Welcome to the Monday Mashup – your week in review for all things Photographers Connection!
While you were busy finding your favorite salsa and guacamole recipes to bring to your Cinco de Mayo celebration (check out some fiesta worthy recipes here!) we were showing you how to become a blogging master with BlogStomp and were getting carried away with the idea of creating styled shoots. Feeling bad that you missed it? No worries - we’re here to fill you in on all that awesomeness you may have missed last week! Olé!
SOCIAL MEDIA STORY OF THE WEEK
Heather always knows how to make us laugh! She didn’t disappoint with the post she shared, poking fun at the dreaded situation where someone you know expects you to shoot their session for free! You guys shared this one over 400 times – whoa!
Post by Photographers Connection.
ON THE BLOGGITY BLOG LAST WEEK
Anna offered up a priceless tip you can’t afford to miss. Did you see it? BlogStomp is a lifesaver that will make blogging a cake walk (for real!). Learn all about this amazing tool, and find out how you can get a free trial by reading Anna’s insightful post here! PS- you will also find out about our awesome free series that will walk you through building a brilliant blog!
I spend about as much time looking at beautiful styled shoots on Pinterest as I spend thinking about Starbucks (I gave up my latte’s 7 weeks ago, so I think about it A LOT *tear*) and while I know so many of you can relate, I also know the idea of putting together a shoot of your own can seem a little far fetched. Check out my post on styled shoots for some great resources that will have people pinning your images in no time!
BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU SO…
Don’t forget- Mother’s Day is this weekend! Celebrate the special lady in your life with these easy to order gift ideas!
Shari’s Berries: because seriously, who doesn’t like chocolate covered strawberries?! Don’t forget the coupon code mentioned on the home page!
Betsy Farmer Design: I love this shop on Etsy, Betsy makes the best hand stamped jewelry! Your mom (grandma, best friend, whoever!) will love this!
Spa Finder: Spa gift cards, no explanation needed.
Teleflora: My favorite movie scene is in The Break-Up, when Jennifer Aniston is tearing into Vince Vaughn and mentions he never brings her flowers, puzzled, he shouts that when they started dating she said she didn’t even like flowers because they were a waste of money. She looks at him like he’s a total idiot and explains “every girl likes flowers, Gary”!
One gift that would likely mean more than any of these others, a family photo session! Book a session with a local photographer so that they can capture the entire clan, and order your favorite on a canvas! Or, if you have siblings, do a session with them (and their families, if they have their own) and surprise mom with a canvas from that session!
BEHIND THE SCENES – YOUR ALL ACCESS PASS
We are absolutely thrilled with the amount of enrollments that poured in for The Lightroom Lush and The Photoshop Fanatic! Seriously, the photography world is about to be filled with so many new editing geniuses! Thank you to everyone that entered our giveaways and enrolled in the courses, we are so glad that you decided to come learn with us! If you missed your chance to sign up, don’t worry! We will be launching the courses again in the fall (just in time for you to add the course of your choice to your holiday wish list!).
Our crazy behind the scenes work isn’t over, we’re gearing up to launch Kickin Auto this month! We’ve gotten a ton of emails along the lines of “these editing courses look awesome, but I need to learn how to work my camera first! Plleaaaseeeee offer Kickin Auto soon!” and we’re happy to report that enrollment will be open May 22nd! We’ll be running a giveaway May 9th – 17th, so keep your good luck charm handy and be on the lookout for that announcement on Friday!
IN OTHER NEWS…
Please excuse this little PSA. This may not have been breaking news in your neck of the woods and sadly, it wasn’t exactly a shocking surprise story here in Chicago either. Over the weekend, a drunk driver crossed into oncoming traffic on a local expressway and crashed into a taxi, killing a 26 year old woman and seriously injuring the 24 year old man in the cab with her. The drunk driver was more than twice over the legal limit (he’d supposedly had 5 or 6 drinks) and the occupants of the taxi cab weren’t wearing their seat belts. We hear stories like this far too often, and for some reason, this one has been haunting me. Please, I beg of you, don’t drive if you’ve been drinking. I can’t say I haven’t had a couple margaritas and drove home, feeling ok and totally capable, but the fact of the matter is you just can’t afford to take the chance. My main squeeze never wears a seat belt, ever, and it makes me crazy. Promise you’ll wear yours, no matter what, each time, ok?
Phew, now that that is out of the way, check out these Photoshop Fails, courtesy of E! Online! I have slowly but surely gone from thinking singer Lorde was dreadfully obnoxious to having her performance be my most anticipated act at Lollapalooza this summer, and I love that she called out media outlets for photoshopping her nose and acne, because she thought her “flaws” were perfectly ok!