When was the last time you got silly? This weekend, get outside. Walk around the block with no shoes on. Pick flowers out of your neighbors' yards and wear them in your hair. Let your kids stay up past their bedtime. Build a fort on your couch with sheets and pillows. Make up silly lyrics to your favorite songs. Watch a scary movie with all of the lights off. Do cartwheels and spin in circles until you fall down.

And don't forget to take pictures.

I love, love working with Anna. She's not only a great model, but due to our closeness and ability to read each other's minds, we always seem to create fabulous photographs together.  After her aunt passed away, we talked about doing a series of photographs with her aunt's robe, which further evolved into photographing her newest tattoo, a branch of vibrant cherry blossoms.

Because of her bright hair, the intense color of the blossoms, and the unique hue of the silk robe, I wanted to mute the rest of the image as much as possible. In addition to lighting and color manipulations, I also used Photoshop layers to create soft blurred areas.

First, I opened my layers palette (Window > Layers). At this time there was only one layer, my original photo. I selected the layer and dragged it to the New Layer button , creating a duplicate layer for manipulating.

I blurred the new layer with a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur).  Focusing on the background -- since this would be the blurriest point of my image -- I adjusted the slider to the desired level.

Now it was time to erase the portions of the blurred layer to reveal the focused portions of the layer below it. Rather than use the eraser tool, I used a mask to give me more control and flexibility.

Here's how :

1. I dragged my top (blurred) layer to the Mask button. (When you do this, you will see a new black thumbnail appear to the right of the image thumbnail in the layer.)
   
2. I clicked the black thumbnail to select the mask. (When you do this, you will see the foreground and background palette colors switch to black and white.)
   
3. Next, I switched my palette foreground color to black and "painted" the portions of the layer I wanted hidden. I did this with varied brush sizes and experimented with opacities to get the blur exactly where and how I wanted it.
4. When I messed up, changed my mind, or wanted to dilute the opacity, I switched my foreground color to white to reveal the portions of the layer I wanted to show through.
   

You can use layers and masks for lots of things!  I frequently use them to cut an inch or two off tummies, remove double chins, delete ex-boyfriends from pictures -- experiment and have fun!

Bob Schneider's dreamy voice is floating through the loft and outside we can hear the wind and rain adding its own aural interpretation to the track. For a brief moment I close my eyes and take it all in. The way he smells... the way he breathes... the way his hair tickles my face. Like he's reading my mind he turns to kiss my cheek and says nothing.

And in this moment, everything is as it should be.

What is your favorite song? What memories or visuals come to mind when you hear it? Why not create an image inspired by that song? It can be literal or conceptual. Just follow your heart.

Or, if you're looking for a little inspiration, download 'The World Exploded In Love All Around Me' (2.6mb)

While the Shutter Sisters garden couldn't flourish without the energy of our community, it wouldn't necessarily be this awesome without our software and hosting provider, Squarespace. So we thought we'd show them some love (and you!) by sharing this Shutter Sisters exclusive-discount.

If you use this link you'll get a free 30 day trial and 10% off if you upgrade to a paid plan. If for any reason it asks for a code when you upgrade, use sista.

Note: The signup page on that link defaults to a photography/portfolio layout but you can switch it in Appearance.

Many of you have reported troubles subscribing to our feed via Bloglines (thanks for letting us know, BTW!)

We believe this may have been caused by attempts to subscribe before  the domain shuttersisters.com  was actually pointing here. As a result, Bloglines couldn't find a feed and may have marked the site as what's referred to as a no-follow.

We've attempted to contact Bloglines and have this corrected to no avail. So, we thought perhaps if they received more than one report of the issue, we may actually get this resolved. If you have a Bloglines account, we could use your help! Here's what to do:

Go to http://www.bloglines.com/contact and send the following message:

      For some reason, Bloglines will not let me subscribe to a valid feed.

      My username is: [your username]
      The site URL is: www.shuttersisters.com
      The feed URL is: www.shuttersisters.com/rss.xml

      I appreciate your assistance.

Thanks, and hopefully this will be resolved quickly!
Krystyn