Comment Contest Winner

ariw

"Who in gods name are these people and why isn't more of our daughter on here?"



Happy now?....Crybaby :)

In case you didn't already know, the girl featured in the Comment Contest Update post is his older daughter, the girl pictured here his younger. Makes a whole lot more sense now don't it?!

If Ari didn't have many sleepless nights worrying about who won he certainly spend many of them voting for himself. How many times, you ask? Approximately two thousand and eighty! That's right:
2,080 votes
The second place winner was Daniela G with a mere 1,350 or so votes - admittedly I estimated a bit as I tallied them all. Next time I may want to rethink the "I don't care who votes or how many times they vote" rule and use a captcha to keep voters and spammers at bay. And as much as I hate those darn forms I have a whole new appreciation after watching this video:



Anyway Ari your right, for a while this did feel an awful like Gore/Bush 2000 as you guys hashed it out several hundred votes at a time (how'd you do that anyway). But it was worth it as you are now the proud owner of one Portrait Session by yours truly along with a Delux Picture Package.

Congratulations my friend!

Comment Contest Conclusion

And the Winner is...

UPDATE: Zealous voting had taken over this post!

I'm impressed by those of you who have taken the time to vote, either once or repeatedly. We have heard the opinion of past presidents and current football players as well as many regular followers of this blog :)
Rusi & I intended to sit down Saturday night and tally the votes and I figured we would count at least twice to assure accuracy. That is no longer an option as the task would probably take days. So I'm once again turning to you for help:

HELP ME COUNT THE VOTES

To make it more manageable please use the following guidelines:
A. We must count each single comment for votes. Each comment may count toward multiple finalists but only one time per comment. For instance, if "Anonymous said...1 & 2" then that is one vote for Finalist #1 and one vote for Finalist #2, TWO separate votes. But if "Anonymous said...3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3" then it only counts as ONE vote for Finalist #3
B. We need to keep track of how much we have counted. As votes continue to come in as well as the limited time people are able to help count we need to mark what was tallied. The comments/votes are listed as separate pages, in 200 comment blocks. Simply list the comment numbers that you were able to count.
C. We need to keep the tallies formatting consistent. After you are done counting please post your total as a new comment and write "COUNT" above the tally. Please also post your name below so I know who to thank.
D. We all know that honesty is the best policy!

If you are able to help count your new tally/comment should look like this:

___

Anonymous said...

201-600

#1/20
#2/145
#3/77
#4/850
#5/5,001
#6/60

-Joe
___

Thanks for the help!!!



...I can't decide! Until I started looking through the posts I hadn't realized the sheer volume of comments since this contest started, let alone great comments. One of the finalist consistantly posted so many good comments that I thought she was a shoo-in for the prize (see #4 below); if there was an award for "Most Great Comments" she would definatley have won. But this is the SINGLE best Comment Contest and comparing them one to one I was left with several that I think could win:

1. "I like the 'we'll work something out' part. Proud to be your first commenter on this post!"
- Dvora in Israel on Comment Contest

2. "The first photo I saw of yours was the one you sent me during your Yeshiva year in Israel. It was my brother playing guitar. It captured him so well and I missed him so much. I looked at it every day. Thank you."
- Shana on Comment Contest UPDATE

3. "I never really think about the fact that I don't have pictures from Daniels bris (it having taken place on shavuos), but only your work could make me a little sad about that three and a half years later... Then again, maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones kicking in (Doubt it though :) you rock at what you do!)"
- Aviva on Danny's Bris

4. "Can you throw in a free coloring book for the second place winner?" & "Its tiring matching your clothing with the decor"
- Daniela G on White Winter / BMOB Portraits & on Blogging Is Hard

5. "Who in gods name are these people and why isn't more of our daughter on here?"
- Ari W on Comment Contest

6. "only time ive ever heard a guy thank his wife for endlessly talking...."
- Sara Cohn on The Longest Night

-----------------------

If you haven't already figured it out I would like YOU TO VOTE FOR THE BEST COMMENT
Simply post a comment below with the number of the above comment that you think should win.
While I am curious to hear explanations along with your vote it will not help in deciding the winner. Whoever gets the most votes wins, end of story. And I don't care who votes or how many times they vote, I'm just going to tally up the comments after the voting period ends.
VOTING ENDS 4PM EST FRIDAY JAN 6TH

Comment Contest UPDATE

With a week to go in the Comment Contest I've decided to up the ante. Not only will I travel anywhere within the NY Metropolitan area, but I will give the winner a DELUX PICTURE PACKAGE which includes 10 SHEETS of your favorite images from the session. If you are not familiar with the contest please read the original post here or just read this:

THE BEST COMMENT ANYWHERE ON SINCE78.COM DURING DECEMBER WINS A PORTRAIT SESSION AND DELUX PICTURE PACKAGE

I want to clarify a few things from the original post. First, you may leave a comment ANYWHERE on my blog, not just below this post. Second, in order to qualify, you absolutely must leave some sort of identifier or contact information with your comment THAT I CAN EASILY USE TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU. Leaving your first name or initials and assuming that I know who you are is not enough. I recommend commenting using the "Name/URL" selection in the dropdown and entering your Facebook profile address (e.g., www.facebook.com/MKruter) as the URL along with your corresponding Name.

You are encouraged to comment as many times as you like on as many separate posts as you like, both old and new. Below is a selection of my favs so far:

"Its tiring matching your clothing with the decor"
-Daniela G on Blogging Is Hard

"'the shining' part II"
-Mims36 on Scanographs / Series2

"M 2 Da Kruter Rocks my Wizorld Wha wHa WhAt!"
-YNG on Comment Contest

"Best giveaway ever in history of giveaways!!"
-Tova K. on Comment Contest

"I thought Feivish was busy with his auction?"
-The Bald Guy on Ringing in the Rain

"Hello! I have been following your blog for quite some time-prob since the middle of 2010, and was so psyched to see that you recently started posting on a consistent basis! I love your fresh viewpoint and great pictures. I was friends with one of the boarders at your parents house and met you during a Shabbos meal! And then you had an ad in the WWW and it really caught my eye. Thanks for all the great pictures!"
-ShoKrey on Comment Contest

"best part of my super yeshivish cousins outdoor wedding on December 25th? Finding out that the chuppah pictures would all end up having a HUGE cross in them since there was a church right behind the out door chuppah. Solution? Park the big monsey trails bus that ferried all the guests from brooklyn to silver spring md for the wedding behind the chuppah. AWESOME. That and the white fur poncho the bride got to wear while shivering through the chuppah."
-Sara Cohn on Ringing in the Rain

"I got married in December because I LOOOOOVE the winter. It was about 75 degrees and all the windows were fogged up because of the weather! The best laid plans..."
-Aliza on Ringing in the Rain

"My brothers wedding on the beach... Chuppah had to be held down so it wouldn't fly away. It was SO windy. And then there were all the bikini clad women and topless men standing on the boardwalk next to the chuppah watching :)"
-Yaeli on Ringing in the Rain

"This is a really nice photograph. I love how everyone in the picture is kinda doing the same thing with their legs but at a different angle, with one leg higher than the other. The little boy on the right is priceless! Also the contrast of their dark outfits against the light background is great it really makes the photo sharp and makes the family stand out really nicely. Love it :-)"
-Perry Neuman on Comment Contest



I'm looking forward to a flood of clever comments this week!!!

Gift Guide / Modern Menorahs

I did not take the above photo. Nor did I design that menorah. But I certainly wish I had.

Possibly my favorite blog (out of around 200 that I follow), Design Sponge published a post this past Tuesday about beautiful modern menorahs. Some of them are kitchy or not even kosher (like the one pictured) but they certainly are outta the box - and I love that.

Comment Contest

As I anxiously await exchanging gifts with my family next week, I can't help but feel like those of you who follow my blog should get something too. I would love to give a little something to everyone but I just don't know you guys yet, you're always so quiet! So to encourage y'all to speak up I'm gonna give away a Portrait Session to whoever posts the best comment during the month of December. That's right, I will travel anywhere in the NY Metropolitan area to take pictures of you, your family/friends/pets or whoever and give you a picture package of your 4 favorite images from the session. And if you live outside of the NY Area don't feel left out, if you win I promise we'll work something out. So just to repeat myself:

THE BEST COMMENT ON SINCE78 DURING DECEMBER WINS A PORTRAIT SESSION AND PICTURE PACKAGE

To qualify you absolutely must leave some sort of identifier or contact information with your comment. I recommend commenting using the "Name/URL" selection in the dropdown and entering your Facebook profile address (e.g., www.facebook.com/MKruter) as the URL along with your corresponding Name. You are encouraged to comment as many times as you like on as many separate posts as you like, both old and new. Please note that this contest was not sanctioned by my lawyer and I'm sure some rules and restrictions apply ;) Holla Back

Linda Linn's Bags / Product Photography

This is kinda a follow up from yesterday's post about my product photography. A while ago I met a super-funky-talented woman in my community who is not only an excellent seamstress but an über creative as well. Prior to the whole Boho-chick craze Linda Linn began creating luxuriously colorful & textured pillows using textiles she often would customize in her home studio. My wife and I, newly married at the time, bought as many of the pillows as we could afford. Recently, Linda has been working hard making these fantastic bags that are every bit as wonderful as those original pillows, only far more functional, detailed and complex. If you love purses, bags & fashion or just want something handmade and one-of-a-kind, these would make a perfect purchase this Holiday Season.





Bag bottoms:



More bags...





...and more bags...



The detailing and craftsmanship is insane



This is a diaper bag complete with a diaper pad - which I would be even more afraid to use then those fancy cloth napkins at a nice restaurant:



Here's another embarrassing behind the scenes photo of my setup:



This is my dining room table, with all the clutter pushed to one end so that I could shoot on the other end. I actually wanted the bags to cast shadows on the background so I placed them directly on a cheap white foam board. For lighting I had one strobe aimed strait up at my white ceiling that provided a nice diffused main light. The other strobe sat nested inside a vase on the table (always improvise) and was used to add dimension to the image, giving the bags a nice edge highlight and the shadow on the background.



Then the images were cut out and composited in Photoshop, like so:



...and so:



If you love these bags as much as I do you must call or text Linda at 973-901-6398 and tell her you saw her bags on my blog.