Without question, this was another tough contest. Before I announce the Five Finalists to you, I want to thank the people who sent hundreds of Fatherhood images to us. I read every email and looked at every photo at least twice. During the process, I found myself crying, laughing, and standing in awe of what you have captured. Having come from a painful relationship with my own dad, I thank all of you who entered images. Every image was healing and full of passion. The finalists below are only a sampling of what was entered, but what a sampling they are!

Five roles of fatherhood came up again and again in the hundreds of entries. Not only are these finalist images artistic, but they are also a much larger representation of the different roles.

The first role of fatherhood is being a Playmate.

Finalist #1, Happy Food Spot, by Sarah (mama and wife to these two)

Doesn’t this image bring a complete smile to your face? When I opened it up, I almost fell out of my chair. It’s wonderful! The composition is fantastic! We see just enough of the lettering above and just enough of the sidewalk below. Study that for just a moment. The top third and bottom third are both minimal–adding a beautiful simplicity to the overall image. I even like how the two aren’t totally centered, off centered by just a smidgen. This adds forward motion to the two of them. The image also reveals a wonderful connection between the dad and his daughter. Dad is totally her playmate. And the combined green background and fun lettering take it to a whole new level!

The mama behind this wonderful photo is Sarah. She is out of Chicago. Her email signature revealed that she also contributes to Shutter Sisters. Tracey Clark and a bunch of other beautiful women host the awesome website, Shutter Sisters. If you haven’t, make sure you check out their site and Sarah’s too! You will eat it all up! (back to the photo) Sarah said her husband and daughter are two peas in a pod. Doesn’t that phrase have a whole new meaning with this photo! Thank you Sarah for sharing Happy Food Spot!

The next role of Fatherhood is Protector.

Finalist #2, Water Balloon, by Sara (Sara with no h :))

The timing of this shot is unbelievable! Not only did Sara catch the exact moment of the dad catching the water balloon. But she also caught the little girl’s hands. Her hands reveal the intensity of the energy in this moment. This is also a beautiful example of Less is More. We don’t need to see the faces to know this little girl is both scared and relieved at the same time. Dad is there to protect her. In Sara’s words;

When I look at this photo, I can just feel my father’s arms around me. I can feel him protecting me. I can feel the security in his voice and in his laugh. Even though this child is only being protected from a water balloon, I can just imagine the feelings she had as she slowly opened her eyes to realize that yes, her daddy kept her safe once again!

When looking at the photo submissions, I have a system that helps me ignore the names of the sender. You can imagine how excited I was to find that this was Sara Montgomery! She attended two of our workshops and is now doing family photo shoots and has a wonderful blog. Enjoy! This woman is an inspiration! Sara, thanks for sharing your gift with us!

The third role is Provider.

Finalist #3, Falling Asleep Under the Truck, by his wife Lauren.

This image brought me to tears. Lauren shared how her husband repairs aircrafts for his day job. And then Lauren lost her job and Brian decided to start repairing cars at night for extra cash. After a 10 hr. work day of working on planes, he has fallen asleep under the purple truck. There is so much more to this man that Lauren has shared. But I want to continue the focus on not only his commitment to Provide, but also how Lauren caught the spirit of a Provider.

His dirty, oily hand in the foreground of the shot says so much about this dad. And the fact that he’s asleep on the garage floor, need I say more? Again, Less is More. We don’t need to see his sleepy eyes to know he’s exhausted. It also looks like Lauren added a vignette to this which is a soft blackening around the outer edge of the image. You can do this in Adobe Lightroom under the vignette tab. Sometimes people over use vignettes, but I think the vignette in this image adds a certain “hush” to the image. Lauren, thank you for not only sharing this amazing image of Brian, but for also sharing your story. You are both incredible. What a honor to feature your image here.

The fourth role is Timelessness.

Finalist #4, Skateboarding with Dad, by Renee (mama and wife)

Why timelessness? I look at this picture and I see myself walking into a stationary store someday and buying a Father’s Day card with this image on it. It is the classic vintage shot of dad doing something crazy with the kids. Timeless…that’s what it is. I also love the composition too. Of course we fall in love with the little girl smiling at us and dad behind her, but I’m really loving the other one behind them. She’s the sweetie with the purse trying to catch up.

This little girl’s presence in the image adds motion and speed to the dad and daughter on the skateboard. Try to picture this image without the little girl running behind them. It could almost look like they were just standing on a skateboard. But because the little is running we feel the forward motion in the skateboarding. Wonderful Renee! Well done!! I also love how Renee turned this image to black and white. I like to use black and white toning when I want to accentuate emotion or a sense of timelessness. This image is the perfect fit!

The last role a father plays is Enduring Love.

Finalist #5, Photo Shoot for Dad and His Sweetie, by Carrie (wife and mama)

I’m struck by how the expression on the dad’s face brings me to a pause. I feel myself exhale as I take in all the enduring love that comes through in that simple furrow of the brow. She is playful and in love with dad; he savors every moment of their connection. The tight frame with a simple, blurred background helps us come close. We can almost her his breath. Imagine this picture if there was distraction in the background behind them. Carrie’s thoughtful composition has made all the difference. Her focus is sharp on dad’s face and because of this we are overwhelmed by the emotion he reveals in a single moment–the strength of his enduring love that will not end no matter how many miles separate them.

It was wonderful to find that Carrie had entered this picture. She lives in Florida and attended our Sonoma Workshop. Carrie wrote that when she got home from the Sonoma workshop her husband told her he wanted to be her first “real” photo shoot. Would she do a photo shoot of him and their daughters? He wanted Carrie to pretend like they were clients and wouldn’t even let her drive with them to the park. Instead he and the girls picked out their clothes and met Carrie at the photo shoot location. First, what an amazing gift to give his wife, to call her out as an artist and assign value to her time and art. There’s a handful of you husbands out there (like our avid male blog commenter, Jeramy. What would we do without you guys?)

He also wanted these photos because he was being deployed again and it will be several months before he holds his girls. Carrie hasn’t been able to look at this series of photos since he left. But for us, she was strong and shared them. What an incredible gift you have given us Carrie. What a gift you are. Thank you.

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These are the Five (AMAZING) Finalists for June’s Fatherhood Photo Contest! I hope they give as much inspiration to you as they have given to us.

Now it’s your turn to vote! Yeah!! Brian and I invite you to post a comment and vote for your favorite finalist (you only get to pick one :)). The most important part to voting is sharing a few words about why you picked the image you have. These comments are better than any prize we could offer. Your feedback, no matter how short, helps the finalists

There will be One Final Finalist who wins a $100 Home Depot certificate to share or give her hubby.

We’re also going to give $20 Starbucks cards as two Random Voter Awards. This means if you post a comment and vote, you are automatically entered into a drawing where two people will win the Random Voter Award.

One more way to win! If we hit 400 votes (which hasn’t happened yet), the #400 voter will also win a $20 Starbucks card! But here’s the catch. Voting ends this Wednesday night at midnight PST.

Time to email your friend and get them voting for a finalist and possible week’s worth of coffee!

p.s. I was going to finish up the engagement session for the blog yesterday, but my mom came over and we ended up canning Ginger Peach Jam. Oh, it’s so yummy! But the slide show is coming soon!

Brian and I are fast approaching our 11 year wedding anniversary. YEAH!!!! Since we’re going to be on the road a lot with weddings and speaking, we decided to do a day trip getaway. We’ve got from 9am to midnight. Any creative ideas for a day trip in the Northwest? We thought about taking our bikes and riding, but we need some cool ideas on where to go. Or forget the bikes, do you have creative day trip ideas?

And a few more quick updates for all my lovely readers!!

Don’t forget the photo contest theme for July is “WATER”. The photo can be anything that has to do with water. Whenever I think about this theme I can’t help but remember the great shot Garrett sent us before the Sonoma Workshop. Such a classic! (Garrett, that new head shot of you on your website is PERFECT!! Great shot!)

Send your photo contest WATER entries to contest@merakoh.com.

I’m going to try and have our FIVE FINALISTS for the Fatherhood June Contest posted this Friday. Stay tuned!

I’m also finishing up the final touches on the Denver, CO engagement shoot. Oooohhh I can’t wait to post that slideshow for you!!! If not today, for sure tomorrow!

The Refuse to Say Cheese Forum has become the bain of our existence! We have it all ready but are having a HECK of a time finding ways to create private groups for the Mom’s Survival 101 group and the individual workshops. Remember how we said we’re going have my business coach, Karen Buckley, do a private group on the forum for all the ladies who buy the Mom’s Survival 101 Kit? Well, we want that part to be as user friendly as possible, and if one more tech support guy says “It’s fairly easy Miss” I swear I’m going to scream!!! Thanks for hanging in there with us! When this thing goes live we’re going to have to celebrate in some way together!

That’s it for now, but don’t forget to post your day trip ideas! Think creative, romantic, active, outside, sunny weather, yummy food….”It’s fairly easy” right?

I’m amazed when I see what is rolling out for our business but also our friends too!

Dane’s book, Fast Track Photographer, is ready to order!

Sara’s GoBee products have officially launched!

Our DVDs and 101 Kits are selling every day, and we continue to receive the most wonderful emails of how much people are learning from these products. The Chicago Workshop in November only has a few spots left!

Plus, we have some exciting new “top secret” projects in progress!

The question that often follows is “How do we do we manage to diversify our business and still run a successful wedding photography studio?” Because yes, we still love shooting weddings. And yet, any one of these projects are their own full time business in itself.

One of the secrets I have found to being a successful small business owner is in a single phrase. “A small business owner is often a jack of all trade but a master of none.” Being a “jack of all trades” is the secret pitfall to avoid. But how do you avoid being the jack of all trades and master of none?…What do I even mean by any of this?

During an interview in March at WPPI, Dane, Sara and myself all realized each of us had huge things happening in our businesses and there was one particular BIG REASON we could credit our successes to! The video below explains how we all stepped out of being a “jack of all trades”.

Check it out! This will hopefully inspire and challenge you (while making you laugh too–we got to keep it real right!! :))

p.s. I also want to introduce another talented photographer who you will meet in this video. His name is Marc Weisberg. Check out his portfolio and blog–beautiful!!

How do you know what to price yourself when starting your business? I would say it is best to start out with a number you feel somewhat comfortable with so you can focus on gaining confidence in your skills and not worry about whether or not your charging to much. I would say this. In fact, this is what I said to my daughter on the 4th of July. This was the look she gave me.

Pascaline and Blaze had a Lemonade Stand for their second 4th of July.

Our house is in this great location because about five blocks away is the waterfront where a HUGE festival happens on the 4th. So every year, we have people walking by our house as they make their way to the waterfront.

Pascaline wanted to talk about what to charge per glass of Lemonade. She wanted to charge $1-$2 per glass. I was thinking that was a little to high and 25 cents sounded more reasonable. She was frustrated with me because she felt like it would take FOREVER to make money at 25 cents per cup. “Why not just charge more and then we’ll make more $ faster?” she asked.

I told her about starting your business at a reasonable price, then building your confidence up, and even being prepared in case not everyone wants to buy lemonade. (Although, it is almost impossible to say no to these two! Can you hear them yelling “Come get your Lemonade!”)

So we set up our table at the same time a parking spot opens up in front of our house. This guy in a beat up truck pulls up and says “I’m going to grab this spot and then buy myself a glass of lemonade from the kids!!!” YEAH, the first customer of the day!

Blaze pours the guy a glass of lemonade. This guy is probably in his mid twenties. Did I mention his truck was totally beat up? The kids tell him the lemonade is 25 cents. The guys says okay and hands Blaze a $100 BILL then says “keep the change”!!

Okay, the mom in me steps in and says “You can’t give this much money to the kids. For one thing, I can’t break it. And two, this is way too much money.” He has the widest smile ever and says, “But I want to! It makes me happy to give to em.”

I step in again and say, “But the kids aren’t even old enough to really know how much this is. They can’t fully appreciate someone giving them a $100 bill because five $1’s looks like more money.”

I hand the $100 bill back to him. He hands it back to me and says “It’s okay if they don’t understand how much it is. It just makes me happy to give to them.” Then with a big smile he thanks the kids and walks off.

I’m in utter shock. Can you imagine what comes next?

Pascaline walks up to me and says “Mom, I told you we could charge more for the lemonade.”

What do you say to that?

The guy’s words mull around in my head for the rest of the day. “It’s okay if they don’t understand how much it is. It just makes me happy to give to them.”

Can I go a little deeper for a second?

Sometimes I struggle with feeling worthy. When something is handed to me that is so clearly a gift, I struggle to receive it. Whether God is giving me this gift or a loved one–I can struggle.

I have this urge to try and make it up to the Giver. Sounds silly but true. I try to do “things” to let the Giver know how thankful I am, how much I appreciate all He gives, how much I see the degree to what He’s given.

This guy on the 4th of July…his act of kindness was totally pure. I really do believe he meant it when he said it gave him joy to give to the kids.

I’m all of a sudden wondering if all my efforts to let the Giver know how thankful I am have caused me to sometimes miss the other side. The Giver(s) receives joy from just giving to me. And sometimes that is enough for Him.

Just thoughts…I have a feeling I’ll be mulling this experience over for a while. It was to extraordinary to forget about.

As far as how to price your services, you read above what I think. BUT, if you were asking Pascaline…she’d say “Go high and expect the unexpected.”

Can you blame her?

p.s. I posted a blog yesterday afternoon on Photography Tips for Taking Pictures When It’s Dark Outside. Just in case you missed it…

Our good friend John Louviere flew into town Thursday night from Salt Lake City.

We’ve been friends with Groovy Hair (that’s what we like to call him–kinda sounds like Louviere but focuses more on the hair :)) for over fifteen years. He knows all our dirt, and we know all his! When someone knows all your faults and still loves you, wow, you have a certain level of freedom to get silly.

I have to show you a few photos of what I mean.

First of all, Diego (the suffering guy–yeah, that’s him) comes over for dinner Thursday night. We’re having a great time eating by candlelight on the back deck.

And then I’m not sure what shifted, but with three guys and me at the dinner table…our conversation got more and more…gladiator like…

Look at this aggressiveness in his next shot. Ladies, I’m not connecting with this. Is this a guy thing? Those eyes are serious!

Then Groovy Hair has his own turn with the Lego land outfit. And Diego is mister cool man behind him. I think I was in college when I last saw someone stick out their tongue and do that hand sign in the back of a picture.

And then comes the moment in the evening when we need to take “band” shots. Guys, I know you know what I’m talking about. Girls like to get together and chit chat away, but guys like to get together and pose for possible, future CD covers.

Here comes the “angry/shouting” one. Groovy Hair doesn’t really pull it off, but we’ll give it to him for good effort.

But this one is my absolute FAVORITE!! Diego turns to try and blow the flame out and look at his lips! Then the flame almost licks Groovy Hair and Groovy Hair’s face! I’m serious, this image kills me!! And what’s Brian doing? He looks so peaceful.

It’s been a great 4th of July weekend. Totally refreshing and fun! But tomorrow, I have to tell you about the craziest thing that happened on the afternoon of the 4th. Seriously, it’s SUPER crazy! In fact, be on the watch because I have a lot of posts for this week, so you may see a new one more than once a day!

Tips or Recipes Anyone?

All these photos in today’s blog post were taken late at night. So how do you take pictures when it’s dark outside, and you prefer not to use a flash?

First, shift into Manual mode.

Next, bump up your ISO. We went all the way up to 3200 for the images above. As we illustrate in Beyond the Green Box, the higher ISO causes more graininess in the image. But the high ISO also helps you get away with not having to use a flash.

Third, go as low as you can in your aperture to let as much light in as possible. Our aperture was down at 1.4 or Fstop 1.4.

Fourth, the shutter speed was pretty slow. It was 1/8th of a second for the gladiator shots. You would almost think the one of “Diego the Gladiator” standing still would have more blur because the shutter speed was so slow. Normally the image would have more blur if it was 1/8th of a second, but we were shooting these with the Sony 300 DSLR. The new Sony DSLR cameras have an image stabilizer inside the camera body instead of on the lens, so you can go a lot slower in your shutter speed and still get a pretty clear image. It’s seriously AWESOME! No sharpening on these images, straight out of the camera.

For the “BAND” photos of the guys, I was able to go up in my shutter speed because the flame cast so much more light then the candles on the table. My shutter speed was up at 1/200th of a second. I kept my aperture and ISO at the same place.

I hope you enjoy!

I’m so BUMMED!!!! I worked on this post on the 3rd and set it to go live for all of you for the 4th, but it didn’t-which is totally weird. I’m so sorry! While we were gearing up for our BBQ, I even thought, ‘I should check the blog and make sure the fireworks tips went live.’ But then I forgot. Oh man, I’m so sorry you guys! I’m going to go ahead and post it now, but I truly apologize!! Maybe you have some leftover sparklers so you can still try the photography tip….

Hope you all had a great 4th! We have a friend here from out of town, and the kids did their lemonade stand. Can’t wait to show you the fun pics. Much love and have a great weekend!

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It’s that time of year again!

Time to drag your tripod out of the closet and blow some dust off it! When taking pictures of fireworks, your tripod is your best friend. BUT…having said that I do know some photographers who held their camera in between their knees and just held super still.

Key things to remember tonight when taking pictures of the fireworks.

1. Set your camera on Manuel Mode. (don’t be nervous, you can do this!)

2. Set your ISO down to 100. This way you get maximum color saturation. Since the ISO will be so low, you’ve got to have that tripod set up or strong thighs.

3. Put your aperture/Fstop at F11 or F16. Having lots of blur isn’t important for these types of pictures. We want detail, detail, detail!

4. Put your camera on Evaluative Metering so your color and light is metered throughout your whole frame. Thus, enhancing the color everywhere.

5. Slow your shutter speed way down. Take a deep breath, relax and just play around with different speeds. Start with a slow shutter speed of 3 seconds. When the fireworks go off, push your shutter release button down and wait for the image to record 3 seconds of the light. Then when the shutter closes (you’ll hear it close), look at the back of camera and and see if your image is bright enough. If it’s to dark, slow your shutter speed down a little more. Maybe try 4 seconds.

Last year, Jennifer Macniven sent me this AWESOME photo! Any of you remember this? It’s hard to believe I had yet to meet Jen in person. But since then she’s come to our workshops, attended our PUG meetings and started her photography business! She recently launched her own beautiful website and blog. Check em out!

If taking pictures of fireworks stresses you out, try my Sparklers exercise with your kids! FYI, you’ll want to scroll down to PART 2 of the Sparkler blog post. This exercise is SUPER fun for both you and the little ones!

For more fun photography exercises, check out our popular DVD series, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box!

One of my biggest pet peeves when shooting a wedding or photo shoot is that I always end up wearing pants without any pockets. If I need a new flash card, I have to track Brian down or the camera bags down or both! It’s totally ridiculous. I even thought of getting one of those older fanny packs, but I can’t bring myself to do it. The fanny pack and what I’m wearing would totally clash–let alone make my rear look big and puffy!

Well, thank you Sara France and Lauren Hillary for creating a hip product (no pun intended) that solves my problem!!! It’s called the GO-BEE Hip Clutch: and I thrilled to say that I just preordered mine!!

Look at this inside of this sexy thing! Is it perfect or what! I can have my Blackberry, CF cards, lense cleaner, business cards all inside—ooooh, I’m so loving this!

I first spied this little item at the GO-BEE party in Vegas during WPPI. But I got a closer look when Sara came to our San Diego Workshop to demo a lighting trick. (I literally called her the night before, and she totally showed up and helped workshop attendees during the live shoot. Amazing!) As she was doing this, I noticed she was wearing that super cute GO-BEE.

The GO-BEE’s weren’t ready to order yet, but folks, they are now! If you get one, use the Pre Order Discount code on her blog. The code is PREORDER. This gives you $15 off! Check out all the details at the GO-BEE website.

And, they even have a men’s version!

Go Sara and Lauren! Thank you for taking your own leaps of faith on this idea! You two are totally inspiring women!

p.s. If you enjoy looking at good photography blogs, check out Sara’s… Where in the World is France?

p.s.s. The NEW July Photo Contest Theme is WATER!!!

You can enter any images that have to do with water whether it is kids running through sprinklers, afternoons at the swimming pool, heaven forbid–rain, or the ocean, or another idea I’m leaving out. You get the idea. July’s theme of water is in celebration of the great weather we’ve been having in Seattle! The sprinklers never felt so good! So send your entries to contest@merakoh.com. The deadline is Thursday, July 31st at 12 midnight (Pacific Time).

A friend invited me to join her yesterday for a workout session with her trainer. I was totally excited because I’ve been needing a new routine.

Troy, the trainer, said we were going to do four different exercises repeating them three times from top to bottom.

First row 500 meters, keeping it under 2:15 minutes if possible, under 2 minutes is even better.

Then we would do 25 Kettle bell Swings with 20 lbs of weight. A Kettle bell Swing is what the guy to the far left is doing. You basically swing that sucker up over your head and then through your legs 25 times.

Then we were supposed to do 15 Burpees. This means you squat down, hop your legs out behind you, do a push up, hop your legs back into a squat then stand and raise your arms over your head.

And last, I was given this crazy ball that was a tad bit heavy and told to throw it up against the wall, like the lady in the green tank top is doing, and then as I catch it lower myself into a squat so my rear actually taps the bench. I think it’s called Ball Slams. Just 25 of those. “Butt Slams” is a much more appropriate title for these.

Troy modeled all four exercises and said the point of this workout was to do these four exercises as fast as we could–three times through–in under thirty minutes. We needed to be at an aerobic heart rate which means not only are you sweating but you feel like your going to throw up. And honestly, I’m watching Troy model these four exercises and thinking, “How on earth am I going to get my heart rate up that high?” (I have the heart rate and metabolism of a snail’s grandma snail.)

Okay, can I just say that as I was half way through round two, I bent over and thought I was seriously going to hurl all my dinner from the night before! My whole body was shaking, and I couldn’t believe I had agreed to come with my friend!

I managed to finish in 22:23 time. And I would have been happy if I wasn’t fainting from total exhaustion!

This high intensity workout is all about building muscle strength while staying at a cardio level (to burn fat) and then getting it done as fast as you can. It’s called Cross Fit. But I’m thinking “Cross Sick” is more appropriate for me right now after seeing how sick I felt from 22:23 minutes of this workout. One of the highlights to Cross Fit is you are always working to lower your time and up your intesity. So instead of doing 45-60 minutes of cardio every day, you do some weight training/cardio a few times a week, and you’re done in 20 something minutes. And believe me, your body is DONE for the rest of the day after that little 20 something minute workout.

You have to check out Cross Fit’s website. It’s pretty thorough with video demos of every exercise. And supposedly, there is hope for me to have abs and be looking like this! (or maybe not, the image actually scared Brian a little :))

I had so much fun doing this that guess who I signed up for this Tuesday morning? Okay, I’ll give you one clue. It’s the same guy I signed up to do the 5K for me in my Sprint Triathlon–and he doesn’t run.

Tell us about your suffering these days. We’re into July and I want to hear how and what people are doing to suffer! Has anyone heard of the website called Cross Fit? Is anyone trying it and seeing results? Any before and after pictures like mine above?

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On a totally different note…we got so MANY, MANY, MANY entries for the Fatherhood contest!! I can’t wait to look through them and get our five finalists posted! But check back tomorrow because we’re going to announce the Photo Contest Theme for JULY! And we’ll also talk about tips and tricks for taking photos on the 4th of July!

xoxo

Here is an inspiring story about a man and his beautiful bride: John and Lauren.

They came into our life when they got married. Brian and I had the wonderful privilege of being their wedding photographers. It was the BEST time–great couple, great details, hilarious memories made–wait, do you remember the playbill wedding program? That’s the same John and Lauren! If you never caught their wedding, check it out.

I’m not sure if they caught the photography bug before or after their wedding, but a year later John and Lauren were signed up for one of our photography workshops. Lauren came to the Beginner’s Workshop, and then they both came to the Advanced Workshop. Brian and I were so excited to speak into their lives and help their beginning business grow.

Then I get this email a couple weeks ago from John. He says they’ve just posted their second wedding and asks me if I’d check it out. Can I just say I didn’t expect these kinds of shots to be the results. Man! If this is was only their second wedding, look out!!!

Doesn’t this image below just look dreamy!! Lauren shot this one. I’m so proud of her. I love how we don’t see the eyes. I love that the background is totally dark. The whole set up, lighting, and post process to this image is perfect!

John said they had some time to play around with lighting during the getting ready part of the day. He said he remembered the blog post I did on back lighting dresses and decided to try the same idea. I’d say he figured it out and then some!

The blog post and exercise that John was talking about it is called “Off Camera Lighting Demystified“. Check it out and give it your own try.

And then I just have to show off this photo because it’s to cool. Look at that back light behind the groom. Isn’t it fantastic! Way to go you two!

Take a look at the whole wedding slideshow. It’s not only great photography, but you’ll be inspired to keep after your own dreams!

And if you have a minute, leave some comments on their blog letting these two know it’s not just me who thinks they did an AMAZING JOB!!

The theme for June’s Photo Contest has been “Dads/Fatherhood”. Today is the last day to submit your photos of that loving, tender, crazy, wild and amazing dad. Or if you want to submit a detail photo expressing fatherhood, you can do that too! Click here for a couple samples ideas.

If you haven’t already, submit your photos to contest@merakoh.com. The deadline is midnight tonight (Pacific Standard Time).

We’ll narrow down all the entries to five finalists. Then comes the fun part because YOU all get to vote!! One of the five will be the Grand Prize Winner and then we’ll pick two random voters to win something too. What’s a random voter? Let’s talk when we post the five finalists.

I’ve been going back and forth on Grand Prize idea. It has to be something cool and different because we’re talking about DADS here. Since the theme is centered around dads, what do you think about a $100 gift certificate to Home Depot? Maybe the dad in the photo will get to enjoy some of this prize too? Good idea?

We’ll announce the two Random Voters prizes later. But get your submissions in today! We do not send confirmation emails to people, but if you make sure to email the photo to contest@merakoh.com you’ll be set. We’ve already recieved lots and lots! Keep em coming! And Happy Monday!!