ruth:  Recipes for A Life Well-Lived?

HL: I began photographing my Aunt Ruth as a way to get closer to her, but once I put the camera down and listened to her stories, her wisdom for living well, I felt a narrative evolve.  When I began taking Aunt Ruth’s photos, her children and husband were gone, and I asked her how she stayed determined in the face of so much loss.  Her answer became the anchor for the book and changed my life.  She said:

First, I accept that life isn’t easy.  I have my faith…but, I have a will to live, and that will comes from loving people.

SS: What did you enjoy the most about writing the book?

HL: Falling in love with Aunt Ruth, getting to know her legion of friends whose lives would enrich mine, and feeling a part of creating a book about living life through the lens of love.  My eldest sister was moving east, and my only local relative was Aunt Ruth, so I thought photographing her would help us bond.  The bonus was going to School of Aunt Ruth and learning the guideposts to living well that I didn’t know I needed and being treated to a decision making process that was predicated on loving people.  If you are going to bake brownies, bake an extra batch for friends…and so forth!

SS: What was the most challenging part of writing it?

HL: I asked Aunt Ruth if I could photograph her for a book without any thought to what I was saying, and she said, “Okay.  I will have a tea party, so you can meet all of my friends, because if you are going to get to know me, then you must know all the people who are important to me.”  If the book began with a party, the challenge was certainly how the book would end.  I didn’t want to photograph my aunt’s aging process, since she was 87 when we began, because her life was all about socializing, giving to friends, family, and community, so how to finish was a challenge.

Until…she began to plan her 90th birthday party that 165 people attended.  Problem solved…the book would end the way it began; with a party!

Loving Aunt Ruth by Honey Lazar

SS: What is your favorite photo you shared in the book?  Why is it your favorite?

HL: Aunt Ruth’s 90th birthday party is iconic and my favorite. She didn’t want gifts, so I sent postcards to the invitees asking them to choose 1-3 words describing her, and for me, the photo symbolizes all that Aunt Ruth meant to everyone.  165 people came, and I only know that many people on Facebook!  I love this picture.

SS: Did you shoot the photography specifically for the book, or did you curate the images you already had, or both?  What is the process like?

HL: I had no idea that photographing Aunt Ruth would turn into a book!  I documented Aunt Ruth’s life over a 3-year period, and by year 3, I was certain that I wanted to edit these images into a narrative along with the lessons I’d collected over the years of photographing.

The process was intimate, beautiful, and instructive.  I learned a lot about location lighting, but most importantly, I got lessons on love, loss, friendship, aging, and forgiveness that helped me beyond my dreams.  Both of my sisters died shortly before the book was published within 10 months of each other, and the photographic journey with Aunt Ruth gave me courage.

SS: What one tip would you share with people who want to start taking better pictures right now?

HL: Obviously, shooting every day matters, but my tip is really to learn about the photographic basics of light and time by taking courses or watching videos to enhance your skill set in order to make the images your mind already sees.

“Make sure you always have love in your life. It is the greatest gift of all.” -Aunt Ruth

Loving_Aunt_Ruth_book_coverPurchasing Loving Aunt Ruth:  A little book about being good should definitely do some good, and a portion of every sold book goes to The Intergenerational School, a charter school in Cleveland, my hometown, whose core of volunteers and mentors come from a center for seniors. 

In the spirit of Aunt Ruth who said, “Everything tastes better shared,” Honey is sending a PDF with 24 additional recipes not in the book to anyone who buys the book to give love this holiday season.

Honey Lazar

About Honey (in her words): “My dad was an artist. He was a brilliant photographer, a painter, an illustrator, and a filmmaker. He documented our family, the famous, and led his own advertising agency. He died when I was three, but his pictures and movies kept me close to him. I picked up a camera to document everyone and everything in my life as a way to keep memory close at hand. I love everything about photography, especially the part that tethers me to my dad.

I am a fine art photographer whose work focuses on long-term projects for exhibition and publication.  My work has been seen from Spain To New York and on the walls of my sweet Aunt Ruth’s apartment.”

Honey Lazar is an award-winning photographer who lives with her husband and 22-year-old cat in Cleveland, Ohio. Read more about all of her photographic accomplishments on her about page.

Find Honey Lazar: WEBSITE : INSTAGRAM : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : BOOK SITE

 

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