Shutter Sisters

when thoughts become things…

By

I was walking down a street in Philadelphia just a few days ago and stumbled across this scene in a storefront.

“thoughts become things”,  it read.

 I stopped, lifted my camera and clicked. I wanted to remember these words. So simple yet so true. They speak to that small part in me that tends to fall short some days on dreaming big and following through on those dreams.  

What thoughts do you wish to make real this year in your life?  What dreams do you have for yourself?  For your art?  Perhaps it is to be published somewhere, or to open up an etsy shop and sell some of your photos.  Maybe finally make that blurb book you’ve been wanting, but keep putting off.   Perhaps you are thinking something smaller like learning the settings on your camera, shooting with film, or simply shooting out of your comfort zone more.  Maybe enrolling in an actual photography class.  Or maybe you have even bigger, bolder dreams for your photography this year.  Perhaps designing a photography web site or shooting professionally for the first time ever.  

Whatever your thoughts may be, (I can nod my head to almost every single one of those things above) perhaps sharing them here today will help give them wings.  Type them out, give them a voice, claim them for yourself.  Go ahead,  I know I need to.  Let’s be brave together today,  I’ll go first….  “I wish to shoot in raw and learn my way around Lightroom” and a bigger dream I have held in my heart is to one day shoot a birth, so yes, “I wish to be present at a birth and capture those life changing moments for a family.”  

I believe I was meant to stumble upon that very window, with that very message.  Perhaps you needed it too…

Comments

  3. This is a very timely post for me. I "thought" over a year ago to start my photography business. I thought I could do it, should do it. And I surely thought I would do it sooner than now. So a year later, just yesterday, I got to point where I really feel it’s a real "thing". Now that it is real, I can start working on the next thoughts-become-things step…working it everyday!

    http://cdscottphoto.zenfolio.com/

    I love the "Thoughts Become Things" image. I always tell my children how powerful thoughts are….and they really are!

  4. Wow… my first impulse when I read "thoughts become things" was something else entirely. I thought ‘girl, you have got to get a handle on the fear…".

    A real reminder to switch gears. Thanks.

  6. I am hopeful for you, Kristin, and believe you will do these things. As for me, I hope to win a Pulitzer Prize for my photography one day and stand on a stage with Jen Lemen at the Sundance Film Festival. There. I said it.

  7. this is just such a wonderful capture .. and your sharing it will give wings to so many "things" here spoken and unspoken!!

    this is a pivotal year for my family..two big graduation milestones and what do I do?…start a black and white every day blog project..a first for me. I have found though, 4 months in that it has kept me in the "here and now" while life swirls around me and the black and white adds a calmness ..that "thing" I so need this year..

  8. I’d wish to shoot always pictures that look edible (in an artistic way, meaning that you want to grab them, that you feel as you can grab them) and not waste time in trying and trying many times the same shot.

  9. i sure did… need it too! awesome words… thoughts become things. awesome post. so poignant and timely, it felt like you wrote it for me!

    i opened at etsy shop almost a year ago… hoping to sell some photography there. but i never felt brave enough to put up a single photo there yet. i’m getting there, though. i’m on my way to gaining that confidence and mustering up that courage. and yes… i want to learn my camera better, as well as the nikon d40 that my sister will soon be giving me. i would LOVE to someday have a blurb book… especially after seeing meredith’s and raina’s from raining sheep. a class? i’ve been saying i want to take one for so long. so you see… it’s like you wrote this post for me.

    i tend to be a dreamer and not a doer. so i need this! thanks! you have the gift of inspiration.

  11. I want to take more pictures of people, get better at groups, at directing people that aren’t my own family. I want to build a portfolio and prepare to launch a business. I want a website and a new blog. I want, want, want …

    I’m trying to learn it is ok to say I WANT. Because really it is what I need.

    ps – you will totally thrive in LR and RAW is no big deal. While I’m not good at all the shortcuts and don’t use the organizing capabilities so well, the editing was easy to pick up. And if you download some free presets and then look at how they made them, you will learn so much about how to use the program.

  13. I want to get a handle on prints and what people want on their walls. I love to take photographs, but it is all in my head and in my computer, and I have trouble making those thought (photos) real (into prints). I would like to give some to friends and family and to sell some — as cards and small prints locally and maybe on Etsy. I know this sounds easy enough, but I am having trouble getting my head around a few things, and I want to talk with / correspond with someone who does this and won’t see me as competition in order to ask some really simple questions.

  14. I would love to take more people shots – there are so many people in my life that I love, and I want to be a good enough photographer to capture some of their sparkle.

    I’d also like to get braver about doing street photography.

    I’d like to learn more about my camera and take it off the auto settings!

    I’d like to invest in a macro lens.

    And I’d like one of my photos to be chosen for the Shutter Sisters site 🙂

  15. Perfect!

    I applied for an internship with a company I really wanted to work for. I had a phone interview straight from my dorm room, which I was really nervous about. When the call ended, I glanced down at the small bag of candy a friend gave me for Valentine’s Day. The word "Yes" was the message on the sucker…It immediately gave me a sense of calm and confidence. I snapped a quick picture, just to remember to stay positive. Throughout the rest of the interviewing process, I would look back to this photo.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniselivingston/4557390621/

    PS – I got the job! =]

  16. perfect timing! I received my post cards today in the mail to start off my 2011 senior portrait specials! excited and terrified all in one!

  17. You are invited to come to the birthin’ of our newest mmember in early Sept. and photograph, just have to make your way to nevada! Could be a fun journey… just sayin’

    you are a beautiful inspiration my friend.
    xo

  18. fantastic post! it reminds me of the Story People story I got today in my inbox.
    "Wish for your deepest desires, she said & when I asked if they’d come true, she said they always do, so you might as well get them out in the open while you’re still young enough to correct any serious mistakes."
    : )

  19. I would like to shoot in manual most of the time (getting used to it) and i really want to improve my knowledge of processing.

    thanks for the motivation!

  20. Those words are just what I have been needing to hear lately. I am in the process of starting my adventure in the "photog business land" and have been pretty down due to the overwhelming process of it all. Thank you so much for sharing. =)

  21. After a very tough week, I’m making wishes today on my blog. Most of them have to do with being present, appreciating life exactly as it is, and taking the time to notice the beauty around me. Here’s the post and a link to my wish photo:

    http://www.darrahparker.com/blog/slice-of-life-tuesday-wish.html
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/artcetera/4558442256/

    But I really like that you’ve taken it a step further. Having just quit my day job and launched my photography business, I find myself feeling a little nervous about the next step. So perhaps making some wishes will help me get closer to making them a reality:

    1. I’d like to be hired to do portrait sessions.
    2. I’d LOVE to do some maternity/baby shoots.
    3. I’d like to connect with some of the photographer/bloggers I admire and collaborate in some way.

    I have many more wishes, but I’ll start with these!

  23. I would wish to take better portraits…I struggle to get good photos of my grandchildren and children…I am never satisfied…I would love to become much more proficient with PSE too…and so many other things I hesitate to name them all:)

  24. well, my blog today is where i emptied my heart and it goes hand in hand with this post…..it’s amazing how the universe works sometimes.

    and my first photos are framed and hung in a little shop down the road…..

    so yes….thoughts really do become things !

  25. Well, if these words inspire you, you *have* to check out http://www.tut.com. Their slogan is "Thoughts become things… Choose the good ones!" They have books, seminars, group travel adventures, all sorts of stuff to celebrate the power of positive thinking. I just like their daily emails – a little bit of sunshine in my inbox each day 🙂 A reminder that we create our own reality, our own destiny, and our own eternity…

    Great photo. Great reminder. FABULOUS blog!

  26. This post created such wonderful karma! I love your photo and that you used it to spur so many others to think out loud to start making their wishes realities.

    I saw this post early in the morning, and have been noodling over what wishes I needed to claim all day long. I want to take the leap from editing in picnik to editing in photoshop. I want to take my pictures off my hard drive and hold them in my hands and share them with others. There are others swirling in my head, but these two are a good start.

  27. I have a few wishes at the moment. One is to expand my photography equipment. Two is to start getting my pictures printed into cards and calendars so my expat friends can send them home as gifts for Xmas… Three is to get so good I can be a pro when I get home and perhaps specialise in food photography…. I also wish for full moral support and encouragement from those I most need it from.

  28. I am mom to 4 sons; physically birthed only 1; never attended another birth; until that of my grandson. I was blessed to help bring him into the world and photograph the miracle. That miracle has forever and ever changed me. The world is new…

    I wish to be always content in the moment. The moment is all we have. If I am content in the moment, all else will evolve…including the creative dreams I embrace.

  29. Thank you for this post and photo – very inspiring!
    I wish to make money from my photography, either through selling prints or doing portrait sessions.

  31. I wish to find a small group of photographers in Houston that I can meet with, learn from, relate to, work with, support and find inspiration from like I do the women that collaberate on this site. There. It’s out loud…

  32. Those are beautiful words and you captured them so wonderfully! I love when I come across things like that because…I truly believe it was a find meant to be. Like someone is watching out for me – helping me along.

  33. How timely. I have been thinking for many weeks now that it is time to get back to making art after a long, self-imposed hiatus. What’s kept me from artmaking for so long? Hmm . . . Disillusionment with the state of modern at at the time I "quit", work, marriage, kids, life in general. But I really feel it’s time to dip my toes back in the water and I have all these ideas and all these fears . . . so I finally want to make that book about our 2001 Paris trip, that book about my sisters and me, blog the process . . . now if I could just add a few more hours to my day I could get started any time!

  34. I want to fearlessly be creative. To be creative and not worry about whether the work is as good as others. To eliminate my insecurity and be the free creative spirit I want to be.