Editor's Notes

This being the start of a new year I thought I'd take the opportunity to thank those who have made 2003 a successful year for all of us here at Shutterbug. This has been quite a year here, what with our going to a different format and producing the most pages of any photo magazine each and every month. It's a challenge we gratefully accept, as each and every one of us live photography and are always excited to share the stories and images we have the pleasure to bring you every month.

The editorial staff here at Shutterbug do an incredible job. Bonnie Paulk, our managing editor, has been with Shutterbug for many, many years, and she brings her incredible experience, and patience, I might add, to the job with each and every issue. A managing editor has to handle so many tasks that I could not list them here, but with Bonnie at the helm we know we're in good hands. Our associate editor, Andrea Keister, handles much of the copy flow and works with our varied and interesting set of writers. Andrea does this with an incredible organizational skill that makes getting each and every issue out on time seem easy, which I can assure you it isn't. Andrea, quite frankly, keeps the incredible amount of copy, images, and ideas flowing.

Charlotte Barbour is our chief copy editor, and she's old school and maintains an eagle eye on how everything works together. Her sharp pencil saves us from doing more than our share of corrections every month. Cynthia Boylan, along with doing our book reviews, handles all those listings that keep you informed about shows, workshops, and events in the magazine, as well as the classifieds. She's also an ace customer service rep and she has helped many readers straighten out any problems they might have. Our most recent addition is Cathy Powell, who is our editorial assistant, and who has taken on the task of working on our sister publication, eDigitalPHOTO. She's done a great job and she's helped us up our frequency on eDigitalPHOTO in 2004 to eight times a year. On the web side our web administrator Jill Noonan handles both www.shutterbug.net and www.edigitalphoto.com. If you use our web pages for checking out new products, our archives, or our extensive web listings Jill's the one to thank for keeping it going.

Of course edit would not work without production and art, so I also want to acknowledge and thank Richard Leach, our art director, along with Mary McDonel, Debra Hartling, Elizabeth Haga, Linda Hyden, and Marcia Pencka. Thanks also to our administrative assistant, Sherry Swim, who makes sure the whole operation runs smoothly at world headquarters in Titusville. And of course we couldn't do it without our dedicated advertisers, esteemed publisher, Russ Ellis and sales team, consisting of Eileen Meister, Suzanne Gordon, Genny Breslin, Joanne George, Cheryl Williams, and their assistant Robin Beecherl.

Everyone pitches in to produce Shutterbug and this team makes going from edit to finished magazine their monthly task. Well done, everyone.

Our writers and contributors are what make the magazine what it is, and we cherish every one of them and their efforts. These are people who live and breathe photography and who in addition to being writers are also practicing professionals in their fields. This group has grown over the last year, and, as a side note, we are always interested in meeting and working with new writers/photographers. All of us started out with that first image or article published, and I see Shutterbug as a magazine where that's always possible for anyone who has the passion and desire to get it done.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank you, dear reader, for continuing to support the magazine. You're the one we do this for, and we thank you for your interest, concern, letters, images, and ideas. We take our jobs seriously and dedicate ourselves to bringing you an interesting, diverse, informative, and, hopefully, inspirational magazine.

All of us here at Shutterbug wish you the best in the coming year.