This is it!  Today is the LAST day to submit your photos for Book 2.  We’ve recieved a few hundred photo submissions!   But it’s not to late to send yours!  The deadline is tonight at midnight PST. Details here!

Unsure of whether or not to submit?  Just go for it!  Take that leap!

xoxo,

Me Ra

p.s.  Special shout out to Kelly from CA who submitted this photo as example of #6.  Don’t know what #6 is?  Click the details link above! (Kelly you rocked it with this photo!)

Are you ready to run with me!

As many of you know, I’ve been given the privilege of doing a two-book deal with Random House.  Book 1 went through more rewrites than I can count, but every time I did the rewrite, the message got tighter and tighter.  I’m not at liberty to say much about Book 1 yet, but hang tight because it will be soon! 

Book 2 however is a whole different project!  Random House asked me to consider making DVD 2, our award winning Beyond the Green Box DVD, into a book format.  The invite was and continues to be super exciting.  A lot of what we teach in our CONFIDENCE workshops is going into this book, so when you leave the workshops you’ll not only have the DVD to review but the book too!  And if you can’t afford the workshop yet, you will now have a DVD and book to get you started!

The best part involves YOU!  Random House has agreed to let me highlight the work of what they call “our former students” throughout the book!  This is how I define former students:  anyone who has got great results after trying out one of my Photo-Recipes on the blog, or from watching the DVDs or attending our CONFIDENCE Workshops. If you fit into one of these three categories, start submitting friend!

I have a vision of Empowerment for this book—with a capital E.  I don’t want this book to be about how great I am and “look at what I’ve accomplished.”  I want this book to reach the heart of readers who love their camera, love their kids and want to bring those worlds together without feeling stuck by glass ceilings or intimidation of technology.  I want readers to look at all these amazing people (that’s YOU!) that are doing it!  If I did it, and now you’re doing it, why can’t they do it too!  Can I get an AMEN!   

If your image(s) make the book, we will give you byline credit and send you an autographed copy!    But we need you to follow ALL the guidelines when submitting your images.  To really pull this off the right way, our attorney had to help us figure out Release Waivers and what info we need from you.  So please, please, read ALL the entry directions very carefully so your image(s) aren’t disqualified.

What am I looking for?  All sorts of things!  They can be images of your kids, your pet, nature around you, the gates are wide open!  Here are the Top 10 Photo Ideas of what to consider submitting!  Maybe you already have these photos, or maybe you want to go and shoot them this weekend. 

Top 10 Photo Ideas to Submit!

1.  Images that show off different uses of Aperture from wide open, buttery, blurred backgrounds with low f-stops to high f-stops giving lots of gorgeous detail

2.  Success stories with Before and After Photos.  Do you have an image that you took Before you watched our DVDs?  And do you have a great After image to show your improvement? 

3.  Different ways to use low and high ISOs, even when it needs to be turned into black and white from the graininess.

4.  Images that show the diversity of Shutter Speed—slow shutters that blur motion to fast shutters that freeze action, like kids running down the soccer field!  Or, using Shutter Speed to experiment with light (i.e. slowing the shutter down for more light or speeding it up to let in less light—remember Prof. Townsend’s acting job on Shutter Speed?  )

5.   White balance examples.  Why you chose a certain White Balance and the Before photo of what it looked like in Auto White Balance with the After.

6.  For those of you who have attended the CONFIDENCE Workshops, send me your favorite images where metering and Manual mode were the keys to success!

7.  Problems of the Past!  A problem you used to always face with shooting, and the solution you’ve found with Before and After photos.

8.  Photo Coaching Tips and Tricks that YOU have come up with or, we inspired you to try!

9.  Tips to Setting Yourself Up for Success!  In Beyond the Green Box, I talked about how there is no shame in setting your photos up for success and different ways to do this.  Did you try the ideas?  Send us your results!  Did you come up with other ideas to set yourself up for success?  Send those photos and stories too!

10.  Your Amazing Mom story!  I’m hoping there is space to fit a handful of Amazing Mom features, and if you are a “former student” and a mom, check out our past Amazing Mom features. Feel free to answer the same questions past moms did, and email your answers to me with a handful of your favorite photos!  If we can’t get them in the book, we can always feature you on the blog!

Design and layout for a photography book is an intense process.  I’m learning this first hand with Book 1.  My goal is to feature as many of your images as possible because here’s the thing.  At the end of the day, I don’t want readers to think there images have to look like mine.  I want to show the beauty of how everyone’s eye is different, every voice and story we have to tell is different, and this is what makes photography so powerful and beautiful at the same time! 

A dear friend and talented photographer, Sharon Sossaman of Homegrown Photography, captured today’s photo during one of our workshops.  After dinner, a handful of us went running down the beach and into the wind that night—together. That image symbolizes what I want this project to be—a gathering of creative hearts that want to run like the wind and bring others with them. This is a book about empowerment and inspiration to finally feel free to unleash your voice with your camera!  We’re going to do it, and it’s going to be beautiful and powerful.  Thanks for helping me change lives!  (Sharon, thanks for your wonderful photo—loving and thinking of you always.)

Deadline is Wednesday, July 28th (you have from now until three weeks from today!)

CLICK HERE for the Entry Form/Directions/Release Waiver to submit your photos!  And definitely help me spread the word on your blogs if you feel inclined!  Are you signed up for the newsletter (see right margin)?  Our newsletter peeps will be the first to know about the book’s progress!

It is an honor to work with all of you.

xoxo,

Me Ra

Possible FAQ:

1.  Can I buy the DVDs today and try submitting images based on what I learned? 

A:  Totally! Just remember the deadline is Wed., July 28th!

2.  Will you be able to print our website or blog instead of name in the byline? 

A:  Great question!  If there is room in the back, we may run an Appendix of your websites and blogs if you have one, so be sure to include it on every Entry Form.  But we need whatever name you’d like to get photo credit for the byline, whether that’s your business name or your name.

3.  How soon will we know if our images made it?

A.  The best question!  I, myself, don’t even know what makes the final cut until the last hour. The book is schedule to release in Fall 2011 (yes, it really takes that long—and longer—to publish a book), so we’ll all know one way or another by that time.

4.  How many photos can I submit?

A.  As many as you’d like.  Just remember, we need a COMPLETE ENTRY FORM and RELEASE WAIVER for EVERY photo submitted.

5. Who do I contact if I have any questions?

A.  We are always here for your questions.  Feel free to email info@merakoh.com and write “BOOK 2 Question” in the Subject Line to ensure an even faster response.  

6.  How will I be compensated for my photo(s), if it’s picked for the book?

A.  Three ways!  If your image(s) make it into the book, we will do two things for sure and a third possible addition.  One, we will send you an autographed copy of the book (one per person) so you have PROOF that your work has been published by Random House!  Two, we will print your byline and give you due credit where credit is desreved!  And a possible three, I will review all the stories you share about your photos and possibly share those stories within the book—space permitting.

7. I’ve always wanted to write a book, do you have any advice? 

A.  This is one of my top three “most common questions”.  There is no easy answer, but I will say that if a book is knocking on your heart and saying “Give me life!” you can start the process by writing everyday for 10 minutes—just do a brain dump of all your ideas.  Work up to 20 minutes of keeping your hand moving.  Also, if you are okay with rewriting, you have a better chance at getting published.  All writing is rewriting.  The hardest part is finding the courage to write that first draft when you know it will be rewritten and reworked a dozen times before it goes to print.  If you can handle that, you have what it takes to publish a book!  Check out The Artist Way by Julia Cameron to start empowering your desire to write!

8. But wait!  I’m not coming to a CONFIDENCE Workshop until this Fall!  Can I still submit?

A.  No worries.  If you’ve been inspired by a Photo-Recipe Tip that I’ve posted on the blog or watched our DVDs, submit away!

9. Where are the next CONFIDENCE Workshops going to be, and is there any room left?

A.  We started this month with 60 spots!  Now we only have 6 left!  Here’s the latest CONFIDENCE scoop! 

-Washington DC is SOLD OUT! 

-San Francisco, CA has ONE spot left—just 1! 

-San Antonio has only 5 spots left! 

These are the Fall workshops!  Grab one of the last spots by CLICKING HERE! 

10.  How do I submit my photos? 

A.  CLICK HERE!

Here’s Julie Watts with the rest of her Self-Portrait adventures! Julie, you’re just so special. Thank you so much for sharing your personal wisdom with everyone. (If you missed part one, here it is.) And if you haven’t ever met her, she’s a gushing ball of enthusiastic love! Our SOAR! gals had a BLAST with you Julie!

I have found that a lot more goes into a client falling in LOVE with a portrait of themselves than the concrete stuff of shutter speed, shooting angle, light usage, and a pleasing hand placement!

In 2000, when I was a 24-yr-old mom with a baby on my hip and realized that with digital, I didn’t need a traditional darkroom like I had wanted since high school B&W photography class.  My I didn’t know ANY  of that stuff, and I was consistently told by my very first subjects that they LOVED the portraits I took of them. I was told by many people that I am the ONLY ONE that has ever taken a portrait of them that they liked. I know of two mothers-of-the-bride specifically who were CONVINCED I would not be able to take a portrait of them that they liked, while I was photographing their respective daughters’ weddings (wow the plural grammar in that last sentence was rough. Why couldn’t it have only been ONE mob I remember who was convinced of that? Lol)

Here’s the clincher. Does it actually MEAN that I’m the only one capable of taking a flattering portrait of these clients? No. Does it mean they actually don’t have other flattering pictures of them, at any age, and let’s be honest here, size? No. But what attributes my clients associate with my images I create especially for them has EVERYTHING to do with my business success.

What this means is, my clients’ experiences with me, LEAVE THEM WITH THE EMOTIONAL IMPRESSION that these things are 100% accurate. That I’m the ONLY one with a camera they know who can show them how beautiful they are capable of being captured….this may or may not be true, heck, it probably depends on the person, as we ALL know people that fall on every end of the spectrum when it comes to tolerating having their photo taken and LIKING it.( Where do you fall right now? You could doodle a picture right now of a how close you are to the “liking it” or “loathing it” end of having your photograph taken.)   Satisfying clients emotionally is a huge part of how I developed a large client base of thrilled clients who spread the word about me enthusiastically wherever they go…not to say that this doesn’t have it’s challenges–I  only became confident with technical aspects of photography YEARS later, after attending Me Ra’s Workshop).

It is what I feel could be my best strength in photography, that I am able to give my clients an experience in which they relax, laugh, trust, and I am allowed to capture beauty never saw, or they didn’t know they could still “exude” anymore (because so many of us compare our current physical appearances with how we looked YEARS ago. Do you ever do that? If you think about it, it’s totally unfair. Why would I compare my looks to before I had one child? Or two children? Before I had grey hairs growing (though I totally just starting dying my hair my original color, after a lot of thought, and even research! But that’s another blog post…), before ALL of our lives drastically changed you guys…

Remember 1995?

This was my post-BMX racing era, and we were both cute. But I remember getting mad at Brent for being late to my birthday, and so this isn’t a photograph I’d display in my house because my emotion overrides what is a good shot.

How different in your life was 2002?

How about 2005?

For the sake of brevity, let’s go to 2009…this was the year I discovered something awesome. My friend and fellow photographer, Walter Grio, could hold a camera up and aim it at me, and I didn’t mind. It was so FUN, for some reason. Walter put me at ease. We had laughed many times about how we don’t have all of the answers, make guesses, experiment, fall down and get back up…the bonding experience of our friendship had allowed me to believe that whatever I did in front of the camera, really WAS OK. I didn’t mind.  And once I relaxed, I did as my favorite clients do, and got into the flow and just started workin’ it lol.   And because of that he captured a picture of me I love.

The best part about my portrait by Walter Grio is that not only is it one of my all time favorites, it also happens  that I was at my heaviest (you know, since 1995, my frame of reference, lol).

This year, I’ve been doing TONS of self-portraits. This is one of my favorites. I am lucky to have a studio with a mirrored wall. Mine does not go all the way to the floor, and it works great, by the way. I love motion.

And yes, I’m even brave enough to keep some not so traditionally flattering pictures, including this one  aka “ugly pretty”:

I eventually got used to having my own portrait taken, taking my own, learning a lot about my own beauty and mood, in order to develop my natural sensitivity  to that in my clients. For me, it is my biggest strength.

Because I enjoy the self-portrait process now, it is easier to forget about other cameras, and let others show a side of you that may change the way you think of yourself in a good way. I LOVE this image Christy Pelland photographed of me during a highly stylized glam shoot benefiting her scholarship fund for senior girls pursuing careers in the arts, Stand Out Prom. This image is totally me engrained in my art, in my element. The images that came out of Christy & my cameras that day were edgy, vintage, surreal, strong. This looks to me like a photographer who can do that, and I love looking at it.

So I want to ask you to consider taking self-portraits of yourself. Remember, you can delete anything that doesn’t benefit your exploration. It only does you a favor, and lessens the frames between you and your next favorite self-portrait, and with your newly heightened awareness to what your client may be feeling, you will certainly begin to hear from your clients how that makes them feel.  I’ll leave you with my VERY favorite portrait of me right now, taken by the only person that makes me blush and giggle, my husband of 11 years, Brent (incidentally, who also started liking getting his picture taken recently after years of avoiding it—but that’s another blog post–lol).  Rock on! Julie

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hear Julie and her enthusiastic self – she’s the featured guest on The Wisdom Connection‘s FREE teleclass, “Call of the Times: Passion and Purpose”! Wednesday, July 7th at 4pm PT. Karen and Fay have been the amazing business coaches for SOAR! with their words of wisdom, helping many to get their businesses started and flying. It’s a FREE call. And isn’t Julie just so REAL? Click here and you can register. Follow SOAR! winners Jennifer, Linda and Lindsay, their lessons and learnings, on the SOAR! blog.

We are not guests on Oprah today.  Someday!  SOMEDAY!  But not today.

However, our work is going to be spotlighted again!  And that is still SUPER COOL!

On May 25th, Oprah is going to do a special show to kick off designer guru, Nate Berkus’s, new show.  The Oprah team called us last week and got re-releases to spotlight our studio’s canvas again.  Nate requested a LARGE canvas be made to hang in the wonderful home of Kari and Dave, our Mamabloo.  Yes, Mamabloo had her house rebuilt, redone, redecorated by Oprah’s team!  And we had the privilege of having our photography spotlighted in their home’s new decor!

It all started as a joke when Mamabloo won our Running on Empty Contest a couple years ago.  When we did introductions for the workshop, she said she’d never won anything and decided to enter to win the home makeover with Oprah and Nate!  I still can’t believe they actually won!  It was AMAZING!  You can read that whole story HERE!

Thus, we were invited into a whirlwind with Oprah’s team.  It was so much fun!  They wanted to spotlight the family portraits we’d done for them over the years.  Mamabloo even said that when they went to the studio, the portrait images were hanging on stage!  So fun!

Roxanne, of Pixel 2 Canvas, is the mastermind behind that amazing, HUGE, GEORGEOUS canvas in their dining/living area—you’ll see it on the show!  And I heard it from the source, Mamabloo and her family got to do a catch up live chat!

That’s the scoop friends!  Oprah.  May 25th.  Be inspired.  Be entertained.  Enjoy!

xoxo,

Me Ra

p.s.  Lots and lots of Behind the Scene Photos from this weekend’s CONFIDENCE Wkshp coming up tomorrow!

As many of you know, we ask a handful of women to be the judges for our Running on Empty contest. A number of these women are also former winners. We enlist their help because there is no way Brian and I could ever choose. And even with this contest, every woman emailed a message of struggle on picking one winner. Every story was amazing. Every woman nominated deserves to be recognized. So again, I want to thank all the beautiful women who were entered or entered themselves. I am amazed at your strength and love. Thank you for sharing your life with us here. Thank you for being so strong and not giving up. You inspire me more than words can say.

The votes were collected, and we have a single winner. The winner for the May New York CONFIDENCE Workshop is Karen Casey! Karen, Brian and I want to welcome you this weekend to the New York CONFIDENCE May 2010 Workshop!  Your story so tells the story of many single moms, and I would love the honor of brightening your spirits and letting your creative spirit fly this weekend. I know this is cutting it close for you to make arrangements. We hope all the logistics can work for you. Can you email Genie (genie@merakoh.com) by tomorrow at 12 noon to confirm your coming? If it doesn’t work for you, we have beautiful Runner Ups. Thanks Karen, and I hope we get to meet in person that weekend!

For those of you who missed Karen’s story, here it is from her own words;

“I can’t believe I’m doing this, but i nominate myself for the new york confidence workshop. I am a 30 year old single mother to a wonderful nine year old son (my flickr stream is basically all him). I have always had a passion for photography.

Then life happened.
I went off to college and found myself pregnant at 21. My son’s father is not in his life. I was determined to finish school to have a career to support my son. I enrolled back in college when my son was 6 months old and I became a respiratory therapist. I love what I do! I work three jobs to support my family and provide my son with what he needs. My son is very involved in sports so even my occasional day off I am driving to one sport or another. However, this leaves no time for me. At the end of day I am more than running on empty. I consider it a good day when I get to sit down and do nothing. This weekend away would be perfect for me to learn even more about my camera and how to capture that perfect shot and of course being able to get some me time.

I was always the one with the camera never the one in the pictures. After my son was born I craved pictures of him. I shot roll after roll trying to capture every expression on his face and every milestone.
For over two years now I have been wanting more. Wanting more than just the occasional accidental great shot. wanting more say in how my picture turned out. Wanting more than just that washed out look a flash gives. My older brother is now a professional photographer living in florida. Every time he came for a visit I would grab his canon mark 1D and play around. Then of course I found your website and it only made my desires intensify. This past christmas my brother surprised me with my own DSLR! He got me a canon T1i. I downloaded your DVD beyond the green box to remind myself what everything was on the camera, because as it turned out, i remember NOTHING from high school! So far i’ve been able to shoot my son at his gymnastics meets and now at his lacrosse games. I only have the kit lens that came with the camera so the zoom doesn’t get me all that close to the action but that doesn’t stop me from trying! Now that the weather is getting nice i’m being met with new challenges…sunlight!
I live in new jersey, only about 45 minutes from jersey city so getting there is not a problem.
I would love to improve my photography skills and take my photos to the next step and beyond.

p.s. This year I have been taking a picture of my son every school day. It started as a joke but it has become a great timeline of my son growing. I post the picture daily to my facebook page, Me Ra, we are friends see if you can find it. For this year every picture is taken with my cell phone, but I want to have better pictures for next year. I’m even considering doing a summer series! Everyone thinks i’m nuts!

Can you give Karen a BIG Welcome NY CONFIDENCE ladies!  Karen, we are so excited to meet you in just a couple weeks!

xoxo,

Me Ra

In case you saw the Balancing Act this morning, but missed last week’s Behind the Scenes blog post, I thought I would run the post again! Remember to take advantage of the BIG Mother’s Day discount on all our DVDs and 101 Kits.  We’ve had lots of happy customers this week which means lots of surprised moms this weekend!  So fun!  The promo code: mamalove. 

Happy Mother’s Day ladies!  May you all feel celebrated and appreciated!  I know I appreciate all of you BIG time!

See you next week!

xoxo,

Me Ra

Did you see the Balancing Act on Lifetime this morning?  Did you not love the Mother/Daughter team who won?  The daughter’s story and what she has endured is so amazing.  And how did I do for that 5 minute spotlight?  Not to bad for coming out of the Dengue Fever, huh! 

The purpose of today’s feature spot was for me highlight the Mother’s Day HOT items: the (sexy) Copper Brown Sony Alpha 330 DSLR camera bundled with the instructional  Kids in Focus DVD.  See the trailer HERE!  If you remember last summer’s Behind the Scenes photos (CLICK HERE to see more)…

…Sony had invited us to reshoot different parts of our Refuse to Say Cheese/Beyond the Green Box DVDs, so they could include the revised version with their new DSLR cameras in retail stores!  Isn’t that insane?  I still can’t believe all this happened!

If you missed this morning’s show, Lifetime will be airing it again on May 7th at 7am PST/EST.  So you know what…Definitely, Don’t miss it! 

I had a bunch of Behind the Scenes photos emailed to me.  I thought I’d share them with you too.  Taping that show was such a blast!  I can’t thank Lifetime, The Balancing Act and Sony enough for giving me the opportunity to join them!

Getting Make Up Ready

Going over notes and images with the Producer.

Walk through on set.

Cameras rolling!

What the Producer is watching;  Camera 1, Camera 2, Camera 3 and the Teleprompter!

Here I am, loving the whole experience!

One of my favorites!

Close up shot on the monitor of ALL our DVDs!    (yeah!)

And I don’t know about you, but I think this monitor should be replaced.  Look at how much wider we look!  Not cool.

It sounds like I’ll be getting the segment to put on our site soon.  If you are out of country, stay tuned!

And most of all, thanks for all your support!  As I’ve said before, we’ve got a dream to have our own TV show.  This 5 min. piece helps me get more practice and gets us one step closer to that dream.  I appreciate you all praying for us, believing in me, sending me encouraging emails.  I appreciate all of you…more than I can say.

Love you all!

Me Ra

p.s. For more details on the Mother’s Day Special, CLICK HERE!

On Sunday, I got to experience Digital Days for the first time.  It’s a weekend photography conference for a 100 plus people.  You get to come one day or both.  The cost is only $159 (for both days–even less if you attend one day).  I had no idea what to expect.

Brian and I got stuck behind a marathon and ended up being 20 minutes late.  What a nightmare!  But when we showed up, Leslie Fisher was already speaking and not only teaching all sorts of good photography stuff but making people laugh at the same time.  I love this woman!  She is such a great teacher and speaker, and I didn’t even realize she was going to be there.    The last time I saw her she had taken me, Brian and Matthew Jordan Smith to this hole in the wall Thai food restaurant in Las Vegas, and somehow convinced us to wait 1 1/2 hrs for a table b/c the food was THAT good.  Lucky for her, it really was that good!    When I walked in on Sunday, she made me feel at home right away, and helped me transition into speaking after being stuck in the worst traffic.  (thank you Leslie!!!)

Digital Days has a handful of models come in for a live shoot.  They set up soft boxes and let attendees practice working with the models.  The models bring all sorts of costumes to wear, and yes, that is a hula dancer model.    Seriously, it was crazy fun.

Amanda Mays answered my call for a baby model (in like 30 seconds on Twitter!).  She brought her sweet little guy for everyone to practice doing a baby shoot set up.

And then I couldn’t stand it any more.  I walked over and turned off all the soft boxes lights b/c 99% of the time, you DON’T have perfect lighting for a photo shoot when your doing weddings and portraits.  Lucky for me, the attendees didn’t call mutiny but jumped right in to the learning experience.

Together, we figured out how to get GREAT photos in tough lighting!  It was awesome!

Digital Days was great!  They are coming to three more cities (Miami, Boston, and Nashville).  I’m not sure if they are sold out or still have room.  You can check out the Digital Days website to register!

A big thank you to Sony and Popular Photography magazine for inviting me to come and speak!

xoxo,

Me Ra

Did you see the Balancing Act on Lifetime this morning?  Did you not love the Mother/Daughter team who won?  The daughter’s story and what she has endured is so amazing.  And how did I do for that 5 minute spotlight?  Not to bad for coming out of the Dengue Fever, huh! 

The purpose of today’s feature spot was for me highlight the Mother’s Day HOT items: the (sexy) Copper Brown Sony Alpha 330 DSLR camera bundled with the instructional  Kids in Focus DVD.  See the trailer HERE!  If you remember last summer’s Behind the Scenes photos (CLICK HERE to see more)…

…Sony had invited us to reshoot different parts of our Refuse to Say Cheese/Beyond the Green Box DVDs, so they could include the revised version with their new DSLR cameras in retail stores!  Isn’t that insane?  I still can’t believe all this happened!

If you missed this morning’s show, Lifetime will be airing it again on May 7th at 7am PST/EST.  So you know what…Definitely, Don’t miss it! 

I had a bunch of Behind the Scenes photos emailed to me.  I thought I’d share them with you too.  Taping that show was such a blast!  I can’t thank Lifetime, The Balancing Act and Sony enough for giving me the opportunity to join them!

Getting Make Up Ready

Going over notes and images with the Producer.

Walk through on set.

Cameras rolling!

What the Producer is watching;  Camera 1, Camera 2, Camera 3 and the Teleprompter!

Here I am, loving the whole experience!

One of my favorites!

Close up shot on the monitor of ALL our DVDs!    (yeah!)

And I don’t know about you, but I think this monitor should be replaced.  Look at how much wider we look!  Not cool.

It sounds like I’ll be getting the segment to put on our site soon.  If you are out of country, stay tuned!

And most of all, thanks for all your support!  As I’ve said before, we’ve got a dream to have our own TV show.  This 5 min. piece helps me get more practice and gets us one step closer to that dream.  I appreciate you all praying for us, believing in me, sending me encouraging emails.  I appreciate all of you…more than I can say.

Love you all!

Me Ra

p.s.  Tomorrow I’m going to post a Sneak Peak from the AWESOME time we had in Orange County at our photography wkshp. this last weekend—building CONFIDENCE!!  Seattle and New York CONFIDENCE Wkshps are coming in May!  Woo-hoo!!

So I’m walking through the airport, and I pick up a copy of Popular Photography magazine, flip it open and BAM!  Pascaline is right on the inside cover!!  I was so excited and tried to tell the lady behind the cash register, but I don’t think she understood a thing I said.

But that’s not all, her sweet smile is in America Photo magazine too!  If you are headed to an airport or the bookstore, check out this month’s issues of Popular Photography and American Photo magazines.  Sony is sponsoring the annual Digital Days event, and I’m honored to be speaking for part of the day on May 2nd in SEATTLE!  This will be my first time speaking at Digital Days, so I’m pumped!  Plus, it’s coming to my hometown—how sweet is that!

For more information on what is going to be taught, the schedule, the cities Digital Days will be coming too, etc. CLICK HERE!

And if you register for the Seattle event, you better ping me on Facebook and let me know!  I would love to meet you!

xoxo,

Me Ra

p.s.  The SOAR! gals were asked to shadow a pro photographer this month and next.  Read about some of the valuable lessons Linda learned!  See it today, just  CLICK HERE!

We’ve got the preview for The Balancing Act on Lifetime Television!  This was the women’s morning talk show that I taped in Florida when we got back from Thailand.   Mark your calendars!  The episode is going to air on April 27th and May 7th at 7am PST/EST!

I had FOUR words in the preview below.    Click on the play button below for a quick sneak peak.

What do you think?  Did I ROCK those last four words or what?!    Wait till you see the episode air when I really get to talking!  I have to be honest, I’m super proud of this taping.  I still can’t believe I made it to Florida after having Dengue Fever.  I was scared I was going to look sick and exhausted when we taped, but I tried to let go and trust that every thing would work out.  I really believe it did!

xoxo,

Me Ra