Mary Dougherty Photography l New York Based Wedding Photographer » contest

it’s time to vote : top 3 inspiration boards

Mary Dougherty — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:37:43 +0000

I’m so excited about this contest – first of all, it’s really fun to give something away – second it’s even better to collaborate with you guys, see your ideas and get to know some of you better! So a big thanks to everyone who participated. The following boards are the top three, and were chosen based on their ability to inspire as well as the ideas behind them. Without further ado here are your top three and the inspiration behind them….

#1 We have spent a lot of our relationship traveling to see each other and perfecting the art of long distance communication. We’re finally engaged!, and are so excited about getting out into the world with each other. This inspiration board focuses heavily on capturing our relationship up until now, bringing together a lot of our personal heritage and things we grew up loving, like grandma’s quilts, snow, museums and traveling.

We can visualize how beautiful it would look to have our engagement session at the historic Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum with their bright colorful trains in a wooded, snowy area in February or March. [we have spent countless hours on trains traveling to see each other.] We visualize ourselves cuddled up in colorful quilts talking, surrounded by books, newspapers, (things that we love) and being playful with old-fashioned telephones–looking at maps together, talking about where we’ll go next, doing things that best friends do.

#2 John is from central Illinois; I have lived in Western New York my entire life. For months, dozens of letters were exchanged, which led to phone calls, which eventually led to meeting in person. Unlike most first face-to-face dates, John and I saw each other for the first time at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Two weeks before John had major brain surgery for seizures, we walked into each others arms and never wanted to let go. Long-distance relationships are challenging, but it’s an incredible feeling to have a godly man who supports and strengthens me, no matter how close or far apart we are, in sickness and in health! I chose to create our inspiration board based on a 1950s cooking theme because it has significance in our relationship. First, we love to cook for each other and enjoy spending time in the kitchen, trying out family recipes. When we first met in Mayo, one of the first things John wanted to do was cook for me! It didn’t work out then, but we’ve had many opportunities to cook together since his surgery. Second, John and I love everything vintage: music, cooking, clothes, and more! The retro look of the 50s with its clean and classic feel with some funky colors thrown in = fabulous! We’d love to have you capture us having fun in vintage style and expressing our love through our commitment to each other and our love of cooking.

#3 I am infatuated with the English countryside for being both rustic and classy at the same time. This is the overall “feel” I wanted to present in my board. Unfortunately, the actual shoot would not take place in England, but where I live – we have plenty of open fields and rolling hills that would suffice as an imitation of the vastness and the beauty of Yorkshire, England.

Also relating to England is the bit of fox-hunting/equestrian culture I would like to incorporate. I’ve grown up around horses and have competed in riding competitions since I was little. I really enjoy the Ralph Lauren-esque style of dress on a man. I, myself, do not dress in expensive polo shirts and sweaters when I’m with the horses, but for the photo shoot, it would be fun to pretend that this is practical. The attire presented on my board represents the type of clothing I would like to incorporate. The lace dress and the sundress is an attempt to bridge my equestrian theme with my picnicking, canoeing, and horse-riding ideas. Think: weekend in the countryside.

Now it’s time to vote! From now until Sunday at midnight the polls will be open. You can vote once each day, and the results will be kept a secret until the winner is announced – on Valentines Day! I can’t wait to find out which board I will be photographing and take the ideas and inspiration and turn them in to reality.

I’m buying a pair of TOM’s for Bonnie Spear

Mary Dougherty — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:54:13 +0000

last night, I picked a winner for the TOM’s contest, from the 34 comments that came in before midnight… and the winner is comment #30: Bonnie Spear! There were some great comments out there – a lot of people who are on board with TOM’s mission, some people who learned about them for the first time, many adventures planned (summer in Italy? yes!), a poem, another sandal company doing something very similar: http://www.ssekodesigns.com/ourstory/ (thanks Nita!). I loved hearing from everyone too, I admit it was entertaining. Not everyone knew what was going on yesterday, or why they saw people with bare feet, but I think a lot more people know now. If you went without shoes yesterday, didn’t it feel weird? I mean bare feet are fun at the beach and in the grass, but all of the time is pretty crazy and in many situations not very possible. Thanks to a company that is helping people out: TOM’s! time to go buy Bonnie some shoes

Nita gets a Holga

Mary Dougherty — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:56:37 +0000

Last night was the deadline to enter the *summer vacation photo contest* so today I got to choose a winner. It was an exact science – I cut up strips of paper, mixed them up, then drew out one. That one was Nita so she is now the proud owner of a new Holga. We’ll have to check in with her later and see how she likes it. Thanks to everyone who participated!

{summer contest update}

Mary Dougherty — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:14:08 +0000

If you are a follower of the blog you’ve probably seen my “Summer Vacation Photo Contest” and I have some updates about it. You still have time to enter- until July 27th at midnight, to be exact, but I’ve changed the rules on how a winner will be chosen. Instead of a vote on the pictures, there will be a random drawing by me to decide. So all you have to do is email me a vacation photo and you will be added to the contest.

Again, the prize is a Holga- a fun camera to add to your collection and hopefully take even more vacation photos with. Why is a Holga the perfect vacation cam? It’s super light (made of plastic) and it captured images with something old fashioned called film in a way that gives an instant vintage and timeless look – if something can be both of those things, and I think they can.

{summer vacation} PHOTO CONTEST

Mary Dougherty — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:45:41 +0000

I’m on summer vacation right now and I’m celebrating with a fun photo contest for your best summer vacation photos. I’m not sure if any of you read my post early where I mentioned having a contest – well here it is. I know that summer is not over – for some it’s just begun – so this contest is going to last until July 27 so that you have time to get in some vacation and send me your photos. You have from now until midnight the 27th to submit to me, and after that voting on the blog will begin until the 31st.

What are the guidelines? I’m not sure their are any, besides keeping things clean. I don’t know what the best summer vacation photo is but I’m looking forward to seeing it. It’s not just about the place, but I imagine it captures what we all love best about summer vacation. Depending on the entries we might have to have 2 rounds of voting, but I’ll keep you posted of course.

What’s the awesome prize? A Holga! A fun plastic camera that has become iconic for it’s propensity to leak light and create some really interesting photos. It’s film of course (I shouldn’t have to say that) :] and head over here to see some photos from holgas in this flickr group pool. This prize is the basic holga with one roll of film to get you started. Yes, you will have to send it off to get developed like the good ole days.

Well, I look forward to seeing how this goes + leave me your comments about this contest

Summer Vacation

Mary Dougherty — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:15:10 +0000

This weekend I’m heading up to one of my best friends weddings in Kingston, ON. It’s going to be quite the trip from VA, but we’re making it into an adventure and adding some summer vacation in the trip which I’m also looking forward to. I don’t think I’ve gone on summer vacation in a long time, and there are a few adventures planned so I’ll have to take some pictures and let you know how it goes. Oh, if I didn’t mention not only am I going to the wedding but I’m going to be in it! Yep, time to switch sides and be apart of things which I’m very excited for.

So, today I’m busy mailing some things out (including what you see above) so I have to run to the post office soon and finish my packing. I was looking up things on the USPS site this morning and found something fun I didn’t know about: mail holding. You can register online to have the post office hold your mail while you’re away- which is super convienent in my opinion. Of course, I also remember having little jobs when I was a kid getting mail for neighbors when they were away so maybe I’m putting kids out of business everywhere by using this.

Are you going on summer vacation? tell me about it and take some fun photos of course… wait, let’s have a contest. I’m not sure if anyone has read this far to participate, but send me {photographymary@gmail.com} your best summer vacation photos and we’ll all vote for a winner. What is the prize? Something exciting, but I don’t know what I’ll think about that on the drive.

I have plans to keep posting but I can’t guarantee my availability in the next week but I will return your emails/calls as soon as I can when I return!

let the people vote!!

Mary Dougherty — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:25:17 +0000

Thanks to everyone who submitted jumping photos – it was so fun to hear from everyone and see your creative jumping pictures and I hope you enjoyed taking them. I thought I’d let you {the people} vote and decide the winner of this contest, so recruit you friends to vote as it will end tomorrow (3.31) at 11 pm – I can’t wait to see who wins!

the voting is done, but here are the results:

{…and we have a winner}

Mary Dougherty — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:34:59 +0000

I made it back from the triathlon to total of 67 comments- and thanks to everyone who entered – it was great to hear from all of you. I thought it would be more fun if I picked the number instead of the computer, so I went old-fashioned and cut up little pieces of paper and selected one. Congratulations to the number that was drawn….. 55! which makes Robin Cool our contest winner. (Matt will vouch for me that the number I picked was 55)

To everyone else that entered, you never know when I’ll have another contest, but until then I can’t leave you empty handed. So, I’m going to offer you $25 off your session fee if you want to book a shoot with me before 9.1.08. Contact me for info and I hope to hear from you soon!

WIN A PHOTOSHOOT

Mary Dougherty — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:47:01 +0000

Interested in having photos like this for yourself? This is a preview of an engagement session I just did with Kaylan & John- and you have a chance to win photos like this for free! From July 5 – July 12 you can win a 1 hour photo shoot- any type – and a disk with 10-15 high resolution images.

How do you enter? just comment on THIS post before midnight July 12 and then a winner will be randomly picked. I’ll enter the number of comments (from 1- ??) in a random number generator to select who wins. Enter up to 5 time – photoshoot does not include travel costs if applicable – shoot must be arranged and take place before September 1- we’ll arrange all the details once you win!