I have three Guest Judges who will be helping me choose Favorites for August 2010 Photo Hunt:  Samara, Kaye and Rian.  Each of the Guest Judges and myself will pick Favorites for 5 different items/categories on the list.  We will be going through all participant entries during the first week of September and will be posting our favorites shortly thereafter. A separate post will be dedicated to each item on the list with a poll to vote for your favorite of each.  ONLY PHOTOS TAKEN DURING THE MONTH OF August 2010 ARE CONSIDERED FOR FAVORITES.  If you included any photos from your archives ( two maximum are allowed), you must state that when you post the photo!!!  Hopefully everyone labeled each photo file in the following manner: Yourname-category.jpg (ex: kristi-something musical.jpg).  It makes it so much easier to choose favorites when we don’t have to manually type it in for you.  Don’t worry about this if you use Flickr, as Flickr will assign a random 20-30 character name to your files and we will have to rename those anyway.

Looking forward to seeing all the entries! Thanks for to those who participated!

1. Hilarious Out-Takes by ??

2. Creative Crop by Nathalie

3. Sun Flare by Dancing Matilda

4. Sweet Dreams by Christy

5. Work by Tanya

6. Play by Dancing Matilda

7. Cookout/Picnic by Samara

8. Transportation by Dancing Matilda

9. Money/Currency by JanuJennifer

10. A Fountain by Nukke

11. A Night Scene by Kristie

12. B&W with Selective Coloring by Alita

13. Something Old by Rob

14. Something New by Stefani

15. Something Borrowed by Stefani

16. Something Blue by Alita

17. Something Musical by Samara

18. Something Purple by Shannie

19. Something Yellow by Nancy

20. Something Scenic by Alita

A Different Point of View by Damaniac

A Perspective Shot by Rianpie

Touch by Stefani

Taste by Damaniac

Sight by Rianpie

Sound by Rachel

Smell by Mom24

Sign of Spring (or autumn) by Damaniac

Flowers by Rachel

A letter formed/found in nature by Carly

Trio by Becky S

Fish by Ang

Water by Colleen

Skyward by Mal

Mother Earth by Nukke

Something Rare by Samara

Something Healthy by Rachel

Something Colorful by Desiree

Something Spicy by Rachel

Something Triangular by Shannie

Finding heart-shaped clouds is very challenging, hopefully someone out there has seen one this month!!

I was recently contacted by someone close to me who has been following and supporting our Photo Hunt Challenges since the beginning with the following story:

“One of the families at my daughter’s school recently lost their son (Vincent) to Rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of cancer on June 9.  He was 7.  They had also lost their daughter (Annabella) a few years ago to Leigh’s Disease which is a mitochondrial disorder, she was 6 months old.  I have been following their story since hearing about Vincent’s battle.  I was hoping that maybe you can include 2 items in the photo hunt challenge – butterflies and heart shaped clouds in their remembrance.

The reason being, after Annabella passed away, they started seeing butterflies everywhere.  They constantly had butterflies at their door and around them when they were out and about.  The family said that Annabella was sending them butterflies to let them know that she was there and Vincent loved that.  Before Vincent passed, his mother asked him what things he would send when he went to heaven and Vincent said, heart shaped clouds.  At the time, his mother couldn’t remember ever seeing a heart shaped cloud, and after he passed away, she was sitting with their daughter, Sofi, and was telling her that Vincent went to heaven, and Sofi looked out the window and saw a heart shaped cloud.  Since then, she sees them pretty regularly.”

So get your cameras ready and please be on the lookout for butterflies and heart-shaped clouds during the month of August!  We will be sending a link of all the photos from these categories to the family of these two little angels who were taken way too young….

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to those of you who have participated in any or all of the last eight photo hunt challenges, and welcome to those of you who are here for the first time. August 2010 brings with it a new list of categories for you and your camera to explore. So, let’s get started.

1. A flag that represents you (your town, state, country, team, etc.)
2. Something comfortable
3. Something in season
4. Feet
5. Repetition
6. Culture or ethnicity
7. Contrast
8. An indulgence
9. A macro or closeup
10. Something masculine
11. Something feminine
12. Light
13. Eco-friendly
14. Business
15. An arrow
16. Something wet
17. Something dry
18. Butterflies*
19. Heart-Shaped Clouds*
20. Strength

* Please read the explanation on why these categories were included in this photo hunt challenge.

Photos should be taken between August 1st and August 31st. You may use a maximum of two photos from your archives — as long as they were taken within the past year — if you find yourself stuck on the 31st without having a photo for a category or two. You ARE allowed (and encouraged!) to use Photoshop or other photo-editing software as you’d like (it often adds to the artistic quality of the photo).

It is up to you whether you post your photos on your blog as you go or wait until September 1st to unveil them and make it a surprise. Either way, each of you should put all 20 photos in one single blog post or in a single online gallery by September 4th. Please label each photo file in the following manner: Yourname-category.jpg (ex: kristi-something musical.jpg).

A new post will go up here at photohuntchallenges.com on September 1st. I will be using a Linky Tools auto-link widget like the one below for participants to link their entries. Anyone who completes the August 2010 Photo Hunt will need to add their name & the URL permalink of where their Photo Hunt photos are posted. Everyone who adds their name to the auto-link will have their photos considered for the Favorites. Three guest judges and I will each judge five of the categories. We will be going through all of the participants’ entries, and will post our favorite photos for each of the 2o items on the list in a separate blog post with a poll for each. Please note that we will not include archived photos in my favorites (it hardly seems fair!). Anyone who votes is encouraged to vote based on their favorite photo, not just for a particular photographer. Voting is also open to anyone and everyone. The polls are open for up to one month from the time they are created and will be posted throughout the month of September. After all polls are closed, I will compile the photos of all the winners and will display them here on the photohuntchallenges.com blog.

If you are interested in playing along for the August 2010 Photo Hunt, enter your name below! Feel free to post the above badge and list on your blogs if you would like to announce your participation or recruit others to join in!
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Favorite Hilarious Out-Takes
Favorite Creative Crop
Favorite Sun Flare
Favorite Sweet Dreams
Favorite Work
Favorite Play
Favorite Cookout/Picnic
Favorite Transportation
Favorite Money/Currency
Favorite  Fountain
Favorite  Night Scene
Favorite B&W with Selective Coloring
Favorite Something Old
Favorite Something New
Favorite Something Borrowed
Favorite Something Blue
Favorite “Something Musical” Photos
Favorite Something Purple
Favorite Something Yellow
Favorite Something Scenic

Look through the following “Something Musical” photos, choose your favorite and vote in the poll at the bottom of this post. The poll will stay open until July 30th. Anyone is allowed to vote, but I encourage you to vote for your favorite photo rather than for a particular person. Comments are also welcome. You can see all participant entries here. If you would like to know who the photographer of each photo is, scroll over the photo to view the image name.

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Look through the following “Something Old” photos, choose your favorite and vote in the poll at the bottom of this post. The poll will stay open until July 30th. Anyone is allowed to vote, but I encourage you to vote for your favorite photo rather than for a particular person. Comments are also welcome. You can see all participant entries here. If you would like to know who the photographer of each photo is, scroll over the photo to view the image name.

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Look through the following “Money/Currency” photos, choose your favorite and vote in the poll at the bottom of this post. The poll will stay open until July 30th. Anyone is allowed to vote, but I encourage you to vote for your favorite photo rather than for a particular person. Comments are also welcome. You can see all participant entries here. If you would like to know who the photographer of each photo is, scroll over the photo to view the image name.

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