May the best Summer Photo Win!

Here’s your options:

To VOTE for your favorite photo leave a comment at the end of this post describing your pick and go to FACEBOOK and type in NOEMIPHOTOGRAPHY!

 

 

To vote for this photo leave a comment at the end of this post and/or visit NOEMIPHOTOGRAPHY on Facebook!

I have contest for you. We are going to go looking for summer and capture it.

This idea was inspired by capturing my daughter at a play date last week. What do little girls like to do? Dress up! WHY NOT MAKE A PHOTO SHOOT OUT OF IT…in your own backyard? More on that in a minute. First I want to go over the rules:

1. Any image you submit has to have been taken by you this summer!

2. One image per person and it must be submitted by July 8th – yes, you have the holiday weekend so this is SOOO easy! (email me at: info@noemiphotography.com)

3. I will post the pictures on my blog and on my Facebook page and you will have 1 week to get your friends and family to vote (each person can vote once on each!)

4. Lastly, you must have tons of fun doing this!

What are you entering for? Reason to get out the camera and take pictures…you’ve never entered a photography contest before or you have entered tons and have never won or you’ve won everything you’ve ever entered, but love the challenge of one more contest…you are bored with your summer so far…and YOU WANT TO WIN A NoemiPhotography E-book!

I love this cause I don’t pick the winner. YOU DO!

okay back to the inspiration of this contest. Here’s some ideas of what you can do: girls playing outside dressed as princesses, fairies, queens, dancers, and then being themselves. (Yes, my daughter is wearing make-up and yes, her friends put it on for her! Sometimes you gotta let go a little!)

Go for colors that compliment the scene...this is a fairy-like tone I chose!

Let your kids be themselves...don't direct the shoot! Adriah wanted the wand and had to wait her turn!

Capture the sweetness of the moment - not necessarily the kids saying "Cheese!" and looking at the camera

Look at that hair! and that smile!

You could go Black and White and let the expressions speak for themselves!

Full color is beautiful...did I mention you should let them do whatever they want! Dancing is beautiful to capture.

let them run!

or swing in the trees...She made it look so easy even in her princess gown.

This shot makes me laugh so hard. Adriah, bless her, is not a swing-from-the-tree-branch kind of girl. Even funnier, her feet never left the ground. I love you sweetheart!

"All I want to do is dance!"

Don't get me wrong I love a classic portrait shot as much as the next girl...take what inspires you!

So let’s fix that!

CHRISTMAS IS IN 2 WEEKS! Can you believe that? I know we’ll all frantically trying to take pictures or have them done of our families so that we can show the world how cute we are and how much we’ve changed over the last year – at least that’s why I do it! Those kinds of shots are usually pretty functional. People want to see our faces and our kids faces. So, I’m running a contest of the opposite kind. Any super artsy pic of the season? One that you really want to use because it shows your skill but it doesn’t fit the card?

I’ll give you until next Friday night (December 18th) to submit your entry (only one please) and then your friends, family and my blog readers will vote! The art-sy image that captures the season and people hearts will win! AND YOU HAVE TO GET THE MOST VOTES!

Can’t wait to see what you send me…

www.noemiphotography.com

The winner of the Spring Photo Contest is Jodi Hillen!!!! YEAH!

I loved this picture! Thank you for sending it in…now I just need to get you your Itunes gift card!

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I love having contests! Thanks for all your feed back on the changes to the photos. Wedding season is just around the corner and I can’t wait to start posting slideshows of new photo shoots every week! Photography is ever changing and challenging…I can’t wait to grow again as a photographer this year!

www.noemiphotography.com

Choose Wisely…remember the theme is spring! I’m going to use this photo contest to teach a little “photography” techniques…remember it’s just my opinion and it’s not that I feel like the pictures were bad…I’m just giving a different way to look at them.

Photo A – I really like this picture but I would’ve liked to crop out the distractions in the background. I tried but it really changed the feel of the picture. I punched the colors a little and pretty much left it as is.

Photo B – I enhanced the colors…because they are so beautiful. We’ve talked about the rule of thirds before on the blog but, for those who are new, it basically means the photo is divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically. The corners where those divides meet are usually where your eye is drawn. I cropped the flowers out a little and moved the monument to be where the thirds meet. See if you think it makes a better picture.

Photo C – I cropped this photo too! Wanting to focus on the subject and not the forest. I also wanted to show you another example using the rule of thirds.

Photo D – I added more black to this photo so we can see more detail in the birds skin. I loved how raw and fragile this photo is and I wanted to enhance that feel!

Photo E – I cropped out the people who were not featured because they can be a distraction and I enhanced the color in the image. Always ask yourself “what am I taking a picture of?” and capture that to the fullest!

Alright those are your new choices! Vote for your favorite!

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Here they are; the top 5:

L,D, Q, S, C

I’m going to work on the images and re-release them tomorrow.

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Photo A – Jill Whitehead

Photo B – Melissa Kruger

Photo C – Melissa Quebedeaux

Photo D – Calissa Kneip

Photo E -Kristi Fonseca

Photo F – Jenny Pena

Photo G – Shelly Jerrett

Photo H – Jill Derner

Photo I -Theresa Noble

Photo J – Kristin Pelham

Photo K – Becky Van Hofwegen

Photo L – Jodi Hillen

Photo M – Katie Copeland

Photo N – Shanda Collette

Photo O – Shannon Olgin

Photo P – Shannon Olgin’s 8 year old daughter Sara’s entry Nothing like using my blog to encourage the next generation of photographers!

Photo Q – Julie Bock

Photo R – Jenny Kunze

Photo T – Teri Sommer

Photo U – Jeremy Greenhouse

Photo V – Stephanie Funck

Photo W – Heather Cayless

Photo X – Karen

Photo Y – April Sauers

Photo Z – Sue Shetler

THIS IS THE BIGGEST PHOTO CONTEST TO DATE! I’ve run out of Letters…YIKES! Pay Attention when voting cause I’m going to use AA, BB, CC from this point on…

Photo AA – Rebecca

Photo BB – Kacy Johanson

Photo CC – Pam Booth

WOW-Eeeee! Can you believe it? I can’t. I think next time I’ll have to narrow it down somehow. Getting these pictures together for the blog took me an hour and half! That’s a lot of time for a new mom! BUT, IT IS SOOOO WORTH IT! Aren’t they pretty?

So, your votes will narrow it down to the top 5 images and then I’ll retouch them and we’ll pick our favorite again. Remember be sure and write what you like best about the photo and why it’s your favorite.

I’m giddy…let the voting begin!

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I love the ones I’ve seen…I think just looking at these pictures will make you happy!

I can’t wait to see who the winner will be this time!

www.noemiphotography.com

Just send a small jpeg to info@noemiphotography.com with your information (name and city) and you’ll be entered into the contest. The prize is a $20 gift card to Itunes (where you can get all the American Idol songs if you want to!) So, take some pictures and send me your favorite!

Can’t wait to see what you send me.

www.noemiphotography.com

Spring to me is all about new life! Especially this year cause we’re expecting any day! AND the weather is supposed to be beautiful this week and I hope that means this baby is ready to come! Birth is beautiful and really messy! I’ll be taking tons of pictures of course, but, don’t worry I’ll be censoring them before posting images on my blog…no worries!

Be encouraged…get out your camera and start shooting!

www.noemiphotography.com

All right you’ve had Easter, the first day of spring, sun and snow, and a string of “good-ish” weather soooo….it’s time! Get your camera’s out and blow off the dust! It’s time to take some works of art and submit them to the Noemiphotography Spring Contest!

As most of you regular readers know, I’m expecting my second baby in the next couple of weeks (or any day now!) so I’m going to give you lots of time to think this through and get me your NUMBER #1 photo (please only one picture per person).

All entires must be in by April 30th and it must have something to do with Spring! I’d really like to see you stretch yourselves. Try some of the things we’ve talked about on this blog and be daring! The sky is the limit and I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Anyone can enter and as always my readers will pick the winner! You could win a $20 gift card to Itunes…and get all the American Idol songs if you want to!

Smile…it’s contest time!

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The winner of our 2007 Winter Photo Contest is:

April Sauers!!!!!

Congradulations April! I’m so excited for you! I’ll get working on your itunes gift so you shop before Christmas!

Thank you to everyone who sent in a photo and to everyone else who voted…You made the contest a HUGE success! Of course, now we’ll have to do another one in the spring! Get your thinking caps on for possibilities. ANYONE CAN ENTER AND ANYONE CAN WIN!

Christmas blessings to all!

www.noemiphotography.com

OKAY! So, I was going to pick the top five but we had a three way tie for fifth place so I’m including all of them in the final round! Here’s your role as judge:

-Pick the picture you like the best!

-AND the picture that captures the season!

I’ve taken all the pictures into Lightroom and made some changes to the originals. So this has become a photo contest/slash photography learning session.

1. Rachel Greenhouse (Original Photo)

I took this image into Lightroom and added contrast, boosted the red, got rid of some of the haze. It’s good to have a little white and black in your image to help make it “pop!”

2. Cheri Patton (Original Photo)

I didn’t do a ton to this picture but, I did add some fill light so that we could see the whole face of the baby. I also moved the exposure up a bit to lighten the whole picture.

3. Holly Gantenbein (Original Photo)

I really liked the above picture and didn’t really want to mess with it but, just for fun a desaturated the colors a little and added contrast. I thought it gave it a mystical look!

4. Becky Van Hofwegen (Original Photo)

I cropped out the yellow light in the background to enhance the black night and keep the focus on the kids. I punched the colors and added more warm tones too.

5. April Sauers (Original Photo)

I wanted to make this a winter wonderland shot! So, I lightened the whole picture, got rid of the distracting black on the top (she’s now surrounded in white) and desaturated the color.

6. Jodi Keller (Original Photo)

Sometimes you can have too much happening in a picture so, I cropped it to focus in on the featured moment. Tip: It’s important when cropping to keep the hands and feet in the shot.

7. Kacy Johanson (Original Photo)

I didn’t do much to this image…I like it too much as is. Normally I’m totally against flash but it made a cool affect with the snow flakes. I lighten the image a little so you can see more detail.

OKAY! Now that these images have been changed a little we’re going to vote again! Comment on the changes, the reason you like your choice the best, why it fits the criteria or anything else! We’ll vote for two days…so we’ll close out on Saturday at midnight!

This is going to make a great extra Christmas gift for one of our finalists!

Happy Voting!

www.noemiphotography.com

Hmmm…thinking about Christmas…it’s the little things I do in this season: listening to Christmas music, looking through my photo albums, walking through snow, seeing my breath in the air, looking at stockings hung, being quiet and watching the lights blink back at me from our tree, smelling pumpkin candle burning, reading cards, opening packages and putting gifts under the tree…everything leads up to a very special day and reminds me of family and home. I guess it’s the feeling of being loved.

I’ve tried to combine Matt’s traditions, my traditions and new family traditions we like to make Christmas ours. You know? I’m growing into an adult but, still wanting to be taken care of like when I was a kid. Christmas lets me do that. Am I weird? probably.

I guess I’m feeling reflective today. Must be all those Christmas/winter pictures you sent. They got me thinking! Thanks. Remember the voting ends tonight!

www.noemiphotography.com