Make sure you take a look to see all the awesome things you can do with her actions, and see some gorgeous photography to boot.
www.ashleymcnamara.com

When we found this blog a couple of months ago, we were immediately engaged. What a cool idea, to take pictures of TOYS!
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/40-brilliant-creative-examples-of-toy-figure-photography/

As moms, we have plenty of toys around the house just waiting to play subject in a creative portrait. Toys are small enough to be shot indoors or out, and it’s a lot easier to create complex sets for them with the simplest of items.

If you want more inspiration, take a look through Flickr – it’s chock full of amazing toy photography.
Here’s just a few groups we found that sparked our interest:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/danbo-love/pool/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/travellingtoys/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/secretlifeoftoys/

We’ll be announcing the prizes for this challenge next week, and the winners will be announced on April 20th. Contest closes at 5pm ET April 19th. Blog your photos and then come back here and post the link in the comments section.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with – enjoy this challenge and get creative!

It’s been a great lesson to me, and maybe can be to you as well. Honesty rules. You all responded the way you did because my article was honest, and it made me realize that the less pretension the better! I’m pretty much WYSIWYG both online and with my clients, but I have sometimes held back a bit in the past.

In all of this excitement over the blog post, (seriously, we have quadrupled our readership this week) one common theme kept popping up. A bunch of people told me that I was in for some great karma. Then I heard it again yesterday. And as with karma, you kind of think of it as some far away time, maybe even another life when you reap the reward. But imagine my surprise when I learned this morning that I was in for a huge karmic payback!

I’ve been listed as one of the Top 20 in Rangefinder/WPPI’s Fresh Faces contest. My image of my daughter Emma’s first day of school is #14. It just goes to show you what a lucky shot and some good karma can get you! I’d appreciate any votes that anyone wants to throw my way. I don’t care how dorky it sounds – heck yes, I want to WIN! The prize is a spread in Rangefinder and a possible cover. Seriously, who wouldn’t want that? So vote for me if you like the image, or vote for someone else’s if you like it better. Just go vote for someone, because it will probably mean the world to whomever wins!

One final note about the emails I received. They were so heartfelt and sincere that they really inspired me. I’ve recently discovered Jasmine Star (I know, where have I been hiding?) and when I thought about how much the emails that I got meant to me, I figured that no matter how “famous” a photographer got, who doesn’t like hearing that they had a positive effect on another human being? So I wrote her a dorky little note telling her how much I admired her honesty and positive attitude. Class act that she is, she wrote me back the very next day and told me that my email made HER day!

So I’m asking all of you to take a moment to think about who inspires you and to drop them a note. I guarantee that it will mean the world to them. And what goes around, comes around.

It’s definitely worth a stop by, but trust me, you’ll end up staying to read much longer than anticipated. This guy knows his stuff.

It may seem strange that I would be recommending a web designing blog to photographers, but I have two reasons:
#1-We all have websites, or at least we should. It’s not the worst idea in the world to be knowledgeable about something that is important to your business.
#2-You never know how you will be inspired. I love looking at non-photography sites, we as photographers tend to all like the same things (can we say Bludomain, lol?) and it’s really interesting to see other designs and fonts and colors and . . . you get the idea. If you want to be infused with inspiration, it’s great to look beyond the photography world – there are a lot of other really creative fields out there.

The blog has lots of good advice, and some really neat articles like The Most Controversial Magazine Covers of All Time and 100 Creative Business Card Ideas.
Take a look around and I promise you will find at least one thing on the blog that’s interesting to you. Come back and let us know what you liked/learned!

(Also, if you’ve got or know of a great blog we should feature, send me an email: brandy@twophotogs.com