Somehow an entire month has been and gone since I took part in the ClickinMoms Annual Photo Hunt.  How is that even possible?  I feel like I’m in a constant state of bewilderment at how fast the days, weeks and months are flying past.  I really should be more used to it by now.  That old saying – “The days are long but the years are short” – couldn’t be more true.

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Since winning a year-long membership to ClickinMoms back in February, I’ve been immersing myself in their photographic community as much as possible.  When I found out that they host a photo ‘treasure hunt’ – the ClickinMoms Annual Photo Hunt – every summer, I decided to take part.  I’d not long finished taking an online course ‘Documenting The Details’ through Hello Storyteller* and figured that it would be the perfect opportunity to put into practice what I’d learnt.

The ClickinMoms Annual Photo Hunt takes place every July and simply consists of a list of summer-inspired prompts for you to go out and capture on camera.  The list gives you completely free rein with creativity and I loved seeing so many different interpretations of each of the themes.  You can share your images on Instagram using the dedicated hashtag – this year’s was #ClickinMomsHunt2019 – go take a look as some of the shots people have captured this year are absolutely incredible.

The great thing is that you don’t have to be a member of ClickinMoms to take part in the ClickinMoms Annual Photo Hunt – it’s open to everyone!  However, if you are a member of ClickinMoms*, you can also upload your images to the thread on their forum and be in with the chance to win some incredible photography-related prizes (as well as getting helpful feedback and positive encouragement from the other members).

This year was their 11th year of running the photo hunt, though it was the first time I’ve ever joined in.  I honestly had so much fun trying to capture as many of the themes and prompts as I could.  I found that it really primed me to be on the lookout for the shots and I made sure I had my camera with me at all times.  It also gave me the creative inspiration I’d been needing – I had clear visions for certain images I wanted to capture as well as remaining open to moments that happened completely naturally and candidly.  It definitely helped get me out of a bit of a photography rut.

I did find it quite tricky doing it throughout July, even though I’d personally committed to the project.  In the USA (where ClickinMoms is primarily based, though there are a growing number of UK-based and other international members) the summer holidays are different – they break up from school at the end of May/early June and go back mid-to-late August, so July is their only full month off school.  However, here in England we are still at school for the first three weeks of July (with August being our only full month off).  I found it quite challenging to capture images amidst the school routine and all the extra crazy stuff that gets crammed in at the end of the school year, but it certainly made our weekends more interesting as I got us all out and about to see what I/we could capture.  I’m really happy that it ended up becoming a bit of a collaborative project – the girls had some ace ideas for how to incorporate elements of the prompts that we tried out.  Some worked and some didn’t, so there was good learning in the process (for them and for me!) too.

There were 84 items on the photo hunt list altogether.  I knew that there were some I simply wouldn’t be able to capture due to circumstances / being on the wrong continent (!) so I eliminated those straight away, leaving me with a list of forty five items to try and check off:

air conditioning // bare feet // berries // blue skies // breezy // bubbles // bugs // chilled // cowboy hat // dirt road // family // footprints // freckles // frolicking // garden // giggle // goggles // green grass // hammock // heat wave // holiday // hopscotch // ice cream cone // laughter // no school // park // picnic basket // pineapple // ponytail // pool // popsicle // produce // sandals // shade // sidewalk chalk // skipping // sprinkler // stars // sunbathing // sundress // sunhat // sunset // swimsuit // watermelon // wildflowers

In total I managed thirteen out of the forty five.  Not as many as I’d hoped for, but I’m pleased nevertheless.  Something to work on improving on next year!

Here are the photos I captured…

Air Conditoning:

Bare feet:

Berries:

Bubbles:

Cowboy Hat:

Dirt Road:

Frolicking:

Garden:

Heatwave:

Ice Cream Cone:

Popsicle:

Sunhat:

Wildflowers:

Once the ClickinMoms Annual Photo Hunt was over, I discovered that one of my photos got chosen as one of the ClickinMoms team’s top 45 favourite images from the whole contest!  There aren’t even words to describe how I felt when I found out – there were over 5000 entries in total.  You can head to the blog post here – scroll down and see if you can spot which one of mine was chosen.

If you want to find out more about the ClickinMoms community and/or how to become a member, you can click here*.  It really is such a supportive place and I’ve learned heaps over the last few months.  I really enjoyed taking part in the ClickinMoms Annual Photo Hunt and am already looking forward to next year and seeing how many of the prompts I can capture!