We’re doing a little giveaway today for Clean Color!

Clean Color is a workflow video tutorial designed to show you Erin Cobb’s image editing process from beginning to end. There are three versions – one for Full Photoshop, one for Photoshop Elements & a brand new one for Lightroom. In addition to the comprehensive videos you’ll also receive the shortcut actions Erin has created to use in her editing process, all of the image files showcased in the video so you can play along at home, and an appendix detailing how to get the most out of the video tutorial and where to go for additional resources.

We will randomly select 3 winners: 1 for each class - Clean Color for Photoshop, Clean Color for Elements, Clean Color for Lightroom. This giveaway is open to everyone, anywhere in the world.

ALSO: Erin set up a discount code for you – my readers – to receive $20 off any Clean Color product (excluding Erin’s Clean Skin product). Enter projectlifers at checkout.

The 3 winners will be announced Friday morning at the bottom of this post, so be sure to check back!

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Updated 3.15.13

Erin Cobb has graciously decided to keep her promo code valid through next Friday, March 22nd. So, if you were not chosen as a winner, you can still get your discount!

Congratulations to the following 3 lucky winners! Please email erin@erincobb.com to claim your prize.

Rianne - Paranaque, Philippines - Photoshop

Sandrine – La Motte d’Aveillans, France – Lightroom

Kim – Lawton, Oklahoma – Elements

If you follow me on facebook or twitter you know that I regularly share PHOTO ideas. Ideas for documenting ordinary moments. Ideas for capturing everyday happenings. Ideas that I hope will inspire you to take pictures that maybe you wouldn’t have thought to take. But we should. Because all the little things are part of our story, make us who we are, and remind us of how blessed we are.

Anyone and everyone is invited to submit their best everyday photography to us. It’s not a contest. There are no rules or prizes. There is not a deadline. This is on-going, and we’ve been doing this for a couple years now. We just want to continue sharing everyday photo inspiration, and I know many of you didn’t realize that we are open to submissions, so I’m putting it out there again.  : )

This is how it works: You send a favorite “everyday” photo (or a few) that you took to submissions@beckyhiggins.com. Be sure to tell us your first name + the state/country that you live in. We add your ideas to our collection. Almost every day we choose someone’s picture to feature. I share that { PHOTO idea } with my 48,000 followers on facebook + twitter and of course your name is included for credit.

That’s it. Simple stuff. You can submit just 1 photo or a handful of photos. They can be taken with your big fancy camera – or your camera phone. There are no rules.

I’m happy to explain what will attract our attention. Your kids are cute. I know that. A snapshot of your child smiling at the camera is CUTE – but it isn’t necessarily going to inspire the next person in a way that makes them think “Oooooh. I should do that. Great photo idea!” But there are ordinary moments and little details in our everyday life that when captured beautifully, really do tell a story and shed so much light on what life is like. What’s inside the family junk drawer? Snap a picture of the spot you always choose to sit inside the cafe. Photograph your mom’s hands busily sewing something. Take a picture how you organize the little things around your desk. When’s the last time you captured the inside of your car?

Obviously the other aspect that will attract our attention are the photos that are really good. Good lighting, good composition, good angle, good focus.

There is no right or wrong – good or bad – to taking pictures. We just want to collect and then share pictures that we think will truly inspire others to document the everyday. Thank you for all the submissions that have been pouring in already! It’s so fun to see snippets of how you are cultivating a good life and recording it.

Photographs are windows to our memory. Reflections of our life. Reminders of our blessings. Each Wednesday we feature 5 personal favorite photos from a Creative Team member or a friend. These 5 photos will remind of us why photography is so beautiful and why documenting the everyday is so important. The goal is to leave us all a little more inspired to cultivate a good life and record it.

Our inspiration this week comes from Creative Team member Ali Edwards. In her own words…

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Everyday life photos have long been my favorites – especially things that other people might wonder “why in the heck is she taking a photo of that?” To me these images capture the very heart of my everyday life – simple, routine moments.

You can see more everyday life photos from the past via my Flickr stream or check out my weekly Project Life posts here.

Here are five ways I approach/themes I keep in mind for my everyday life photo-taking:

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Peek in. Looking through a doorway into a room is a personal favorite. I love that they aren’t looking. I love that Anna is on the floor of Simon’s room while you catch just a glimpse of his hand holding his book in bed.

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Compare. Two photos placed together to create one – often in a his/hers or she/him format. I love capturing what’s different and what’s the same.

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Food. These are often inspired by shape (like the circle bowls) or color (contrast of the food next to the white dishes).

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Self-timer. Now that it’s just the three of us here at my house it requires a little more effort/fore thought to get myself in photos. I say a “little” because it’s really not that hard to use the self-timer or remote – the effort is simply in putting forth the physical action to make it happen. The result, seeing myself mirrored back to me in my daily life, is totally worth it.

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Connections. They may have been in an argument two minutes before or two minutes after, but for this one moment this is what I saw. Love made visible.

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You can learn more about Ali here + check out more of her photos and Project Life pages on her blog.

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Photographs are windows to our memory. Reflections of our life. Reminders of our blessings. Each Wednesday we feature 5 personal favorite photos from a Creative Team member or a friend. These 5 photos will remind of us why photography is so beautiful and why documenting the everyday is so important. The goal is to leave us all a little more inspired to cultivate a good life and record it.

Our inspiration this week comes from Creative Team member Kelly Purkey. In her own words…

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I truly believe that being happy where you live is key to overall happiness. It can be as small as having good water pressure in your shower or stretch to include the government that runs your state. Location, location, location. I am beyond lucky to live on the island of Manhattan in New York City. After the events of Hurricane Sandy this past week, I feel even more love for this amazing city and the life I get to experience by being part of it.

I’ve included five everyday photos taken that I feel represent my home in the city to me. The majority of photos I take are with my iPhone, so I’ve included a couple of Instagrams here as well. I’m an Instagram addict and some of my favorite shots are snapped and Instagrammed on the go as I wander about. Take some time to document your surroundings and the places that mean the most to you.

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This photo was snapped on girls night out down in the East Village. I ran ahead of my friends as we walked down the street. One look at it and I can remember exactly how that moment felt – warm summer air, crowded streets on 1st Ave, full from a delicious dinner, and excited for where the night was going to take us. My friends are my life and the city always feels like it’s ours to explore.

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This is an Instagram from a walk across theBrooklynBridge, one of my favorite spots inNew York City. Never forget to look up… when I walk I’m usually in a hurry with my head down, but some of the most spectacular views of cities are way up above our heads.

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One of my favorite shots even though it’s out of focus. It was taken on the High Line Park looking down 14th street, which is a view that has been shot a million times, I’m sure. I love that it’s blurry – sometimes that’s how life feels, just moving all around us and we can’t seem to focus but know that it looks beautiful.

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This was a quick photo taken when I was out to lunch with a friend at a restaurant called Peels. Food is a passion to me and New York just does it so well. It also does it with style and I love places like this where the presentation looks as good as what you’re about to eat. Little snapshots like this remind me of good and cozy times in places that make me happy the moment I step inside.

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Here’s another Instagram that I took while I was out running along the Hudson River, which is one of my favorite places to run while the sun is setting. It makes my heart melt. I love the idea of growing old with someone in the city and just walking over to the park to see the sun set. It seems magical.

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You can learn more about Kelly here + see more of her Project Life inspiration on her blog.

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If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you know how grateful I am to my parents – particularly my dad – who had a great influence on my love for documenting the everyday. Photography was one of his little hobbies. Funny enough, I really don’t even have memories of my dad behind the camera because I don’t recall him getting our attention and saying “cheese”. He just captured life.

The more vivid memories I have are of him changing out the light bulb in our basement bathroom to the red bulb because that’s how he transformed the little bathroom into a dark room. I loved being in there watching him develop pictures. He invited me to help him as we carefully placed the photo paper in the thing (that clearly I don’t even know what it’s called!) where the light shone through the negative, impressing the image onto the paper. We would then dip the photo paper in the first fluid and then the next and then we would rinse the paper before setting out the photos to dry.

What a sense of satisfaction that was – to develop photographs. I went on to learn more about the dark room with more formal training in high school and I can still smell those chemicals today. Oh, how the times have changed. I appreciate my fond memories, but I’m so grateful that digital photography is what it is today.

Even still – the art of documenting the everyday doesn’t have to be tied to what kind of camera or technology or printer you’re using. It’s about noticing the little things that make up life. And that’s what we’re all trying to do. Here are 10 photos from my own childhood that inspire me on what to document today.

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Photo Idea no. 1: Photograph where you watch television – and don’t forget to get the TV in the picture because trust me – it will look like a dinosaur one day.

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Photo Idea no. 2: Photograph their collections. Everyone collects something. Maybe your husband collects fishing gear or your sister collects shoes or your child collects key chains. Apparently I went through a phase of collecting stuffed animals. Raise your hand if you feel a little nostalgic seeing Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Dolls in there.

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Photo Idea no. 3: Photograph them concentrating. Try to capture a loved one as they focus, while they’re in the zone, as they study, whatever. This is one way to get a glimpse of someone’s personality without them smiling at the camera. My dad captured my love for drawing. Apparently using the kitchen trash can was completely acceptable for whatever ideas I had to get on paper at the time. Whatever works, right?

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Photo Idea no. 4: Photograph bedtime rituals. It might seem silly to capture something like the kids brushing their teeth, but to this day – it’s one of my favorite shots. Because it wasn’t a special occasion. It wasn’t a trip or a birthday. It was a daily ritual, an everyday routine. The essence of real life. And apparently my idea of brushing teeth was that as long as the toothbrush was in my mouth, my teeth would magically get clean. So that’s where Claire gets that from!

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Photo Idea no. 5: Photograph their quirks. We all have quirks, and not just a few. My lifetime quirk is how I compartmentalize. In this picture I’ve sorted rocks, sticks, and pine cones. Today I compartmentalize emails, work flow, laundry, and sometimes even my conversations. Our team had a meeting recently where Kari and Laurie were giggling about the fact that I couldn’t move on to the next topic until I felt like we totally had closure on what we were talking about first. Gotta keep things compartmentalized.

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Photo Idea no. 6: Photograph breakfast. Simple, I know. But one day you’ll look back – they’ll look back – and you’ll love seeing the spot where you eat and what you’re eating. I always had to have the cereal box right in front of me so I could study the back. And that little bowl next to my cereal bowl? Sugar, of course. Snap, Crackle, Pop.

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Photo Idea no. 7: Photograph them at work. Got teenagers earning a wage? I know, I know. Chances are they wouldn’t love you popping into work to snap a picture but remind them of how you wish you had this from your own youth – or how you’re grateful you do have something to show for those earliest jobs (show them pictures of you working if you have them!). My first non-babysitting job was working at the Brunswick Dairy Barn – a little ice cream shop in my town. Hi! What can I get you today?

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Photo Idea no. 8: Photograph the work of parenthood. There are so many aspects of parenting that are downright exhausting, such as having a newborn. Even when life feels overwhelming, don’t let that deter you from capturing a few slices of that life here and there. Cameras aren’t designed for just the exciting times. Cameras are designed to capture LIFE – whatever that means at the moment. One of my favorite things about this picture of me and my sweet mama, is that I have a picture like this of me with each of my babies too.

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Photo Idea no. 9: Photograph what they’re reading. These were a few of my books as a teenager. Now – I didn’t take this picture as a teenager, but I came across some these books years after leaving home and snapped this picture so that I had a record (and so I wouldn’t feel obligated to hang on to books that I really didn’t care to cart around for years).

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Photo Idea no. 10: How shall I put this? Oh, what a treasure. First of all – we ALL look thrilled, don’t we? Those are my parents, my Grandpa Johnson, my brother Steven, and … that little princess? Yep. that’s me. Pleasant as a peach. Clearly throwing a fit about something. I don’t remember the story behind the photo, but this is why I wanted to share it: We are embarking on a season where many families, as tradition would have it, are having their family pictures taken. That’s great. I love this time of year.

But if you have a cranky one (heck – it could be your husband), or a misbehaving child during the photo session … don’t stress. We’re not aiming for perfection, people. We are aiming to document life. Capture personalities and relationships and REAL LIFE. In other words – when you get outtakes like these, don’t delete them. In fact, I would be so delighted if more people sent out Christmas card photos that look like this one.  ; )

Photographs are windows to our memory. Reflections of our life. Reminders of our blessings. Each Wednesday we feature 5 personal favorite photos from a Creative Team member or a friend. These 5 photos will remind of us why photography is so beautiful and why documenting the everyday is so important. The goal is to leave us all a little more inspired to cultivate a good life and record it.

Our inspiration this week comes from Creative Team member Michelle Wooderson.

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