Shutter Sisters

The End of the World as We Know it

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You may have heard by now that tonight midnight marks the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar. These predictions fail to move me, being the kind of girl more ready to shrug off catastrophe than prepare for the worst.  But then my friend Stacey called with this scandalous thought: what if starting tomorrow we could start over? What if we all decided once and for all to take responsibility for ourselves and each other with love being our guiding light? What if the end was a brave new beginning?

I was intoxicated and also intrigued.

It’s a love apocalypse, Stacey said. A chance to let go of all the things that don’t serve you. A chance to choose the world you create.

Hours later there was an impromptu photo shoot with my kids and good friends from the neighborhood.  The kids immediately understood, and I began to appreciate in a new way the power of intentions. They were so glad to be photographed. Even more I could see each one saw the necessity of choosing a new way.  In a world where killing was becoming all too commonplace, radical love is the only way.

What will you let go of as the world ends tonight at midnight? What you embrace for the sake of a better world?  Leave us your own declarations in photo form in the comments. Or better yet, join Stacey and I at midnight wherever you are. Let’s do this thing together.

for more information visit loveapocalypse.org or leave your own brave images in the Flickr group or tag your Instagram photos with #LoveApocalypse.

The Thanks You Give in Your Heart

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An unexpected announcement.  A hug. A kiss. A split second you will forget completely, I promise you, save for the audacity of the click, that one step forward into the fray where all the magic unfurls right before your eyes.

Don’t bother looking for beauty today. Everything qualifies. Don’t bother asking for permission. Everyone already knows that this is what you do.  So do not disappoint. Search for the unusual moment. Watch for the edges of happiness. Document even the silliness, the awkwardness. Even this belongs.

This is your family. These are your people. The emotion you feel for them today will be nothing but a memory, and even this will fade. You do not know what your next year holds. You cannot assume all will be even the smallest bit the same. All you truly have is this moment, this one episode of magic held captive in your frame. 

So take it. Dive into the madness today, friends. Put yourself in the middle and shoot until you find your bliss. Your document will be one part history, one part testament to the thanks you gave in your heart. That you found each other, when there could have been so many misses. When so much of life could have left you apart, amiss, astray.

Happy Thanksgiving, sisters on this side of the pond and beyond. We give thanks for you today.

Your Ordinary Beauty

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Most people don’t think of themselves as beautiful.  We don’t think of ourselves at all, really.  We just get up, splash water on our faces, dress, pull our hair back, throw our clothes on–whether the uniform of mindless choice is yoga pants or your everyday sari.  There’s no thought in it; we simply prepare for our day and show up as best we can…blind to our beauty, unconscious of how extraordinary it is to play our everyday roles.

If she came to your kitchen, to your office, she would marvel at how you do your work so seamlessly.  Your rhythm, your routine would fascinate.  She would think the simple things you do are amazing, and if you gave her a camera, she’d point and shoot at all of it, wondering at the miracle that you have so many machines to help you do your every day work.  You’d blush and say “It’s nothing,” except that it isn’t.  How many nights do you put your head to the pillow and wonder how the world keeps spinning, the load you carry is so much to bear?

If you went to her kitchen, to her office, you would be breathless at how she does her work with no tools, no resources, except the skill in her able hands and her hard won knowledge.  You’d see how she holds the babies right after they’re born and puts them to the mother’s breast.  You’d remember your own mother and your own births and your own infants, and how the doula did everything you needed when everyone else didn’t have a clue.  You’d try to express your admiration, but she’d shake her head, the same way you shake yours.  

It’s nothing.  It’s just what I do.

All over the world, women are giving children baths, helping their sisters and mothers, doing their work–much of it mundane and yet still so much so far beyond ordinary.  We are doing it in our ordinary ways, unaware of our beauty.  Not seeing really how our pain and our joy shines, in every single dedicated second.

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Show us your extraordinary beauty today.  Your uniform, your chores.  The simple, expected thing that you do everyday that has hidden in its history a certain kind of magic, a not-yet-celebrated charm.  Self-portraits of all kinds–whether it be of your coffee maker or your yoga pants–completely and totally welcome.

We are Beautiful

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We are beautiful women who have no idea we are beautiful. We stand in front of the mirror and tear ourselves apart, going over every seeming imperfection, every flaw, every bit of evidence that we are not as we were once so long ago.

This is insanity.

In five years, we will salivate for this skin. In ten years, we will have nothing but respect for this ass. In twenty, we won’t care about any of it–scanning our pictures instead for signs in our eyes that we were present and willing to be honest and real and incredibly brave, no matter what the state of our abs.

We are aging, every one of us, everyday, all the time. This body will not stay.  It will morph and change. It will get weaker, and yes, it will die.  And until that moment, this body will house the very essence of us.  This body will play host to all our hopes and fears, our most true and alive moments.  This body will hold every second of our existence on this planet, and it will remember down to the cells everything that made us laugh and cry.

Today, get out your big camera, your phone or your point and shoot and honor your body.  Your perfection (or lack thereof) is not the point.  What matters is that you turn your gaze on what is holding you together right now.  What matters is that you love and cherish the essence of who you are before it’s too late.

 

Back to the Basics

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Two months ago I lost my Nikon D90.  Too many flights across too many countries and somehow it was gone–stolen? forgotten? I’m still not sure.  All I know is that eighteen hours later as I gathered up my things in the plane, my camera bag was nowhere to be found.  Three thousand dollars worth of lenses, body and gear disappeared into thin air.

Knowing it would be quite a long time before I’d hold a replacement camera in my hands, I did the only thing left for a photographer to do.  I picked up my phone, wiped the tiny camera lens off on the back of my jeans and filled the frame with something I loved.  Point, click, shoot.  No comparison to choosing f-stops, changing lenses or messing around with the ISO, but photography just the same.  

My phone took on new meaning, and I started to actually enjoy what I could do with basically only one tool left in my toolbox: composition.  It took me back to the very beginning, when the only thing I focused on was what to put in the frame.  I felt energized at how simple the whole process was.  And I started shooting even more than I had with my D90.  The camera–I mean, phone–was on me every single day anyway.  Anything and everything I ever wanted to shoot was fair game.

I still don’t know when (or exactly how) my next “real” camera will come to me, but I’m starting not to care. This little phone in my back pocket is revitalizing my love of our craft, and I honestly don’t think after this, my photography will ever be quite the same.

Do you use your phone to shoot?  Share your favorite on the fly images in the comments below.  And if you’re not sure where to start with this new emerging genre, check out Stephanie’s The Art of IPhoneography.  You’ll be inspired to get out and make a whole new world of images.

What Really Matters

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What happens when you choose once and for all to put what matters to you in the viewfinder, regardless of who approves or understands?

What happens when you claim your craft, your art, your expertise and stop asking anyone more established or proficient or experienced to say it’s good enough?

What happens when you throw away the rule book and all the measuring sticks and just say what you were afraid to say all along?

I am a photographer.  Here is my work.  Learn from it.  Let it speak to you.

In many ways, this is what publishing Expressive Photography has meant to Tracey and the rest of us here at Shutter Sisters.  Many of us are not professionally trained photographers.  Most of us learned how to use our cameras on our own, asking questions from whoever had the time or patience to listen.  Some of us didn’t know this was a passion until we looked through the lens at our ordinary lives and realized we were bearing witness to honest beauty and real magic.

Like many of you, our education in photography came over years, hand and hand with our own personal development.  While we were learning about aperture, composition and shutter speed, we were also mastering the art of how to see, how to really see what’s worth honoring in an everyday life.

Not everyone will appreciate our particular contribution to the photography conversation at large.  A quick scan of certain reviews and the Shutter Sisters inbox reveals that Expressive Photography has actually riled some members of the old guard–an outdated and small contigent of the fading old boys club that has dominated the professional photography scene for so long. 

But times are changing.  At this particular moment in history, it’s no longer enough to have the longest lens or the most sophisticated mastery of your technical skills.  What matters is your ability to infuse your work with heart and soul–whether you’re standing on the fields of Rwanda watching two young girls wait for a miracle or whether the miracle is already standing in your own backyard. 

This is why we wrote Expressive Photography.  We believe in what you see, and we know that this book will inspire and help you show everything your soul already knows about what matters the very most.

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Today, on this last day of the month where our One Word Project encouraged you to “express” yourself, we’re asking those of you who have read our book to leave your comment in the review section of Expressive Photography at Amazon.  One line will do.  Help us tell the world why expressive photography matters–no matter what your point of view.

Hello Summer!

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This summer I’m co-hosting the Mondo Beyondo Dream Lab, an online class about rest, play and the power of kindness.  Since I knew we’d need a new collection of images to post with the lessons, I commissioned my kids (plus four or five more neighborhood friends) to help me stage a little photo shoot.  All the children involved were a little bit too grownup for bubbles (mom, we’re tweens, not kids), but everyone really got into it when I showed them how the bubbles were showing up in the screenfinder.

Whoa, Mom! How did you do that?? That’s cool!

I didn’t do it on purpose, but I had to agree.  There was something about the combination of shooting in the golden hour, taking an extra step in and turning slightly toward the sun that took our bubble shots to a whole new level.  Add some giant circle earrings and a circle wand, and you’re good to go.

So c’mon, sisters, it’s summertime afterall! Bust out the bubbles and show us what you can do.  I’d love to see what other cool effects we can get with a little water, sunlight and suds. If you don’t have your bubble wand in hand then show us anything that speaks to you of summer. Yes! This is yet another photo contest!!

Show us what you’ve got between now and Sunday night at midnight PST over in our OWP Flickr pool and leave a comment here with a link to your shot. Only one image per person please and only those images shared through links in the comments here will be considered. There will be one “Grand Hello” winner that will receive a 36X24 canvas (Hello!) and 2 runners up that will win a 20X24 canvas compliments of Hello Canvas, of course!

For more summer inspired photography prompts like this one, it’s not too late to sign up for Picture Summer with Tracey Clark.  Class starts next week on July 1st! Hello summer!

Hello You!

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Anyone who has been through a difficult time can appreciate how healing (and thought-provoking) taking self-portraits can be.  Sometimes you just need to face yourself in the mirror.  Sometimes you need to be willing to see exactly what you look like in order to silence the constant critic who can’t stop exaggerating your worst faults. 

The truth is, we are all more tender, more fragile, more strong and more beautiful than we can bear to imagine–but it gets one step easier if we’re willing to pick up the camera (or the iPhone) and take in all of who we are, through a more forgiving lens.

I’ve been doing this everyday for the last few weeks.  I think it’s helping me get grounded and remember who I am, after all I’ve seen and been through over the last year.

Do you need a nudge to turn that camera back around on your beautiful self?

Hello Contest!

It’s time for a June Mini Photo Contest. That means it’s time to share your best image that fits our theme this week. Today, it’s Hello You! So show us YOU in all your self-portrait glory between now and Sunday night at midnight PST over in our OWP Flickr pool and leave a comment here with a link to your shot. Only one image per person please and only those images shared through links in the comments here will be considered. There will be one “Grand Hello” winner that will receive a 36X24 canvas (Hello!) and 2 runners up will win a 20X24 canvas compliments of Hello Canvas, of course!

So hurry, hurry–don’t be shy.  We’re eager to see your sweet face–exactly as you are right now.

We Are Together

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There’s nothing to say after a moment like this.   Only that to be together is everything.  I know now that much is true. 

It’s not too late to be a part of this miracle.  For more of this story, go here.

Photo by Stephanie Roberts

Powerhouse

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She’s a powerhouse.  Confident, defiant, playful, determined, a force to be reckoned with. 

Whenever I feel myself wimping out, I see Goreth in my mind.  She faces the truth of it all and does what’s needed, odds be damned.  She meets her challenges with a crazy kind of courage, when anyone else might cry or laugh.  She shows up and lets her power be seen, just because you asked.

I need that kind of strength right now.  I need that kind of courage.  Do you?

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Today we need to see your powerhouses.  The women who make you stand a little straighter when they walk into the room.  The ones who make you brave in your mind when you need to make a tough decision.  Feel free to mine the archives, dig out the polaroids or take us down memory lane.  It’ll be worth the wait to see the face of strength, to see the power in hope.