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MetaBlogging

Making a photo post GREAT

Three weeks ago, I gave a couple tips on making photo posts—and then I turned the mic over to you for your input on making photo posts GREAT. Here’s some of the collective wisdom of MamaBlogga readers!:

from the original post, seconded by readers in the comments:

Resize your pictures before uploading them
Figure out how wide your post column is and in a photo editor, resize the image to fit. It looks a lot better than making your browser resize them. And if you make your pictures too wide (post them exactly as they come off your camera, for example), they can break your blog or your readers’ feed readers. We’re probably not going to scroll side-to-side to see pictures of your kids. Sorry.

(Exceptions: if you upload photos to Flickr or Photobucket and they make some good looking, smaller versions, or if you use Blogger. They resize them to look good pretty consistently.)

Reader MamaBugs concurred:

Resizing is vastly important! So is arranging the photos neatly so they don’t seem like they just thrown in the post.

Use pictures in “regular” posts
This is a principle I know (but usually don’t apply) from my professional blogging (i.e. not MamaBlogga), and yet I hadn’t really thought about applying it in the “momblogosphere.” Several readers pointed out the advantages to this method:
Christy:

My favorite posts are those with photos. I have over 150 blogs in my reader and if there are no photos, I often will just skim the text to see if it catches my eye.

Deb, Mom of 3 girls:

I like seeing posts with pictures – I definitely prefer those to ones with just one long paragraph of text. For my own posts, I usually try to either add in funny captions or stick to one topic or event in each post to help with the onslaught of photos…

And warillever gives some great examples:

. . . I can recommend one mommy blog that uses pictures extremely well — Notes from the Trenches. Chris makes liberal use of pictures both as an accent to her textual posts and as the meat of other posts. Even her photo posts, however, include humorous captions that capture the essence of the action.

Look at her Easter (I Hope You Dance) or American Idol (Geeks Gone Wild) for evidence.

Incorporate pictures into your posts
This dovetails with both of the above points and comments. Don’t just throw some pictures into your posts and hope they’ll fit; resize them so that they’ll fit where you want them and arrange them nicely.

Typical conventions for using images in posts are “smaller” pictures (ones that don’t take up most of your horizontal post space) aligned to the right or left with relevant text wrapping around them and larger images breaking up the text, usually centered, and sometimes with captions underneath them.

And, of course, key in incorporating your images with your posts is making them relevant to one another. Some topics (like our kids 😉 ) would seem incomplete without some sort of photo reference. This doesn’t mean you have to write a post describing exactly what’s going on in the photo; you can use your imagination (and humorous captions) to make even a tenuous connection.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been making an effort to do better with this; see my post from last week Crazy talk for an example of all these conventions.

If I may say so, I’m particularly proud of that post because it gave me an opportunity to incorporate cute pictures and talk about some of the cute things Hayden’s been doing lately. I’m reluctant to post about both of these topics sometimes because I don’t know if most of my readers are really interested in Hayden’s little (mis)adventures. However, I thought (and I hope you agreed!) that the format of the post, and the pictures, helped to make the post more enjoyable all ’round.

Any more photo post advice?


Note that I still have two coupons for free professional photo montages—see the giveaway post for details, and leave a comment there to enter.

More tips from Works-for-me Wednesday

Categories
Contests

Giveaway: one free professional photo montage

I’ll confess: I’m a terrible mom. I have never, ever gotten professional portraits of my son. As part of my birthday gift last week, my mother (and sisters and brother-in-law) absconded with Hayden (and Marty) while I was at dinner and got professional portraits made. Since they’re copyrighted, I can’t post full-sized images, but here are the thumbnails from the website (fair use!):

thumbnail of professional portraits, 26 months

Can I just say that these are ridiculously cute? Not having been there during the shoot (or ever before), I’m absolutely amazed at what the photographer got Hayden to do.

Now, here comes the good part: I have four coupons to give away for a free 8×12 Perfect Treasure photo montage.

To be eligible, you must be a first-time customer to Kiddie Kandids (ie, you’ve never been there before). Please check their website or call 1-888-503-5336 to make sure that there’s a studio near you before signing up. The offer expires 17 May 2008 (hello Mother’s Day gift!). And warning: adorable photos of your children are addicting.

To get a coupon for a free 8×12 photo montage, leave a comment on this post before Monday, 14 April 2008*. If more than four people sign up, I’ll have a random drawing for the four winners. Please do not leave your mailing address here—I’ll contact the winners via email to get a mailing address.

* UPDATE: As of 15 April, I still have two certificates to give away—sign up before Thursday, 16 April 2008 for a chance to win!

Yes, I get something out of this if you use the coupon (AKA “Referral certificate”), but my mom didn’t remember what that was. And knowing me, by the time I get around to using it, it’ll have expired. So, hey, take a free photo. They’re adorable.

Categories
Kids/Parenting

Crazy talk

Hayden’s at the age where he learns new words every day. Here are some of the latest additions to his vocabulary:

With my parents and most of my sisters around all last week, I got called by my first name a lot more than normal—enough that Hayden started calling me “Dordee,” and especially “Mom—Mom—Dordee.” (Don’t worry, he doesn’t really know what he’s doing; today when I asked him what my name was, he said it was “Haydie.”)


Yesterday I went in to get him up from his nap and he was jumping in his crib. He looked at me and said “kay see” several times, then shook his head wildly.

Hayden and his upside down trick, 26 months

It took me a minute to figure out that he was saying “crazy.” Which is usually one of the first things I say to him when he wakes up in one of these (wonderful, entertaining) manic moods.


This morning, we were in the grocery store and I sad, “Oh man!” Hayden repeated his version, something between “Oh men!” and “Oh min!” And then he added something that—I swear—sounded like “Bite me.” No idea where that one came from.


Today we were sitting in my room and he started gathering up loose clothes and papers from around the room, stuffing them into an empty box. As he did so, he would burst out with “Eee op! Eee op!” Luckily, I know the words to that song: “Clean up.”


I worky!Hayden’s newest favorite hobby is a bit alarming to me. He hops up in front of any available computer, starts playing with the mouse and keyboard and proclaims “I worky!” He is very devoted to his profession (whatever that is; probably something as nebulous as mine).

I promise, I really don’t work that much while he’s awake. I’ve been a bit worse lately about working while he’s awake, with him so obsessed with Blue’s Clues and all, but this? This is dedication.

Categories
Kids/Parenting Fulfillment Contests

Savor the seasons of motherhood

I have to be honest. While spring is my favorite season of the year, it didn’t really have much to do with my choice of the GWP theme for March/April. Instead, the theme was inspired by a quotation, source long since lost, that a good friend’s mother shared with her:

Wise is the woman who cherishes each season
and cheerfully anticipates the next.

My friend shared this quotation during a lesson in church on having patience. Most of us in the room were mothers, many with young children—and I think we all recognized the very common human tendency to want to rush or move on through the difficult times of parenting.

Focusing solely on the future, the next season of our lives, robs many of us of the joy of today. We dwell on the difficulties that bedevil us now: lack of sleep, kids’ eating problems, overwhelming amounts of housework, lack of time with our children and/or spouse, kids’ tantrums, and on and on. We could all likely spend hours listing the things about motherhood that leave us dissatisfied. For me, at least, after I’ve done that, all I’m left with is dissatisfaction.

When I stop brooding over the “bad” parts of motherhood, however, suddenly my charge is less of a chore. When I look at the cute and sweet things that my son already does, when I marvel at the ways he’s grown and continues to grow every day, I don’t think about the drudgery that it was.

arty b/w photo of Hayden at 26 months

Perhaps hindsight is 20/20; perhaps memory is blind. But as I look back over Hayden’s brief life, my chief regret (aside, possibly, from mildly spoiling him 😉 ) is not enjoying him more, even during the difficult times.

So today, I’ll savor the season. Today, I will do the work of motherhood, and I will choose to be happy. Tomorrow I’ll be able to look back with fond memories of the time I spent today. And I’ll be ready for the challenges—and joys—that tomorrow will surely bring.

Categories
MetaBlogging

Making a photo post

Sigh. Every so often, I gather up a bunch of pictures of Hayden and post them. Let’s face it: this can be like being caught in an elevator with an overeager parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or other relative, armed with the seven hundred most recent pictures of their beloved child. Mom bloggers do this probably more than most other bloggers.

Maybe the best photo posts are “real” posts with photos that go with them. I always feel like no one will be that interested in my pictures, unless they’re really funny.

So today I’m going to your collaboration in creating a “blogging tutorial.” As a reader, what do you think makes a photo post good? What makes it less like the caught-in-the-elevator scenario I imagined above? As a blogger, what makes them easier for you to do?

Here are some of my thoughts, please add yours!

Put it in context
We’ve all heard it: a picture is worth a thousand words. In high school, I was reading a book about the Vietnam War and was struck by the commentary on a very famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photo. The text read something to the effect that photographs can’t stand alone. You need words to tell you what happened before and after, to put the photo into context. Because out of context, pictures (like words) don’t mean anything.

Your context doesn’t have to detail how everything happened to get to that point—though if the picture isn’t fairly obvious, some explanation of what’s going on (and what we’re supposed to see) could help. Otherwise, your context can be as short as a silly comment about the photo (but try to let us see why you’ve chosen that photo in particular).

Make it funny, cute, or both
We’re moms. We can appreciate cute pictures of cute kids. We can appreciate funny pictures of funny kids. Funny comments can help, too.

Make it unexpected
The pictures I can’t wait to post are the ones of Hayden doing surprising things: wearing his shirt around his waist, wearing Mr. Potato Head’s glasses, etc.

Make it not too long
I’m very guilty of this one: I wait so long to post pictures (because I figure no one’s interested) that I stuff 8 or 10 or more pictures into a photo post. As if forcing more pictures on you would make you happier to look at them all. I still envision most of my readers as the victims in my elevator, backed into a corner, nodding politely and mentally vowing to take the stairs for the rest of forever.

Resize your pictures before uploading them
Figure out how wide your post column is and in a photo editor, resize the image to fit. It looks a lot better than making your browser resize them. And if you make your pictures too wide (post them exactly as they come off your camera, for example), they can break your blog or your readers’ feed readers. We’re probably not going to scroll side-to-side to see pictures of your kids. Sorry.

(Exceptions: if you upload photos to Flickr or Photobucket and they make some good looking, smaller versions, or if you use Blogger. They resize them to look good pretty consistently.)


Maybe the best photo posts are still “real” posts with photos that go with them. What do you think? What makes you enjoy photo posts more? What tips do you have for making them easier to do?

Categories
Kids/Parenting

Fashion maven

My son makes the most interesting sartorial choices. This doesn’t include earlier this week when he unzipped his pajamas and pulled his legs out of them—quite a sight to see the boy jumping in his crib, pajamas flying, when I walked in his room that day!

Hayden is convinced that this is a hat:
oh, is that a hat now?
They could double as swim trunks. No comment on which is their intended purpose. But Hayden’s expression there reminds me of this guy:
commander keen slug

And today, when he woke up from his nap, Ryan called out for me to see him like this:
hooray for dressing myself
That would be his shirt around his waist.