Mother Distracted: Photography

Tuesday, 27 September 2016

Puddles Win Prizes - Submit A Photo Of Your Favourite Puddle To Win Great Cash Prizes

If you consider yourself a bit of a dab hand with a camera and see beauty even in the pouring rain and the dank, drizzly landscapes the UK offers, I have a fabulous photography competition for you.

Two dogs in a puddle shutterstock_421092781.jpg

Image Credit: Shutterstock

So get the macs and kagools out, get the kids in their wellies and enter Welly Foods "Puddle of the Year" photography competition. The people at Welly, the British cooked meat brand, are looking for your pictures of your favourite puddles.

Puddles are something we Brits are very au fait with and have themselves had many a celebrity moment.

From the comic never ending puddle on the Vicar of Dibley, to the recent Dame Joan Collin’s puddle war on Twitter, it is time they were celebrated.

As Richard Morris, Welly's marketing controller says; “As a nation we are used to endless rain so it is time we faced facts and celebrated the wet British weather. Through Puddle of the Year we want to encourage people to grab their wellies and see the beauty in the great outdoors. We look forward to seeing the selection of photos entered.”

Child in puddle with umbrella shutterstock_432657025.jpg

Image credit: Shutterstock

The Prizes

There are some amazing prizes on offer:-

Public - £500 and hamper of Welly Foods (meat products) 1 (one) winner

Children (school) - 1 (one) school will win £1000 of camera equipment

Children (family) - £200 and a hamper of Welly Foods (meat products) 5 (five) winners

Professionals - 1 (one) x £500 and a hamper of Welly Foods (meat products)

How To Enter

There are 3 categories open for entry:- i) general public, ii) children and iii) professionals

You need to submit your puddle photo on the tab on the Welly Facebook page, leaving your contact details and indicating which category you are entering.

Don't forget you must have the consent of anyone appearing in your photograph and if you are photographing animals, you'll need the consent of their owners before submitting your shot.

ENTER HERE: wellypuddleoftheyear.co.uk

Once approved, your photo will be displayed on the gallery.

The photographs will be judged by Adrian Brooks, award winning photo journalist and WELLY marketing controller Richard Morris.

The competition runs from 26th September to 31st October.

A list of the prizes can be found on the Facebook page. You can find terms and conditions here.

The promoter of this competition is Welly Foods.

Good luck with your puddle photography!

Win An Extra £50 With Mother Distracted When You Enter Puddles Win Prizes

Click Mother Distracted on the drop down "where did you hear about the competition" tab to qualify for my own mini puddle competition.

Once you've done that then enter via the Rafflecopter widget below for a chance to win a bonus £50 (one winner). This prize will be supplied by Welly Foods once your photographic entry has been verified. You must submit a photo to the main competition to qualify for the extra cash prize.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Sunday Photo - 05/06/2016

It's been an absolutely beautiful day today. So much so that The Husband cranked up "Deep Thought" our barbecue (so called because he resembles the supercomputer from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy when he's got his cover on).

Tea outdoors - a rare phenomenon in Dinas Powys

Despite the fact that we had 40 minute battle to get Ieuan to ingest some vegetables on the rather yummy chicken and vegetable kebabs The Husband knocked up, we spent a lovely hour or so in relative peace and quiet with just birdsong for company.

Let's hope summer lasts a bit longer than a couple of days this year.

My Sunday Photo - 29/05/2016

My Sister & Her Partner Anil Walking Across The Cardiff Bay Barrage

We had a lovely day today. My sister and her partner came down for the weekend since it was my birthday on Saturday.

We woke to blazing blue skies this Sunday and so walked with the kids across Cardiff Bay Barrage to Mermaid Quay for lunch.

It's amazing how the Bay has changed since I grew up. I can still remember going to the Big Windsor Pub to listen to The Spasm Band and Madassa. I doubt the old regulars would recognise the place now.

One of the joys of living in Dinas Powys (apart from having to put up with Charlotte Church's birthday parties) is that all this is on our doorstep.

My Sunday Photo - 01/05/2016

The Cold Knap Beach, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan - motherdistracted.co.uk

The Cold Knap Beach, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales

My Sunday Photo - 24/04/2016

Exploring at Bryn Garw Country Park

My Sunday Photo - 08/04/2016

Mat& Ieuan exploring Cosmeston

My Sunday Photo - 13/03/2016

It's nice to see that, despite his love of his iPad, sometimes, Ieuan is just as happy to build spaceships with his Lego.

My Sunday Photo - 06/03/2016

My Mum, Kay and I About 50 Years Ago

Celebrating Our Older Kids - Do We Need A "Slightly Bigger Fierce Ones" Hashtag?

As a sometime parenting blogger with kids aged 8 and 6, I find that I am occasionally disheartened by the fact that there are pictures of cute babies and toddlers everywhere.

Baby Caitlin Hobbis - motherdistracted.co.uk

Caitlin in 2007

Instagram is awash with them.

There they are in cute wellies encountering trees and flowers. They are jumping in puddles. They are prodding kittens and walking backwards up slides.

They are staring at clouds with an expression to rival that of the most earnest nuclear physicist.

Their every breath is instagrammed to the 'nth' degree.

And understandably so.

Because what parent wouldn't want to celebrate the wonder unfolding in front of them and, better yet, create a living, breathing, archive of those moments to last for eternity?

But my point is when kids get over a certain age, and the development of their personalities is in full throttle, it's easy to miss those 'cute days'.

Ieuan in 2015

Referring to them with your chosen nickname may no longer be appropriate either - "little man" (which I hate), "sausage", "cupcake" or any other term guaranteed to cause maximum embarrassment with their school friends. You are quite likely to be greeted with "muuuummm!"

I said to Ieuan only this morning that he was my "cute little Jedi". "I'm not a little Jedi", he said hotly, "I'm a medium Jedi".

As they change, your relationship to them changes and the type of parent you are also changes.

I think many of us must feel a sense of loss.

They're still cute, we tell ourselves defensively. And they are but our photograph albums now capture fledgling teens, even adults.

"Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man", as the Jesuit motto goes.

Our pictures capture their moods, both good and bad.

You have to wonder if they sometimes get sick of being constantly photographed.

Their lives are documented in ways ours never were. For a start, when I was growing up, cameras still came with actual 'film' you stuck in the back and wound on.

Nobody took a selfie unless they got confused and had the camera turned the wrong way around.

So my plea is, please can we have a new hashtag which helps us to focus on the challenges and triumphs of our slightly older children?

Caitlin & Ieuan Hobbis - motherdistracted.co.uk

Caitlin & Ieuan - Double Trouble

Can we remember to celebrate the beauty of their new discoveries now that they have the language to discuss them?

Can we carve our own little corner of Instagram just for them?

How about using a couple of the other instagram hashtags? #Soproudofyou or #Stroppy.

That should just about cover it.