Our meeting kicked off with a rousing game of Halloween BINGO! People were BINGO-ing left and right! All of the winners got to pick out a door prize.
Ann proudly showed off her door prize! If only we all could be so lucky. At least we got to eat all the candy corn we wanted even if we didn't win!
To continue with the "game" theme, our topic tonight was PICTIONARY: HOW TO TAKE GREAT PICTURES OF YOUR KIDS. Local photographer DeAnna Arevalo was on hand to give us some wonderful tips and advice on how to turn our every day snapshots in to frame-worthy photos!
Some of her best advice:
1. Turn off the flash! Nothing washes out a photo or causes red-eye worse than the flash. Let mother nature light your photos!
2. Use editing software! You can purchase programs (Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, etc.) or use free ones that came with your camera or found on-line (Picnik, Picasa, etc.)
3. Keep your camera handy! That's a rule I personally follow, too. How can you capture those fun and spontaneous moments if you never have your camera around?
4. Shoot, shoot, shoot! In the digital age don't be afraid to take lots of pictures!
5. Remember the important "rule of threes"! Don't center your subjects. A subject that is off center or to the side is much more interesting and pleasing to the eye than one smack dab in the middle of the frame every time!
6. Get on their level! Don't be afraid to stoop, sit, crawl, or lay down to get on the eye level of your littles.
Thank you, DeAnna, for your advice! And mamas, don't forget to take advantage of her special Heartland MOPS offer! Check out her website www.arevalophotography.com for more information, or "LIKE" her on Facebook: Arevalo Photography.
We also made a fabulous fall craft! Everyone's sparkly pumpkins turned out beautifully!
Want to make your own at home? Paint your pumpkin with the glue mixture (1/2 glue, 1/2 water), sprinkle on Epsom salts, and let it dry! Beautiful and inexpensive!
We hope all of you mamas had a lots of fun at the October MOPS meeting! We know your Steering Team sure did! Maybe we had a little too much fun cleaning up after the meeting?
We hope to see you all at the next MOPS meeting!
