A Theme a Mama Would Love

This week's Thursday Theme has been inspire by a new photo contest (another contest-hooray!). Sheri and Amy at Mamazine are hosting a contest for Mamas called Mama Focus. This one is a little different than most mama contests as the call is for photos that have YOU, the Mama, as the main subject of the image.

Being queen of the self-portrait, I found the idea irresistible and therefore wanted a piece of the contest pie so I will be a co-host and a judge for the contest along with Sheri and Amy. I knew you all would be totally into rising to the contest challenge so I wanted to give you a heads up.

Here are all the details-

The Mama Focus contest is sponsored by mamazine.com, Picture This , and The Little Zygote That Could. The contest starts Thursday, November 1, 2007, and ends Friday, November 30, 2007. Winners will be announced Friday, December 7, 2007.

How to Enter

• Upload the highest possible quality image of your picture to the photo pool for the Mama Focus Contest Flickr group. You will have to join the group, and then follow Flickr's instructions for posting a picture to a photo pool.

• In the description field, enter: 1) your name (and the photographer's name, if it's not you) and 2) one sentence about why you chose the picture. Whoops, I think I used 2 sentences on my example.

The Rules

All photos entered will be evaluated by three judges: Tracey Clark of Picture This, Sheri Reed of The Little Zygote That Could, today is pretty, and mamazine.com, and Amy Anderson, also of mamazine.com. Tracey is the professional photographer/mom behind Picture This; however, Sheri and Amy are not trained in photography or artistic presentation or composition. Overall, we aim to select the photos that strike us most for whatever reason.

• MAMA-FOCUSED ENTRIES ONLY! Please do not enter photos of your kids. Kids can be depicted in the photos; however, the mama should be the main focus of the photograph.

• Limit of TWO submissions per person.

• Each entrant is only eligible for a single award.

• The entrant does not need to have taken the photo, but the photographer's name must be given and he or she must be aware of the submission.

• NOTE: Photos thought to be outside of the above criteria may be removed from consideration without the entrant being notified.

The Grand Prize

The grand prize, graciously donated by SONY, is a SONY DSC-W55 Cybershot Digital Still Camera (black) (valued on Amazon.com at $182.95). The grand prize winner and the first, second, and third place runner ups will each have their photos displayed in the "mama likes" blog for one month and then eternally in its archives. I will also post them all on Picture This.

You heard right girls, there's a camera up for grabs! Yahoo!

So, this weeks theme is of course MAMA. Whether or not the photo you post on Thursday is the one you'll enter in the contest is up to you. I just thought it would be fun to get those creative juices flowing!

I Really Love to Dance

Something tells me that you just might have the perfect photo for this Blog Blast contest.

Do you? I thought so. What are you waiting for? Post it and WIN!

Dancing + Shoes = Dancin' Shoes! Like the kind you can win in the contest.

As soon as I post mine, I'll post the link, I promise. Do let us know in the comments here is you entered!

Picture a Word

Over at my other blog, I just reviewed a new show that will soon be coming out on PBS Kids called Word World for The Parent Blogger Network. If you want to find out how much my daughter loves the show, go read all about it over there.

If you'd like to win yourself a copy of the show on DVD (it's got 2 episodes on it) just leave a comment here and you'll be put into a random drawing. Here's the only catch; you must post your child's favorite word (let's keep it clean moms) in your comment. I would admit that right now my daughter's favorite word is "poop" but since I've asked you to keep it clean, I won't. Yep, the Clark family has been reduced to lots toilet humor. It's nothing I'm proud of, believe me.

But, back to Word World. The series begins on Sept 3rd so stay tuned and like I said, if you want to win a copy, comment here (note-I'm offering the exact same giveaway at Mother May I and yes, you may enter at both blogs but you must leave a comment at both). Oh, AND, if you somehow manage to take a photo of the word you are using, include a link to where the photo is and I'll throw your name in for the drawing twice. That's doubling your chances I think but then again, I don't do math. I do words.

So, what's your word?

The Little Big Winners

Today is the big day. Susan, Sheri and I are revealing the winners of our kid's photo contest A Little Perspective. Yay! I've said it before but there were so many amazing photos submitted by you all and your kids! Wow. It's impressive and not to mention really difficult to choose winners.

But, without further adieu, here they are...the winning images (shot by YOUR children);

Under 6

First Place: What is This by Kerian

Second Place: Day at the Park by Faith

Third Place: Here Comes the Curl by Eve

Honorable Mentions: Green Swing by Olivia, Self-portrait by Marielle, My Brother by Melody

Please note that the self-portrait was shot by a 6 month old. God, I love that!

Under 9

First Place: The dog by N (Natalya)

Second Place (tie): Lake Tahoe through the Trees by Alana and Snow from the Back Window by Delilah

Honorable Mentions: Alyssum by Celie, Hungry Gators by Matthew and Princess Leia by Vincent

Under 13

First Place: Overboard by Dakota

Second Place: Luna Moth by Caleb

Third Place: Spiral by Lil Zoot

Honorable Mentions: Turtle by Ryan and UIL from the 2d Floor by J

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to everyone that submitted photos. Kudos to the kids and to you parents!

Now for the fun part...PRIZES! Photojojo, HP and ClubMom rocked our world by donating cool stuff so thanks to them too! Here's the breakdown:

First Place	Photojojo Camera Case HP Pen Club Mom Water Bottle
Second Place	HP Notebook with pen Club Mom Water Bottle HP Bomba Pen (one)
Third Place	HP Ball Cap  (pink or blue) Club Mom Water Bottle
Honorable Mention	Fruity Cheerios Club Mom Water Bottle

Thanks again everyone for getting involved. The contest was a big success. The Flickr photo pool is open for your submissions anytime you'd like to add more of your kids photos!! I'm going to, that's for sure. We hope this encourages you and your little ones to keep on shooting!

A Few Happy Reminders

Today is the last day to submit your children's photo masterpieces into the Flickr Pool for our contest A Little Perspective. So far the entries are awesome. There are some very talented kids out there! But, I didn't expect anything less.

If I could enter something my daughter shot, it would have to be this photo of a puffer-fish on South Beach, FL.

Sure, he's washed up on the beach but he's SMILING for goodness sakes!

And, if you are looking to shake your groove thing this weekend, Baby Loves Disco is throwing their last dance party of the summer at Club Derby in LA so be sure to check out the action and boogie down with other totally hip parents and their ultra-cool kids!

A Little Perspective Contest is On

Alrighty, today is the day. Our Kid's Photo Contest, A Little Perspective has officially begun!

Visit my post (or those at The Snapshot Chronicles or The Little Zygote That Could) for the low-down, if you don't already know it.

Our Flickr Pool, A Little Perspective is open and ready for your submissions! Yahoo!

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to post them under the group discussion thread at our Flickr group and Susan, Sheri or myself will gladly help in any way we can.

Have a great time gathering up your children's wonderful photos and showing them off! We can't wait to see what they come up with!

Picture a Kid's Photo Contest!!

Guess what time it is? It's time to announce a new photo contest for summer!!

I will be hosting the contest here at Picture This along with Sheri at The Little Zygote That Could and Susan of The Snapshot Chronicles. YAY! Now, this is not your ordinary contest. What's the twist? The clue is in the title, A Little Perspective. The photographs that will be entered into this contest will be taken by your kids. Yep, you heard me right. It's time to hand over the camera to the little guys and let them teach us a thing or two about capturing a window to their world. You all know how much I love sharing my camera(s) with my girls and how delighted I am to discover the way they see things, so now it's time for you to show off the photographic genius of your little ones. I know some of you already encourage your little shutterbuggies and I hope this will only get you more motivated.

Here's the scoop:

The contest will begin on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 and will end Friday, August 10, 2007. Winners will be announced Friday August 24, 2007.

Photo entries must be those taken by children under 13 years of age. We will be breaking it down into 3 different categories according to age group. The under 6 set, 6-8 year olds and 9-12. To avoid confusion, please try to submit recent shots as we are asking that you make a note of how old the child is when you submit their photo. Hopefully they will be the same age when you submit the photo as when they shot the photo (hence the word recent).

Although you will be submitting your children's photos, we are encouraging you to get them in on the action (if they are old enough to do so, that is). Let them help you choose which photos to submit for the contest. You can submit up to 3 photos per child so you don't have to pick just one. And try not to have them shoot for the contest. Not unlike grown-ups when they are trying to please someone or win a contest, let's say, the photographs often become notably more contrived and less creative.

What are we looking for in these photos? When I say we I mean the judges (myself, Sheri and Susan). Well...interesting images. Pictures that speak of what it's like to be a kid in 2007; whatever they find compelling enough to take a picture of.  Kid's have a way of snapping stuff we'd never dream photo worthy. And they tend do it in very creative ways. So, give us your best shots...your kid's best shots that is and see what happens...you/they might even win a prize.

OH YES, we've got prizes. How does a brand new groovy-cool pocket camera case sound? These babies are all the rage and thanks to the good people at PhotoJojo, we have 3 to give away for the 1st Place categories in each age bracket. Nice huh? And there are more prizes too. We'll reveal them soon but I can tell you one thing; some lucky kid is going to get a box a Fruity Cheerios (Oh yes they will!).

Back to the details. On Tuesday (one week from today) you can pop over to our Flickr Group -A Little Perspective and add your photos of choice to the group. It will become a public group once the contest starts. Be sure to add your age category to the memo of the photo (here's an example) so we know how old your child is. And, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the questions thread at the Flickr group so we can clarify for everyone.

This is going to be fun,isn't it? I just love contests! Don't you?

Going Green

Some of you may have seen this recent photo posted on Flickr. Well, I just entered it ...vote for me...vote for me...into HP's Capture Your Ever After Contest. Remember I told you about the Shrek inspired photo contests a while ago? They've hosted a few already and have a few more in the chute. Anyway, this weeks theme is GO GREEN and I thought the frog shot was pretty apropos. I belong to a "Green is Beautiful" Flickr group too and I announced it over there so the competition will be fierce, I'm sure.

If you can dig something up that fits the bill I hope you enter too. And you so know I am going to enter the next contest (starting next week) with the theme My Little Ogre because I have loads of pictures like this of my little ogre! (the bottom shot, not the top one!!)

2 Prong Approach

So, let's talk diagonals. Yesterday's shot was plain and simple where my subject was at a diagonal angle in the frame. But, there are many other ways to use the alluring diagonal line in your images. I was totally taken by Melody's BSM yesterday of her boys on the dock. The line of the dock in fact was at a wonderful angle and so were the boys all lined up on it. Do you see it?

Now, look at this one. It was taken at the same time as my photo from yesterday (obviously) but this slant isn't as pronounced at the other. With the more subtle approach and the cropping, I think it's even more effective. Course, the expression isn't nearly as captivating but from a compositional standpoint, I think it works better. It draws you in a little more maybe.

Now, I am going to ask you to take a look at a Flickr set called "am" (as in the morning hours) to see a variety of images shot at the same time, using the same subject matter, and using various angles, some creating nice diagonal examples. In these cases, I am using the subject to create that line BUT, as we saw in Melody's image, there are other ways to achieve a more interesting image via diagonal lines. I saw a number of them yesterday and I'll give some examples later in the week. I encourage you to shoot sets like this and try different angles of the frame. It's really cool to see which twist or turn floats your boat. We all see things differently.

Looking at this shot you can see the diagonal she's making with her arm, and the stripes, and the slight angle of the bowl. That's 3 points that all have intersecting angled lines if you were to draw lines all the way through the image. Are you getting me or have I lost you? I think it's a great example even though it's not nearly as obvious as the other's I have shown you. None the less, it works. Seriously though, am I at all making myself clear? Feedback? And by all means, this week is sharing week so post some links of shots you think might display this stuff and we'll talk. The odd part is, when you start to recognize it, you'll notice that a lot of your favorite images will have these diagonals...it's so much a part of good images (in any medium) that the eye is attracted to it without knowing why.

But, beyond looking at my "am" set for that alone, I NEED YOUR HELP! Hence the 2 Prongs of which I titled this post. Please help me decide which shot to enter in that Cheerio's Contest over at Modern Mom. Leave comments either here or over there with your top picks. I cannot decide. I am short circuiting due to a cuteness overload and because I love every picture of my daughter (doesn't every mother) I need another set of eyes (or lots of sets for that matter) to give me a hint of what to submit. Will you help a girl out? The deadline is Friday so I need to make a decision. Oh, the agony. Any of you entering? Who couldn't use $500? Come on...it'll be fun.

Playing With Your Food

Who doesn't love Cheerios? Moms love it because it's one of those versatile snacks that you can take anywhere that on most days will buy you enough time to finish whatever it is you're in the middle of before baby beckons. Am I right, or am I right? And baby loves it because those little Os are so so darned fun to eat. And speaking of fun...how about a photo contest that includes Cheerios AND your kids?

I have used Cheerios to distract my own babies, curb my own late night hunger, and as the perfect photo session tool. I know from experience that those little babies photograph really well.

But what's this contest all about? Color! And lots of it. See, the contest is all about Fruity Cheerios and I'm pretty sure they are going to be perfect little subjects for a photo. Modern Mom and the Cheerios people have teamed up to host this Family Fun Photo Contest so be sure to enter is you are so inspired. You know how fun food pictures can be! You have until May 18th to enter your submission over there. If you do and you make it to the finals, please let us know so we can vote for you, kay?

Another contest announcement coming soon. Whew, they're coming at me from every angle. Get ready.

And don't forget to write on the theme "What Makes You a Mother" and post it tomorrow!