Happy Holidays (We’ll See You In The New Year)

We really hope that all of you have a great, safe and happy holiday season.  Shutter Photo is going to be taking a much needed break for the holiday season, and we’ll see you in the new year.  We realize, of course, that a week may be too long without your favorite online photography magazine.  But that’s okay, because you have plenty to look through.  We thought you would appreciate this list of great things to browse while you pass the time

For starters, we published a Behind The Scene’s article about the photo at right last year.  If you’d like to learn about how that photograph was created and edited, you may want to read that article:  Building a Photograph:  Toy Train Under the Christmas Tree

Expand Horizons

• Shutter Photo @ Flickr – Our Flickr group is now home to over 270 members and 8,600 inspiring photographs (and growing every day).  Not a member yet?  You really should join – if only because we pull our weekly inspiration from that pool.  But you have a lot to be inspired by.  Trust me when I say we only barely scratch the surface every week when we talk about these great photos.
• Get Pushed @ Flickr – We didn’t create it, but we’re more than happy to support and promote the Get Pushed group over at Flickr.  The concept is much more personal than any other challenge group.  Every month you opt into the challenge, and then you get paired with another participant.  They challenge you, you challenge them.  It’s great practice exercise for your brain.
• Daily Photo Inspirer – We’ve been experimenting with the paper.li engine, and the Daily Photo Inspirer aggregates the most popular articles from sources around the web, twitter, Facebook and so on based on a criteria that we’ve set up (and continue to tweak).  It’s filled with some great articles and refreshes daily.
• Jim Goldstein’s Best Photos Project – Our friend, Jim Goldstein, does this great blog project every year.  He requests his readers to analyze  select and write about their best photos on their blog, or on Flickr or 500px or otherwise.  If you have a place where you can share and talk about your photos, you can participate.  It’s good exposure:  Every year I’ve participated, I saw a massive jump in visitors.  But it’s a great and inspiring project and you’ll be exposed to hundreds of fresh photographers.

Essential Reading

• Defining the Building Blocks of Design
• Learning Photography Without Rules
• The Photographer’s Skill Priority Tree
• The Myth About The Perfect Exposure
• The Brothers Priority: Two Powerful Camera Modes
• Zoom Factors:  Why Your Feet Cannot Be Replaced By a Zoom Lens

For the More Experienced

• Shooting in Manual Mode:  Easier Than You Think
• Photo Stacking and Long Exposures:  Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
• Blue Hour:  The Photographer’s Second Favorite Time of Day
• The Fake Black Backdrop: Overpowering Ambient Light With Your Camera and Flash
• Histograms: A Valuable Tool for Photographers

That should keep you busy for a while.  Well, I once again everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.  We’ll see you on the other side of the new year.