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Bit By the Photo Bug

April 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

I admit it. Every time I see one of my friends carrying around all of this photo equipment (those DSLR’s) I am simultaneously jealous and grateful. Grateful because I am not the one having to lug all that equipment around but jealous over the amazing photo’s these take.

Photography is just one thing that really never made any sense to me. I don’t get all the lighting stuff, focal points, lenses….. it’s all always been Greek to me.  Until I had the chance to learn some great tips from  Kymri Wilt during the Traveling Mom Retreat last week. HTC sent us the cute little Rhyme phones which I snobbishly sort of set aside as something I would have to play with a bit before getting back to my beloved iPhone 4S. But when Kymri asked us to pick it up and play with it a bit during her session, I was a teensy bit impressed.

So I took it out a bit more while I was on the Disney Fantasy Cruise. And I took some amazing panoramic shots on Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island). I love this one. To me, it looks like a postcard.

Disney's Cruise Ship The Fantasy at Castaway Cay

That night while getting ready for dinner the sunset was too beautiful to at least not try.

Sunset picture taken on Disney Fantasy Cruise

After the cruise I still didn’t want to stop playing with it so I took it along on several adventures. Here is a series of action burst shots I took at Sea World. I am blown away by how you can see each droplet of water. Think this would be awesome for when my kiddo goes up for that big dunk.

Shamu jump action burst 1

Shamu jump action burst 2

Shamu jump action burst 3My big problem is that I am totally, completely in love with this HTC camera phone. It texted, tweeted and facebooked all my amazing photos. I learned how to do things like adjust ISO (which I don’t think my iPhone does) and lets me apply all kinds of filters without being in something like Instagram (no filters above). But, BIG SIGH, I have to give it back. Which I am big time whining about (I get it,it’s another carrier, blah, blah, blah). But I WANT it.

So now I am looking for a camera that takes as amazing photos as the Rhyme without being bulky. I have had several friends suggest looking into micro four thirds cameras, specifically the Lumix. But then it won’t tweet and facebook which I really need a camera to do. Yikes, contracts & carriers and all that stuff really suck sometimes. I would probably leave my iPhone for this. At least it has inspired me to learn more and take my photos out of “auto”. It’s fun and I am looking forward to learning a lot more about how to take and share great photos.

*disclaimer: I was paid to review the HTC, my time onboard the Disney Fantasy was courtesy of Disney Cruise Lines and TravelingMom.com, my time in Sea World was courtesy of Sea World Orlando and VisitOrlando.com. No form of compensation ever affects my opinions. *think that covers it*

Filed Under: reviews Tagged With: , , ,
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Investing In Your Blogging Career #blissdom At HOME

April 5, 2012 By 2 Comments

Through the years, I have tried to write posts that help new bloggers reach their goals. This is a hard business to break into and few bloggers truly make a living at it…..well, a living that includes more than Tide coupons and free movies. But I would say for most ‘mom bloggers’ the goal isn’t to make a full time salary- we do it for more personal reasons. One of those being, we find our bliss in it.

Last month I was able to go to the Blissdom Conference in Nashville. The level of talent among the speakers there was amazing. But I couldn’t be everywhere at all times and there were plenty of sessions I missed, most regrettably the Photography Track with Me Ra Koh. Thankfully, as a Blissdom Community Leader I was given the gift of a membership to Blissdom at Home so now I can take my time and work through all of the sessions at my own pace. Blissdom at Home is just like being there. All the sessions were taped and you can watch the videos of the presentations, listen to the audio (I fell asleep last night listening to Shoot Like a Woman session) and have all the handouts and slideshows as if you were sitting there.

This year Blissdom at Home is trickling the information in and I won’t lie, at first I was totally annoyed by this. Mostly because the one session I REALLY want to see is 3 Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW to Grow Your Facebook Fan Page with Melanie Nelson. I have already seen people reporting back some real quantifiable results from tips they picked up here. According to the schedule that one won’t be released for weeks. UGH! I have since realized that this is probably a good thing. My brain would skip right to that session and I would gloss over things that I thought weren’t relevant to me and I would miss such amazing nuggets of knowledge about things I didn’t even know I needed to know.

For those of you that are always asking me “Should I go to a Blog Conference?” this is your answer. Blissdom At Home isn’t “cheap” but for $99 you get access to ALL the sessions until the 2013 Conference. Plus a forum to ask questions and discuss what you learn. That is a heck of a lot cheaper than flying, hotel, the conference pass (which was $199) and owing your hubby for watching the kids for the weekend!

Blissdom At Home.

I don’t recommend a lot of things on this blog but this is truly something I think is valuable to mom bloggers looking to take things to the next level. Full disclosure that my link to it is an affiliate link. If you buy it, I am getting 20%. BUT if you buy it, and like it, you can recommend it to your readers with an affiliate link.Which means if 5 of your readers get it, you basically got it for free. Pretty sweet deal they have going on there.

BlissDom ’12 – Opening Video from Blissful Media Group on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Blog Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,
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On Being Happy at 40

March 31, 2012 By 7 Comments

In the first surreal moments of my over 40 existence I found myself waking up here in a room fit for a princess.

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I made my way to this perfectly pink little room in our Orlando vacation home because as it turns out, after close to 19 years of marriage I have discovered my prince charming sleeps more like Shrek. I reverted to my inner child and sought solace from the sleeping ogre.

And then I just laid here in bed and stared at the pretty princesses on the wall, thinking about all the dreams I had as a young girl to be one.

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Well, wake up sister. Cause 40 just reared it’s ugly head. I am laughing to myself about all the blog posts I read “40 is the New 30” and even better, “40 is the New 20“. Maybe Tinkerbell sprinkled them with some extra special magic fairy dust on them but I am going to get real and say “40 is the New 40″.

I don’t know, maybe it is the end of whirlwind 12 days I have been gone. First on a preview cruise for the new Disney Fantasy Cruise or the ensuing days of theme parking but I am about ready to return home to reality. An over 40 reality.

Its really just one day that has passed. But if I said it wasn’t a big deal, I would be lying. I am googling average life expectancies, botox, ‘mommy jobs’ and chemical face peels. I’m sure with just a little work I could write a “40 is the New 20″ post. HA!

Nah, the reality is, I like where I am. I have a great life, love my family always, like them 95% of the time, am blessed beyond belief with a career that makes it possible to be home with my boys. My mom is still with me and provides hope that life doesn’t end at 40 (she had me at 43). I cannot even imagine!

OK, I think I am ready to leave this pink fairy tale room behind now and go find my Shrek and little teenaged ogres. But they dang well better have some Starbucks for me, or I am coming right back here, hiding under the pink covers and rethinking this whole life is OK at 40 thing….

Filed Under: general life Tagged With:
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Connecting Offline-The Importance of Blog Conferences

February 28, 2012 By 4 Comments

Nothing makes me as insecure as a blog conference. The time when your online personality meets the offline. The time when you can’t hide behind an avatar. The time when you have to make conversation in more than 140 characters. The time when you can’t draft and edit your thoughts before publishing.

I obsess for weeks before: how much weight have I gained since the last conference? What are my latest successes? How many people know about my latest failures? Was everyone reading my twitter stream that one day I just went off? Will I be the only one wearing a dress? Are jeans OK? What if everyone in the room ignores me?

UGH! Why do I do this to myself?

And then I take a deep breathe, put on my spanx enhanced big girl panties and get on with it.

Facebook T-shirt from BlissdomAnd something amazing starts to happen. After the first few hours of squeals and delights and big hugs to everyone, I settle into my calm. I find a comfy couch in the corner of the room and even though I may know half the room, I connect with just a few people on a deeper level. I catch up with old friends, make some new ones, really listen to what is going on in their lives. That is where I find my bliss.

I find my bliss in making connections that will last for years with both bloggers an PR reps. I remain conscious that my goal is not to drop my card in every fish bowl, which isn’t a bad thing to have as a goal. It’s just that I have been there, done that. My goal is reconnect with those brands I work with, remind them of my evolving brands, let them know what new I am doing so we can continue to partner together in ways that work for us both.

My goal at these conferences is to listen much more than I talk. Learn about the current themes, hear the buzz and then bring it all back and decompress it into something actionable.

Which answers the question: Why do I do this to myself?

Because stepping out from the virtual world reconnects me with the real people behind all those gorgeous avatars. It re-humanizes this digital world I spend so much of my time in. It reminds me of why I started all this in the first place: to connect with others in a way that expands the boundaries of my little bubble.

Filed Under: Blog Tips & Tricks Tagged With:
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If You Give a Blogger Some Ambien…

February 9, 2012 By 4 Comments

If you give a blogger some ambien and set her loose on Etsy, she will find a pretty font she likes.

The font will remind her she really needs to do her signature.

Which will lead her to spend $15 on a premade logo.

The premade logo will remind her how much she likes brights colors.

She will begin to realize she made a mistake creating such a bland personal website.

Then she will decide to redo it because all her boys are sick and there is a big snow storm coming.

When she puts the pretty logo on the new site, she is inspired to do something different.

Which leads her to another night of graphics shopping.

Now, sleep deprived, she decides to completely redesign the site.

Happy with what she is seeing, she realizes she needs new business cards.

She decided to buy a bunch of other branded crap she doesn’t need while she was sucked into the Vista Print sales.

Then she remembered that in order to really re-brand she would have to create a new timeline template and twitter background.

Which sent her template shopping.

While she was there she realized her slider frames suck.

So she bought some more.

And you know, when a digital mom buys a new graphic, she might as well give up the ambien…..

Click through to see what I have been up to...

 

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