Every year around this time, many people take their infants and young children to visit Santa. Some years, we’ve taken the children to the mall to visit with Santa; some years we’ve had Santa visit our house.

This year, I found that Bass Pro Shop will take your child’s photo with Santa absolutely free! The best part about getting your child’s photo taken here is that you don’t have to wait to see Santa either! If the lines are long, you can ask for an appointment with Santa. The store personnel will give you a time to return with your child so you can bypass the long lines. That’s wonderful.

The store we visited also had coloring pages for the kids, free crafts, and free snacks. The best part was that there was only one other family in line and our wait time was very short.

The store has also set up a virtual Wonderland where your relatives and friends can use a special code to log onto the site and view your child’s photo. If they like the photos, they can purchase a portrait package online. In our case, we live far away from all of the relatives. I’m going to be sending the site information to all of them so they can see how much our son has grown since we visited last year.

Will you take your child to visit Santa this year? Do you take your child to the same place every year, or do you look for photo specials?

Clark ColorLabs is offering a special offer for BabiesOnline Members!

Get 50 4×6 Prints for Just $1!

Register now to get your first 30 prints free plus 20 more for just 5 cents each.

Use code FIFTY4ABUCK at the checkout. For BabiesOnline Members only.

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I’m a wannabe amateur photographer.

Tonight I was surfing around Flickr and found this picture…

Whoa, originally uploaded by dcumminsusa.

PRICELESS!

Week 3’s winner was Stephany Marie !
Runner-up: Nicholas Anthony
Runner-up: Katelyn Marie

Thanks to all the babies (and their parents) who participated in this weeks round.

From now until February14 we will be accepting entries for February’s contests. February’s theme is Baby in Red!

The contest is free so enter your babies picture today! Or just vote for your favorite. (Anyone can vote)

At the end of each preliminary week one (1) winner is chosen and will be awarded a prize package. The winners of each preliminary round (3 total), as well as two (2) runner-ups from each round are automatically entered into the Final Round. The winner of the final round is awarded the Grand Prize.

Click Here for more information.

Week 2’s winner was Vedika Sunehari !
Runner-up: Kamryn David
Runner-up: Alethea Jlea

Thanks to all the babies (and their parents) who participated in this weeks round.

From now until February14 we will be accepting entries for February’s contests. February’s theme is Baby in Red!

The contest is free so enter your babies picture today! Or just vote for your favorite. (Anyone can vote)

At the end of each preliminary week one (1) winner is chosen and will be awarded a prize package. The winners of each preliminary round (3 total), as well as two (2) runner-ups from each round are automatically entered into the Final Round. The winner of the final round is awarded the Grand Prize.

Round 1: 1st through 7th
Round 2: 8th through 14th
Round 3: 15th through 21st
Final Round: 22nd through last day of the month

Click Here for more information.

50 4×6 Prints for Just $1!

Extra Special Savings Offers for BabiesOnline Members!

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We’ve been developing smiles for over 50 years!

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Attention all photogs! December’s Baby, You Should Be In Pictures Christmas & Holidays Contest Round 2 Winners have been announced:

1st place: Taylor Joseph !
Runner up: Brenna Lynn !
Runner up: Christian Anthony !

Thanks to all the babies (and their parents) who participated in this week’s round.

From now until January 14 we will be accepting entries for January’s contests. January’s theme is Winter Fun

The contest is free so enter your babies picture today! Or just vote for your favorite. (Anyone can vote)

At the end of each preliminary week one (1) winner is chosen and will be awarded a prize package. The winners of each preliminary round (3 total), as well as two (2) runner-ups from each round are automatically entered into the Final Round. The winner of the final round is awarded the Grand Prize.

Round 1: 1st through 7th
Round 2: 8th through 14th
Round 3: 15th through 21st
Final Round: 22nd through last day of the month

Click Here for more information.

Gift Ideas For The Holidays, Birthdays and More!

Now that you are a parent you might find it harder to shop for friends and relatives throughout the year whether there is a birthday coming up, or the busy holiday season. Maybe after your first baby it was still easy, but now that you are on baby two, three or more you are finding it hard to simply find time for yourself, much less time to shop for others. Unfortunately, just because you don’t have time, it doesn’t mean that the holidays will wait. That brings up the question, how do you spend the least amount of time and get the most quality out of your gift purchases once you have little ones at home you are taking care of?

Pictures

Photographs of your child, your children, or your whole family are great gifts for family and friends. Many members of the family, like grandparents, will be happy with ONLY receiving a picture of their grandkids. You can buy inexpensive picture packages at places like Sears and Target, or take your own pictures and go to Clark Photos to print out the quantity and sizes that you want.

Mugs, Calendars and More!

Expanding a bit on the “photography” theme you can have items made to give as gifts with your favorite picture on them. Family members will love a calendar that has a new picture of their grandchild, niece or nephew on it every time they turn the page. A mouse pad would be a great gift for the family computer guru or for dad to take to the office with him. These items can all be bought online and shipped to your house, sometimes already gift wrapped making your job that much easier.

Gift Cards

Pictures aren’t the only great holiday gift! Who doesn’t like a gift card allowing them to eat out, or go to their favorite store and buy whatever they want. If you have a set amount you are going to spend on each family member, or household, you can go down to the mall, stop in one store and buy gift cards for everyone from that store. Or you can go to a nearby restaurant and buy a gift card from there, treating your family to a night out, and the wives to a night off at the same time.

Scam Alert! Some clever thieves have figured out that they can take gift cards off of store racks and copy down the serial numbers. Days later, they check to see if it’s been purchased, and if yes, will go on a shopping spree from the store’s website. By the time Christmas rolls around, all the money has already been spent. To avoid this, always make sure that all or part of the identification number is hidden behind a “scratch off” (similar to a lottery ticket) so a would-be thief isn’t able to copy the information from the gift card.

Lottery Tickets

One thing that few people think of, but that is really a good idea and can be a lot of fun is scratch off lottery tickets given as gifts. My uncle used to buy everyone 5-10 scratch off lottery tickets for Christmas. If you won on your ticket you could either give it back to him and he would give you another one, or you could keep it and cash it in. As kids it was fun to scratch these off, even if you seldom won. However, occasionally someone would win $1 on a ticket, “sell” it back to my uncle for another ticket, where they would scratch and win as much as $100. Even though we knew what we were getting for Christmas from him, the element of surprise and excitement was always there.

Home Baked Goods

Who doesn’t like homemade cookies and pies? Homemade fudge, with and without nuts is always a big hit as well! For those that are low on money, or don’t have the time to run around outside of the house picking up presents, a good shopping list, successful grocery store run, and good time management skills can come in handy when it comes time to give someone a gift. Homemade goodies can be made throughout the day at your leisure, during nap times and after your baby goes to bed at night. Many items, like cookies, can be made weeks in advance and frozen till the big day, giving you a lot of time to get ready for the holidays.

Just because you have a new baby doesn’t mean that you have to forget about the holidays or not give gifts because of lack of time. With all the internet, pictures, gift cards and one stop shops that are available to consumers today, you can still have a great and successful holiday season and impress your loved ones with your gift ideas. Most families are more concerned with the quality and meaning behind a gift than they are the cost of a gift, making even the inexpensive choices some of the best ideas and most loved gifts of the year.

Revealing Personality in Photos
Capturing the personality and spirit of your bright and bouncy baby in photographs is one of the more difficult things you can attempt if you don’t bring your imagination along for the ride. Photographs are rather two-dimensional. They do not allow consideration for personality, sound, and emotion that are always present when you are with your baby. However taking pictures of babies can be done in a manner that allows your baby’s personality to shine through if you are willing to let nature take its course during your ‘photo shoot’ rather than trying to control the situation.

How to ‘Set the Stage’

The first thing you want to keep in mind is that you want a stage upon which your baby can act not a setting for cameras and camera angles. You will want to include toys that are sure to delight your baby, make sure there is plenty of natural lighting (outdoor settings are great for a project such as this) and that your baby is well rested and in a good temper. If you choose a natural setting you should keep in mind that nature is its own stage to some degree. Capture your baby doing the things he or she loves to do and take plenty of photographs in the moments. Even if your baby is simply throwing sand in the air and running through it you will be amazed at how much his or her personality shines through those moments of glee when captured on film.

As a matter of fact, these moments are the stuff that baby photo contests are made of. When setting a stage upon which to take those perfect baby pictures you will want to make sure that the background doesn’t distract from the object of your affection. The less elaborate the background the better. You want your baby and her personality to shine in these photos. You should also make sure that she is interested in the process and having fun. Her personality will be the star if she is truly having fun.

Interaction and attention are great motivators when it comes to taking pictures of babies. If you want them to react to you and not the camera capture their interest and if at all possible keep the camera away from your face. This allows her to babble and play with you while doing it for the camera. Play with her toys in order to get her to begin playing with them. Once she’s engaged in the activity or the ‘play’ you can snap photos as fast as your fingers and your camera will allow in order to have plenty of selection while showing the most possible personality.

Taking Pictures in the Cold

It is very common to see moms and dads out on the playground with their children during the warmer months with their cameras, and snapping pictures of their child’s warmer extracurricular activities. However, once it gets chilly out, many of the cameras seem to go away, even though some of the best pictures can be taken during these colder months.

If you are in a location that gets a good amount of snow, take advantage of the snow and use it like a prop for your pictures. Have your children make snow angels, and capture pictures of them having a snowball fight or building Frosty. One of my favorite pictures of my son is from when he was one years old, bundled up in his jacket, sitting in the snow with fresh snowflakes falling on his head. This is a picture I would have never been able to take had I not taken a risk and taken the picture in the cold.

You can also use different props in the snow and cold weather that you aren’t able to use in the summer. Dress your daughter up in your way too big fur coat for her keep warm. Get out the sled or borrow your neighbors for your kids to sit on. Use scarf?s and hats to give your children different looks.

Don’t worry about the cold hurting your camera or affecting your pictures. Your camera should work fine in cold weather. You should however protect it from condensation when going from cold to warm by putting it in an airtight plastic bag until the camera reaches room temperature. Also be sure that you take extra batteries as the cold makes them run down faster.

You may be afraid that you or your kids will not stay warm enough to take pictures. Be sure to wear warm thin gloves that will keep moisture away from your skin while allowing you to be able to press the button. Don’t forget your hiking boots, galoshes, scarf?s and hats when or if they are needed.

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