Shutter Sisters

weekending by Melissa Talbert

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Melissa Talbert shoots images like this with her Nikon D60 or D600 and spends her weekends savoring her family’s togetherness. Although in the images above, Melissa and her husband explored their city during a special “date weekend” to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary.

You can find her on her website melissatalbert.wordpress.com or on Flickr as melissatalbert.

How often do you make time for a date night (or weekend)? Share your rare date photos with us here.

Today’s prompt: rest

Sunday’s prompt: crimson

The Beauty of Words

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As I unpacked my suitcase when I arrived home from Shutter Sisters Oasis, I came across a moleskin journal that I had received while there.  I took it out, set it on a table near my couch and went about my business.  A few days later, I had heard something that I didn’t want to forget, so I quickly reached for the journal, grabbed a pen and wrote down what I had heard, words that had really resonated with me: Whatever follows the two words “I am” is going to come looking for you. I had to write them down.  Those words were too powerful not to remember.  Then, because they moved me so, I wanted others to feel their power as well, so I grabbed my phone, snapped a photo and shared it on Instagram.

It’s been a few weeks now and surprisingly, I find myself writing something in that journal almost daily.  Even better, I’ve noticed in doing so I’m feeling more calm and more centered.  For someone with A.D.D. like me, that’s a big deal.  When I think it’s something that should be shared, I again grab my phone, snap a photo and share it on Instagram.  Not only are these words beautiful to me, but the comments I’m getting on my shared words have been awesome: Thank you for this today; Keep ’em coming!; You have no idea how much I needed this today.   Aren’t words just beautiful? What a gift.  

Today, write some words of beauty that mean something to you.  You can use pen and paper, chalk on a sidewalk, lipstick on a mirror.  Then, take a photo with your camera or phone and share them with us.  If you want to share your beautiful words on Instagram, be sure to hashtag them using #thewrittenwords so we can feel their beauty, too.  You can find me on Instagram at chris_sneddon.

Step into softness

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I snapped this photo while traveling in Haiti. When I look at it, I am reminded of how, in that soft moment, I felt far away and peaceful from the challenge and chaos happening around me. Photographs are so key in helping us transcend our present circumstances. Sometimes even just a quick glance through my photo album  on my iPhone or an old Polaroid pinned up in my creative space can quiet the “to do” lists swirling around in my head. These days, I am more committed to calm than chaos. My spirit needs tending and any tools that will support my serenity are welcome.  

As the holidays and all that goes with them approach (cooking, and gathering and traveling, and shopping and baking and entertaining and wrapping and…), it will serve me well to hold sacred a place to step into softness. A gentle photo that can take me back to a moment when I felt ease and calm. In this way, photography is a gift to myself and my peace of mind. I’ll be strategically placing photos in places where I can be reminded that my life is made up of many, many moments of softness. 

I invite you to puruse your collection of images or snap some new images that you can place in your line of vision when the going gets rough. Won’t you share your soft shot with us?

Election Night

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On election night, we loaded up the car with lawn chairs and a picnic dinner and headed to a friend’s house to watch the results roll in. The news broadcast was projected onto the side of the house and several computers were set up in the yard to track the results. At one point there were more than one hundred friends, neighbors, and passers by squeezed into the small front yard. The conversations were primarily of the political nature, from the smallest local propositions and bond initiatives to the house/senate races to the presidential election. This election-watching party was a family event to be sure. There were so many young children that night running around without a care in the world…children of loving straight couples, children of loving gay couples, children of loving single parents, children of loving affluent parents, children of loving parents struggling to get by. You hear a lot about voting as a civic duty, and I love and appreciate that our children are learning that the act of voting is truly an individual’s chance to voice how they want their world to be. All the worry, all the hand wringing, all the emotional investment that bound us together that night represented the world we want for our children—a better, kinder world. A world that embraces the diversity around us and affirms that differences can deepen our understanding of one another instead of driving us apart.

Show us a better, kinder world today through your lens.

Images and words courtesy of Jote of Bless Her Heart.

Coming home to my camera

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Over the past year or so, my DSLR has been gathering dust. It hasn’t been intentional. I have just gotten more and more accustomed to using my iPhone for all of my daily photography. Easy, efficient, and synched to Instagram, I have found the convenience of my phone camera beyond sufficient to satisfy my creative cravings. That was until the past week or so. I can’t really explain it but I have been feeling a little photographically parched. To try to quench my thirst I decided to pull out the DSLR and play over the weekend.

I totally forgot what I had been missing.

Minutes turned into hours as I lost myself in my photography process. Light—click—aperture—click lenses, focus, the feel of the big camera in my hand—click click click. It felt so good. The featured shot above came straight out of the camera. It was the first of that day and it’s my favorite. I felt so at home and so happy. This doesn’t surprise me. I know my artistic rhythm calls for a new muse time and again. Who knew that the muse I needed next was in my camera bag, just waiting for me to return?

What’s your muse these days? What’s beckoning you?

2013 photo calendar templates

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These mini calendars always get such a positive response, so I’m excited to share the Photoshop template with the Shutter Sisters community once again! They are perfect for personalized holiday gifts or just as a special gift to yourself. Many of us don’t take the time to print our photos, so this is a wonderful way to have physical evidence of our passion for photography all year long.

Download the files HERE.

The files include basic instructions for creating your custom calendar pages in Photoshop. Then just print them on photo paper or cardstock and cut them out.

These templates are sized to fit in a cd jewel case, but they can also be fastened together with a binder clip and hung on the wall. If you choose to use a cd jewel case, you’ll just need to carefully take apart the case and put it back together so that it stands up like the photo above.

Enjoy! And please let us know how you plan to use these cute little calendars!

What Catches the Eye

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It’s no suprise that I move through the day with my iPhone camera in my hand. Sometimes I use it to make calls, but mostly, it’s a magic device for collecting moments that catch my eye. I shot this image with the Cameramatic app and processed it with Snapseed on my iPhone 4S. Two of my favorite apps.

If you’re looking to expand your creativity with mobile photography, join me a host of talented mobile photographers for a day of iPhoneography at the annual MacWorld / iWorld event on January 30, 2013 at Moscone Conference Center in San Francisco, CA.

Texture

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I did not use to notice and play with texture in my photography until very recently.

When I first picked up the camera, I was interested in color. Color juxtaposition, colorful walls, details, etc. Color, color and more color! Later I discovered portrait and became completely enamored with capturing expression. People, styles, the beauty within, emotion, etc. Then I began to learn more about photo technique, and lighting naturally emerged as my next big interest. Morning light, golden hour, back light, and flares. 

But texture has been making an appearance in my photos lately. I often catch myself looking for the right table to set my latte on (just so I can shoot it). I look for the right rug to step on, the right background to blur, etc. Texture can add a lot of spice to an otherwise seemingly uninteresting subject matter, and in some cases, it can also completely ruin a picture if it creates clutter. Our eyes like the effortless mix and harmony we find in nature. The smooth against the rugged. The lacey, sparkly, and furry, against the luciious soft skin. 

But my point is… The more we shoot the more we learn how to see, and the more we see, the better we can capture and express our feelings. Texture is just one more of these things we can incorporate in our photos to help us get our point across.

How about you? Do you notice texture? How much do you play with it in your photos? Are you are up for some texture play? Share with us some texture candy today?

my world….

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I arrived home from Palm Springs to freezing rain and snow on it’s way. Talk about a reality check!! Big sigh…for sure! A few days later, down came the snow…. Thank goodness it’s so pretty. I love capturing Ben outside, a little snow on his nose…so cute.

As I’ve been posting my snow photos on IG others have been posting images of lunch on the patio, walks on the beach…..Such a contrast….so hard to believe some days.

Today, share with us….a little glimpse into your world. We’d love to see.