I couldn’t leave for our trip without getting up the finalists for the L-O-V-E Photo Contest!

For those of you who are new to the blog, we do a photo contest every month and for February, blog readers decided it was all about “what the word L-O-V-E means to you.” People could send in any type of photo they wanted, as long as it stuck to the theme. I can honestly say, I have never cried so much looking through the dozens and dozens and dozens of contest entries. The images and their accompanying stories touched me so deeply. It was EXTREMELY hard narrowing it down to five, and I’m just glad I don’t have to pick a final winner!

Post a comment and vote for your favorite image. Tell us why you liked it so the artist that took the image will be blessed (this is by far the best part of these contests). And don’t forget, we always pick a random voter to win something too. Prizes and future prizes are listed below. Let’s get to the photos!

1. Finalist #1: Unconditional Love, by Stephanie. I love this image. The tenderness, the soft cradle of the young one’s arm around big brother. The sweet kiss. The safety and trust. All these things are what makes this such a striking image to me.

Then I read Stephanie’s email that accompanied the picture, and the moment she captured meant so much more. Stephanie wrote, “When you first look at this photo…I suppose it seems like simple sibling love. What it says to me…is a powerful statement of God’s unconditional love expressed through children. We are a blended family–and you would never know it.” Thank you Stephanie for sharing this beautiful photo with us. I know there are many challenges blended families face in building intimacy and safety. You must see this image as evidence that you and your husband are doing something right. Stephanie has a blog if you want to check it out called Pass the Pepper–very cute title!

2. Finalist #2: Newlyweds with a European Flavor, by Acacia. This image is so sweet! Can’t you see it on a commercial or in a magazine? The energy between this newlywed couple is so lovely. Acacia shared that this is her newlywed sister, and they are now living in England. But before they left the country, she took this shot in their parent’s side yard and loved the European feel it had.

I get the same European vibe from the image. I love the composition of the shot with her long legs running of the bottom of the frame, the husband kneeled over–we don’t have to see his face to know he adores his new wife. And her smile and sass almost has the Audrey Hepburn “Gigi” feel. Acacia, your sister must love you for this shot! Good job! To see more of Acacia’s work, visit her website. (Acacia, I LOVE the song on your website. I think I kept your site open the whole time I worked on this blog just to keep listening to that fantastic song. Not to mention your images are beautiful, and you are a steal for what you’re charging!)

3. Daddy’s Hairstylist, by Gina. The image is simply adorable! It makes me smile every time! I LOVE this image! The little girl is just going to town, and I love how you get this feeling from dad’s face that there is no where he would rather be. He’s got all the time in the world for his personal hairstylist.

Gina said her husband is a surgeon, so “he is VERY busy and tired, yet he always makes time for our three kids…he lets her (his daughter) put bows in his hair, straight iron it, blow dry it, you name it, he complies.” Gina, this is one of those photos that you will keep and show your daughter someday. And in that moment of seeing this image she will know that even though her daddy had long hours, her dad’s love was unending for her. No matter what she may fear, wonder, doubt, hope about her relationship with her dad–it will all fade when she sees that dad had nowhere else to be but here with her–getting his hair done. What a gift you’ve given to your daughter in years to come.

4. Finalist #4, An Enduring Love, by Cyndi. This is an amazing story of love. Cyndi said her grandparents have been married for over 70 years. Just this last year her grandmother had to be put in a 24 hour care home for people with Alzheimer’s. On the day this photo was taken, her grandmother remembered her Pop and agreed to hold hands with him. Cyndi writes, “You could see the joy in his eyes that she remembered him that day.” Okay…I’m crying again. Here’s the beautiful photo.

Brian are I are going to Thailand to celebrate 10 years of marriage, and I cannot even fathom the richness of 70 years. Can you imagine all they have endured, experienced, loved, and become together? I look at their hands and can’t imagine a more powerful image of an enduring love. Thank you so much for sharing Cyndi–this is an image that makes us all better people.

5. Finalist #5- Big Brother’s Love, by Michelle. There is so much that goes into capturing a beautiful image. Whether it’s composition, lighting, blur or no blur. And yet, sometimes the most powerful component is timing. The single, fleeting moment we are able to see that is happening in front of us, and somehow we remember to pick up our camera and capture it. This image is one of those powerful, fleeting moments. Here’s the story behind this image.

Michelle’s 5 month old had heart surgery, and after a quick recovery, he found himself back in the hospital 3 weeks later. He was on a ventilator for a month, and she writes “with much hesitation, we had to finally give in and let our older son visit his baby brother in the hospital. As soon as he walked in the room, they had their “moment”. It brought tears to my eyes to see the love of my older son had for his brother.” As a mom, I understand Michelle’s wording of “having to finally give in”. Maybe she was worried her older son would be scared from all the tubes and machines surrounding his baby brother. But I can’t imagine what she must have felt when her son surprised her and went to his baby brother’s bedside, as if he was blind to all the tubes and machines–only seeing his little brother and knowing he wanted to hold his hand. This is when the depth of love, no matter how young or how innocent, takes my breath away.

In DVD 1, Refuse to Say Cheese, I talk about how I want our kids, Pascaline and Blaze, to someday look back on the photos we took of them and know who they were, what they worked through, what frightened them, what they overcame, what they were sure of despite their surroundings.

I don’t want a box full of smiles, I want a box full of stories.

Someday Michelle’s sons will look back on this photo and know their bond was mysteriously strong and a force to be reckoned with from the beginning. Michelle, you have given your boys a gift by capturing this image. I also commend you for remembering to take a photo!

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These are the Five Top Finalists for the L-O-V-E photo contest. Honest to goodness, there were so many more images to share that were ALL powerful and beautiful. In fact if it’s okay, I’d like to share some more in the future b/c there were just to many good ones!

So post your comment below with your vote, and the Finalist will win their own copy of the AWESOME software, Photoshop’s Lightroom from Adobe. (Thank you for sponsoring this contest Adobe! We love you!)

The Random Voter Award will receive a copy of DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box. I think Brian chose this when I was sick last week, and I’m thinking it’s because he stars in it as the Nutty Professor.

If your a Finalist, time to email your friends and tell them to vote for you!

To all the rest, cast your votes for your favorite finalist and be the possible Random Voter!!

You all have until Wednesday, February 20th at 5pm PST to vote!

We’ll announce the photo contest for March at the end of February. It’s a fun one! I’m so excited! And…and…we may have some more Sony cameras for awards! (yeah!!!!) I’m working on these prizes for you friends!

I also want you to know that we have a whole week of blog posts for next week when we’re gone! I couldn’t leave you all hanging for a week! I’ve lined up some really fun stuff. My hope is that we can post blogs while we’re actually in Thailand, so you can see where we are, what we’re doing, but if all else fails, we’ve got posts lined up just in case. I hear there are Internet Cafes everywhere so it will be fun to keep in touch while abroad!