Contest « Me Ra Koh Photography Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Contest’

January 6th, 2010

Mamabloo Photo Tales: Trying the Fake Laugh Photo Tip on Your Kids!

This is Kari from Mamabloo—stepping in to help Me Ra while they prepare to make the SOAR! Scholarship announcement this Friday.

Okay, I know we all think our own kids are cute. But, mine REALLY are… being totally 100% objective here… my kids are darn cute….

The problem is that because I am a photography nut, my kids actually don’t like being photographed that much. So it is very hard to actually document their darn-cute-ness. Sometimes, it’s like I am pointing a weapon at them instead of a camera. This impression is not aided by the expression “just let me shoot you, please!?!!?” They usually look frightened, sometimes they look bored and sometimes they just look disgusted with me. And the older ones usually reserve the famous eye-roll

for very special photography occasions like graduations and band concerts.

So, right before a recent band concert of Izzy’s, I tried some Photocoaching a la Me Ra and Brian. “Look natural” I shout at them. They stare back. They try to smile. They look like ZOO animals! (I promise you, if you couldn’t tell, this is NOT Izzy’s most natural look.)

Ah, man. Me thinks that I am not a good photocoach.

So, after a sigh and some digging deep into my endless abyss of patience, I go to my old standby (and my favorite Me Ra tip! ). I go to… THE FAKE LAUGH. That’s right. Make them throw their heads back and fake it! What makes this work in my family is that itty-bitty, nano-moment when my kids transition from the fake laugh to the real laugh. But first I need to set my camera on continuous shoot because this moment is fast, I tell you. Elusive even.

“Just pretend you are having fun! Throw your head back and laugh! FAKE IT, for the love of God!”

Darn cute, don’t ya think?

To check out Me Ra and Brian’s video that demos their famous “Fake Laugh”, check out their video at:

http://www.merakohblog.com/2008/10/08/brians-video-and-people-magazines-sexiest-man-alive-contest/

And to see more Portrait Photo Tips from Me Ra, check out these 6 tips!

http://www.merakoh.com/2008/10/28/q-a-segment-2-top-six-poses-for-senior-portrait-shoots/

Yours truly,

Kari from Mamabloo

17 Comments »
Tags: Contest, Kids, Photography

December 23rd, 2009

Important SOAR! Announcement! Please Read ASAP

Dear SOAR! Applicants and all the rest of the world that supports SOAR!,

We’ve got a handful of things to share!

First, Brian and I are blown away. We have a total of 247 SOAR! Video Entries/Applications to review—and possibly a couple more that we are having trouble uploading. It is AMAZING!

The last couple days of the SOAR! deadline was totally unexpected. I’m sure you all know this, but we are simply overwhelmed. On Monday night, in those last five hours before the deadline, we had almost 100 new videos submitted. One HUNDRED! If you’ve been watching them as they upload, every single video is genuine and courageous. And we haven’t even finished approving and uploading all of them to the SOAR! website yet. Yes, there is still more to come today!

I know some of you are worried that your video was not approved b/c you still don’t see it. The team has been up until the wee hours several mornings in a row, and we have around 70 more videos to upload. So hang in there. Just so you know, the only reason your video would not be approved is if you were in some way inappropriate. The likelihood of this happening is so slim, but we felt that it was important to review each video, its purpose, and content before we went live with it. So far, everyone has been approved. So breathe easy if you were scared that your missing video was b/c your not approved. Most likely, we haven’t got it up yet.

So I have to be honest with you. Brian and I sat down and talked this through. And we…oh, this is so hard to say because I feel so bad…but we need more time. The panel of judges needs more time, and we need more time. With all the last minute entries, we don’t feel that we can be ready to announce the winners by January 1st. We need to push it out to Friday, January 8th.

We are committed to making time for the holiday with our sweet family. We are also overwhelmed b/c of how unbelievable the response was. But we especially don’t want to rush this important decision. Everyone has done such an AMAZING job with their SOAR! Applications, and we want to review every video without being crazy rushed.

In the midst of all this, you may have noticed a couple new features that were turned on this morning. If you click on the video, a couple things pop up. There is an assigned number to the video (please note: NOT the number in the upper left hand corner—ignore that number b/c it changes with every new video uploaded). There is also a thumbs up feature. And there is a voting and comment feature.

The SOAR! Scholarship is NOT a popularity contest by any means. Breathe easy on that one. We will not pick a winner based on how many votes are given to someone. But we’d like your help. We know that a number of these videos have really moved you, and we’d love to have you star and comment on your favorites.

Until December 31st, you will have the opportunity to vote for your favorite SOAR! videos. Vote for as many as you’d like. Ask all your friends and family to help vote too. We would love to know who you think should win and why.

Why do this? We’ve had a couple close friends talk through a handful of the videos with us, sharing their thoughts, and it’s so great to hear their input. Your input would be wonderful too. But again, it’s not a popularity contest so please don’t stress. Instead, this is an opportunity to let your favorite women know what a great job they did, and let us know. Think "ENCOURAGING” not “COMPETITION”.

Some fun news…

The SOAR! team is also working on a SOARORITY Forum. Yeah! One of the women on the SOAR! website came up with the, SOARORITY term, and even though I was never in a sorority, I love how catchy that is! And I’m sure you’d agree that we seriously need a bigger way to connect with each other. We secured the websites and hope to have a forum up and live! If you’d like to help with the SOARORITY! Forum, shoot me an email!

I also LOVE how some of you are talking about finding ways to meet! We totally need SOAR Sister Groups all over the country. One of the most powerful anchors to building your dream is to have sisters supporting you. If you got SOAR SISTER Groups going, I would totally come visit! We’ve also been sifting through the idea of a SOAR! Conference at some point. Ladies, I’m right there with you! Lots and lots of ideas are in motion!

But first things first. We’ve got a ton of videos to still upload. I have about 25 people coming for dinner Christmas Eve. My mom’s birthday is Christmas Day. And then we want to take some time to review every video and discuss with the judges. Thank you for understanding why we need to push the date back, I know it’s painful. I totally know. We’ve never done this before and are learning as we go. Your constant grace is appreciated.

And I have to say one more thing—I know this post is crazy long, but I HAVE TO SAY THIS! SOAR! Sisters you are all AMAZING! I know the next few days are crazy for all of us. But take the time to pat yourself on the back. Stand proud. Your courage to make a video and submit it is inspiring! Do you know what you did? You took your dream out of your head and spoke it into life! No matter what happens, your life is changed forever! And it’s because you did it! You made your dream worthy of having when you submitted your video.

It is a honor to be a part of your lives. Have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas.

All my love,

Me Ra

42 Comments »
Tags: Art, Contest

December 17th, 2009

Deadline for $100 and TWO New Workshops for 2010!

Hey everyone. This is Brian, signing on for Me Ra today. I know it’s late in the day, but if you follow Me Ra’s Twitter, you know she had a pretty rough day. She wanted me to thank you for all your prayers. And knowing her, she’ll be back on the blog tomorrow.

But we wanted to remind people that the deadline for the “I SUPPORT SOAR”!” Contest is TONIGHT at Midnight PST! Thanks for all the hard work you’ve done to spread the word about SOAR! We are excited to give the winner a $100 Gift Certificate tomorrow! We’ll be announcing the GC winner at the end of Friday (so we’ve got time to count up the entries.)

And the BEST news is…TWO NEW Workshops for Spring 2010!

We are going to do CONFIDENCE Workshops in April and May, one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast!

Dates and Locations:

April 24 and 25th, at the hip Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach, CA. (See you soon OC and San Diego friends!)

May 29th and 30th, at the very cool Westin Hotel in Jersey City, NJ. (For all our NY and surrounding area friends! We are finally coming to you!)

But here is what I’m excited about. I worked out a way with our Merchant Provider so you could be set up for four auto payments, over four months, for $199. It’s basically allowing you to take advantage of the Early Bird but break it up over four months.

We know four things;

1. Your Holiday Budget is stretched.

2. A lot of you want the CONFIDENCE Workshop for Christmas.

3. The Early Bird Registration of $799 is tough to pull of with the Holiday Budget.

4. We better make a new option available for Christmas! And by George, I think I’ve done it!

If you are signed up for Me Ra’s Newsletter, you will be sent an email on Monday with the private link to priority register. You’ll have the choice to Register for the whole Early Bird amount of $799 or sign up for the four payments method. (Signed up yet for the Newsletter? Look to the left!) The Workshop Early Bird Registration and Four Payments Method will go live on the blog for everyone else Tuesday morning! Early Bird and Four Payments Option will end Thursday, January 7th. At that point, registration will go up to the normal price of $999.

FYI, If you sign up for the four payments method, one of us will call you within 24-48 hours to ensure your spot and info (just to make sure, since we’ve never used this merchant tool before), AND you will be set. Please know that all payments are non-refundable.

If there are any husbands out there who need to get out of the dog house (not that I know what that’s like), you can email me with any questions! info@merakoh.com And I must say, our Genie, has helped quite a few husbands surprise their wives. She will totally be available to help too.

And again, thank you for praying for my wife. Today was rough. She’s been through a lot in her life, but her passion to empower women…may be more fierce than ever.

Best,

Brian

FIVE Days Left Until SOAR! Scholarship Deadline! Get your Complete Application and Video Entries in by Monday, Dec. 21st!

9 Comments »
Tags: Contest, Twitter

December 14th, 2009

Win $100 GC at Amazon by Supporting SOAR!

Okay friends, the countdown has started. Next Monday, December 21st, is the DEADLINE for our SOAR! Scholarship! We want to spread the word to as many people as possible. To help make that happen…I am throwing in two incentives! Any great parent understands the power of incentives, and since the SOAR! Scholarship is my baby…you bet I’m going to parent the heck out of it!

I am giving away a $100 Gift Certificate to AMAZON and a set of our Award Winning DVDs, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box, to ONE lucky winner this week!…Friday actually! Who can’t use an extra $100 in their Holiday Shopping budget! Right!

By entering, you will have a chance to get your name entered into a hat COUNTLESS times by completing as many of the following tasks as you can.

To enter, send ONE email with the subject “I SUPPORT SOAR!” to soar@merakoh.com listing which items you have completed with documentation as needed (photos, links to your blog, etc.)

Deadline to enter (i.e. Send us your email with which tasks you completed) will be this Thursday, at Midnight PST! The winner will be announced Friday!

One Entry (For each item on the list your name will be entered once)

-Leave a comment on my blog this week and type the words “I SUPPORT SOAR!” at the end of the comment

-Add me as a friend on Facebook (you get one already if you already have:)

-Become a fan on the brand new Me Ra Koh Fan Page on FB, and post a comment with the phrase “I SUPPORT SOAR!” in it.

-Follow merakoh on Twitter

-Twitter about the SOAR! Scholarship with #SOAR in your status update (you can even more points if you Twitter every day between now and Thursday!)

-Post a status update on your Facebook page about the SOAR! Scholarship Deadline on Monday, December 21st with a link to the SOAR! website

-Email five friends, telling them about the SOAR! Scholarship AND our Newsletter (including the opportunity to win a Sony DSLR by signing up), include a link to the SOAR! website and our blog (www.merakohblog.com) for the Newsletter!

-Post a comment on the SOAR! website, underneath my video, and include “I SUPPORT SOAR!” in your comment!

Two Entries (For each item on the list your name will be entered twice)

-Email ten MORE friends, telling them about the SOAR! Scholarship and our Newsletter (including the opportunity to win a Sony DSLR by signing up), include a link to the SOAR! website and our blog (www.merakohblog.com) for the Newsletter!

-Write a (positive ) review at our www.refusetosaycheese.com site for any one of our products. CLICK HERE to see all products!

-Twitter this review with a link to our www.refusetosaycheese.com site.

-Twitter about SOAR! every day between now and Thursday with #SOAR included.

-Twitter your reviews (see below) once a day between now and Thursday with #SonyMom included!

Five Entries (For each item on the list your name will be entered FIVE times!)

-Write and post a blog about the SOAR! Scholarship that mentions the courageous SOAR! Video Entries on the website, and why you believe in soaring! AND, link to my website and the SOAR! website (make sure to include the links in your email to us)

-Write and post a blog review about our Award Winning DVDs, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box and link to our website and store! If you haven’t purchased our Award Winning DVDs, and you want to take advantage of these points, you can order the download version by CLICKING HERE!

Ten Entries! (yes TEN!)

-Purchase any one of our Refuse to Say Cheese products (DVDs, 101 Kits, Women’s T-shirts, Baby Onsies, etc.) OR any one of our products on the Top Ten Stocking Stuffers blog post, before this Thursday (at midnight PST) and you will earn TEN ENTRIES! Be sure to copy and paste your receipt in your “I SUPPORT SOAR!” email. If you already purchased one of the sexy, Sony DSLR copper brown cameras—just copy and paste your receipt.

We will track your specific number of entries from the ONE email you send us! Be sure to make your subject line says “I SUPPORT SOAR!”

Need inspiration today? If yes, look no further! The SOAR! website has some amazing Video Entries that you can see live! Check them out today!

Still in process of making your SOAR! Video?

We noticed that we have HUNDREDS of SOAR! Applications but only 30 plus SOAR! Video Entries. Your application will only qualify if you submit your SOAR! video too. Gets those videos in ladies!

Couple quick Video Tips from the judges and MORE FAQ:

1. It’s most ideal to have YOU speaking in your video. There is going to be a lot of video blogging in the next SOAR! year, and the panel of judges want to see how you hold yourself on video. You don’t have to be perfect by any means, but to see you give it your best shot is gold.
2. If you’d like to redo your video, GO FOR IT! Just re-upload a new video and let us know that you’d like to switch it out. CLICK HERE to upload your video!
3. A panel of hand picked judges will pick the THREE winners for SOAR! They will base their decision on two things; Your Video Submission and Your COMPLETE SOAR! Application.
4. Winners will be announced on January 1st 2010!
5. Click Here to SOAR!

Coming up tomorrow! I can’t wait for tomorrow’s blog post! We are going to share one mom’s story of what happened when she tried my Christmas Tree Photo Tips! You’ll get to not only hear the story but see all the Photo Tips for yourself!

And later this week, you get to meet Sony’s Director of Marketing! To show Sony’s support for SOAR!, the Director of Marketing made a video for our SOAR! Partners page! Goes live this week!

Pray for our SOAR! Blog Tour this week! Brian and I donated a Blog Tour to SOAR! that will reach 200K mommy bloggers in the next several days!

Okay, that is it for Monday! (phew!) We’ve got a BIG week ahead of us! Send us your “I Support SOAR!” emails, and let’s spread some inspiration!

xoxoxo,

Me Ra

p.s. Thank you Crystal Garcia for this fantastic Contest/Entries idea! You are beautiful woman, wife, mother, friend and sister, and your work is beautiful too. We are so thankful for you and Brian!

24 Comments »
Tags: 101 Kit, Art, Beyond the Green Box, Contest, Facebook, inspiration, Refuse to Say Cheese, Sony, Speaking, Twitter

December 9th, 2009

Watch Our First Brave SOAR! Entries, FAQ, and Meet Me Tonight @ South Coast Plaza!

Are you ready to see our first handful of SOAR! video submissions?! If you click on the SOAR! tab or go to www.soarwithmera.com, you can watch our first handful of SOAR! video entries. These women are so brave, so courageous. As I’ve watched them I can tell that making a video was not easy for some, but I’m standing on my chair and applauding each one of them. Because to be quite honest, one of the first steps of having a successful business, having a dream come true, is making the choice to put yourself out there! And these women have taken the first step! (So proud of you!)

See them now at www.soarwithmera.com! Click the Video Entries tab to watch!

FAQ for SOAR! Scholarship

We are also working on a FAQ page for the website due to all the questions we’ve received. Hopefully that will be live soon. For now, here are a few answers.

1. You NEED to submit a 2 minute (or less) video with your application to qualify. If you already submitted your application but still need to submit your video, CLICK HERE!

2. Your video needs to be under 2 minutes.

3. You don’t have to be a mom to enter. SOAR! is celebrating ALL women!

4. If you already have a small business in the last year or two, can you still enter? YES! But keep in mind that we will be using your Sony camera gear throughout next year. SOAR! also hopes to empower some women who don’t have money to buy the gear to start. Having said that, if you feel like your a good contestant, be confident and enter!

5. If you missed a question on the application, you can resubmit. But you need to start the application over. There isn’t a way for us to give you access to your original application.

6. You must live in the United States to enter. (I’m sorry to all those who are out of country (yes, it includes Canada too). It’s a legal thing that I’m still trying to figure out. We apologize.)

7. What type of video file/format should we upload? We’ve received all types of formats. Go for it!

8. Did you know we have a SOAR! guestbook now. Right under the SOAR! video on the main page, you can leave a comment!

TONIGHT!

Are we going to see each other tonight?!

After a terrifying flight to San Diego which I’m sure I’ll write about more later, we are here! I can’t wait to see you all our Costa Mesa peeps tonight! Last night’s event in San Diego was so much fun! A big thank you to all the wonderful people that showed up!

If you are coming tonight, you don’t need to register, but you may want to get there a little early! Here’s the details for tonight. See you soon!

The Juicy “Sony Style Store Tour” Details!

TONIGHT in the OC!

Date and City: Wednesday, 12/9, COSTA MESA!

Time: 6pm-7:30pm

Location: Sony Style Store in South Coast Plaza

xoxo,

Me Ra

6 Comments »
Tags: Art, Business, Contest, Sony

December 7th, 2009

A Second Chance 2 Win BIG!

Hey friends!

We have a crazy day ahead of us, so I’ve got to keep this short. But I wanted to make sure you’ve all signed up for our NEW Newsletter. See that Newsletter box…over in the right margin? When you sign up, you are automatically entered into a drawing for my favorite Copper Brown Sony Digital SLR camera! Yes, that’s right! If you didn’t win when we did the contest with Women’s World magazine, you get a SECOND CHANCE! Sony has generously shown their support (again!) to our community by giving the new a330 DSLR to GIVE AWAY!

I’m so excited! One lucky Newsletter peep will win that sexy brown DSLR! (and no Shauni, little brothers can’t enter—sorry!)

So unless your one of my little brothers, make sure you are signed up!

We are going to send out our FIRST NEWSLETTER this week! I’m so excited! I know what your thinking, ‘your excited to write a newsletter, on top of working on two books and your blog?!’ I know, so weird, huh! But I totally am.

Within the Newsletter, there is going to be a special holiday discount! If you missed the Top Ten Stocking Stuffer special, this is your second chance! So get yourself signed up today. And if you think you signed up once before, but your not sure, you can sign up again b/c the program will make sure that there aren’t any duplicates. So your safe for double, triple checking!

Off to catch a flight!

xoxoxo,

Me Ra

p.s. The SOAR! Scholarship has taken off! It’s pretty amazing how fast the word is spreading. We are also prepping the video submissions so you can see them this week! Keep sending those videos to us! Deadline is Monday, December 21st! (TWO WEEKS!)

10 Comments »
Tags: Contest, Sony

December 1st, 2009

SOAR! Scholarship Goes Live Today!

You have all been so patient and supportive as I’ve tweeted the unfolding developments of the SOAR! Scholarship. Even now, as I write this blog, a handful of people from SmugMug, Chopping Block, Taco Lamp, and more, are racing the clock with us to bring you SOAR! today. A few of them have been up ALL NIGHT! Our goal is to go live with the video, website and all the details by 4pm PST (maybe sooner). Between SOAR! and our new website and blog, I feel like we are birthing triplets!

Stay tuned. It’s going to get really good! Think “Running on Empty Contest” magnified a 100x’s! For up to the minute updates, search for #SOAR on Twitter.

In the meantime, while we are finalizing details, go over to my dear friend, Kari Hale’s new blog opening. Mamabloo went live today! Her blog is going to be an awesome one to follow! I’ve been waiting for Kari to have a blog my whole life! You will LOVE her!

Check back later this afternoon and come SOAR! with me. This is a scholarship that will change the lives of three women! You may be one of those women!

p.s. Wait! What else happens today? The two Photo Contests end! Have you submitted your photo entries yet? Remember to submit your Photo Contest entries today! We’ve got two photo contests going on right now that you don’t want to miss! I’m loving the submissions! To read the details on what our Photo Contest Themes are CLICK HERE!

p.s.s. The bugs are worked out of our Newsletter box on the right side! Sign up today, and you will be entered in a drawing for my favorite Sony DSLR camera!

21 Comments »
Tags: Art, Contest, running on empty, Sony, Twitter

November 27th, 2009

Black Friday Leads to Me Ra’s Annual Holiday Wish List on Monday!

Stay tuned friends! On Monday morning’s blog post, I’m going to release my Top Ten Holiday Gift Ideas! It’s going to be a blast! We will have gift ideas for all ages, from the six month old to the grandparents. And it’s going to be an especially helpful post for those of you who need to win some points (not mentioning any names b/c you know who you are ).

xoxo, Me Ra

p.s. The SOAR! Scholarship that we’ve been working on goes live December 1st. That’s Tuesday! Wow, it’s going to be a BIG week! But first, let’s relax on the couch after all that turkey and pumpkin pie!

p.s.s. Wait! What else happens December 1st? The two Photo Contests end! Have you submitted your photo entries yet? Remember to submit your Photo Contest entries soon! We’ve got two photo contests going on right now that you don’t want to miss! I’m loving the submissions, but if you haven’t submitted-you’ve got until December 1st. To read the details on what our Photo Contest Themes are CLICK HERE!

2 Comments »
Tags: Art, Contest

November 23rd, 2009

16 Baby Shoots in 6 Hours!

I want to start by thanking every parent who emailed me a photo of their beautiful baby. As I said before, my Inbox has never looked so beautiful. It was painful to narrow the final count down. If you were not picked, it’s not because I didn’t love your baby. I LOVED all the babies (too much!). For this first book project, I had to fill specific holes, certain traits, certain ages, etc. But thank you so much for sharing your sweet baby with me. I really loved meeting them through your email. And I will keep all your emails on hand for any future projects!

After receiving hundreds of beautiful baby submissions, we narrowed the entries down to 16 babies.

On Saturday, I did 16 baby shoots in 6 hours. Brian filmed the whole thing so you’ll get to see behind the scenes footage of how and why I set the babies up!

A HUGE thanks to all 16 babies and their wonderful families. It was a honor to work with all of you! Thank you so much for your time.

And what a time we had!

I’ve never tried stacking that many baby photo shoots in such a short amount of time. Has anyone? Part of me was like, ‘Am I popping crazy pills?’ When Brian heard what I was up to, he was like “Really Me Ra? Your going to do a photo shoot for sixteen babies in six hours?” But when you have a book deadline, you’ve got to do what it takes. Right! So yes I am! And, yes we did. And those babies had me laughing all day.

We hit every emotion you can imagine from crying to cooing to screaming to laughing in seconds. And yes, I also brought a handful of different outfits for myself. I’ve been photographing babies long enough to know that I’ll get spit up on or peed on without notice. But it’s all worth it, if I get to hold those little ones before we say goodbye.

What a day! As Pascaline would say “Foofy-Do!”

p.s. A big thanks to my beautiful Genie for helping me with the emails. And I want to give a BIG shout out to Troy Nesby for all these Behind the Scene photos as well as helping us with all the in between details throughout the day! We love you Troy!

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Remember to submit your Photo Contest entries soon! We’ve got two photo contests going on right now that you don’t want to miss! I’m loving the submissions, but if you haven’t submitted-you’ve got until December 1st. To read the details on what our Photo Contest Themes are CLICK HERE!

Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series are now AWARD WINNING! Read the press release HERE ! The DVDs were also recently featured on FOX News as a TOP GIFT recommendation for the holidays! Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box, click either title!

Thinking of starting your dream Photography Business?! You can totally do it with our popular 101 Kits! Inspired from the 100′s of emails that Me Ra Koh receives each week, asking the how to’s of having a Photography Business, Me Ra has compiled all her answers into her popular 101 Kits! For more info, click on the titles of your choice, read the reviews and make your dream a reality! And don’t forget to send your success stories to Me Ra at mera@merakoh.com!

18 Comments »
Tags: 101 Kit, Art, Beyond the Green Box, Business, Contest, Facebook, Photography, Refuse to Say Cheese

November 20th, 2009

Shooting with Flash as My Kids Imitate Teenagers!

I have to admit. I think I was holding on to the slim hope that at some point yesterday, our new website/blog would go live. But alas, some bugs are more buggier than others. So in the meantime, as the team continues to iron with amazing diligence, we move forward.

And what better post, then to tell you what my kids did last night. The kiddos know we’ve been working so hard on the new website and a handful of other projects. So while Brian and I were working on the new site, they decided to surprise us. They came downstairs dressed us as teenagers (or at least this is what they picture teenagers looking and acting like ). It was hilarious!

I know what your thinking ‘underwear on the outside of your pants?’ The kids explained that teenage boys are always wearing their pants so low, and since everyone can see their underwear, why not just wear them on the outside? Totally!

Blaze wanted this shot. As I was shooting, he kept saying “That’s classic mom. Just classic.” He told me “classic” is a teenage word. Duh, mom.

Notice how they planned their socks? Yes, that was planned.

I asked them to give me their best “teenage expression”.

Isn’t that funny?! I love the socks dynamic in that one too. I don’t even know if they “know” any teenagers. Nonetheless, they have a definite idea of what it means to look and act like a teenage boy.

This is my favorite! So much attitude going on.

So how did I make the lighting happen on these images? I used my external flash.

Photo Recipe Time! This is something you can totally try yourself! If you have an external flash, turn the flash on auto and leave the buttons on the back of your flash alone. Turn your camera to an ISO of 800, Shutter Speed of 60 or 1/60th, and an fstop between 4.0 and 2.8–up to you on fstop.

Then take your flash head and instead of pointing it at your kids, point it at the ceiling. This is called “bouncing”. Bouncing gets rid of the shadows and looks more like natural light. I love to bounce behind me, but for these images I tried bouncing off the ceiling. And that’s it friends. If you try it this weekend, show me what you get! Email them to mera@merakoh.com. I totally want to see!

And maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a new website/blog early next week! (I pray to the website gods, please, please, please!)

xoxo, Me Ra

p.s. Oh, Don’t forget to submit your Photo Contest entries! We’ve got two photo contests going on right now that you don’t want to miss! I’m loving the submissions, but if you haven’t submitted–you’ve got until December 1st. To read the details on what our Photo Contest Themes are CLICK HERE!

p.s.s. We have 16, yep SIXTEEN!, babies showing up on Saturday for our Baby Extravaganza Photo Shoot. Brian is going to video tape the whole thing, so maybe we can give you a baby peak! It should be interesting with that many cute babies!

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21 Comments »
Tags: 101 Kit, Art, Beyond the Green Box, Business, Contest, Facebook, Kids, Photo Recipe, Photography, Recipe, Refuse to Say Cheese