Foto Friday: The CONTEST

Today is the day when we all share a 'favorite' (or several) photograph(s) we have taken. Anyone who participates on this particular challenge, the last for a while, will get an entry into THIS contest and the chance to win THIS glass tile pendant, and every photo (up to four) you enter will get you a separate entry. A winner will be selected on Monday.

I wanted to pick a favorite photo that was captured as a direct result of extending myself through these Foto Friday challenges. It was hard to choose (and very fun to look back at them all!), but if I had to choose my FAVORITE of all the challenges, it would be these:



I love the brightness, the fabulous color, and how crisp the confetti and beads are despite them actually blowing out of the kiddos' hands. I likely never would have thought to do a picture like this had I not been challenged to think "outside the box" for the Foto Friday WIND challenge. Thanks for letting me share some of my silly little experiments with you.

Now!!! Let's see some favorites of YOURS~be they from the Foto challenges, this week, or from your archives. Again, each photo entered (up to four) will be a separate entry to the contest. Please link back to my blog within your blog post, so I know you are actually participating in the challenge. (I am a little slow, but hey-aren't these THUMBNAIL linkies cool?!? I'll know for next time...)



For those of you sad about no more challenges, take heart! A site called iHeartFaces.com has weekly challenges that look really fun to participate in. In fact, I would love to participate in them (and might) if ever the stars were to align just so. ;-) If I do, you'll be the first to know...and you can let me know too~if you decide to participate.

Thanks for your understanding about my time commitments and limitations. While I loved doing Foto Friday and am sad to see it go myself, my shoulders already feel a wee bit lighter. ;-)

Computer Malfunctions, Foto Friday and Mossballs

I am SO sorry that Friday came and went with no Foto Friday. I tried all day on Friday to get online and my computer would have none of it. Tried on Saturday too, but to no avail. The computer would come on-the internet would be available but nothing would show.

Thank you for those of you who expressed concern. Nothing bad has happened here, except that I am reminded how unreliable technology can be. (I was reminded also how unreliable technology is not all that bad a thing every now and again, if you know what I mean.)

Whatever happened, whatever "issues" my internet was having remedied itself after a few days and so here I am, posting Foto Friday for Monday morning.

***Stay tuned, all you Foto Friday participants, for an important message at the bottom of this post.***

Last week's theme was HAPPY.

One particular photo from the week stuck out for me. This one:


The rest of the photos don't really continue with the HAPPY theme, but they do show "the rest of the story".

What is WAY better than snowball fighting, I find out? MOSS ball fights.


Not only do they not HURT like pelting with ice would, but they are fun to squish while making, they make a huge SPLAT on contact and they STICK, splattering your victim with goo. (Watching the victim try to unsmear sticky moss splatted right in the middle of their back is a riot too.) An all around FEAST of the senses. The bigger and mossier the ball, the better.


Corynn was a champion moss ball thrower and almost always hit Andrew. How could she not be, with such form?


Andrew on the other hand, threw at Corynn but unfortunately, the balls usually managed to head in the opposite direction.


Once, though, at the end of the fight, he finally GOT her...and that is where the Foto Friday HAPPY theme came in. Boy, was he.

Littlest sister was merely content to check the weird stuff out:


Anyone want to participate three days late???

~~~~~~~NOW, for an important note from our sponsors~~~~~~~har, har, har

The summer is kicking my butt, and I haven't even gotten to the BUSY part of it yet. I just don't have time like I used to (in winter) to devote to photo challenges and things. I tried changing Foto Fridays to include archives as a way to extend it, but the fact of the matter is, it is still taking up a huge chunk of time (that I don't have). From the recent wane in participation these last few weeks, I am wondering if you all might be in similar boats. Hopefully, I won't be breaking any hearts when I say that next week will be the last of the Foto Friday challenges. If not forever, at least for a good while.

BUT. The good news! To say thanks to all who participated, and to give one last big HU-RRAH before we close, I propose we have a COMPETITION!!! We will call the theme for next week's Foto Friday FAVORITES.

Post a favorite photo or photos (limit FOUR) of ANY subject or in any genre of photography you have taken, (you may use photos already posted for previous Foto Fridays or new ones) next Friday, and the winner selected will receive one of these:

a glass photo tile pendant, made by me.

The winner will have the option to customize the pendant by emailing me a personal photo of their own OR to chose one from a selection of my own photographs for their necklace. Like these:

Contest closes Friday at midnight. Winner to be announced Monday.

(Not trying for suspense, only going out of town! hehe)

The NEW Foto Friday

When I stopped Foto Friday last fall, it was a much necessary sanity saver. But many of you were disappointed, and even I found that I missed it. There have been lots of requests/interest/hope for me to start it back up again but I just wasn't sure if I was ready to take the plunge of a weekly commitment like that again.

Being challenged each week can be....well, a challenge.

Then I stumbled across a Flickr pool called P52 where you post a favorite photo of the week each week. But I am just a little fish in that great big ocean, and personally, I like the feedback. That got my braincells swimming and I thought "duh! Why not do THAT for Foto Friday?!?"

So I am thinking, each Friday here on Renaissance I am going to post my favorite photo taken that particular week. If I feel the need to challenge myself to new heights, then by golly, I will. But if I don't have the time for a proper challenge, I won't have to stress myself out over it. (or feel guilty....)

Because I am all about less stress.

And since I am ridiculously pathetic about printing my photos, I am thinking a good (doable) commitment (for me) is to print that favorite photo each week (just one!) and at the end of the year I will be able to collage them into this one awesome 2011 remembrance board. Sorta like this:

photo source

So-if you are up for it you can join me. Challenge yourself and your creativity, or just get yourself behind that camera.
I'll start the Foto Friday linky back up NEXT Friday, for those interested in participating.

Get your cameras ready!!!

If you would like to use the Foto Friday button on your blog, simply copy and paste the code below directly into your blog post or sidebar.

<a border="0" href="http://zeahrenaissance.blogspot.com/search?q=Foto+Challenges" target="_blank"><img alt="Foto Friday Challenge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4t0SG8DlhOpjlkyAVabWtbWIbOoAl2YMpzDP7tL7ysu96UjGfcANtNFGdP4wMyerLwnPgyQ9wJuI2MV47ivlSC2WimlYq0G_ojGfcbljyQIrLNlYzh7QlFRXQ4J-hILb50QHa/s200/IMG_2488.JPG" /></a>

Foto Friday: Feet Edition

Little Feet
Big Feet

Feet Feet Feet

How many, many feet you meet.

Last week's Foto Challenge was FEET. I am *REALLY* hoping we tried to be artistic with this one, because, well, let's just say: I stayed away from the field of podiatry for a reason. ;-)

Here are my contributions:




This one makes me happy it is so "Mattie and I". That is how we have our feet every night when we are about to fall asleep. ONE of us has the other's achilles tendon in between our first two toes. I realize that this fact makes us weird and that blogging about it is revealing to the world our weirdness. But I say "WEIRDNESS PREVAIL!" (We also share a toothbrush. HA!)


I put Adele in a laundry basket and as soon as I did, I regretted never doing that to her as a newborn. Mental note: use laundry baskets for newborn photos.

I couldn't believe a one year old would lay down and relax in it, but relax she did.


And a funny one:


As with all funny ones~ this has a story. Once upon a time, I drew faces on Matt's toes while he was talking on the phone. Corynn was about 3. She remembers this to this DAY and asks for us to draw faces on her feet all the time. She was so thrilled to get faces on her toes. And then, of course, little brother wanted some too: though he asked specifically for ANIMAL faces.

Anyone take any perdy pictures of tootsies this week? If so, link up!



In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge WITHIN the challenge week and post it to your blog (and when you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...

Everyone is welcome to participate, no need to be professional. Some challenges are harder than others but the idea, whether easy or more difficult, is to capture to subject in a way that extends yourself, widens your limits and challenges your capabilities (at whatever level they may be). Don't be content to just snap a picture~create a glimpse of beauty!

This week's Foto Friday challenge is following along the same lines as this week's, Another body part:

EYES!

You know I LOVE eyes! ;-)

So come back! Same time, same place. Be here or be square. ;-)

Foto Friday Winner

It's time to announce the winner of the Foto Friday FAVORITES contest. Each participating photo got an entry into the contest and the winner was chosen randomly so it would be fair. I was GOING to have a surprise second winner (so I could pick my own favorite of all the entries) but the winning photo WAS my favorite! SO-there ya go. The winner was SUPPOSED to win. ;-)

Wanna know who it is?!?

It is...............

this photo....

By Jennifer @ All Things Under the Sun

Congratulations Jennifer! Email me at

sgrbear724@yahoo.com

to claim your prize!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After 37 different challenges, I thought a few honorable mentions seemed fitting and so here goes:

Jemit definitely deserves the award for the most funny contributions. What a great sense of humor she has and shared with everyone through her photos! Some were so funny I nearly peed my pants. (no, not kidding)

Terri deserves the award for most faithful submissions~I always knew I could count on her to participate!

Bonnie deserves the award for most encouraging person~I always appreciated her commenting on everyone's work (as I am sure you all did too!)

Elizabeth deserves the most devoted award- she has a houseful of people and creatures, does daycare and throughout the challenges packed up a house, moved, and unpacked a house. I know because she is my sister. Thanks for participating so often, Elizabeth, even with such a FULL plate!

Marine Corps Nomads deserves the most exotic places award. She had to do silly challenges like "spring" and snow in the DESERT and it still she participated. Not to mention-I got a good look at the Grand Canyon. Gotta love her for that!

Tracy deserves the award for most mouth-watering photos-holy smokes can that girl cook! (And photograph the food, to boot!)

Amy's contributions consistently blew me out of the water. Amy could easily hold the award for blog I was most excited to check come Friday.

Victoria certainly wins the prize for best attitude as she started the very week I decided to end it (Still feel bad about that!) and miraculously isn't holding it against me. (Thanks Victoria)

I know I missed quite a few of you but I ran out of award ideas! :-) The truth is-all your blogs held gems at different times throughout the challenges and for different reasons. I loved visiting them all and getting to "know" you all through the glimpses you allowed me into your lives.

Thanks to all who participated in all the Foto Fridays. You all made Fridays so much fun and I enjoyed my Friday wanderings so much!

Foto Friday: RED

Last weeks FoTo Challenge was RED.

I did not pick up the camera once.

My only real plan was to get some slow-shutter streaks of nighttime car breaklights gong across a bridge. When the slutter is show, the breaks would turn into lines....) I procrastinated until last night...when suddenly Matt appeared a night EARLY.

You can BET I wasn't going to drive 20 minutes away after my love finally came home after a week. SO this week I am being a total loser and raiding my archives and not adding a LICK of newness to the bunch.

Now for those people who actually CHALLENGED themselves....



In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge WITHIN the challenge week and post it/them to your blog. When you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! (Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...


For those of you new to this blog (or to Foto Friday's in general), each Friday we get a new photo challenge to work on for the week and we post our photos the next Friday and link back up here. Whatever your skill level, the goal is to get behind your camera and to begin, as you practice, to view subjects in a different light. To extend yourself and your concepts and ideas. To create ART instead of just snapping a picture. And to do it all while having FUN.

~~~~~An Important Note~~~~~~
I am gathering new suggestions for the photo challenges so if anyone has any great suggestions or has something they would like to cover, leave them in the comments! I will be making a new list this week.

This week's challenge is..... SIGNS

Hope to see you next Friday!

Foto Friday: Loving

Last week's photo challenge was Loving.

First off: can everyone who participates in Foto Friday just anticipate the Mclinky coming up by noon on Fridays? It seems impossible lately, to get this post right up in the morning and I don't want anyone twiddling thumbs in the meantime (or myself struggling with guilt on keeping everyone waiting). If I get it up earlier, awesome (my day must be just a chugging). But I am going to start giving myself until noon just to keep my own sanity. ;-) Besides, then I can avoid riddling these posts with apologies and excuses. And that would be a relief to all, ain't so? Thanks

Now, for the REAL post.

I had lots of great ideas about loving (most involved red and pink hearts, hearts in food, hearts in hands, blowing hearts, etc.) and absolutely zilch as far as motivation. Truth is, I just didn't FEEL like taking any pictures this week.

The same is true for all the inspiring Valentines I have yet to make, all the gorgeous decorations I have yet to create, all the inspiring projects I have yet to start and all the inspiring books not yet read. This week was a hard week for getting motivated to do anything except make dinner, do school, wash dishes and go to bed. :-(

This morning Matt got to go work a bit later than usual (and is coming home a bit earlier) so I got to take a picture that I have been wanting to take for months so as to make myself a necklace.

This one:


And then-just for fun, I turned that picture into another picture. Truth is, no matter what I am doing throughout the day I am always thinking about my love; he is ALWAYS on my mind.


I like the idea of a portrait within a portrait and would like to experiment with this concept more in the future. Perhaps you will be seeing many more thought bubbles. ;-)

Now scroll down as you imagine lots of heart-filled, red and pink photos of loving/Valentine's day HERE.

How did everyone else portray loving this week? Did you challenge yourself in some way? I can pretty much guarantee you did better than me!



In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge WITHIN the challenge week and post it/them to your blog. When you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! (Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...


For those of you new to this blog (or to Foto Friday's in general), each Friday we get a new photo challenge to work on for the week and we post our photos the next Friday and link back up here. Whatever your skill level, the goal is to get behind your camera and to begin, as you practice, to view subjects in a different light. To extend yourself and your concepts and ideas. To create ART instead of just snapping a picture. And to do it all while having FUN.

I am taking a break from the list (which is full of abstract ideas like breathing, dying, etc.) and going to suggest some more concrete challenges for a while in hopes that motivation will come more easily. These simple, concrete themes might work well for spending more time on experimenting with angles, positioning and focus and less time on figuring out a way to portray something abstract. We will start with shapes.

This week will be HEARTS. (Maybe I can get my heart fix in afterall?!)

Let's start with colors

Foto Friday: Eyes

Last week's challenge was EYES. I kept having to fight the feeling that we have already DONE eyes before and only just now did I realize why: no matter who the subject is or what the picture is trying to say: if there is a person in it I 99.999999% of the time try to highlight the eyes by making ABSOLUTELY sure they are in focus and have good light in them. When you put that much emphasis on eyes, no wonder you feel like an eye challenge might be redundant!

I had lots of fun with this one. I love eye pictures.


* I had to put snowflake after snowflake on his eyelashes-because they would MELT before I even got the camera up to my eye! He was such a good sport though!



* Her eyes don't know WHAT color they want to be. Sometimes they look light brown, sometimes gray, but in this picture, TO ME they look blue. With gold...which happens to be what MY eyes are. Yup-that is what they are. For sure. ;-)

* One thing I hate about my eyes is that they bulge out like some sort of frog or something. Matt teases me (and gets me laughing so hard I cry) about getting him all wet when I blink. HA! (OK....way more funny in person.)

I guess my son inherited that from me:


*I don't know why I look so forlorn in this one. I think it might have something to do with looking directly at a white door brightly lit by a morning sun. (I wanted to get sunglare in the photo which meant the sun would have to be behind me so I needed SOMETHING to brighten up the front of me too.) ouch.


*Speaking of forlorn: this is the look (and tear) I got when I told Corynn she ought to share the new etch-a-sketch keychain she bought (with her own money!) with her brother. WHY?!? OH WHY?!?!?


*I include this one, not because it is anything special but because this is the first time I have EVER (in all her six years) captured Little Miss Corynn's eye color. In fact, this is the first time I have ever SEEN her eye color before.

Look! It has outer rings!


In real life and in photographs, all I ever see is BLACK. Like this:

And there you have it. Did I post enough pictures for you? Hello? HELLO?!? ANYBODY still THERE?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge WITHIN the challenge week and post it/them to your blog. When you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! (Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...

We are all at different "levels" of skill and all levels are welcome- whatever level you are at, CHALLENGE yourself to become better...concentrate on making a unique shot and strive to get that shot as extraordinary as you can. Your goal is to reproduce the photo in your mind. Every time we challenge ourselves---we get better. SO...let's get crackin'! (And remember: this is supposed to be FUN!)



DUE TO THE HOLIDAYS: We are going to take a temporary hiatus from Foto Friday Challenges until the first week of the NEW YEAR (golly!! not ready!!). Mainly because: LOTS of presents still need to be made. (blush)

I want you to snap snap SNAP away during the holidays and when we come back on January 8th, I will put a McLinky up for us to share the creme de la creme, the BEST of the BEST, our most artistic, exceptional Christmas shots, be they of children, CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, present reactions, decorations, and other holiday whatnots. So-try and challenge yourself this holiday season to capture the essence of Christmas and New Years in photograph form and then meet me back here in the new year~ because I WANT TO SEE THEM! :-)

Hopefully, the new year will bring with it lots of Foto Friday enthusiasm.

Foto Friday

Last week's FOTO challenge was GROWING.

Frankly, I came up short on ideas until this very morning when several awesome (but dawdling) ideas occurred to me. I had a choice: try to get them done and post this challenge incredibly LATE (again) or just go with it and save those ideas for another day.

I chose the latter. So you get a very blase' variety here. Surry.

On the upside: the challenge still worked for me because it got me thinking outside the box. (Even though I can't prove it to you today...I will sometime soon)



I wanted to take a photo of a turning green bulb just poking from the earth. But there aren't any doing that right now. I thought, instead, I would BUY a pot of bulbs but of the three places I looked only one had them and of the selection~ALL were half-dead but still full price. Um. Thank you-no.

So, I added a few bucks and treated myself to an orchid. Incidently, I have wanted an orchid for ages--but I still affirm that I bought it ONLY for the Foto challenge.

Nevermind that the photos don't really capture "growing" in the way that I had hoped.

It sure is perdy though.






BEHIND THE SCENES:

For the hands shot: The kiddos sat on Matt's lap with a black blanket over them. They rolled up their sleeves-for a more clean look. Since Matt doesn't get home until 0'dark thirty, the lighting was not ideal and the photos are too grainy. But it was a good concept anyway.

For the very bright white in the floral shots, I took the plant outside because there is nothing better than unabstructed natural light. Since the snow is less than beautiful, I also brought out a white tablecloth and draped it on the clothesline.

I mistakenly didn't lowerISO from taking indoor shots so most of the photos were too grainy for my liking. blech

We ALMOST had roast chicken when some can running over to peck at the orchids. I saved their lives though (the orchids, not the chickens).


Can't wait to see everyone's contributions!!



In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge WITHIN the challenge week and post it/them to your blog. When you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! (Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...


For those of you new to this blog (or to Foto Friday's in general), each Friday we get a new photo challenge to work on for the week and we post our photos the next Friday and link back up here. Whatever your skill level, the goal is to get behind your camera and to begin, as you practice, to view subjects in a different light. To extend yourself and your concepts and ideas. To create ART instead of just snapping a picture. And to do it all while having FUN.


This week's theme is LOVING!! Seriously, I did NOT try that--but how perfectly fitting! :-)