Review: Expressive Photography - The Shutter Sisters

Expressive Photography: The Shutter Sisters' Guide to Shooting from the Heart

Release Date: September 3, 2010

Publisher: Focal Press

Pages: 176

Received: from Goodreads First Reads for honest review

For the first time, incredibly talented, artistic, and experienced female photographers team up to bring a fresh and creative guide to shake up the world of technical photography manuals. This is all about the moment and the expression to showcase the beauty in the lives of women though the lens of a camera. This will show how to capture the emotion of the subject through visually stunning images and well-written and engaging words. Inspired female photographers will be able to turn artistic ambitions into creative and passionate images through well-thought themed chapters such as childhood, togetherness, nature, animals, and stillness.

This book was written by the Blogger's Choice Award nomiees - the Shutter Sisters. After reading this amazing book of photography, I immediately had to check out their website. The book and the website are gorgeous and so inspiring. I already have some great ideas for photos that I want to take of my cats and people around me - if only I had a digital SLR camera... well my cheapo digital will have to do for now - at least I learned a lot about composition which will make my photography even better. 

The lovely blend of unique styles combined from the Shutter Sisters makes for a very stunning and passionate collection of imagery. From the boisertous imagery of children at play to the simple and touching photo of a couples' hands to the black and white detail of an elephant's face, this collection is an extraoridinary reference for all aspiring photographers out there.

The book is laid out with themed chapters all containing the same sections including approach, perspective, composition, lighting, details, and processing. The chapters range from portraiture and still photography to nature and creatures. There are little blurbs from their blog spread throughout the book as well as tips on how to get the same effect shown in the book on select photos and exact directions to achieve it. 

I would highly suggest this book to intermediate photographers who have the main skills down pat as there are only a few samples where they guide you through taking an exact style of photo (which ISO, exposure, aperture setting etc) - a lot of it is up to the photographer to figure out. I will however be using this as a reference as I slowly get back into photography.