Shutter Sisters

Words

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Words were everywhere at Camp Shutter Sisters, and they were plentiful.  If we didn’t see them, we heard them, and often.  Words or phrases like Shoot with gratitude, Give yourself permission and you are beautiful. For me, some were easy to do or believe while others, not so much.  Shoot with Gratitude?  You got it.  Give yourself permission or you are beautiful?  Meh.  Maybe.  But as the weekend progressed, the words and their meanings started to sink in.  So, I gave myself permission at camp to be alone or skip dinner or take a nap.  And you know what? Every single one of those women at camp, myself included, are beautiful.

Words.  Lots of them.  What a gift.

Today, share your favorite uplifting or positive words.  Have a photo to go along with them? Share those, too.  And remember, you are beautiful, too.

Life in Black and White

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Rain earlier in the week made way for a beautiful, warm Southern California weekend for a volunteer beach cleanup that my husband, son and myself participated in.  Well, actually, I just followed along with my camera, but atleast I was there!  The sun was high and bright in a gorgeous blue sky but when I saw this picture I knew it would tell the story so much better in black and white.  With no color to distract,  it was just my husband and son walking side-by-side as if they were the only two on that beach. 

Today, show us your black and white photos and let them tell us their stories. 

For the Love of People

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I love to people watch.  A lot.  I can sit back for hours and watch the different people around me, making up stories about this one or that one.  What better place to get pictures of those people than at a Susan G. Komen 5K?  It’s the only time that both men and women alike can wear the words boobies or tatas and get away with it. I loved seeing all the different ways people dressed for the occasion.  Anything pretty much goes.  Even the men got into it, wearing anything from tutus to bras!  The mood was upbeat, people were laughing and smiling and they didn’t really mind whenever I took their picture.  Truly, it was a magical day with magical people and my camera and I loved every moment of it.

Today, show us your magical ‘people’ moments.   We’d love to see them.

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We are giving away one $100 Paper Coterie gift card EVERY SINGLE DAY of September to one of YOU! All you have to do is share a comment each day before midnight EST for your chance to win that day’s random drawing. And be sure to keep shooting your own stories and adding them to the OWP Pool on Flickr where you have a second chance at winning one of those $100 Paper Coterie giveaways.

 

A New Season

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I’m a true California girl. I live for summer, so when the days grow cooler and the days become shorter, it has always been a difficult transition for me.  I would pout my way through autumn, because really, finding a true fall season in Southern California is pretty much impossible. A couple of years ago I decided it was time to stop pouting about it and find fall on my own and I have.  Pumpkin patches? Check.  Apple picking? (yes, even here in SoCal!), check.  A yummy pumpkin latte? Well, that’s a given.  But what truly signifies the changing seasons for me?  Football!  High school, college, professional, it doesn’t matter.  Fall is in the air, people.  Even for me, this born and bred California girl.  🙂

Share your stories of how you celebrate the changing season. Show us your autumn.

We are giving away one $100  Paper Coterie gift card EVERY SINGLE DAY of September! Share a comment each day before midnight EST for your chance to win that day’s random drawing. Be sure to leave links to your story shots. 

When There Are No Words

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I received a text that my best friend was in the hospital, a text that was not unexpected.  Within 24 hours, her core group of girlfriends, myself included, fill her hospital room.  At times serious, we discuss chemo and medical procedures and pain management.  At times funny, we talk about some of our best times together, our laughter so hysterical and loud that a nurse comes to the room and closes the door.  My girlfriends know and expect that my camera is with me.  It’s my security blanket, my safety net.  When I can’t find the words to speak, I let me camera do the talking for me.  When a hand reaches out and takes a hand resting on the hospital bed, I lift my camera and quickly take a shot.  With a lump in my throat, I know this photo speaks all that I or my friends cannot speak and without a doubt, we will cherish it forever.

Today, show us those special photos that do the talking for you.  We’d love to *hear* what they have to say.

Living in Color

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‘A picture’s worth a thousand words but you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered. You should’ve seen it in color’ -from the song In Color by Jamey Johnson

My best friend Alejandra and I have known each other since we met in 2nd grade.  That friendship continued all through our school years and our high school graduation.  Once we were out of school I went on to my civil service career while she went on to marry and have three babies.  Like many do, we lost touch over the years while both of us went on to live our lives.  Last year at our high school reunion we reconnected and it was like we’ve never been apart.  We’ve both had our ups and downs over the years, both of us losing our siblings to cancer and now, my sweet friend is fighting cancer of her own and fight it, she does.  She fights it by choosing to live.  She lives by travelling to the most exotic places and seeing the most amazing things.  She lives by choosing to only drink wine from the cutest wine glasses she can find (as seen in the photo above).  She lives by laughing her infectious laughter, a lot. She lives by spending quality time with her girlfriends, making us her famous Mickey Mouse waffles for a late night snack after a full night full of laughter and good times together.  Recently we went away for a much needed weekend at a beach house with four other high school girlfriends.  Some of us were discussing the pitfalls of getting older from bad knees to poor eye sight to menopause. Suddenly, Alejandra began laughing hysterically.  At the quizzical look on our faces, she said, “You’re all falling apart and I’m the one with cancer!!!”, which then threw all of us into fits of hysterical laughter right along with her.  Not only is she living her life to the fullest, she’s living it in color.  How awesome that I get to photograph her colorful life.  How awesome that she’s my friend.

Today, show us with your photos how you’re living your life in color.

Shutter Sisters is honored to help promote the America Cancer Society’s More Birthdays Campaign. They want to see your artistic expression that is inspired by the lifesaving work of the American Cancer Society.  Submit your photos, art and/or music, spread the word, and vote for your favorites – you choose the winners and who gets the big prizes! There’s even a “cool categories” contest hosted by Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom fame that our own Tracey Clark is helping to judge. How serendipitious that this month’s word for our OWP is Life.  Life = More Birthdays!

A Healing

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“I was born with a camera in my hand“, is a common phrase said by some of the best photographers.  Unfortunately, this is  not a common phrase for me.  Photography was something I had always loved, even as a little girl posing My Little Ponies, but photography came in a different way for me.

As I grew older, got married and had children, my life was put on hold to be a stay-at-home mom.  Although many sacrifices came with this job, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.  A little over 3 years ago my husband bought me my first DSLR camera.  I started off by taking photos of tutus that I was making and selling but found that I was getting more attention for my photos than I was for the actual tutus.  Over time, I started to get more and more requests to take photos of friends and family.  Shortly thereafter, like a lot of other people in this country, my husband lost his job.  This came as a huge sadness to our family as we lost our home, the majority of our belongings and even our beloved dog, Dougie.

This change in our life is what gave me the opportunity to finally go after what I loved: photography.  The passion to fight to make the business a success came with the struggle, hardship, hurt and pain of this new change.  I loved photographing and capturing the happiness in families, the joys of newborns, the true love of weddings and the success of graduating seniors.  Photography is what made me happy and healed a lot of fears and frustrations that were occuring in my own life.  Being able to photograph all these great moments in other people’s lives reminded of what is truly important. 

This is now my business and I am loving every moment of it.  Running your own business can consume you but I have been blessed with meeting so many amazing photographers and clients, many who I can now call friends.

What has photography done for you? Today, show us how much you love photography and show us the photos you love.

Images and words courtesy of the lovely and talented Desiree Niumata of Desiree Niumata Photography.  You can also find her on Facebook and her blog, as well. 

Thankful.

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It was about 17 years ago, I don’t remember exactly.  My brother and dad together one afternoon and me, using my brother’s old high school camera, a Pentax K1000 (which I still have).  My dad and I had not spoken in many years and had only recently begun speaking again after my brother was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  It was an akward moment for me but I had my camera and that was my safety net.  Always has been, probably always will be.  I developed the film in a B&W photo class I was taking at a junior college the next day and I remember being so displeased with the quality of the photo.  I didn’t like the lighting, the contrast wasn’t perfect, etc.  I tossed it aside and forgot all about it.  That is until last week, when in the middle of going through some old things, I came across it again.  My heart did a little flutter as I looked closely at the photo. I notice my dad’s long, weathered hands and the way he’s looking directly at me, his expression a little unsure maybe?  And then I smile as I notice my brother trying to be Mr. GQ.  Not only does the photo not seem so bad to me now, I’m so very thankful that I kept it because 3 years after this photo was taken, I lost my brother to cancer. A short 3 years after my brother passed, I lost my dad.

Now, when I have those moments (and I do) and I wonder if photography is really what I’m meant to do or I start questioning my own self-confidence with it all (which I also do), I look at this photo and I know…a camera most definitely belongs in my hands. 

How about you? What was your ‘aha’ moment or photo? Please, do share.

Emotion in Motion

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I love capturing motion shots.  To me, nothing shows emotion better than an act or movement caught in the moment.  The kids at my son’s school put on huge dance performance every year and my ‘job’ is to put together a slideshow for their friends and family of the photos I’ve taken to show just prior to the kids taking stage.  Seeing the kids in motion, the pure joy on their faces, shows everyone just how much fun they had getting ready for the big night. 

Capturing motion shots of all kinds can show an array of emotions from the element of surpise to pure delight to simple childhood fun.  How about you? Show us your motion shots.  Let us see the emotion you’ve captured.   

A Very Special Gift.

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It’s no secret that most of our photography is of good things: weddings, new babies, birthdays and the requisite pet photo, to name a few.  But what about the other photos? The ones that tell a story no one wants to tell?  Last August I was a summer camp photographer and had the privilege of meeting so many great kids, but one girl was special.  She had a brain tumor and was in the fight for her life but sadly, on April 13th, she lost the battle at the tender age of 4.  Not too long after, her mom contacted me: I would like for you to attend Ann’s service and burial on Friday, and if possible captivate it with your wonderful lens.  It was definitely taking me outside of my comfort zone as I had never done something like this before, but how could I not? It was the least I could do for this wonderful family and to honor the child they had lost. 

Have you ever gone out of your comfort zone when photographing something or someone? Please, share your special stories with us…

In Loving Memory of Ann Marie Ambrosio-Cerna, June 17th, 2006 – April 13th, 2011