Journal

The 2018 DIY Photo Calendar is Here

November 3, 2017 By shutter sisters

It’s that time of year again! We’re continuing the annual tradition of sharing another DIY Photo Calendar Template. Yay! Make one for yourself and make some for your friends and family. It’s the perfect way to showcase and share your amazing photography.

Visit the Calendar Page HERE then click the Download Button to get started!

If you’d like to share news of the template on social media, feel free to use these images below and link to shuttersisters.com. Thanks for spreading the photo calendar love!

The 2017 DIY Photo Calendar Template

November 28, 2016 By shutter sisters

We’ve created a DIY Photo Calendar Template for so many years, we couldn’t break the tradition. Using the template is the perfect way to showcase your photographic talents and share your creativity with those you love.

This year we collaborated with Photography for the Journey and are offering the calendar there. The design is lovely and we’re super excited to share it with you!

Pop over to the Photography for the Journey and click on the middle circle to download the file.

Share your calendar creations using the tag #shuttersisters and/or #pftj so we can get a look at your holiday handiwork!

Happy Holidays!

Photography for the Journey Workshop

September 2, 2016 By shutter sisters

Photography for the Journey Workshop with Tracey Clark + Danielle Cohen

Autumn 2016 Series #1 – Photo Foundation

3 Thursdays – 9:30am – 12:30pm

September 15th, 22nd, 29th

Costa Mesa, California

$200

This creative workshop is designed for women who want to learn more about photography, their cameras, and how to take better pictures.

Photographers Danielle Cohen and Tracey Clark (founder of Shutter Sisters) will unpack the elements of photography with their unique and accessible approach that will encourage, educate and empower you in elevating your photo skills. From technical tips and tricks to lessons on how to take a great photograph (including light, composition, perspective, framing and conveying emotion) this workshop will give you the camera confidence you need to capture more creative and meaningful photographs.

A small, intimate class size, a comfortable, relaxed setting, and a nurturing, supportive environment, ensures you will leave each week feeling inspired, energized and excited to capture the world around you through your lens. Enlightening photography lessons and fun creative photo assignments will encourage creative exploration and help you get the most out of each session of the workshop.

Join Danielle and Tracey this September for the Photography for the Journey Workshop and fill your creative cup! Coffee (or tea) and delicious snacks will be provided.

We begin on Sept 15th at 9:30. All cameras welcome (even mobile phones). Class size is limited. Sign up today.

The 2016 Calendar : An Annual Tradition

November 22, 2015 By shutter sisters

It just wouldn’t feel like the holidays without offering our annual DIY photo calendar!

So excited to be sharing a new one with you all for 2016.

Click on the icon below for the immediate download.

(A simple instruction sheet is included in the folder.)

Enjoy and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wrapping Up #GiftingGrace Beautifully

May 1, 2015 By Tracey Clark

We are beyond grateful for all of you and the incredibly heartfelt and gorgeous images and lovely #giftinggrace dedications that came through during the past month. Needless to say, we’re wrapping up feeling truly touched and deeply inspired! Thank you so much to Stampington and Company for generously being a part of this outpouring of grace and for supporting Shutter Sisters in this way. Sharing the beauty of Bella Grace Magazine means so much!

As for the winners of this final week of #GiftingGrace, here they are:

giftinggrace by @kjhp

gifting grace by @paulateach

gifting grace by @almadr

gifting grace by @debram56

gifting grace by @angiewarrenwrites

Thank you ALL for being a part of this. We appreciate you!

The Beauty and Bounty of #GiftingGrace

April 24, 2015 By shutter sisters

As we celebrate another week of #GiftingGrace, we are featuring our 5 weekly recipients of Bella Grace Magazine. Such fun to give and receive, isn’t it? We are deeply moved by all the images that are being dedicated in our photo sharing circle. It makes our hearts swell with gratitude. Here are a few true beauties!

GiftingGrace by SusanBlanda

GiftingGrace by DeepRiverStudio

GiftingGrace by annabelle_roa

GiftingGrace by ann_thedreamery

GiftingGrace by RunnerKimHall

We have another week left to share our grace-inspired images with those we want to encourage and inspire! Read all about it on our announcement post and join us in the sharing circle with the tags #GiftingGrace and #BellaGraceMagazine. We are really enjoying working with Stampington & Company in this meaningful way; turning our attention and our lenses toward grace.

#GiftingGrace with Bella Grace Magazine for Week 2

April 17, 2015 By shutter sisters

Another lovely week full of beautiful images and sweet photo dedications of #GiftingGrace. These gorgeous shots are perfect examples of how grace can be found in the often quiet and unexpected places. Thanks to Bella Grace Magazine for gifting these 5 ladies copies of the latest issue.

#GiftingGrace by Mallien

GiftingGrace by Thirty2flavors

GiftingGrace by SiobhanWolf

GiftingGrace by LindsayCrandall

GiftingGrace by CarmenMariez

We’ve still got a few more weeks to celebrate this photo sharing circle so be sure to submit your images by using the #giftinggrace & #bellagracemagazine. Don’t forget to follow @BellaGraceMagazine on Instagram. Such inspiration!

#GiftingGrace and Receiving Bella Grace

April 10, 2015 By shutter sisters

Thank you all for participating in our #GiftingGrace photo sharing circle this week. We are excited to share images from this week’s 5 chosen recipients of the latest issue of Bella Grace Magazine. It’s a treasure, for sure. As are these lovely shots.

#GiftingGrace image by @anniestril

#GiftingGrace image by @soonie_2

#GiftingGrace image by @believinginhope

#GiftingGrace image by @lolafalola

#GiftingGrace image by @nerdeyeopen

We encourage you to join in the #GiftingGrace goodness by sharing your own grace-inspired images and dedicating them to special people in your life! It’s easy and it means so much. Check out the details in our blog post announcement and how much we are inspired by the beauty of Bella Grace Magazine.

Congratulations to today’s recipients! We will be gifting 5 more issues next Friday. Hooray for gifting!

Announcing #GiftingGrace : Inspired by Bella Grace Magazine

April 6, 2015 By shutter sisters

Oh, April! What a glorious month you are; ushering out the bare and chilly winter while welcoming in the slow and sure warmth of spring. At this threshold of the new season we look forward to more than just a change in the weather, we long to discover and experience all things fresh, new and beautiful. With every glimpse of sunny sky, every sprig that shoots up and every blossom that begins to bud, we can feel the gifts being bestowed upon us; hope, promise and grace. We, here at Shutter Sisters, can think of no better way to celebrate this transformative and tender turn of the seasons than by savoring and sharing these gifts. And we’ve got the sweetest way to do just that! Together with our friends at Stampington, we invite you to participate in a month-long creative outpouring of gratitude called #GiftingGrace. Inspired by the authentic and abundant beauty of Stampington & Company’s newest publication, Bella Grace Magazine, we encourage you to join us in capturing your own grace-inspired images and sharing them with and dedicating them to your sister-friends. It is through #GiftingGrace that we can give encouragement and inspiration to those we care about, one beautiful picture at a time. It is in that giving that we also receive. By playing along, you have a chance to be gifted with one of the many copies of the spring issue of Bella Grace Magazine. There will be 5 copies given away each week. We told you this was going to be sweet! The rules are simple:

Follow both @BellaGraceMagazine and @ShutterSisters on Instagram
Tag your Instagram images with the hashtags #GiftingGrace & #BellaGraceMagazine
Dedicate your #GiftingGrace image(s) to a friend or friends that you want to encourage and inspire by naming them in your caption. We ask that you also tag them to do the same so that the gifts of grace can continually blossom and bloom throughout all of April.
There are no limits to the number of images you tag or the dedications you make. The giving is endless!

The benefits are great:

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we will be featuring hand-selected #GiftingGrace images via the Shutter Sisters Instagram feed (giving you photo credit, of course).
Each Friday we will list 5 recipients of the Bella Grace Magazine giveaways via Instagram.
We will feature some selected #GiftingGrace images on the Shutter Sisters blog

The fine print is clear:

We will notify each magazine winner via Instagram so be sure to check your IG message inbox if you see your name on Friday’s post. We will ask for your mailing address for shipping.
By tagging your images you are giving Shutter Sisters, Bella Grace Magazine and Stampington permission to use your images for #GiftingGrace features and project promotions via any/all of the listed brand’s social media outlets (including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the brand’s blogs). You will be given photo credit.

Hooray for spring! Hooray for grace! Hooray for giving (and for receiving)! Now, let’s lift our lenses and share the images that will surely make our sister-spirits soar.

behind the book : an interview with daniela bowker

February 23, 2015 By shutter sisters

We got a chance to catch up with Daniela Bowker, editor at Photocritic, and are excited to share her latest book!

Shutter Sisters: Tell Us About Your Book.

Daniela Bowker: Social Photography : Make All Your Smartphone Photos One in a Billion (Ilex Press, April 2014) was conceived to help people take and share better smartphone photos.

With so many images flooding a plethora of social media sites, the aim is to show people how best to use their smartphone cameras and the gamut of photography-related apps to make photos that people want to look at, and then how to share them appropriately via different social media channels. After all, the people who follow you on Twitter might not be the same people who follow you on Facebook, and knowing your audience is the half of the recipe to having your photos noticed; the first half is the great photo.

SS: What did you enjoy the most about writing Social Photography?

DB: Despite the high-tech nature of smartphone photography, in-app editing, and social media sharing, smartphone photography can be reduced to the essentials: tell your story, look for the light, compose your scene. It was a pleasure to revert to these basics and teach people the foundations of great photography in a way that really can make a difference.

SS: Had you written any other books before?
DB: I am the co-author of Michael Freeman’s Photo School: Composition (co-author), Ilex Press, 2012 and the author of Surreal Photography: Creating the Impossible, Ilex Press, 2013.

SS: What was the most challenging part of writing Social Photography specifically?

DB: Social media platforms update, apps come, go, and are revised. Ensuring that the book was written in such a way to maintain accuracy, despite these inevitable changes was a challenge. There were at least two major revisions to the manuscript made during the writing and editing process, following significant updates to apps featured in the book.

SS: What is your favorite photo you shared in the book? Why is it your favorite?

DB: Selecting my favourite photo from the book has been quite a struggle. So let’s go with the bumblebee collecting pollen from the asparagus fern. It was taken on my father’s allotment using my iPhone. Bees can be tricky to capture–they move so fast–and it was taken around midday when the sun was high in the sky, but it came together beautifully.

Is there a way for the book’s readers, or anyone else, to get involved?

Of course! It’s a book about social photography! Grab yourself an EyeEm, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, or Twitter account, and start sharing your photos. You can follow me in most of these places, too. And don’t forget that I’m the editor of Photocritic, where you can pick up more photography hints, tips, and help.

I’m especially fond of the “Where to Share” flowchart from the book (click on it below for a larger version).

“The key to acquiring social media followers doesn’t rely on alchemy or bribery. It’s about being interested, interesting, and interactive.” – Daniela Bowker

Buy the book: Social Photography : Make All Your Smartphone Photos One in a Billion (Ilex Press, April 2014)

About Danila Bowker: Daniela Bowker started taking photos when she was five and writing before that. After studying ancient history and then training as a teacher, she realized that what she really wanted to do was write. So now that’s what she does. Her almost-daily commentary on the photography world is found at Photocritic and at Photocritic Photography School. She has a raucous laugh, a mild shoe obsession, and a bicycle called Elspeth.

Find Daniela Bowker : WEBSITE : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER : FLICKR : EYE EM :PHOTOCRITIC