Book Nook - Expressive Photography

Expressive Photography: The Shutter Sisters' Guide to Shooting From the Heart by Tracey Clark and the Shutter Sisters:



In celebration of "Focus on Photography" week here, I thought I'd tell you about a wonderful photography book that I recently discovered.  This is a great book for anyone with a camera (which is just about everyone), not just those "serious-amateurs."  I loved this book for helping me to get out of that shoot-everything-mindlessly-mode and into a more creative, heartfelt way of looking at photography.

The shutter sisters is a group of very talented women who love to take pictures.  Some of them take pictures for a living, others enjoy photography as a side thing.  Each Shutter Sister takes on a specific chapter, and all the chapters feature photos from every group member.  The chapters are: horizons, portraiture, nature, spaces, childhood, stillness, documentary, creatures, table & togetherness.  Each chapter contains the following topics: approach, perspective, composition, lighting, details & processing.

Full of inspiring ideas, this book is geared towards helping you see the emotional aspect of photography.  Instead of putting your child by a beautiful tree in bloom, this book might suggest that you let your child climb the tree to get some spontaneous, fun shots.  Or maybe have your child relax on a low branch, reading their favorite book to impart a sense of peeking in at something they might be doing.  Or maybe focusing on shooting in the beautiful light before sunset.  These are the kinds of things this book explores: how to take ourselves from shooting bland shots to pictures that exude a sense of place and/or emotion.

I was so inspired by this book that I looked up a few of the Shutter Sisters, and their blogs, as well as their collective blog (here's the link).  In addition to this book, many of them offer e-courses & photo challenges.  I'd love to take one of the online courses from some of the members, but even if I don't, the book has infused me with inspiration to get out there & shoot from the heart.

-Cheryl