I'm absolutely thrilled with the response from last Thursday's Love Thursday Challenge --  your images and stories absolutely blew me away.  There were several of you who had e-mailed me in the past who mentioned in passing that you missed Love Thursday, but I don't think I really understood the extent to which the day was missed.  I'm really humbled.  Thank you for welcoming it back with open arms.

* * * * * * *

The above image of my daughter Alex and her dad, Marcus,  was taken over the summer, while we were visiting Marcus' family  in England.  For the most part, Alex is a Mommy's Girl -- Marcus often calles her "Barnacle" or "Limpet" for the way that she's constantly attached to me.  The truth is, though, that she and Marcus have a truly special connection -- one that's exemplified by her constant desire to sit on his shoulders.  To be honest, some of her interest in sitting on his shoulder has to do with the fact that my husband is 6'5", making for a pretty lofty perch for a 3-year-old.  But once there, it's obvious that she's so relaxed -- not only does she usually rest her head on his head as he walks around (as shown above), but very often, she falls asleep in that position -- and Marcus has to hold on tight to make sure she doesn't slip off.

I love how her complete her trust is in him.  And with that kind of trust comes an abundance of love.

* * * * * * *

Happy Love Thursday, everyone!  Please leave your links to your images depicting the love in your life in the comments below -- remember, the images can be symbols of love, love of family, romantic love, love of life, or whatever.  If you need inspiration, be sure to check out what kerry okra, lifeography, and n.elle have uploaded to the Shutter Sisters flickr pool recently.

And may you surrender yourself in trust with someone you love today. 

We mark the "important" things on our calendars, like birthdays and weddings. But when I think about my wedding, I don't remember what I ate, or how my flowers looked. I think of the way my sister cried; and how it made me feel like I meant the world to her. Photography is like life in the way we try to arrange things. We pose our lives and photographs to look a certain way. But it's the in-betweens that stay with us. It's the way your friend looked at you because she knew what you were thinking. Or how your dad's eyes smiled in that relaxed way you'd never seen before. It's not to minimize the significance of monumental events; or even to say there's anything wrong with "posing" your life. We need to live with vision and intention. But I bet when we look back, we'll see that our lives were never marked by milestones. But instead by "little" minutes and seconds that moved us. 

*This is my friend Jen and her gorgeous smile. It was taken in-between the posing, and was by far my favorite photo of the day. Edited to add: if you want to see the others, they're here.

After a week of beta testing the live site, all looks well. Shuttersisters.com is now officially propagating -- which in English means you can stop using shuttersisters.squarespace.com. :)

Please update any bookmarks to  www.shuttersisters.com as this will help with our search engine optimization and social networking links. You can also subscribe to our feed at http://shuttersisters.com/rss.xml -- but we'd honestly prefer you to drop in to the actual site every now & then and be part of our community!

Thanks for being part of our sisterhood.
Krystyn, Tracey, Karen, Kate, Maile, Andrea, Paige, Irene and Sarah

Winters in Southern California are mild to say the least. The weather we experience is but a breeze in the howling wind of what true seasonal weather should be. Mind you, it’s totally fine by me and one of the reasons I can’t imagine leaving my native California. This season, although still fairly temperate, we have had some weather. Storm systems have been flying through here like they’re in a hurry to get somewhere. Like another state perhaps where they can really wreak havoc. But as they race past they leave a lingering trail of the visual delights that So Cal photographers like myself rarely witness.

This morning as I set out on my daily rounds, the landscape here was luminous. With the air washed clean of the normal daily haze, the earth glowed a saturated green and the clouds looked like something from a dream. A tumultuous storm brewed over the mountains and a rainbow playfully danced in and out of my rearview mirror. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being romanced by my surroundings. Winter here can do that for you. It can tenderly remind you that everyday isn’t just like the one that came before it. Receiving a gift of perspective like that is invigorating. Each day is indeed a new day that begins fresh and clean and the possibilities are endless. Sometimes you can see it in the sky. It’s no wonder I’ve been carrying my camera with me everywhere I go.

I love to see how you translate the season with your cameras. I've been intoxicated by the images in our Flickr pool like those from  joannerim, strawberrygoldie, monsoonaz3 , carol brown and tonyapool.  Wow. Just plain wow. Keep them coming ladies. I feel a deep cleansing breath coming on and I like it.

...........................................................................

Now onto some Shutter Sisters business—

First, our apologies to everyone for the inability to subscribe to our feed. We are thrilled that you are so eager to get us into your readers! Just so you know, we are aware of the problem and promise that you all will be the first to know when we’ve got it worked out so hold tight!

And on a more fun note, we are pleased to announce that we will be kicking off our very first photo contest next week. Are you are ready to get down and dirty for this one? We thought we’d give you a week to get a jump start on shooting some pix to submit for the CleanWell Moments Photo Contest so get clickin’! Get the nitty gritty at ‘click with us'.

Seth Godin talks of the soul expansion to be found by “leaning into” problems. To that I’ll add—as taught to me by my three-year-old—world expansion is to be found by leaning into what’s new and unfamiliar.

This is the dynamic I see here, in this near-disregarded frame: the crackling in the air between Evan and a talking parrot as Justin attempts to peel him away for the next adventure on our City Day list.

It’s closer to rule-of-nines than rule-of-thirds, I scoff, the subject almost completely off the canvas. Shoot.

But it speaks to me, because it's… just Evan, perfect Evan.

To me, the unconventional eye has the best luck capturing how humans knock around in the world and bump up against one another. Like looking at a famed painted portrait and seeing a person true-to-form, fine enough, versus looking at an abstract painting and almost hearing the sound of its cadence.

As photographers this crackling surprises us, wills us to notice it. We can’t plan it, force it. This palpable push-pull force allows itself to be evidenced like the fuzzy outlines of some glowing aura in the background of an old tintype. It makes an appearance when it chooses, an unexpected, delightful guest.

StefanieRenee caught the leap of faith that is a second pregnancy, the imminent sharing of flesh and love. Call Me Karate shares a little boy and all his unspoken questions. Straightforward enough, that shot—but it vibrates. Shama-lama Mama shows us the carrying of a child, the walking through life burdened, compared to before—and basks in it. Denim caught my eye tonight with her phenomenal starkness, like a dream. It should be a relatively ordinary shot (person standing in field), but that person is saying something to me. I'm still trying to figure out what it is I'm hearing...

How about you? In the comments, link to shots that speak to you—yours or someone else's—the quirky, the nearly-deleted, the inexplicably extraordinary, the happy accidents. Show us magic, crackling.