Friday, August 31, 2012

Friday Feature: mix tapes

Thanks so much to everyone who linked up with me this past week for my Friday Feature link up!  Here are just a few of the great finds that were featured.  Click on the photos to check out the item listings, blog posts, etc.





I'm revisiting one of my favorite feature themes ever: mix tapes. The last mix tape feature that I did was in March of 2011. It was way past time to bring it back. Enjoy!

Cassette Tape Keyring - Teal Mix Tape Keychain by BraveMoonman

Coasters Mix Tape (set of four Italian stone coasters) by MeadowTea

Men's / Unisex Cassette Tshirt - Black - Large by GravyInk

Original Mix Tape baby or toddler blanket Punk Rock Geek Unisex pink lime purple with turquoise minky swirl by RockerByeBaby

Art, Mix Tapes Mean I Love You, 10 x 13 inch print from watercolor by SalvageTheWorld

Funny Birthday Card - Cassette Mix Tape Happy Birthday Card by RowHouse14

Mix Tape Printable PDF Tags - With your choice of up to 10 colors by RisaRocksIt



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Thursday, August 30, 2012

August Photo a Day Challenge wrap up


As we finish up the summer, it's time to wrap up another month of photos.


It's continuing to work out well having my fat mum slim's photo a day challenge photos on Pinterest, so I put my August photos up there.  I still don't need any more daily content on this blog, Facebook, or Twitter.  You can check out the entire board here (or by clicking on the above photo).  I'm just sharing a few of the highlights in this post today.

Day 3: Coin
 Leftover tokens from the Lakefront Brewery. I did the tour with my brother and his girlfriend when they visited in July.

Day 5: Logo
At one of the many small neighborhood bars within blocks of our house.

Day 10: Ring
I had been wanting a stacker ring set from Madelynn for...a long time. She had a 20% off sale this summer, and I splurged on this beautiful set. And yes, it was so hard to pick. All of her rings are beautiful.

Day 14: Arrow
One of the signs leading the way to Miller Park.

Day 16: Food
 
Day 19: Hole
Playground equipment.

Day 21: Cool
I think it is so cool that someone would build something like this

Day 26: Dream
Still dreaming. I really want to make this happen within the next year.

Day 27: Tap
 Literally.

Day 28: Clock
I'm really proud that I found something new that wasn't too far from home for this prompt this month. We'll see what happens when it comes up again in one of these hunts/challenges.

Again, you can check out the entire set of August photos on Pinterest right here.

Here is my insight about these challenges:
  • My confession: I don't always stick to the given days. Many of you already know that I do not always take the photo prompts on their given days. I believe that I get better photos this way than I do if I force the photos every day. I also only take the time to upload and edit these photos once or twice a week.
  • Is it tough to participate in this challenge and the Scavenger and Macro challenges? The short answer to this question is pretty much always yes. I was more successful pulling everything together before the last minute this month than I was in July. We were still out and about a lot this month, and while not a lot of the prompts matched up, I did a better job getting the prompts shot away from home.
  • It is worth it? Definitely yes. The past couple months, I've explained that these challenges help me grow my photo supply for my long term earning freelance articles. When I write articles like this, they go a lot more quickly when I can pull my own photos instead of having to search for high quality, relevant images. The other thing I can confidently say now after completing this for several months is that it is it really helping my photography skills. I started to burn out on photography from doing so much product photography the past few years. This has energized me and taken my work to a new level.

I am participating next month.  I am also planning to continue to not force photos everyday and only take time to upload once or twice a week.  If you're interested in participating for September, check out the prompt list right here.

What have you been photographing lately?

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Wisconsin Dells 2012

Some of you know that Jake and I took a long weekend trip to the Wisconsin Dells this past weekend. We hadn't taken a trip together with just the two of us for fun (i.e. not a holiday, wedding, etc.) in a year. It was much needed and a lot of fun. I went looking for my post with vacation pictures from our 2010 Dells trip, but apparently I never did that. If you're my friend on Facebook, you can see that picture set right here. Here are a few highlights from our 2012 trip.

Wisconsin Deer Park
The goats don't roam freely the way the deer do, but they are still very friendly.

There are literally at least a couple hundred deer wondering around at any given time. We saw tons of young guys like this one.

It was pretty hot so a lot of them were looking for shady spots.

This guy got hounded when the goats saw that he had food.

Wisconsin River
The Dells area is beautiful. This is a shot from the downtown River Walk.

Circus World
Baraboo, WI is home to Circus World where the Ringing Brothers started their original circus. I'm not sure why I've enjoyed taking pictures of tents this year.

Circus World has an amazing collection of old circus wagons, many of which have been restored. I took tons of pictures of them when we were there two years ago and didn't feel like I needed a lot this time. We got to hear this organ.

No one on HubPages has written an article about leading line thus far so I may attempt it at some point.

I challenged myself to take some detail shots of the wagons.

Circus World is also right on the river.

Awesome, right?

We were allowed to take pictures during the main circus event this year, which was neat. I'm not sure how well you can see it, but the dog is pulling a carriage being "driven" by some sort of ape and filled with pekinese dogs.

The elephants at circus shows are so amazing.

We got to see a great demonstration of novelty circus instruments. I am fascinated by this topic and would love to research it more.

Devil's Lake
I got some great captures of the rocks this year.

We watched a few people scale this.

Taking a little break to catch our breath and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

You can get some idea how high we were.

Jake took a lot of pictures on his phone, but I handed over my camera a few times.

Wollersheim Winery
This is the first time that we'd ever done a winery tour and tasting.

It was a lovely experience.

Touring the aging wines.

Getting ready for our first wine for the tasting.

Random
Some of you will get this.

Classic Dells window shopping.

We found a store called Root Beer Revelry. This definitely wasn't there two years ago. Jake is a huge fan of root beer. We'd already picked up a bunch of bottles at a cheese shop earlier in the trip, but he got a couple more here.

I love license plates.

Jake's first elk burger. He enjoyed it.

One of our friends joined us for the weekend. We enjoyed Sunday breakfast at Paul Bunyan.

Duck Tour
We ended the trip with a Duck Tour. It's the best way to experience the rock formations in the Dells.

This is my favorite shot from this trip. I'm still trying to figure out why I love this composition so much.

During several of the land portions of the Duck Tour, you get to view all these amazing ferns.

I hope that you enjoyed my photo tour! Our second trip to the Dells was just as amazing as the first, if not more so. Now that we only live 2 hours away from it, we will definitely be back again within the next 5 years.

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