ABOUT THE OPEN SHUTTER
The Open Shutter wants to put YOUR "HAPPY" on YOUR WALLS.
The Open Shutter is a personal wall décor specialty studio. Everything is custom designed and created for YOU. You can be confident in Chris' 30 years of experience in portrait and photographic knowledge. Her goal is to find what brings you joy and makes you happy, then work that into your session. It may be your family session, but on a special location because it is where the family vacations every year. Or at the family cabin. It could be your best friend and fur-baby on a hunting trip. Or an aerial view of your boat on your favorite lake. Whatever is your "happy" Chris wants to be able to get it on your wall for you to enjoy every day.
When working with Chris, she will ask numerous questions about what you are wanting for the final piece for your wall. This is a collaboration between you and Chris which is discussed at great length during the Planning Session prior to any photography. With this knowledge, she will make recommendations about the space you are wanting to fill - colors, style, size, medium, etc. If wall décor isn't your fit, she also has designed many coffee table albums for her clients. She will work with your budget to help you get what you want.
The Open Shutter had served the North Central Ohio area from 1997-2016 specializing in Child and Family Portraits. Chris displays her creativity in the portraits she collaborates for her clients with quality, variety, responsibility, and custom-oriented service. After moving to Alaska her life perspective changed. She found JOY... Joy was a life-saving emotion that was hers. She has a heightened value for the joy in each of our lives. It gets us through the rough patches of life. She found joy in photography again, joy in being a solo traveler, joy in the little things, joy in special moments with family, joy and laughter with friends, joy in God.
My joy or happy isn't necessarily yours. We all have that something that makes our soul flutter. You know what it is... that is what I want to capture for you. I want to put that kind of happy on your walls. And imagine you get to relive those moments every day that you see it. Your wall décor will also be an amazing conversational piece about your "Happy".
ABOUT YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER
Hi, I'm Chris and I've got the best job for this soul. Here is a little about me... some boring and some quirky.
Chris Johannsen Miller is a professional photographer specializing in Personal Wall Décor. You can tell a lot about a person by what he has on the walls of his home. That is why Chris is the one for YOUR personal décor, whether it is your family, pet, on a family vacation, an aerial view of your cabin in the mountains, on a lake in your kayaks, wherever, or whatever makes your heart happy.... this is what you should have on your wall. With Chris' 25+ years of photographing families, you can be confident with her posing, lighting, planning, and recommendations to make an image "wall worthy."
Chris' love of photography started at a very early age. She purchased her first SLR film camera at the age of 10 from the money she had saved and earned for over a year working on the family farm. She has been photographing professionally since 1991. Then following the birth of her daughter, opened her studio in 1997, The Open Shutter. Over the past 25 years of photographing families and children, she has experienced a full circle of growth... the babies she photographed when she first started are now having babies of their own. With a thankful heart, it brings her happiness watching families grow up knowing that she is capturing those memories and milestones for them.
In 1996, Chris was certified by the Professional Photographers of Ohio. In recent years she has also earned her Master's Degree and Photographic Craftsman Degree from The Professional Photographers of America. She earned her FAA Drone Certification in 2017. Chris has also been on the speaker's circuit sharing her style and knowledge of photography with her colleagues. All of which have been great honors.
In 2016, Chris moved to Fairbanks where she lived and explored the great state of Alaska. This has also given her time to embark on a new direction with her love of photography and drones.
Chris is a quirky photographer. If you follow her on Instagram, you know she is all over the gamut of things she photographs. She has her favorites: drone imagery, macro (especially snowflakes), abandoned barns and houses, night sky (especially the aurora borealis), cold weather imagery, lovely dead crap, and the list goes on.
Chris' "joys" include being an avid camper (often solo camper), borderline glamper (not sure if a 19' camper counts as glamping). Loves the outdoors. Loves hiking (warning: Hiking with Chris takes 2-3 times longer than it should... she stops to admire and photograph everything.), loves kayaking and most of all spending time with her favorite people and fur-baby. Meeting new people and hearing their stories is also a joy for her. Chris loves the rain (as long as there is no wind). She loves the sky (sunrises/sunsets, watching rain/snow storms travel across, the building of clouds, flying). Alaska definitely makes her soul flutter.