Today is the day we announce a handful of winners! You might be one of them!

Let’s start with the Vacation Photo Contest! The winner is Jennifer Caplinger’s image; Welcoming Grandma and Grandpa!!

Jennifer, I know that ALL your Seattle Sistas are freaking out right now! I’m so proud of you for taking a deep breath and pushing the SEND button! You have an incredible eye, and I love that your not just hearing it from me but hundreds of voters! A BIG HUG girl!!! Click on JENNIFER to see her blog!

I want to thank all the TOP FIVE Finalists for submitting your work. I can’t tell you how many emails I got telling me how inspired people were by your images. Not only did people vote, but they emailed me too b/c they loved seeing your creative eye! So thank you for risking yourselves and sharing so much of you with all of us. It has been a honor to host your powerful, wonderful images.

WINNER #2

The next winner is the Random Voter Award! Okay, I know we didn’t make our goal of 750 votes. We almost made 600, and the other thing, is we collected MORE votes than we ever have for a photo contest. I could FEEL all of you trying so hard to get the vote count up there. And even though we didn’t make the 750 count, I still think we all deserve to give the Sony Cybershot Camera away. Don’t you!! I read your comments on the Top Five Finalists, and I’m so proud to be a part of such a great community. I think we all deserve to give that camera away! GIVE THAT CAMERA AWAY! 🙂

The lucky Random Voter who gets the Sony Cybershot camera is….Colleen! This was her vote;

Me Ra, You do an incredible job of choosing finalists…the top 5 always take my breath away…I can’t imagine how you go through them all and choose, nevertheless, I LOVE your choices…

I think this contest is the hardest for me to choose though…I like little things about each one…#1 tells such a story #2 just makes you want to stare at it all day #3 makes me laugh out loud #4 makes me cry and #5 gets me all hot and sticky!!

My choice this time is #2 though…it’s one I want to enlarge and put on my wall it’s just sooooo beautiful!

Good luck to you all!!!

And the fun doesn’t end! Colleen has a great blog that I checked out! Take a look! Colleen, thank you for VOTING!! Girl, you won the Sony Cybershot camera! Email us your shipping address at gina@fioria.us, and Gina will tie a ribbon around it and ship it off this week!

WINNER #3

The last winner is for the Washington DC, Running On Empty Contest! As many of you know, we save ONE spot in every workshop for a mom Running On Empty. Every workshop, we invite people to nominate their friends, wives, sisters, daughters, themselves. The winner is given the last seat to the workshop at no expense. Brian and I don’t pick the winner. This would be way to hard. Instead, we host the opportunity. The winner is often picked by former winners, and or a group of select women. Without further delay, the winner to the upcoming DC workshop is AILEEN REILLY!

Below is Aileen’s heartfelt submission;

My favorite part of photography is the honesty – the raw emotions, the unguarded glances, the moments. I’m an observer. I see life in pictures – a snapshot here, a snapshot there. I have been carrying a camera for as long as I can remember, at least since I was 10, and that gives me 30 years of capturing life. Photography is my passion. It is something I have always done, and like life once you have children, I can’t truly recall a time when I didn’t have a camera. It is just what I do. I am an artist and a photographer. People invite me into their homes and to their special occasions, to see their lives, to peer into their eyes and to see a part of their souls. The least I can do is share a part of myself as well.

I grew up without knowing my father. When I was six, he signed off on having any legal rights to me as a father. With the stroke of a judge’s pen, I was fatherless. To a little girl, this was the ultimate rejection. But I’m a survivor, and life goes on. I grew up and went on to graduate from law school. I took a job as a criminal prosecutor, my dream job. I love criminal law. Much like photography and capturing raw moments, in criminal law I was able to see humanity from one extreme to another. Eventually I settled into the S * x u a l Assault Unit – r a p e cases, i n c 3 s t, domestic violence r a p e, etc. The work was emotionally challenging, but there is no greater satisfaction than providing a moment of justice for a rape survivor. I treasure every “Thank You,” and every survivor remains in my heart to this day.

Two years ago (ten years after my job as a criminal prosecutor ended), my mom told me that my father never knew his father either (father-issues are a continuing theme in my life). His mother (my grandmother) was raped by a stranger in the park at the age of 16. She chose to keep the baby (my father). The rapist was never captured. I never knew any of this. That rapist’s granddaughter grew up to prosecute rapists. Imagine that. Fate, Divine Providence, Karma – call it what you will. It is that same fate that I believe has brought your wonderful conference to DC at a time when I need it the most.

I left my job as a criminal prosecutor and went on to have children. I now have four – three girls (9, 8, and 6) and one boy (2 ½). I gave up my law career, and I stay home full time with them, struggling to ground them spiritually, to educate them, and at the same time, trying not to lose myself in the process

At New Years this year, I made myself a list. Not a resolution list – I don’t really do those. Rather, it was a list of four specific areas o
f my life I wanted to focus on and my goals for each of those areas. Of course, photography was one of those areas. My goals are to continue developing my skills, take the camera off “auto,” study and teach myself exposure, lighting, proper composition, reading histograms, with an eye toward 2010 when I plan to go pro with my skills. In my notes, I listed “MeRa Workshop – 2010?” I’m in Washington, DC (though formerly I lived in Seattle) and I knew that to attend one of your West Coast workshops would be a great expense to us, but also a great creative opportunity for me. I wanted to plan for it.

Unfortunately, shortly after writing my list of goals, unemployment hit our family. My husband lost his job, along with too many in the rest of our country. Our situation is not unique, and I know this. I can look back and see what happened, but I didn’t realize while I was in the throes. As my husband worked wholeheartedly to find a new job, he needed constant access to our laptop. However, the laptop was also the valve for my creativity. That’s where my writing was done, that’s where I viewed all the photos I’d taken and where I edited them, that’s where I wrote my blog, that’s where I posted photos for others to see and to receive feedback. As a SAHM, too often, that’s where I interacted with other adults.

Slowly, I stopped picking up my camera. It was not a conscious decision, it just happened. I stopped writing. For someone whose camera is virtually a third arm, this was debilitating. I would look at my camera and think about picking her up, but I didn’t see the point. She became unknown to me, a relationship that had lost its communication and I didn’t know how to bridge that gap. My creative energy suffered, and I suffered. Looking back, I can see I was slowly losing part of myself.

And then an angel appeared. Circumstances put me in touch with an acquaintance with a similar love of photography. This acquaintance would not have been made otherwise; I have no doubt that it was destined to occur. An angel saw me suffering and wanted to put me back on the right track. It worked. I saw my acquaintance (now friend) taking great photos and wanted to share my work too. It reminded me that I take great photos too. Slowly, I picked up my camera again. I started shooting in full manual and I was back on track. I started staying up very late so I could view my photos and so I could go back to interacting with my on-line photog community. I was rejuvenated. I was breathing again, and I realized how essential photography is to my life – to me being me.

And then, the unbelievable happened. On June 17th, you announced your next workshop would be in Washington, DC. Imagine! My stars were aligning. On that very same day, my husband received a job offer. No kidding. It was destiny. Can it get any better? I’m going! Yay! But, reality set in – We are a family of six who has been living without income for 7 months. We have exhausted our savings. We have used credit cards in circumstances we normally would not have. We have borrowed from family. And then borrowed more. Is that possible? I am so grateful we have such a generous and giving extended family. Without them, we would have been out on the streets, but it may take years to repay.

Reality set in: No, I would not be attending MeRa’s Workshop. That day, I cried. A lot. I don’t know what got into me, because I’m not really a crier. I’ve been through a lot in my life, and I think I’ve just learned to stop it all up. But that day, I cried. I hid my tears from my family. I took two showers that day so I could be alone with the tears streaming down my face.

MeRa, I am Running on Empty. I feel beaten down and exhausted. This year has pushed and stretched me in ways I could not have foreseen. Sometimes I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin. It’s hard for me to admit this. There is a part of me that thinks, It’s life; you get through. I’ve always gotten through. But, this time, I’m asking for help. I’ve been taking care of others for 10 years now. I need a break before I find myself broken again, losing myself. I need that weekend – the skills, the encouragement, the confidence-building, the time to myself. And just as that rapist’s granddaughter grew up to prosecute rapists, I believe that fate has sent you to my door for a reason.

Thank you for considering me for the Running On Empty gift. I know every mom nominated is worthy. Thank you for considering me.

Aileen
6reillys (at) gmail (dot) com
PS. I have to apologize for the multiple submissions if they ever post – I believe it was the words describing my prosecution background that got caught up in the spam filter.

Aileen, Brian and I are excited to meet you. What a honor to have you join the DC group. You have not given up, and I’m so excited for you to come and be refreshed, inspired and discover a new support group. We are counting the days!

Please join me in congratulating this beautiful woman, along with the other contest winners!

And the BIGGEST thank you to all our blog readers. I hope you never underestimate how much I appreciate you and your involvement on this blog. Your contributions, comments, emails to me, all of it, makes this blog what it is.

xoxo, Me Ra

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Here are the DVDs Michelle Riddle referred to in her interview yesterday! Our DVDs recently won the GOLD award from NAPPA! Check them out and have a BLAST! Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box, plus our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice

We still spots open in our upcoming October Minneapolis Workshop! The Minneapolis Workshop is off to a FANTASTIC start! In the first 24 hrs. we were almost half full! I can’t wait to meet these beautiful women! Want to join us? If you register before August 31st, you get 20% off!! To find out more details and get yourself a spot, CLICK HERE!

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