Ree 'The Pioneer Woman' picked my photo once!

Ok, so, my photo was one out of 111 that were chosen from 126,000 entries for 'The Pioneer Woman' blog photo contest/assignment.  The photo was picked in Group 4 of the 'Love' photo assignment.  It's really not that big a deal, but to me it was!  I have been following Ree (the pioneer woman, herself) for a couple of years and I just love her!  She has a photo assignment about once a month and I have entered these on a regular basis.  None of mine have ever been picked until now.  It isn't surprising, since she does have an average of over 100,000 entries for every assignment.  And in reviewing them, you realize there are so many amazing photographers out there - and a lot of 'lucky shots' - being in the right place at the right time with a camera in hand!  This contest was after coming back from our daughter's wedding in Mexico and going through about 5,000 of my photos.  This photo was pretty special to me and Ree must have thought so, too.  This is what she put under the photo: "By Wendy J Photos. Awww. That this was taken by his soon-to-be mother-in-law makes it even sweeter.".  Thank you, Ree, for acknowledging me.  I was beginning to think that maybe there was something about the way I was uploading my photos.  I do photography to 'give' to the people I love and not for sale or for public praise.  I get lots of compliments from family and love it when they enjoy my photos, but it doesn't hurt to be noticed from time to time, either.

About this photo - Kelly was having her hair done at the beauty salon and Travis thought she was in her room getting ready for their wedding.  He wrote this in the sand and then called Kelly's room on the 10th floor.  Kelly wasn't there, so he said - find someone with a camera and tell them to go to the balcony.  I happened to walk in the room at that time and one of the girls told me to take may camera out there.  I went out and there was Travis - pointing to his message to Kelly.  Travis had told the gal who answered the phone that he had to 'erase' the message as there was a beach wedding being held there in about 1/2 hour and they wanted his message gone before the guests came.  Travis and his brother busily 'erased' the message as quickly as they could.  I took some photos and went down to the beauty salon to show Kelly and a couple other bridesmaids.  We all cried as I told Kelly the story.  It was all very touching!  If you want to see all the wedding day photos (there's a lot!), you can go here to my flickr site.