Captured IV (Sponsored & Giveaway)

The following post is the last of the "captured series" posts brought to you by Best Buy. Get unbeatable prices on all digital cameras to capture your family memories this holiday season.



I was up late last night going through all of the entries trying to narrow down my five favorite photos. (Many of the images posted were blocked from embedding and/or downloading so I was unable to include all of my favorites. Like this one. And this.) I could have posted fifty photographs because there were at least that many that were incredible and moving and verklemptish but the following thirteen (choosing a top five was impossible) made me audibly gasp from the magic and joy so lovingly portrayed. So thank you.
Guardian
Guardian: "While we packed up to go home from our camping trip, James sat on a stump, armed with his bow, overlooking the other kids playing on the tire swing below." via AprilAnn
IMG_3677
"Dorothy fell asleep in the middle of her one month photo shoot. I put the camera down and curled up next to her, and Jeremy grabbed the camera... I don't think any of my other pictures so effectively capture the calm yet overwhelming love that I feel when dozing with a sleeping baby in my arms." via Jeremy Wakeman
via elk
family
Family: "I snapped this at the arboretum on one of our visits this summer. Gray was upset and wouldn't go sit on the bench (not unusual for him) so he slumped on the grass. And I remember just watching them through the bushes. I couldn't even hear what they were talking about, but I couldn't get over my beautiful family." via adventuresinbabywearing
Little hoot.
The Salerno Boys
Salermo Brothers: "This is a pic of our two boys Griffin and Gavin a few weeks after we brought Gavin home from the hospital. When I was pregnant, I was so worried about how my 2.5 year old would adjust to the big change. Being an only child myself, I never fully grasped the sibling relationship but was always intrigued by its complexity. I asked everyone I knew how I should help "foster" their relationship. I wanted them to be close but knew it was something that was probably beyond my control. I knew to expect bumps in the road because every great relationship always has them. But as I watched my two boys lay on my bed and my "big" boy reach around to embrace his sleeping brother, right then, in that instance, i saw the power and instant love two siblings share. Regardless of whatever changes he was feeling, his need to hold his baby bro close was something that came natural...the love is there from the beginning and all we can really do is help it grow and watch in awe. So happy I caught this moment." via takebacktables
dusk
Dusk via candykempsey
Magic
Magic: "My son, two years ago, really experiencing the magic of the holidays for the first time." (via Ashley)
Angela & Ella
Angela & Ella: "These girls are attached to each other when they are home. My daughter will drop whatever teenager type stuff she is doing, at any moment, to be there for her little sister..." via candykempsey.
6467594063_169015985f_b
Sisters: "We were renting this townhouse in the 'burbs and the large shared field out back was why we chose it. No one was ever out there. We spent most of our time our back and the girls could wander all over. I loved these Cherry Blossom trees that would bloom for such a short time. Seeing the girls "on their own" playing together so far from me made me observe them in a way I never could up close." via littlereddogstudios

Practicing Levitation

Practicing Levitation via Candace Laning

Meeting Harper
Meeting Harper: "Harper Mae was born 2:46am November 10, 2010. This was the first moment I laid eyes on my daughter." via jberthume
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Four Kids: "These four. From four different places on the globe. From four different genetic backgrounds. And somehow so absolutely siblings, so absolutely belonging to one another and to us as a family. We are so lucky to get to witness the miracle of them every single day." via KCHK
6513278099_a1112943d9_b

Walking to the farm: "I spend a lot of time with my cousin's three boys - basically my nephews. One of the common daily pasttimes is to walk up through the woods to the farm where our grandfather grew up. I just love this shot with the black-eyed susans." via welleslypiffy.

DSC_0555_bw

"This is one of my new favorite photos. OF ALL TIME. Playing in the yard at Papa and Nana Deur's house in Iowa." (via Jana.)
***

Thank you for sharing your photos everyone. I'll be narrowing down this final bath to one within the next few weeks ($500 Best Buy gift card c/o Federated Media = hooray!) If you haven't submitted your favorite five photos and still would like to, please do so by uploading to flickr and tagging them #CapturedPhotoContest_GirlsGoneChild. Please also remember to make them "public" so I can see them. (You can also link them in the comments if for whatever reason, they don't show up.) You have until December 24th to enter. (Eprize will contact the winner through flickr mail from the "family memory photo contest notice" screen name on/around 1/16/12.) For more info, see this post, contest rules and regs are here.

...Thanks again for sharing your incredible photographs. Gorgeous, all of them, as are all of you.

36 comments:

Arnebya | 12:34 PM

These are gorgeous. I could stare at them all day. But, I have a question, actually. What is the name of the flower in "Walking to the Farm"? They grow here (the city plants them) but I can never find anyone to tell me its name. I suppose next spring I could simply pull one, go to a local florist...

GIRL'S GONE CHILD | 12:36 PM

Arnebya - They're here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudbeckia_hirta

xoxoxo!

Jana | 12:45 PM

Oh, thank you so much for featuring one of my pictures! My kids, Sam and Charlotte (pictured with my husband Jeff) will be thrilled to see themselves on "da innernet." :)

GIRL'S GONE CHILD | 12:48 PM

Thank you, Jana! It's GORGEOUS.

Glenda | 1:53 PM

wow! these are all so beautiful!!! best to all!

NOELLE ALOUD | 2:01 PM

I have chills!

Megg | 2:44 PM

I'm beaming. ...and crossing fingers. Thank you for including my little laughing apple eater :) xoxo

Sally | 3:18 PM

Amazing photos, every single one of them. I love love love them. And here I am, supposed to be doing a uni paper, and now all I want to do is go through all the old photos of my two boys who are at school right now.

Anonymous | 3:20 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mama Smith | 4:10 PM

Why does your blog always make me cry?! Beautiful.

April | 5:17 PM

Oh, man. Glad I don't have to pick the winner. Good luck!

Wanda Lynn Taylor | 5:50 PM

I cried through this entire post. Gosh I am such a sap!

Leslie | 5:51 PM

I am glad I don't have to pick a winner, either. :) We call those flowers black-eyed susans. They are one of my favorite wild-flowers, and I always picture them as reverse-daisies. :) Honestly, I have NEVER been able to truly capture the beauty of Maine wildflowers- there are so many, and the colors are so subtle and gorgeous. I am just glad that other people love that picture as much as I do. Rebecca- the two boys in that picture are my cousin's two about-as-not-identical-as-Rev-and-Bo twin boys. I have been able to tell them apart since birth. Twins are wonderful!

-Leslie, who goes by wellesleypiffy on flickr. And who really just wants to come to LA and take 1 million pictures of the GirlsGoneChild clan.

beccaedema | 8:18 PM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18908034@N06/4820312186/in/photostream

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18908034@N06/4820310828/in/photostream

are my two photos. Hopefully the tag worked, I just didn't see them in the stream yet. Thanks for doing this Bec!

Tove | 1:06 AM

Beautiful!

Anna | 5:45 AM

not showing up for some reason, so here they are:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72527909@N07/6547474275/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72527909@N07/6547462753/

Thanks!

Anonymous | 6:03 AM

candykempsey on flickr has made her photos public :)) sorry for being lame...at first!! ;)

Tiny Dancer | 6:17 AM

These are all beautiful and making me so excited about having my little one here!

Kait | 7:45 AM

Those are my four babies! On a porch! In Africa!

Now if I could only get my four babies on the same continent...

(I'm so honored my picture is on this list. Thank you.)

Anonymous | 12:40 PM

all the photos are beautiful and i love each of them. i also love the concept of this give away.
however, did you have to pick best buy as the giver-awayer??
i ask because i have always gotten the WORST service ever from this company. i've taken notice to how my husband is treated when we walk in together and also how i am treated in comparison when i walk in the store alone. he is acknowledged and treated rather well. i am not acknowledged and when i ask a question, the sales person answers it to my husband. not ok.
also, they have a history of bad business practices that goes further than being biased toward men. i posted a couple links to show you, in case you wanted to check them out:

http://www.crn.com/blogs-op-ed/the-final-cut/219401052/best-buys-bad-business.htm

http://www.businesspundit.com/shame-on-you-best-buy/

http://www.webpronews.com/bestbuy-com-and-the-new-bait-and-switch-2007-03

The Green Goat | 1:31 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anna | 1:53 PM

And three more


http://www.flickr.com/photos/72527909@N07/6550936919

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72527909@N07/6550926571/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72527909@N07/6550881201/

Thanks, again.

The Green Goat | 3:44 PM

I can't seem to figure out why they aren't showing up so I will post here too...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreengoat/6551371569/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreengoat/6547208501/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreengoat/6547207219/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreengoat/6547206825/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreengoat/6547022647/

Stephanie Wilson she/her @babysteph | 8:25 PM

I have clicked on every one and wish I could write a story around each photo. Breathtaking (especially to see one of mine up there, thank you...) - what an amazing, beautiful way to do a contest.

Steph

Unknown | 12:09 AM

Congrats on your Babble spot, #1 mom. :-)

I've been cruising your blog and loving the pictures and the beautiful moments they capture. I confess to still being a little confused as to which family is yours as it looks like there are a lot of pictures of different families here. (I get that people are submitting - sorry I'm dense).

Oh and to further your disdain, I absolutely love Goodnight Moon! I love the nobody and mush part especially. :-)

Anonymous | 2:28 AM

So is this contest only open to people with children?

GIRL'S GONE CHILD | 6:27 AM

Anon- Not at all. The theme is "capturing family memories" You can submit any photo pertaining to the theme. See rules and regs for more.

Alexandra | 8:04 AM

Here's my entry in Flickr http://flic.kr/p/aZcxic

Ashley | 11:14 AM

Thank you so much for including me in your group of selects. It made my day!

Shannon Locker | 12:43 PM

Thanks for including mine:) All the photos are amazing. The Guardian pic made me think "storybook"-amazing. Such touching moments. It's amazing to think how quickly a moment is captured in a photograph yet can be so powerful in all it's elements.

brynalovig | 10:30 AM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20139480@N03/6565066293/

Link to my photo on flicker; I'm not seeing it in the stream and am a little....technology challenged sometimes, so it may never post!

I'm loving all the photos submitted, thank you!

Leah | 8:50 PM

I almost forgot to submit, but reading this post tonight jogged my memory! According to the rules, I had until 11:50 ET, and I think I just got my pics tagged in time. :) I wanted to post notes on each but didn't have time. These pictures are just the story of my children meeting and falling in love. :) My daughter wasn't so sure that she wanted a little brother in her life, but now they are wonderful friends. Thanks for the opportunity to enter. The photos are tagged in my husband's stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heet_myser/

Siri | 9:54 PM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirijean/6484585009/in/set-72157628352788923

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirijean/6484586599/in/set-72157628352788923

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirijean/6484702359/in/set-72157628352788923

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirijean/6484584417/in/set-72157628352788923/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirijean/6493551533/in/set-72157628352788923

Siri | 9:56 PM

I hope that my previous post is not too late...I had been having trouble posting on Flickr directly (the photos wouldn't show up) and could not get back to my computer until after Holiday Festivities. In Minnesota it is still December 24th! :)

oh, jenny mae | 8:37 PM

dude. i don't even know how to make my photo embeddable (totally a word.) any clue? i thought it was automatic.

and thanks, mama!

now to look at the rest

Leslie | 7:13 AM

Which picture ended up winning? I probably missed the post that announced that...