Monday, June 1, 2009

Monday Photo Contest -- Vote early; Vote often

My newest Lucy Ricardo scheme to make money during this stretch of unemployment is to have Libby Doodle Doo win a national photo contest and bank her winnings into a college savings account.

The contest allows me to submit up to 6 photos (photos must be taken by a non-professional) and the deadline is June 24th. So I've been taking snapshots of her for the last week and plan to continue to take them throughout the month in hopes of getting 6 great ones that I can submit on the 24th.

The joy of a digital camera is that I can take 100 photos at one sitting before she gets cranky. The downside is that I have hundreds of photos to sift through in order to find some good ones. And in addition, I have so much mommy bias that I have a hard time selecting ones that others would also find enchanting (because -- of course -- I love 'em all).

That's where you come in.

Each Monday I will post the  18 "cream of the crop" pix's from the previous week's photo shoots. Your job is to pick the six shots that you think are best. Then on Monday June 22nd, I'll post the 18 winners from the previous 3 weeks and you'll help me pick the 6 that I should submit to the contest.

The criteria that the judges are using to pick the semi-finalists (and therefore I'm suggesting the ones we should use here too) include:

33% Appearance of the child
33% How well the photo captures the personality of the child
33% Quality of photo (this one will be tough since I'm not that great at photography)

Here are this week's photos

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17

#18
I'm going to put a poll on the sidebar to allow you to vote.  Voting will be open until next Monday.  

Also, if anyone can give me advice on how to take better pictures -- outside vs. in, time of day, what color she should wear, hairstyles, etc -- please let me know.  I need all the help I can get.

(BTW -- here are the results of another "Lucy Ricardo" money-making scheme.  Little Zo Peep was selected to appear in her first TV commercial 2 weeks ago.  That's $200 to go into her college fund.  I hope to get a copy of the ad and post it here for all to see -- if she doesn't end up on the cutting room floor).

3 comments:

Helen said...

Hello!
Very cute photos! Here are some tips:-
-Try to avoid using flash
-Get her to stand near a big window and try to get the window lights to reflect in her eyes.
- If you dont do it already, see if your camera will let you half press the shutter button down to focus early to try and avoid shake.

If you'd like any help with processing them, i have loads and loads of nice photoshop actions. If you'd like to send me a few of the photos i can try a few of them and see if they'd improve the photos?
xxx

riakoelman said...

helo Thersa...

Your pics is so beautiful.... i like nr 7, its so natural... but all of them is so cute.... miss you guys a lot... wish you guys were closer.

give zofia a big hug & kiss....

lots of love

Shannon said...

Wonderful schemes!! Beautiful photos! =)