Be sure to go over to my facebook page to see what the contest is today. One lucky winner is going to win an autographed copy of “Your Baby in Pictures”, which you can keep for yourself or give as a gift to a new mom.

Be sure to put some of  those tips to use over the weekend while photographing some of the holiday magic, as my elves may be asking you to share a photo to win next week!

Today is going to be fun!  We’ve got a handful of things up our sleeve!

1. What’s the Coolest, New Photo Gift?  Answer: Printing on METAL!

Not only do we love Nate, but we also love those Metal Panels on the show!

(never going to wash that kiss away!  )

These Metal Panels are right from the walls of my home!  I LOVE them!  People on set went crazy over them!!  They are totally the NEW way to display photos!  And it’s a perfect photo gift for the holidays!  You can order the Metal Panels through CanvasRox!

I also love them because it makes the photo look 3-D.  It’s insane! CanvasRox also does the Chromalux Panels too (that we talked about on the show)!  And the cost for Metal and Chromalux is a third of the price of having a canvases printed!  Seriously, this is my Favorite Photo Gift idea!   (And a BIG, HUGE THANK YOU to Roxie of CanvasRox for helping me pull these favorite products together for the show.  Roxanne, you are awesome!)

2.  Hear the Story Behind this Family of THREE Babies Under Two!  It’s Amazing! (get Kleenex)

CLICK HERE to check your local listings so you can watch me work with this precious family as we capture a modern family photo for the holidays!

3. Answering Your Mail!

Nate Berkus viewers are sending in the BEST questions about our Photo Segments.  Lots of you have asked what SONY camera I’m using, what lens, etc.  We did some Behind-the-Scenes videos where I answer your questions!

So c’mon!  Let’s take a Field Trip to The Nate Berkus Show website!

CLICK HERE to hear me share what SONY camera I’m using and why!

CLICK HERE to hear what lens I’m shooting with when we did the Pet Photo Segments!

But that’s not all!  I’ve also go a NEW Photo-Recipe for Capturing the Modern Family Holiday Photo!  Within the Photo-Recipe, I go a little deeper with all of you on what the steps are and how to set up your camera whether you have a Point-and-Shoot or DSLR!  Enjoy and keep sending questions to the show for me!  We all love getting your questions and will continue to answer them for you!

4.  Hip, Seattle-Style, Photo Card!

Meet GH Kim Photography!!!  They are Seattle based photographers who I adore!

As photographers, you get a TON of photo cards during the holidays from all your colleagues.  Every year, GH Kim’s card knocks it out of the park.  You’ll see one of their COOLEST, most CREATIVE holiday cards on the show today!  Check out GH Kim’s photo portfolio and blog by clicking away!

5. Beautiful Holiday Cards!

Need to order your Holiday Cards before it’s too late?  Want to have ornaments or books made out of your beautiful photos?  We suggest Shutterfly! They’ve got endless designs to pick from, and the quality is beautiful with fast turn around!  This is one of my favorites!

6.  Go a Step Farther with Photography!

Just a reminder that our award winning, instructional DVDs come with FREE SHIPPING through the holiday season!  If you are a newbie but love buttery, blurry backgrounds…if you love taking pictures but feel lost when you read the camera manual…if you struggle to capture story telling shots vs. snap shots…I made this DVD series for YOU!

CLICK HERE to order!

7.  SOAR! with your Photography Dream!

The SOAR! Scholarship is now open!  Got a photography dream but no camera gear, tools, or mentoring to support it?  Get your application turned in by Monday, December 20th, and your dream may be one of the three that are picked to SOAR!

CLICK HERE for all the juicy details!

Seven wonderful ways to make photography that much more enjoyable!  How can you not love photography!  Not only is taking pictures so fun and exciting, but the gift ideas, cards, etc are all icing on the cake!

If you are new to this blog and found us through The Nate Berkus Show today, I want to give you a big, warm welcome!  We are so excited to meet you!  If you love taking pictures, click the Photo-Recipe tab for all our Photo Taking Tips and Tricks!  Post a comment and introduce yourself!  Be inspired by the Amazing Mom features, women that are just like you and making their photography dreams come true (no matter what the obstacles are–and they are facing some intense obstacles).  And if you have a photography dream of your own, make sure you check out the SOAR! Scholarship!

It’s wonderful to have you join us!  And thanks to thousands and thousands of those who meet me here everyday! Your support…it simply leaves me speechless.

xoxo,

m

p.s.  A BIG hug and thank you to Nate Berkus who is always up for a crazy photo adventure whether it’s dogs or babies, who believes and works to empower others to follow their dreams, and is just an all around GREAT, GREAT guy.  Nate, we are so glad you are feeling better.  Look forward to seeing you again soon!  Love you!

(Sorry about the post confusion this morning!  Love those little surprises.    Looks like we are set now.)

This Friday on The Nate Berkus Show you’ll see me work with a toddler and two babies to get a modern, family portrait that is indoors!  Super fun!  But today, let’s work through a NEW Photo-Recipe for getting the Toddler/Family Photo when you are outdoors!

If you LOVE taking pictures of Toddlers and have success left and right, raise your hand!  No hands?  Thank you for being honest readers.    I love toddlers, but wow, they are tough to photograph.  If you have toddlers of your own or plan to do a photo shoot with toddlers as your subject, come prepared with a serious Game Plan.  Toddlers may be small, but they are oh-so smart.  They know you want a great photo(s), and when those little busy bodies know what you want they LOVE to play hard to get.  It’s a game that takes you being pro-active and staying a step ahead.  And in the end, not only will your Toddler Photo Shoot be exhausting, it will also be super rewarding!

There are a few elements to this family shoot in New York’s Central Park.  Let’s start with the Game Plan of capturing the family all together in a way that doesn’t stress out the toddler and at the same time shows off the beautiful Setting of Central Park!

1. Start Wide to Develop Rapport

Start wide (zoomed out) giving your little one a sense of freedom…that is also controlled at the same time.  I love to have the mom and dad walk with their little one in the middle.  The little one gets to walk, but he stays in the control of mom and dad (because we know that otherwise he may take off running, right?!).  If they walk away from me, the toddler doesn’t see me and forgets about the camera.

I always tell my subjects to look at each other or at their little one so I can capture their profile.  Seeing their profile gives an overall feeling of connection between the family.  If they look straight ahead, and all we see is the back of their hands, we lose the feeling of intimacy in the shot.  Even the slightest turn of their heads toward the middle make the story that much more intimate.

There are so many GREAT stories in a simple “walking away” shot.  There is the size comparison; the little guy seems that much smaller in between mom and dad.  There is the beautiful, quiet sense of timelessness.  Even the other bystanders or fellow park visitors add to the story.  And because we are wide (zoomed out), we are capturing the arch of the trees, the golden leaves overhead, etc.

2. Accentuate the Intimacy with a Simple Gesture

As you trail behind the family, ask dad to lean over and give mom a kiss.  Photo Coach them to make it a small kiss, maybe their lips don’t even touch but are close enough to kiss at any moment.  These clear instructions help give that much more definition to their kiss.

All of a sudden the two parents become a physical covering over their little one, and the family’s connection feels that much warmer.

3.  Stay Engaged with Each Other

Sticking with this simple Game Plan, ask the family to turn and slowly walk back toward you.  If they look at you and your camera, encourage them to look at their little one.  Or have one parent look at the other while the second parent looks down at their little one.  If they look at the camera, the ease of the moment is gone.  All of a sudden the image is no longer fluid with their direct eye contact.  Encourage them to stay engaged with each other.

4. Invite His Smile!

By now, your little one may be up for engaging with the camera. He spent the last 5-10 minutes connecting with mom and dad by holding their hands and walking AWAY from you.  Now mom and dad are walking towards you, but it doesn’t seem as forced as it did when the photo shoot first started.  If you are feeling this kind of ease in your toddler, go ahead and start to move in.  Start with the classic shot of him looking at the camera and centered in the middle of the frame.

Photo Coach the parents to look at their little one or at each other, and then work on getting the little one to look right at you.  If he is the only one looking at you, it makes his sweet smile stand out that much more.

5. Get a Little Closer!

You’ll know right away if your toddler is comfortable with you moving in for a tighter shot.  Make it all about him and how small he is by keeping the framing tight and around his height.

We started with number 1 being wide, open and non-demanding of the toddler’s attention.  By now we’ve hopefully built a sense of safety and familiarity with this little guy so that we can get closer shots.

This Photo-Recipe is all one Game Plan.  The focus was to help our toddler feel safe, connected to mom and dad, and then free to engage with the camera.  The best part is that we got a few different “family portraits”.  And the Setting was also a character in the photos.  When your subjects take you to a specific setting for their family shoot, you want to make sure you include the Setting as an actual character.  Not all of the photos have to be like that, but by doing a handful you can move on to the NEXT Game Plan!

Next week, we’ll revisit this same family, back in Central Park, and you’ll get to see me capture shots that accentuate this little guy’s age and humor.  Stay tuned!

How do I set my camera up for these types of shots?  Great question!  Do you have a Point-and-Shoot or DSLR?

Setting Up Your Point-and-Shoot:

If you like the buttery, blurred backgrounds like the photos in this blog post, set your shooting mode to P for Portrait or A for Aperture-Priority.  These two modes will automatically give you a lower f-stop which creates the buttery, blurred background.

Setting Up Your DSLR:

You could set your DSLR to Aperture Priority, dial down to the lowest f-stop your lens can give, and let the camera decide your Shutter Speed for you.  Or you could go to Manual (which isn’t as scary as they make it sound) and try my DSLR settings below;

ISO 200–I keep my ISO as low as possible for the best color saturation in the overall image.  With New York’s Central Park being in it’s full Fall glory, I wanted the color to be as rich as can be.

Aperture was f/2.8. I’m using a low f-stop because I love the buttery, blurred background.  Even though the parents and toddler weren’t perfectly lined up, I was standing far enough away so that they’d all be in focus.  This is the basic principle of Depth of Field.  If you know you love buttery, blurred backgrounds but need help understanding them, check out our Beyond the Green Box DVD!

Shutter Speed was 1/400th of a second or some camera just say 400.  When you want to capture motion without the blur, you need your shutter to move at a decent pace.  The slower the shutter moves, the more blurred motion you get in your image.  It was also a sunny Fall day which meant I needed the shutter speed to be somewhat fast because the slower it opened and closed, the more light would come in.  Beyond the Green Box is a great tool if you struggle with understanding Shutter Speed and hate fractions (like I do! ).

Feel free to post any questions about today’s Photo-Recipe!  And be sure to set your DVRs for THIS Friday, December 3rd on the Nate Berkus Show!  And if you have a second, send up a prayer for Nate who went to the hospital yesterday for Appendicitis and unexpected surgery.  This guy works so hard and gives SO MUCH.  Wishing him a speedy recovery and peace.

xoxo,

m

p.s.  The SOAR! Scholarship is now open!  Got a photography dream but no camera gear, tools, or mentoring to support it?  Get your application turned in by Monday, December 20th, and your dream may be one of the three that are picked to SOAR!

CLICK HERE for all the juicy details!

p.s.s.  FREE SHIPPING on our award winning DVDs for the Holiday Season!  Woo-hoo! (love this time of year!)

For the last two years, our award winning DVD series has brought holiday cheer to thousands of parents!  Starting today, we are offering FREE SHIPPING for the holidays on both Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box!

The Back Story on our DVDs

When I first started learning how to use my camera, I was so frustrated with the camera manual.  The terminology, illustrations, explanations, NONE of it made any sense to me.  I just wanted to be able to look up “How to Get Blurry Backgrounds”!

As time went on I wondered if other people, women in particular, could relate.  I decided to offer a workshop on our blog.  It would be two days long, held in my home, and limited to ten women.  What happened next changed everything. Within twenty four hours, my first workshop was sold out and eight out of ten women were FLYING IN from out of state.  Yes!  I couldn’t believe it!   There were plenty of women who felt frustrated with their camera manuals!  I wasn’t alone!  That is how our CONFIDENCE Workshops grew to become what they are today–still selling out in every city four years later!

But Brian and I knew that not everyone could afford the workshop.  And if they came to the workshop, we wanted them to have something to watch when they went home to help enforce what they had learned all weekend.  What else could we do to help empower parents?

Instructional DVDs was our answer.  But the photography market felt saturated with DVDs already.  This series had to be different.  It would be for consumers not pros.  I wanted moms to no longer feel intimidated by the camera but be empowered to capture what they experienced every day with their kids.

I started teaching myself how to write scripts.  And Brian and I set out to do something we’d never done before, produce a DVD series that would break the barriers for anyone who wanted to grow in their photography passion.  With a bed sheet covering the window in our kids’ play room, we filmed Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box.  We never imagined the response that would follow!

The Unexpected Response!

Sony got their hands on the DVD series and asked if they could license the script and have me write their own version (thus, the Kids in Focus DVD that you get when you purchase a Sony 300 series DSLR)!

The whole experience with Sony had to be what an author feels like when her book is made into a movie.  Imagine going from our humble beginning of a play room with a bed sheet covering the window to a lighting crew, Director, Producer, Props crew, Food crew, you name it, they had a crew for it. 

Random House also watched the DVDs and asked me to consider writing two books for parents who love taking pictures of their babies.  (The first book is due this March!)  FOX News was so excited about the DVDS, they featured the complete set as one of their Top Ten Holiday Gifts.  And NAPPA gave BOTH the DVDs their Gold Award, one of the most prestigious awards for parenting products with past Gold Awards given to Baby Einstein DVDs.

But the best part was and continues to be ALL the emails I receive from countless parents, moms, photo enthusiasts, and aspiring photographers who watch the DVDs and see their photos change overnight!  They walk through every chapter with me and finally feel like their camera makes sense.  Blurry backgrounds are only the beginning, and they don’t have to decode their camera manual!

That, in a nutshell, is the back story to how these DVDs came to be!  In the heart of Thanksgiving, I’m so thankful we took a risk four years ago with our baby idea of workshops and a DVD series.  And I’m even more thankful that it has led me to so many of you!

Wondering What to Buy Her for the Holidays (or even Him! )?

LOOK NO FURTHER!

CLICK HERE to order our award winning DVD series for your loved one!

FREE SHIPPING is our gift to you this holiday season!

*Due to unexpected increase in orders from “certain” TV appearances this year, not naming any names…

Please allow “up to” three weeks for delivery.  Thanks for your understanding! 

Monday’s question:  What “baby ideas” are stirring inside of you?  You never know what they will grow into!

xoxo,

m

p.s.  The SOAR! Scholarship opened last week!  Applications/Video Submissions are now being accepted!  Year Two is underway!

CLICK HERE for all the details, check out the new program, the new cameras being given away and MORE!

The Nate Berkus Show has received a handful of photography related questions from viewers who have watched my segments (YEAH!).  The NB team asked me to answer some while I was Behind the Scenes last week.  One of the questions I answered was all about taking Halloween Photos!  To my surprise, it’s the Featured Video on the NB home page!  Yeah!

Remember the Halloween Photo-Recipe I posted on Friday?  Did any of you try it?  If you prefer video blogs over reading, here it is!  It’s not to late to get your kids and do a night Photo Shoot!

We made it home from Photo Plus Expo late Saturday night…just in time for a FUN FILLED Halloween!  And oh my goodness, wait till you see our costumes!  Oh man, did we ever have a blast with making this year’s costumes!  Photos from Photo Plus and our Halloween costumes are coming soon!  But first…day of REST for me.

Love you all!  Happy Monday!

xoxo,

m

Before I start on this new Photo-Recipe for Halloween…thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your comments on this week’s post about Success.  xo

Halloween is Sunday!  Woo-hoo!  Our family has a blast with dressing up for Halloween!  But many of you will probably agree that it’s one of the toughest holidays for taking photos because of the dark lighting.  Anyone want to know a great trick for capturing photos that are a total treat?  (enough on the word play, i know )  I’m super excited because this Photo-Recipe is so fun and easy that anyone can have fun with it—whether you own a Point-and-Shoot, DSLR or even just a camera phone!

Photo-Recipe for Halloween Photos!

1.  Wait till it’s really dark outside!  Yep, you heard me. The darker the better for this photo-recipe!

2.  Grab a flashlight or buy a $10 aluminum light from your local hardware store.  Do you have an automatic outdoor light that comes on when you get near it?  That will work too!

3.  Turn off your flash.

4.  Set your camera in Aperture Priority Mode or Portrait Mode.

5.  Go outside with your dressed up kiddos and have a helper shine the flashlight or light on their faces.  (Little Tip:  I suggest having the helper stand about five feet away, and even shine the light down on them at an angle.  You can totally play with this at all different angles!)

6.  Focus on your little ones face (that is lit by the extra light source).

7.  Shoot away!

Here is an example of what one of our readers captured with just a Point-and Shoot!!

When their little guy walked out by the garage, the automatic light popped on.  They had him walk up to the light several times and encouraged their son to look up at the light, until their Point-and-Shoot captured just the right expression.  Since the light is shining on their son’s face, everything else behind him goes spooky into the darkness where there is no direct light source.

The trick is turning the flash off.  The treat is beating the dark night and capturing the spookiest photos of all!

Can anyone guess who this shooter is?  Two hints: you’ve heard me mention their name on the blog.  And this person is NOT a photographer.  Answer to come. 

Enjoy!  AND EMAIL ME your results!!  I want to see!  mera@merakoh.com

xoxo,

m

p.s.  For more Halloween Photo Tips and Recipes. CLICK HERE! Want even more?  Type “Halloween Photos” in our awesome Search bar and VOILA!

p.s.s.  Got any photo questions or photo dilemmas for the upcoming holidays?  If so, post them up in the comments!

Remember this one?  It’s from January 08! 

If you are snowed in (and I’m so jealous that you are!), click the link below to try a fun photo exercise!

Click Below!

Ski Lessons for Kids and Photo Tips for Parents!

Enjoy!

Me Ra

My dear friend, Kari, has started her own blog.  And I am LOVING it!  It’s called Mamabloo.  Some of you may recognize Kari from her funny comments on my blog posts, and then there was that incident where Oprah rebuilt her HOUSE!  (no, I’m not joking.)

Kari has a down to earth style of writing that nine out of ten times makes me smile.  When I post Photo Tips or Exercises, Kari will bust out her camera and give it her best go.  She’s not a professional photographer.  She is a full, and I mean FULL TIME mama, with FIVE kids in tow.  She doesn’t know all the camera jargon, but that doesn’t stop her from capturing her family stories.  What is so great is that she’ll often email me the stories behind what happened and her fun results.  Some of her stories have me rolling…and that got me thinking…why don’t I ask Kari if I can share some of her stories with you!  So for experiment sake, we’ve got our first Mamabloo Photo Tale.

_________

I love Christmas trees.  Every year I load the family up in the mini van – all 7 of us – the Saturday after Thanksgiving and head out to someplace to get a tree. What happens next is predictable and consistent from year to year. My husband, Dave, and I get in a fight.

We are in complete and utter disagreement over everything regarding the tree. What size it should be, how much we should spend, and, of course, where it should go in the house. The truth of the matter is, I always win. And Dave always sulks. This year, he took a different approach and just said “I’ll do whatever you want” over and over – sorta like a mantra — and the whole day was much better. Ahhhh…Merry Christmas. So it is not a coincidence that this year I think we have the best tree ever. Ever. So, it is finally time to take a picture of it.

Me Ra tells us that taking a good Christmas Tree photo requires 8 simple steps. Gee, only 8. Off I go to try the first step.

Step One says to set the shutter speed at a VERY slow speed. Check: 1/5

And to set the camera to TV mode (I didn’t even know it had a TV mode, but, hey, I watch a lot of TV, so it should be fine) Check.

And put the ISO up high. Check: 1600

Here is my first crappy picture.

I GUESS I AM GOING TO HAVE TO READ ALL THE STEPS!

The next steps actually involved the timer on my camera!  I actually had to Google it to find out where the stinkin’ timer was on this thing.  I spent the next few nights in short bursts of time shooting my favorite parts of the tree using Me Ra’s advice.

So……I wasn’t able to completely adhere to all the steps – anything called “RAW” scares the ba-jeebers outta me.  The imagery that word, RAW, conjures up is just wrong.  And I am glad I have had some ballet and yoga in my past because I needed to contort myself to see through the viewfinder. But, I was able to fiddle around with her 8 steps and come up with something to forever document the best tree ever. Even Dave agrees.

To try Me Ra’s 8 steps for photographing a Christmas tree, CLICK HERE!

If you are hungry for even more Christmas Tree Photo Tips, check out THIS POST where Carey Schumacher of Barefoot Memories chimes in!

Mamabloo and I would love to know what you think of Mamabloo’s first Photo Tale.  Should we share another one with you!  Post a comment and let us know.  (and post one fast b/c you know we are both going to be refreshing all day!  )

xoxo, Me Ra

p.s.  Oh!  Wait!  I just got word as I was preparing this post that we have TWO NEW CONFIDENCE Workshops to announce for the Spring!  We are coming to Jersey City, NJ for all our East Coast ladies and also Huntington Beach, CA for our West Coast ladies!  It’s going to be a GREAT Spring!  If a CONFIDENCE Wkshp was on your Christmas Wish List, stay tuned this week for Registration Details—either Wed, Thursday or Friday !

Second of all, I want to thank EVERY one of you who follow this blog. I know some of you refresh this blog multiple times a day (not naming any names! ). In the last 10 days, there hasn’t been as much to refresh. Your understanding is much appreciated! Brian and I have taken some time off to regroup, refocus and most of all refresh. The time off has been so rich, and I thank you all for being patient during this time. Not only were you patient, but you kept up with our Twitters. And the other day, when I twittered that I was going to church for prayer, I was overwhelmed at how many of you sent love my way.

A number of you have emailed and asked if everything is okay since I posted that Twitter. Thank you so much for your concern. Everything is okay. A difficult and scary part of my past confronted me for the first time in 15 years the other day. The experience caused all my old fears, insecurities and pain to come roaring back at me. It’s amazing how something so long ago can seem like it was yesterday. But I must tell you, that all of you (even though you didn’t know it at the time) played a major role in me pushing through. It’s one of those rare situations where I can’t share details with you over the blog, but I do look forward to sharing with you in our workshops this year. You need to know how you inspired me to push forward.

2009 holds what I call BIG BLESSINGS. And if I could be brutally honest, some of the big blessings overwhelm me with questions like, “Can I do this? Am I the right person? What about all my weaknesses and brokenness? There must be someone not so broken, someone more confident and sure of themselves for what is to come…”. Isn’t it just classic that in the midst of me sorting through these deeper questions, finding my grounding and place of rest, that my past would come at me out of nowhere? It is classic, don’t you think?! But to continue the honesty, regardless of my past, my pain, my brokenness and questions, I know that God has brought every BIG BLESSING to us. He must see more in me and our family than we see in ourselves. So I’m going to choose to bet on Him rather than my fears. I don’t want to walk into 2009 with fear, I want to RUN, RUN, RUN!

We are not the only ones who have BIG BLESSINGS waiting for us in 2009. Each one of you has a new chapter waiting to unfold. And I’m sure that many of you can relate to the old voices that haunt us, trying to keep us in a place of fear or insecurity. I want to encourage you to take some time during the New Year to write down your dreams, your BIG dreams. Share them with someone you trust. Don’t let them read them, you read them out loud. Speak out your dreams and take ownership. I know this is painful for some of you, but it is a must to not only survive but thrive in life. You and I were meant for so much–more than we can even dream of. Will you push forward with me this New Year? I know the voices of our past are always on repeat mode, but maybe we could turn the volume down just a little and listen to the voice of our dreams, the voice of the Impossible becoming possible. If we could, I believe that this time next year we will be sharing the BIG BLESSINGS that came our way, whether we deserved them, earned them or were worthy of them…they came.

Happy New Year to all of YOU–EACH one of you!! Brian and I love you all and look forward to stepping into 2009 with you by our side!

Here is a fun window into what we’ve been doing these last couple weeks! Enjoy!

Rosie the Reindeer!

Best sledding hills in the world!

Can you beat that view of the water?

Best Buds!

Frosty with her Teapot and Rosemary necklace. Before all you moms jump on me about where Pascaline’s snow clothes are, she only stepped outside to get in on the photo!

Lots of quiet nights by the fire with hot chocolate, Christmas lights and a good movie. Now Lauren, if you look real close you can see the branches on the wall with the photo frames. Just for you my dear!

A favorite past time by the Christmas tree.

Prince Phillip is so patient and so loved.

The kids wanted you to see their latest dancing moves.

And one of my favorite! Here’s to a New Year of growth (no matter how small, young, old or furry we are) and a year of BIG BLESSINGS!

Meet us back here this Monday, January 5th for the first blog post of 2009! And on Tuesday, we may be doing a live interview over the web that you can join in on. More details to follow!

Happy New Year Everyone! It’s good to be back!

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ATLANTA-Start 2009 with a weekend of inspiration! If you live on the East Coast and want an inspiring type of Christmas gift for your loved one, send her to Atlanta! The dates are January 17th and 18th! Register here !!

For fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version that is now available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

On Monday morning, we did a photoshoot in Boston for Stacy Debroff, CEO of Mom Central. We got the full tour of her private garden and the Maple trees were showing off all their fall splendor. I loved how Stacey had four or five candles lit on her kitchen counter all day. Each candle was a favorite fall scent and made you want to cozy up on her couch with a good book.

Brian and I also like to take walks with the kids and collect our favorite leaves. Then we sit by the fire as we string the leaves to hang in the windows.

Last week I took advantage of the last yummy peaches and made us peach cobbler one morning for breakfast. It’s kind of a Fall’ish thing to do right?! (Any excuse to have cobbler for breakfast works for our family. ) But my favorite…my absolute favorite is pumpkin pie with a big dollop of whip cream!

Yep, it’s safe to say that Fall is my favorite season.

What are your Fall traditions? Fall recipes, candle scents, favorite books, decorating traditions of any and all kind! What do you do for Thanksgiving? What do you do for Halloween? Tell all!

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Wondering who won the Pet Photo Contest? Announcing the winner TOMORROW!!

For fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

Workshops: The Seattle December Workshop is open for registration with a few seats left!! Click HERE to register!