Powerhouse

She's a powerhouse.  Confident, defiant, playful, determined, a force to be reckoned with. 

Whenever I feel myself wimping out, I see Goreth in my mind.  She faces the truth of it all and does what's needed, odds be damned.  She meets her challenges with a crazy kind of courage, when anyone else might cry or laugh.  She shows up and lets her power be seen, just because you asked.

I need that kind of strength right now.  I need that kind of courage.  Do you?

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Today we need to see your powerhouses.  The women who make you stand a little straighter when they walk into the room.  The ones who make you brave in your mind when you need to make a tough decision.  Feel free to mine the archives, dig out the polaroids or take us down memory lane.  It'll be worth the wait to see the face of strength, to see the power in hope.

Joy for Haiti

Image by Tracey Clark

She was the one. We knew this from the start of our Picture Hope travel planning process. Haiti was on our minds because Myriam planted that seed in our hearts many months ago. Jen and I had intended to travel with Myriam, to the place where she was raised, in February to catch and share stories with Myriam's extended family in Haiti. We visualized our happy selves sitting on front porches smokin' and jokin' (sans the smoke) and dancing in the streets at Carnival. But everything changed on January 12, leaving us nothing to do but wait quietly beside our friend, watch the tragedy unfold, and wonder what hope might look like.

And so the Picture Hope journey to Haiti has changed for us. Jen and I are following Myriam's lead because she knows what to do and how we need to do it. This is no longer a photography and storycatching project for us to direct, but a profound experience to be felt and shared through loving eyes. I have no idea what this looks like. I have no idea what we will see, hear, do, or feel when we land in Haiti later next month, but we're open and eager to let the experience move through us and out to each of you just as it should.

Please take a moment to meet our friend Myriam and help spread a little Joy for Haiti.

Glints and Glimmers of 2009

On the last day of the year—of the decade for that matter—we often reflect on the past. Although there is always bitter in the sweet, looking back at 2009 through a Shutter Sisters lens we can focus on the sweet stuff and celebrate our creative milestones and collective accomplishments.

As far as the big ones; the Picture Hope win was HUGE & the start of the Picture Hope journey was and will continue to be an amazing and inspired. Jen and Stephanie are rockin’ that thing and putting our collaborative efforts to good use; making such a difference in the lives they touch. And they are the first ones to say that they are reaping similar benefits just by telling the stories of these incredible women. It’s been a bright and shiny highlight here at Shutter Sisters.

And our first ever In Real Life Event was the Shutter Suite at BlogHer. Wow! It was beyond wonderful. The venue was superb, the featured brands in the Suite were stellar and the sisters (and a few bothers) that spend time with us in our Suite were of the highest caliber. It was another gem of the year and only got us more excited about making a Shutter Sisters event a reality for 2010!

Beyond that there were plenty of sisterly sparkles like being featured in The Kirtsy Book and in Artful Blogging Magazine, Kate's new book, Paige's calendar template, Sarah's presets, Andrea and Jen's Mondo Beyondo class, Tracey's involvment with The OC Daily Photo Blog and The Creative Mama, Irene's feature in Small Magazine, Maile's camera bags, tons of amazing guest posts by so many of you and adding the likes of Meredith, Kristin, Alex and Chris onto our (regular yet extraordinary) contributor list.

We say bid farewell in gratitude for a successful and satisfying year. We celebrate and appreciate this sisterhood more than we can ever express! Thank you all for such a grand 09. We can't wait to greet 2010 with you!

How about you? What pretty things are you looking back on? Send out the year by sharing your sparkles! 10, 9, 8...

A Place to Live

I want you to know Theresia Ngowi (right), her daughter, and Juliet Ngassa (left), program manager for Arusha-based, non-profit BEST (Business and Entrepreneurship Support Tanzania). Theresia welcomed Jen and I into her home in Magadini Village. She is a young entrepreneur and earns income by selling rice. Despite the fact that the walls of her home are partially constructed with cardboard, I felt such warmth inside.

Tell us about a painting, a photograph, or a word that brings meaning to your walls.

Those Ladies

Odette tells the story of selling chickens and eggs as a child in order to care for the needs of herself and her friends in the refugee camps of Uganda.  By the time we finished, she likes to say.  We felt like those ladies from the big organizations who lend people money.

I always loved that part of the story--little girls feeling as powerful as grownups who were committed to making a change--but I didn't really know what she meant.  Until Tanzania.

In Tanzania, I met those ladies and immediately fell under their spell.  They are quiet, they are wise.  They are measured in their energy and fierce in their focus.  They are staring down poverty--its ravages, its sources, its brutal effects--and they know what to do.  They are executing their own particular brand of justice--passing over the one they are supposed to favor for that girl in the back with fire in her eyes.  They are placing their bets on that live wire, even as they readjust their enormous handbags and stamp the dust out of their fashionable shoes. 

They are believing the girls they choose can show the rest how to escape the bowels of hell. 

Meet Juliet, the program trainer for BEST (Business and Entrepreneurship Support Tanzania).  It is her job to teach the entrepreneurial skills the poorest of the poor need to enter the market.  I watched as she checked in on the women she serves, questioning them like your favorite aunt--the one who believes in you and at the same time won't mince words if you need to hear the truth.  She is tending them like a garden of possibility, one promising seedling at a time.

I don't always take a good picture, she told me. But I doubted it could possibly be true.  How could the camera not love this radiance?  How could the lens turn away from this bedrock determination that everything is going to be just fine?