August Photo Challenge Theme - Sunshine

Since I had such a great response to July's photo challenge (and on such short notice), I thought it'd be fun to try again this month and give you all a little more time to get that perfect shot. 

Because August is the last official full month of summer, this month's theme is:

Here's how this will work:

ONE - Get out your camera and play around with it!  Make sure to keep the theme SUNSHINE in mind when taking your photos and then get to shooting.  Take 4,396 photos!  The whole point of this challenge is to get you to feel more comfortable with your camera and the best way to do that is to experiment.  Why not?  It's digital and if they all suck, you can just erase them.  What do you have to lose?  

TWO - Pick your favorite photo (only one) and submit it in the link-up that will be up on the blog on Monday, August 26 (closing that Wednesday evening).  That means you've got two full weeks to find a photo (that you took, duh) that you love and fits the SUNSHINE theme.  It doesn't have to be one that you've taken recently, but it'd be great if it was.  

Feel free to get creative with the theme.  Maybe you've got a photo with amazing sun flare and beautiful beams of light.  Maybe it's sunshine coming into a dark room through an open window.  Maybe a photo of a beautiful sunset at the beach or light coming down through the leaves of trees in the woods.  Maybe it's just a photo of your adorable kid playing in the sun in the front yard.  Anything goes! 

(Psst: there may also be a fun tutorial here on the blog within the next couple days that should go perfectly with this theme...stay tuned)

THREE - I (along with help) will pick the winner by the end of the month.  This month I have TWO incredibly AWESOME prizes for the winner, so I hope you'll be extra enticed to play along.  Two of my favorite Etsy vendors have graciously donated some kick-ass photography related prizes that I know you are going to want.  

The August photo challenge winner will receive: 

1. your choice of any of these amazing necklaces from 

Make Pie Not War

(initial, ampersand, heart, bow or (my personal favorite) a CAMERA necklace)

2. a gift certificate to create custom thank you postcards from

 Snow & Ivy

(perfect for sending all those thank yous for birthday gifts, showers, etc.)

Seriously, how awesome are these prizes?!  

A big, giant huge thanks to Make Pie Not War and Snow & Ivy for being so generous and just plain freaking awesome.  

I hope you'll get out your camera and play along.  

I can't wait to see your photos this month!  

Let the sun shine!