It was a 9th birthday fit for one very special little American girl; mine. A small group of good girl friends. The women in our family. A cafe that seemed straight out of a movie. It was a beautiful day in early summer with enough noontime sun to illuminate the whole room (photo moms appreciated things like that). A savory lunch. An enchanting cake. A rousing version of the birthday song with 9 candles for one big birthday wish.
As the birthday girl reveled in being celebrated—as any birthday girl should—I observed. Each interaction between she and her guests, I heard. Every gesture and expression—the sparkle in her eye, the doll at her side and the crooked birthday crown—I noticed.
I lifted my camera to my eye. Click, click, click. I captured every joyful moment of the afternoon. But it was one single shot that made my mama heart skip a beat.
Maybe it was the sideways glance or the impish—somewhat mischievous look—as she pulled the crooked crown down on her sweet head. Something about it took me back to birthdays past when my growing girl was much younger, much smaller, much less grown-up than she looked today. In that moment, I saw both the yesterday and the today. The glimmer of the past made me teary; my heart was full of gratitude that although I can never stop the clock, I would always have that moment captured, exactly how I will always remember it, forever in one single photograph.
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We invite you to join us this month as we celebrate the moments of our lives for our One Word Project. We are partnering with Haagen-Dazs in asking you to share your favorite moments with us; with them. We’re excited to be participating in their 50 Summer Moments project and we want to encourage you all to do the same. Savoring moments through our lenses is what our community is all about, so we feel like it’s the perfect way to honor those moments and let them shine all month long.
The 50 Summer Moments project has a few neat layers to it. First off is the sharing. The second is the incentive for sharing. Every image you share, Haagen-Dasz will donate $5 to honey bee research at UC Davis. Sweet! The third—and perhaps the cherry on top (we couldn’t leave out a good ice cream pun)—is the 50 Summer Moments eBook, An Ode to Summer where 50 images will be chosen and featured with the help of the awesome chef Alex Guarnaschelli.
Want to get in on the fun? All you need to do is tag your images on Instagram and your tweets on twitter (you can share tweets about your summer moments too) with the tag #HDMoment and you might see your moment on the HDMoment website. We’ve got our own Shutter Sisters tag too for the OWP (#ssmoment) so be sure to use it on everything you want to share with us (on Instagram and in our Flickr group). Its how we keep track of all the amazing stuff you’re capturing.
And, in celebration of summer and all this moment making, we’ve also got a very special day planned. We thought it would be totally amazing to pick one day this month where we can all celebrate our summer moments together! Won’t you join us in our first ever Shutter Sisters virtual ”collective moment”?
We’re declaring Saturday, July 28th the day that all of us are going to “Take a Moment” together. We’ll be sharing more details throughout the month but for now, put us in your calendar because we want to celebrate our summer moment with you!
For today, help us kick off this month of moments by sharing a moment of your own!
Saturday, July 28, 2012 by 
