“Highlighting photographic charities and honoring photographers who give their time, talent, and heart.”
The Idea
The idea behind Shutter Mission came to me about a year ago… I was telling someone about the wonderful portrait charity Operation: Love ReUnited, and they had never heard of the organization. I immediately thought of at least a handful of families that would benefit from OpLove’s service, and then I started to think about people who’ve adopted who didn’t know the Celebrating Adoption portrait charity existed, and so on. Then, I thought: “wouldn’t it be handy if there was a central web site where all of these great photography charities could be listed?”
But directories are boring… so the idea grew…. and I decided the site would need a blog to showcase recent sessions from photographers who volunteer with these organizations. And then I thought about how a blog could impact and inspire other photographers to give back as well. So, this is how the idea began…
The Plan
In the short term, Shutter Mission will be a:
Central hub for the general public to learn about the various photography charities that are active today.
Photo Blog that will display the latest work by the photographers who volunteer with these organizations.
Directory of charities that photographers can peruse and find one to serve in an area that interests them.
Source of free publicity for both the charitable organizations and the photographers who serve them.
In the long term… I have a few exciting ideas up my sleeve :)
The Goal
I want to help spread the word about these wonderful photo charities, and I want to showcase the work being done for them. I want to celebrate these photographers who give so generously of their time and talent and heart. I want to lift them up, encourage them to keep giving back… and inspire others to do the same.
Photographers! I’m looking at YOU!
Are you involved in a photo charity (OpLove, Celebrating Adoption, ACPCG, NILMDTS, Heart Gallery, etc)? I want to see your recent charitable sessions! We will be featuring the best on the new Shutter Mission blog, and we’ll tweet all the rest that are sent to us so that everyone can see! Here’s how to contribute »
This is a personal project for me… a labor of love. This site I’m building is my gift to the community and my way of giving back. Thank you for your support and for helping me spread the love.
I love these mini accordion albums. They are the perfect size for your purse, and clients love showing them off. So cute!
* If you are a photographer utilizing Adobe Lightroom, I’ve shared a template below along with instructions on how to import the LR preset files. Enjoy!
There are two separate presets in the zip. One is called “mini accordion photos” and the other is “mini accordion window.” Pretty self-explanatory. The larger ones are square photos for inside the album, and the smaller one is for the front window image.
I prefer my inside photos to be 2.5″ since the pages are 3″ square, as this leaves a little room around the photo to act as a border. You can adjust this size to be whatever you like.
On the left hand side, under “Template Browser,” right click (or control-click) on “User Templates” and you should see a menu pop up. Choose “Import” and select the file to be imported. (Screenshot below).
If you found these presets useful, please let me hear from you in the comments below. It might encourage me to share more LR presets in the future! :-)
– I originally posted these templates in Oct 2008. I wanted to make sure they still work with the latest version of Lightroom (currently 2.6), so I’ve updated the templates and re-posted the zip file above. Please let me know if they do not work for you!
My Dad and sister joined us in San Francisco for the holidays this year. Eric and I had a blast exploring the city with my family for the week, (with the exception of Pier 39… I had forgotten what a madhouse that place is).
Here’s a pretty extensive list of the things we saw, places we visited, and spots where we dined. My father-in-law is coming out in February, and we’re hoping to hit a few of these spots again, and add some new ones to the list.
– I held off on publishing this because I wanted to add some of my lomographs from the holidays, but I have yet to get my film developed… and if I wait until it gets done, I’ll be posting this in 2012. Alas, I will use some crappy iPhone snaps until I can refresh this later on.
I’m reclaiming my capturinglight.com domain for my personal blogging adventures!
Some of my current RSS subscribers may not know this… but… capturinglight.com began as a personal journal and photoblog in 2001, and over time, evolved into my photography business site. I chose the name “capturinglight” as my shutterbug name, and it only made sense to me to extend that name into my photography business. As time went on, my blogging all but came to a halt. I needed a creative outlet, but felt boxed in by the confines of and expectations associated with an all photography website. It didn’t feel like the appropriate place to post updates about my life, travels, web development geekery, personal photos, and so on.
So… I moved my Capturinglight Photography portfolio site to a new domain… capturinglightphoto.com. Problem solved.
Now, I can go back to being me here. :)
From here out you can expect more personal snaps, interesting stuff I find online, web development and design related posts, anything related to the world of the photography industry, and of course… all things San Francisco (since we just moved here!).
I have been working hard on a new project that involves photography-related charities… and will be looking for photographer participants in the near future!
I also look forward to being able to offer some web dev tips and advice aimed directly at photographers. So, in the meantime, if there is anything you need help with… ask away.
Thanks for reading… and if you are a photographer or interactive professional… let’s connect!
