Change is in the Air

The weather for SoCal has been very unpredictable; changing on a dime. Hot, cold, windy and rainy. Sometimes all in the same day.

This is what appeared in the forefront of an incredible tumultuous sky, right outside our front door.

I can't think of anything more encouraging than a rainbow in times of transition and CHANGE.

Needless to say, I'm get more and more excited to launch Shutter Sisters. It's going to a picture perfect way to begin 2008!

How do you capture CHANGE?

A Theme and an Announcement

Today I am writing to give you the good news that although Picture This is hanging up it's hat, Thursday's Themes will continue at their new warm and cozy blog home, The Land of Ka a la Stacy Campbell-Kraft. YAY!

I am passing the Theme torch as Stacy will be beginning them over at her place soon. Be sure to pop over there next Saturday for the theme to shoot for and then, come the following Thursday you can comment on her post with a link to your image.

But, for today, let's end with a bang as I host our theme for one more week...somehow the word CHANGE feels appropriate. See you on Thursday for the last Thursday's Theme here at Picture This. Sniff sniff.

CHANGE is in the air. I can feel it.

Yes, Thursday is Cozy

I think I forgot to say that the theme this week is COZY so I'm posting this a little early to give you a minute to get your last minute Thursday's Theme wits about you.

Anyway, this is a sequence that my oldest daughter shot of my youngest and I thought it was pretty funny and appropriate for the theme.

"No, I don't want you to take a picture of me."

"I said NO!" (see blur of foot kicking in foreground)

You fill in the blank.

Anything COZY to speak of around your house these days?

Giddy

Giddy she's only days away from 10.

Giddy to have her entire birthday week off of school.

Giddy to bake our traditional birthday cake.

 

Giddy of the possibility of getting an ipod.

What's got you GIDDY on this fine Thursday?

Photographic Memory

Have you ever wondered the story behind how people stumble upon their passion? Like photography for instance? How is it that YOU came across your first camera and when did you discover that photography was something you loved??

Susan Getgood thought it would be cool to interview a bunch of the moms out there who love taking photos. If you'd like to read stories from some of your favorite mom photographers just go visit the Photographic Memory page at HPs photo blog. Some of the fine women featured are regular contributors here at Picture This...how fun is that?

In honor of the interview launch and the cool HP Photo Books that they are highlighting (I really have made a few and they really are quite nifty), I declare this weeks Thursday's Theme MEMORY.

And now, I leave you to your reading. Check back over the next few weeks over there as more interviews will be posted. Great job Susan. Thanks for bringing these Photographic Memories to life.

I encourage YOU to explore your own photographic memory! Write a post about it on your own blog and comment here with a link to it. I'll be sure to write a post and add your links so that everyone can read one another's stories!

The Let Down

Well, it's a fantastic theme this week, if I do say so myself but I don't have any photos to share. Waaah. All I can say is that this MAMA is wiped out from the really big show (more about Hannah Montana in Portland later) and Halloween. I'm tapped out today and didn't get to shoot for the theme. I apologize for that but something tells me you 've all got some great MAMA pix, don't you?

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!

That Glow!

About a week after our neighbors chopped down their Palm tree our other neighbors chopped down their Ficus. Did I tell you that already? I know, I know, I can't believe it either it.

Since then I have been desperately trying to get over the losses on both sides and instead of letting anger overwhelm me, I've been trying to look at the bright side of it. The ficus was massive and between our trees and it, the back corner of our yard saw no sun. Ever. It never bothered us at all because we loved that tree and never knew our yard to look any other way. Now, seeing things with fresh eyes (and a brand new lens*) I look out my kitchen window every late afternoon and appreciate the view.

   

If that's not a GLOW, I don't know what it.

How about you? Are you glowing?

* yes, i got a new lens! it's a 24-70mm 2.8 and it is glorious.

Oh, and don't forget to comment on yesterdays post to if you'd like to win a copy of Disney's Enchanted Tales for your little princess.

I'm Glowing

NO, I'm not pregnant. And neither is Melody I guess.

It's just that I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy because Gabrielle gave me and my books the sweetest shout out over at her fantabulous blog Design Mom. So, as a big thank you to the lovely and talented Gabrielle this weeks theme is GLOW.

Be sure to pop over and check out the archives at Design Mom. Yummy.

Are Wii Stars?

So, I came up with the theme this week solely on account of my inspiration photo and I had no idea what I would post today. But, as it always seems to, the prefect photo came along. Actually, it's more than a photo...it's a tear sheet of a Nintendo Wii ad that will be in some of the top women's magazines nation wide in mid November. Including Oprah! Aaaaaah!

Here we are, The Clark Family in full action mode, playing the Wii. And you all know how I feel about the Wii! Mii loves it! And so does the whole family. Obviously, I didn't take this photo but dang, if we're going to be STARS, I might as well feature it on my blog, right??

What shiny bright photo would you like to share?