Best Shot Monday

 

Many moons ago I wrote a blog on website for moms called Club Mom (now called Café Mom). It was called Picture This. I met a number of you from that blog. Remember? Well, I sure do.  It’s where I first began this chapter of my life…of gathering with other women online. Women who loved photography and who (like me) wanted to share images and words about what mattered most to us. Who knew that the chapter at Picture This would turn into a novel which led to sequels and spin off stories such as my personal blog, the Picture Series and Shutter Sisters.

Every once in a while I muse about those days. I remember not really understanding what a blog was. I recall why I began a blog in the first place. I remember things I wrote about, pictures I shared and ways I enjoyed engaging with the women that found each other and came together. I can't help but ruminate on all the things that have changed since then; like digital photography becoming mainstream, photo editing becoming a part of the process and how shooting photos with your phone is totally normal (I never saw that one coming).  But a lot of things stayed the same. We’re all still here. Together. Gathering in a space where our stories, our photographs, our passions matter and are honored. It makes me really happy. I don’t know where I’d be without it. Without you.

The thing about looking back is that you remember things you miss about the old days. One of those things came to me recently in a quick flash. Best Shot Monday. I wonder if anyone else remembers that. I used to host it each Monday at Picture This and then on my personal blog. It was a place to share a weekly shot that you held dear. The one shot, above all others that you celebrated that week. No theme, no rules, no restrictions. Just an image you loved. Your Best Shot.

My featured image today is my Best Shot from this week. Maybe it’s because I used a brand new photo app to process it (hello Snapseed!) or maybe it’s the whimsical subject matter or maybe it’s because I captured it at the Instagram meetup where I spent time strolling and shooting with some awesome sisters on a picture perfect sunny Southern California day. Probably a little of all of these things but it really doesn’t matter. I just love it. And that’s what a Best Shot Monday should be about. A photograph that you took, that you love.

Today, let’s look through last week’s archives and pull something out that makes your heart sing. Share today, your Best Shot with all of us! I can think of no better way to start the week than by celebrating our shots!

Comments

[Val]

This isn't my best, yet it is. Guaranteed laughs and my son will seek revenge for these someday.
http://pictureaday2012.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-11-k-is-for-kung-fu-master.html

I love Snapseed too! I just bought 4 (gulp) new photo apps. Fun fun fun.

[meredith]

I was hiking and skiing in the mountains last week and I think this is one of my favorite shots:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/poppy-in-provence/6975372189/

[Leah]

This is my favorite of the week. Bath time fun with my daughter, playing with my new phone.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leahhug/6814895872/

[Marcie]

What fun!!! This was captured just yesterday - a gaggle of geese flying over the moon:
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/home/2012/3/11/second-thoughts.html

[Malin]

Here´s my favourite from last week: http://malinbrand.se/photography/?p=437

[LeAnne]

I chose this shot even though it isn't typical of my work, I think it came out really well. A friend of mine is the lead singer in a band and is also the dad of of one of the Marines that just returned from deployment with my son. I got to practice some low light shooting without a flash and loved the effects of the lighting and smoke. http://www.photosbyleanne.net/2012/03/scavenger-hunt-saturday-night.html

[Deb]

What a great idea - love these shots :-) My favourite shot from the past week is this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/muddybarefeet/6825939432/in/photostream Taken at the lake not far from our house, on an old cheap plastic point and shoot with new (as opposed to expired) film in it. I love the light of the sun in the water.

[rakusribut]

thanks for this tracey! it's so good to browse through my photographs and pick one out to share with you all. and so incredibly inspiring to see what other women have to share...
here's my best shot (and my best photoshoot) of last week

http://exploringwithmycamera.blogspot.com/2012/03/night-photography-capturing-silent.html

[Jessie]

I totally remember your Best Shot Mondays. I was active every week but I often look back at my blog and see those weeks that I did. I was really new to blogging back then and my camera was still in auto :) Not the best at blogging or picture taking still (lol) but this is my best shot last week :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11842226@N06/6812987062/in/photostream
Love that app! That shot is awesome!

[Sherry]

My favorites of the past week, like others - isn't because of the technical merit, but the memories. A visit to an art walk, my kids complaining, then enjoying it, my son helping out his sister & they hugged in PUBLIC - even said thank-you (they are 12 & 9) -- I feel as though I have done something right in their raising.
Hope it comes through correctly, but it is the photos of the art walk from my blog - the spoons & the fish.
http://fromalldirects.blogspot.com/2012/03/weekend-rewind-3-12-12.html

[kristen]

I love snapseed! It does a lot without a lot of fanfare and that's exactly what i was looking for. i really like the idea behind best shot monday and i think i'm going to latch onto the idea on my own blog, with credit and props of course on where i received my inspiration. thank you :)

[PetinaHope]

This is my favorite shot this week- my nephew was so sleepy and was knocked out in his mom's arms
http://petinahopephotography.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/portrait-sleepy-baby-evanston-photographer/

[Deborah]

My favorite from the week - a leaf in the water. It spoke to me of letting go of things in life and moving on.

http://tischd.blogspot.com/2012/03/like-leaf-in-water.html

[Shirley]

I remember your Best Shot Monday series - I met several wonderful photographers through the link ups.

Here are some macros from last week, our last look at winter:
http://www.shirleybehindthelens.com/2012/03/just-dusting-of-snow.html

[lucy]

i love my iphone and intagram and snapseed and all the other amazing photo apps. but i'm still in love with my good old dslr, and my favorite shot from this week is one i took with it on a cold beach walk:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyloomis/6961929029/in/photostream/lightbox/

[Carol Hart]

While walking through a junk shop I came across these old roller skates. Really brought back memories. At age 11 I traded an album I owned (Rubber Soul by the Beatles) for my first pair.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/briancarolhart/6967799635/

[Beryl]

Your best shot Mondays were my saving grace during a HUGE low patch for me. They inspired me to start blogging and to pick up my camera in the face of loss and grief and lots of icky emotion. It was fun to go back through my own archives and find one of my own very first blog posts where I shared my BSM and the discovery of Shutter Sisters and you! Thanks for inspiring me to take a walk down memory lane this AM.

http://blog.beyoungphotography.com/2009/10/12/the-simple-things/

[Gabriele]

I stopped to really look at a fallow vine covering a town building. It made a great shot for a Monday or a Tuesday,...

.http://backontheflooragain.blogspot.com/2012/03/bringing-in-spring.html

[lifeineden]

Oh, I had forgotten about BSM! So happy to see it again. My best shot from this week came yesterday, on a lovely little hike on the first warm day of spring!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32837589@N07/6828200462/

[Baby by the Sea]

I always have my iPhone with me, and my sad, lonely camera sat for weeks in a vintage camera bag. This weekend, I went to a friend's farm and the very first picture I took of my girl dancing reminded me why I still have a Canon crush.
Love the merry-go-round. With all that wonderful color, it's easy to hear the tunes of the carousel.

[WorthIt!]

I was on vacation last week - here's one of my favorite shots on a blustery afternoon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52055227@N07/6830256390/in/photostream

[meredith winn]

tracey, my heart did a little flutter when i saw your blog post title pull up. a moment of nostalgia and sweet rememberings from those early days ... a monday meditation such as "best shot monday" is a perfectly mindful way to start the week. this shot i took today, on a monday, when i looked life and the upcoming year straight in the face and saw that it was full of all things beautiful.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/camerashymomma/6976278363/

thankful for this space, for all of the women that gather here as sisters.
happy monday everyone!

[Libertad Leal]

My favorite shot from last week was this one of this huge gorgeous ferris wheel:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/libertadleal/6830288624

[Angela]

Snapseed is one of my go-to apps - I love it! It was used on this shot, which I think is my best from this past week. And btw, I have loved looking at everyone else's images!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelaslp/6818562002/

[Shawna]

Boy this brings back memories! I'd forgotten I first ran across you at your Picture This blog!

[Kelly kardos]

http://kelly-justaclickaway.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-7.html?m=1
I love doing food photography and pretending I'm a professional!!!!!

[Olivia]

This may be the first time I've shared a photo at Shutter Sisters! Last week, my husband and I replanted a camellia bush that I got from my grandmother. She brought the original plant with her from Georgia when she came to SC to live after marrying my grandfather in 1930. She gave me some seedlings when I married in 1984. One of the two that survived has had a hard life: two fires and a pine tree falling on it, and this year, it's still blooming. I cut a few blooms and brought them inside for my kitchen table. Here is the resulting photograph:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46135141@N06/6964939003/

[simply]

sorry...i dont follow directions well...i thought it said best to date...not in the last week?

simply stork

[melody]

Certainly I remember BSM. That is where I met you.

Happiness and joy along your sweet journey.

[AmyG]

Here's my favorite shot of the week. Yeah, its been done before and I didn't invent the pose, but I just love the way it looks. I think I actually got the light-dark contrast just spot on.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amygillard/6831530998/

[Diane M. Schuller]

Sure, I remember! Here is my best shot from the week:

http://www.dianeschuller.com/blog/2012/03/08/mmmm-marmalade/

[Jennifer Hagedorn Dizon]

I loved this one of Sunday because it was one of those afternoons where everything was just perfect for a moment - it may have seemed like a short moment, but it was a big one in a sense that I felt grown-up enough to have coffee in the late afternoon, that I was free to play - and playing meant painting or taking photos or uploading photos and sharing them; and I was just so grateful to be able to see how beautiful things can pop up the ordinary... I loved how the light gave me all these blues. And man oh man am I enjoying Instagram! ;-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jendizon/6826462854/in/photostream

[Lisa@barefoot]

I just love this of my beautiful son. He was on the change table after his bath, having a tickle and play, and (luckily) the trusty camera was close by! The simple joy was evident on his face and it just makes me laugh every time I look.