There has been a disturbing incident. We suspect .. no, we've CONFIRMED "fowl" play.



Some innocent rubber ducks have found themselves in the middle of a crisis.
It's not their fault, and if my demands are met, they'll be fine.

Remember the huge canvas we saw on Oprah earlier this month?

Well, those canvas folks of mine have gotten a bit too big for their britches lately.
Who can blame them!? They were on OPRAH for crying out loud!
But they needed a quick jerk back into reality.

So I nabbed some of their beloved ducks.

I'm not ashamed to say it. I ducknapped their precious quackers.

They need to show me and my clients some love if they want to see
their duckies returned unharmed.

My demand is simple.

A one-day sale unlike anything ever seen before. THIS FRIDAY.
If they agree to my demands, they'll get their duckies back,
everyone will be happy, and my clients will have the chance
to get some AWESOME deals on beautiful canvas!

If they decide to blow me off.... well, the duckies will suffer.
And I'll start with that bunny. Molly loves those plastic ears.

~Carey

At the last Mom's workshop someone asked me at lunch,
"What photographers do admire?"

There are SO many great photographers! How do I narrow that down?
But the FIRST photographers that came to mind are the guys from Tri-Coast.

They're a 3-man team who do AMAZING work with off-camera flash, lights, and COLOR.
I hardly ever work with lights & flashes, and the work these guess pull off is AMAZING!

They're in the "Champagne Shootout" at WPPI next month,
and since they were in San Diego this past weekend, I called them up and offered to
take them out to dinner. On 30-minutes' notice, they were on board! YAY!

We went to The Yard House downtown, and Melissa Perkins of Just Hatched Photography
(the workshop hostess) came along for dinner, too.
She creates STUNNING maternity & newborn portraits!!
Check her out if you need newborn or maternity photos!

It was a great night of fun, laughing, talking, and more laughing.

Here we all are:

from left to right:
Mike, Me, Jordan (post-processing master & the "detail man" of tri-coast, and apparantly a goofball),
Melissa, and her hubby... and Suzy, Mike's woman, was with us via txt messages.

I'm sure there will be LOTS more silliness like this (but on a much bigger scale) in Vegas!

~Carey

This family was on vacation here in San Diego from the FRIGID Mid-West,
and they caught the LAST San Diego Sunshine before all of this nasty icky winter
BLAHHHH weather set in. (GO AWAY, ALL READY, Mr. WINTER!!!)

This couple wanted some pictures together, but they didn't seem like the type
to stroll along the beach dreamily hand-in-hand, so I said,
"Hop on his back pigee-back style! THEN RUN THRU THE WATER!"
(I was 1/2 joking, just giving them kooky ideas)
They looked at each other, smiled mischievous smiles, and DID IT!
I had to concentrate HARD on taking pictures because I was laughing so hard!
That's my new AB workout for sure, and it's much more fun than crunches anyway!



And what do you do when BOTH kids want a pigee-back ride at the same time?
SUPERDAD to the rescue!



Enjoy!

~Carey

For a while now, I've been working on building up MyFUNCamera.com into a place where people
can go to learn more about having FUN with their cameras.

The "Pocket Guides" have been a huge success, and I'm thrilled that those guides
are helping so many people unlock themselves from "MANUAL" mode on their cameras!

But that site and the Pocket Guides were just the beginning!
There needed to be a place where people can come together and talk all about
the FUN of cameras and taking pictures.



After many weeks of setup, long nights of programming, and (ugh) more gray hairs,
the MyFUNCamera Community is ready for you!

This is a place JUST for talk about photography.

Pro photographers are welcome! But you WILL NOT find any topics about
tax software, insurance, business practices, client relations, NONE OF IT!
(Doesn't that sound refreshing already?!)

Hobbyist photographers are welcome!

This community is all about the fun we have taking pictures and making them
into something special for ourselves and our families.

You'll find a "Welcome" section, where I give you a little video tour of the place,
and you can see all of the sections there, although you won't be able to access
ALL of the areas until you've registered and purchased a subscription.

There are sections for sharing your favorite photos, a critiquing section if you want
to really know what others think about your work, computer chit chat, gear talk,
and places where you can discuss your favorite places to make prints, gifts, and keepsakes.

The VIDEO TUTORIALS section is really fun! I'll share screen-capture videos,
showing you how I work on images, tricks I use, Photoshop shortcuts, and fun little
real-live click-by-click demonstrations. My goal is to add a new video tutorial
with every Barefoot Memories session that I work on, so this section will grow into
something very fun!

You can also sign up for PRIVATE ONLINE MENTORING once you're a community member!
I'll have 10 students per month, with assignments, lots of Q&A, discussion, and fun discussion!

AND here's what I'm most excited about:
THERE WILL BE A MONTHLY PHOTO CONTEST, with VERY COOL PRIZES!
Once you're a member, you can enter the monthly contest for a chance to
win some great stuff! The folks at Mpix have pitched in the prize for the very first contest:
A HARD COVER BOOK, any size they offer, up to 50 pages, with a custom cover!
I've assembled a group of fabulous judges that will narrow down the entries to FIVE finalists,
those finalists will each get a fun prize, and the winner will be chosen from those five finalists.

I've got prizes for the following months all lined up, too, and BELIEVE ME,
YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!!!

Are you ready to start talking all about the fun of taking pictures!?
Have you ever started to join a photo sharing site but were overwhelmed
by the enormity of the photo communities out there on the web?!
The MyFUNCameraCommunity is waiting for you!
I've started most of the topics to get them going, but this place is ready to be filled up
with pictures and discussion from people just like you -- people who just want to
have fun talking about pictures and photography!

Enjoy, and I'll see you there!

~Carey

I was working on a topic for the MyFUNCamera Community,
writing all about how I work & what's on my desk.

There I sat, typing away, describing what I saw in front of me,
and I realized it would be a WHOLE lot more efficient and descriptive
to just (gasp! what a concept!) TAKE A PICTURE.

So that's what I did! I grabbed my little point and shoot Canon,
and I snapped this picture:



I thought it would be fun to let you guess what everything is.
Anything got you stumped?

You can peek at the answers if you like -- just like we used to do back in school,
peeking at the back of the book for those cherished answers
to the odd-numbered questions. There's a blast from the past!
If you want to see the answers, they're on the MyFUNCamera Community
under "Photo Talk", then "Computers..."

Of course, you'll have to be a Community Member to see those answers.
I think it would be fun to guess the stuff BEFORE you go peek at the answers, though.
Even if you're not a member, let me know what your guesses are and what's got you stumped!
Post a comment on the blog with your most creative guesses, just for kicks & giggles.

I'll post the answers on the blog in a few days, too, so you can see, even if
you're not a community member (but you'll be missing out on the rest of the fun, so
why not just join!?)

Happy Guessing!

~Carey