September Photo a Day Challenge wrap up

Can you believe that we're wrapping up another month already?

It's continued to work out well having my fat mum slim's photo a day challenge photos on Pinterest, so I put my September 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 1: You, Now

 At the Kenosha lakefront. I'm wearing this t-shirt, and yes, it is wet. That's the price that you pay for trying to get a cool photograph and not watching where the wave is going.

Day 2: Father

My parents and my mom's mom the last time they were visiting Milwaukee.

Day 4: In My Mailbox

I ordered my first ever MOO cards. (Etsy sellers can still take advantage of this free offer.) It was way past time for me to get some sort of card with my HubPages URL. I also ordered the second two books in the Hunger Games series.

Day 5: Bright

In case you haven't seen enough flower pictures from me the past few months.

Day 6: Every Day

I work on some type of craft project pretty much every day.

Day 8: At Night

Angel is crazy about her fresh water. I change it twice a day just because she enjoys it so much.

Day 13: Table

I finally found something perfect to coordinate with my little fall button tree.

Day 17: In My Fridge

One of the souvenirs that we brought back from the Wisconsin Dells last month was cheese.

Day 21: Sometimes

Sometimes I get to do amazing custom work.

Day 25: Frame

Edi, you'll appreciate this! It is an engraved frame, and the detail work is beautiful. We ordered it at the Wisconsin State Fair and got it in the mail earlier this month. Dominican is where Jake went for undergrad.

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

It's hard to believe that I have nearly completed four straight months of this challenge (I still have a few days left this month to finish my final prompts). I'm not as surprised that I have been successful with it as I am surprised that so much time has passed already.

As we move into the final crunch for the holiday shows and my freelance writing loads continue to be as full as ever, this photo challenge is going on hold for a little while. I'll still be doing the Sunday Scavenger Hunt and I Heart Macro challenges every week, which will keep my photography skills going strong. This has been an amazing experience, and I hope to pick it up again sometime in 2013.

If you'd like to participate in October, the challenge list is right here.

What have you been photographing lately?

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?

July Photo a Day Challenge wrap up

It's hard to believe that we're almost through another month already!

It's worked out well having my fat mum slim's photo a day challenge photos on Pinterest, so I put my July 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 1: Self-Portrait

I did the short hair thing for the better part of 5 years.  It was fun for a while, but I miss having long hair (kind of a lot) so I'm growing it out again.

Day 2: Busy

I am almost always multitasking so it's not unusual that I have at least two notebooks in front of me at the computer.  This also means that I'm doing a good job with my list making!

Day 7: Garden

Some friends gifted us some herbs from their garden.

Day 9: Big

Miller Park.

Day 12: Texture

The bleacher seats at Miller Park.

Day 18: Plate

I took a few pictures of this for an article.  It's cold orzo pasta salad with tomatoes and feta cheese, sauteed vegetables (portabella mushrooms, squash, and zucchini), and avocado slices.  If you missed the recipe, it's over here.

Day 20: Eyes

It took quite a few photos to get a shot of Angel this close that wasn't completely blurry.

Day 23: Mirror

I feel like I've used about every possible option for prompts like this around the house, so I took a few pictures in stores this month.

Day 25: Heart

Heart buttons.

Day 26: Sunshine

Sunlight filtering through the trees at Greenfield Park.

Day 30: Calm

Another shot at Greenfield Park.

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

I'm going to re-cap what is becoming my standard questions and insight that I put together for these challenges:

I have a confession to make.:  Most of you know that I don't necessarily take the photo prompts on the given days for the challenge.  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 yes.  The last two months it wasn't too hard, but I had a tough time pulling everything together before the end of the month.  A lot of the prompts didn't match up, and I was taking more photos at various outings with family and friends and taking less photos for prompts at home and out on my own.

Is it worth it?  The short answer to this is also yes.  Many of you know that as a freelance writer, I like to use a lot of photos in my long term earnings articles.  It is a huge time saver to pull something from my files that I know is high quality than to shoot and edit something brand new or search for a stock file online.  These challenges really help me with this process of continuing to grow my own photo supply.

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 August, check out the prompt list right here.

What have you been photographing lately?

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June Photo a Day Challenge wrap up

I know that it's not quite the end of the month yet, but it's either now or not until June 6 so I'm posting this a little early.  Currently I have the full album updated through at least the 23rd and will get the rest finished up over the weekend when I finish up the next Scavenger Hunt.

I decided to keep my monthly photo board for fat mum slim's photo a day challenge over on Pinterest because I don't need any more daily content for 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 1: Morning

Angel doesn't venture to the top floor of our house very often and waits until we come downstairs to greet us in the morning.

Day 5: Sign

This sign is only a few blocks away from our house.  I can't believe that we lived here almost a year before I got a picture of it.

Day 7: Hat

I didn't include this in a Scavenger Hunt and thought that some of you would enjoy seeing it here.  My father-in-law sells these hats in his True Value in the fall.  He and Jake went to their first Packers game this past fall and wore them.  Now we own one.

Day 9: Your View Today

I have a huge influx of new flower and zoo photos from this month.  I'll keep sharing them here a few at a time.  I'm still in shock of so many of these shots.  Look at that bokeh!

Day 11: Door

As best we can tell, someone took these doors down when our living room was carpeted and they no longer fit.  Thanks to some huge help from my father-in-law, we got them trimmed down and fitted in again, and then cleaned them.  Aren't they beautiful?

Day 14: Time

I confess that I took this picture before June because I knew that time was going to be a prompt at some point for either this challenge or the Scavenger Hunt.  It's in one of the old VA buildings.  Unfortunately it doesn't work anymore.

Day 19: Imperfect

I'm sure that anyone who works with any type of glaze or resin can relate with this photo.  As hard as I try to remove all of the large air bubbles from my pieces, sometimes one still sneaks in there.

Day 21: Where You Slept

If I've ever shared this little guy here, it was ages ago.  Jake gave him to me for our first Valentine's Day as a couple in 2002.  Most of my old stuffed animals are on display in the basement, but he gets to stay on my side of the bed during the day.

Day 22: From a High Angle

This is another shot from my mini flower shoot on Father's Day.

Day 23: Movement

I took this during a Museum After Dark event at the Milwaukee Art Museum, which is right by Lake Michigan.  Clearly "after dark" isn't really applicable during the summer!

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

I'm going to re-cap the questions and insight that I put together for last month's challenge.

I have another confession to make.:  Like last month, I did complete all of the prompts, but I did not necessarily take each one on the appointed challenge day.  I still believe that this resulted in better photos than I would have gotten by forcing photos every day.

Was it tough to participate in this challenge and the Scavenger and Macro challenges?  The short answer to this is still yes.  Some weeks it all comes together easily while other weeks I'm down to the wire getting caught up with everything at the last minute.  I did still find a number of prompts that overlapped, which made the process go pretty smoothly some weeks.

Was it worth it?  The answer is still yes.  As I mentioned earlier this month, I'm working harder than ever to use as many original photos as I can for my long term earning articles.  I love being able to pull something from my files instead of having to shoot and edit something brand new or pull a stock file online.  Continuing to grow my own photo supply this much each month really helps with this process.

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.  The July prompts are not up yet, but you can check back with fat mum slim before the beginning of July for the list.

What have you been photographing lately?

May Photo a Day Challenge wrap up

On a complete whim this month, I decided to participate in the very popular Photo A Day challenge by fat mum slim.

I already have tons of daily content on my blog, Facebook fan page, and Twitter account so I decided to create a Pinterest board for my challenge photos.  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: Something You Wore Today

I went through a huge thing in high school and part of undergrad where I really loved socks with fun designs.  I still have a few (okay, more than a few) pairs that I love.

Day 4: Fun

I finally made the effort to get a photo of us in Milwaukee.

Day 11: Kitchen

I made chocolate chip cookie bars (the classic Nestle recipe) and salad for a little get together that one of Jake's friends organized earlier this month.  I love having an excuse to bake.

Day 14: Grass

The grass in our backyard grows ridiculously fast.

Day 15: Love

Of course there are a few pictures of Angel.

Day 18: Something You Made

I have sold out of nearly all of my shell bracelet designs during the last few months.  I've been working on restocking them this month.

Day 19: A Favorite Place

 You can check out more pictures from this little excursion right here.

Day 20: Something You Can't Live Without

This photo of one of my newest card designs represents two things that I can't live without: crafts and music.

Day 26: 12 O'Clock

Someone else is ready for lunch, too.  She knows my schedule.

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

My confession about the May challenge: I did complete all of the prompts.  However, I did not necessarily take each one on the appointed challenge day.  I believe that I got better photos by using inspiration as it came to me than by forcing a photo every day.

Was it tough to participate in this challenge and the Scavenger and Macro challenges?  The short answer to this is yes.  There are weeks that some of the prompts were more challenging than others or that it was tough to get out to take photos.  On the upside, there were other weeks where some of the prompts overlapped and I had a lot of inspiration so things came together more easily.

Was it worth it?  Again, the short answer is yes.  I like to use as many original photos in my articles as I can.  There are several reasons that it's worth it but the biggest reason is that taking this many photos every month greatly increases my general photo stock.  It's always a big plus when I can pull something from my files for a current article instead of having to make a point of shooting, editing, and uploading something else or pulling a stock photo from elsewhere online.

I am planning to participate next month.  I am also planning to do what I did this month with not forcing photos everyday and only taking time to upload once or twice a week.  All of the June prompts are right here if you want to jump in and participate.

What have you been photographing lately?

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