DMBLGIT

Before I introduce the judges for this June edition of Does My Blog Look In This, I have a confession to make. Today is my dad’s birthday…Happy Birthday Dad! Joyeux Anniversaire Papa!

My confession is that I had planned to make him a cheesecake and send it virtually via this site but things did not turn out that way…Raspberry cheesecake was indeed made, but eaten faster than I could take pictures…sorry! We thought about you though! I looked for a while for a photograph of my father but quickly realised that very much like me, he is the one behind the camera most of the time, and when I did find a couple he was making his notorious "moon face" (giant smiling face from ear to ear). Yeah…a bowl of fresh raspberries is a little more tempting than a strange French man with a scary face on a Monday!

Reserved as he is, I also know that he would not want me making a big deal about his birthday so…moving on to the judges of DMBLGIT. I have started to refer to them as "my peeps" whenever I start updating the gallery and creating nice spread sheets with every participants' blog on them. I am glad I did not have to bribe them (macarons don’t travel that well) to become judges and that they were as excited as I was to be part of this event. Some described themselves in their on words, some left me the task of making it short…ugh! One day I’ll tell you about the two ladies in the train when I was four or five and you will understand why I can’t do short stories, but let’s see..for the sake of you eyes:

Brilliant Graeme: " Blood Sugar was started in June 2007, with its premise of simple, thoughtful and engaging content, remaining the same following a creative decision to Hermit crab over to WordPress in December of last year. Graeme is in his final year at the University of Lincoln, majoring in photography. With inspiration gathered from everywhere between blogs and newspaper articles, Blood Sugar aims for high-end fun, with an edge on simplicity."

Rockstar Jennifer: "Jen Yu runs her mouth and her food blog over at use real butter where she combines two of her passions: food and photography. She totes a camera with her everywhere giving readers a glimpse into other noodlings like hiking, skiing, Colorado’s beauty, and her goofy dog. "use real butter" is not so much a directive for the kitchen as an attitude on life. Grab it by the hojos, kids."

Soulful Nadia runs three beautifulblogs, all with a different "je ne sais quoi", call it flair, style or creativity but each showcase her photographic skills of capturing the moment, a feeling, a memory. She is woman, child, daughter, friend finding beauty in things big and small. With a perfect eye for color and light, she is one talented artist!

I met ubber cool graphic designer Alyson through her site Unruly Things….yeah go check it out, gawk and come back, I’ll wait…See what I meant? I was impressed by her graphics, impeccable style and I was delighted when she decided to start her own food blog, Milk Eggs Chocolate…now both my eyes and tummy could be satisfied!

And the fifth judge? Well that would be yours truly! Oh, heck…here is the two ladies in the train story….Once upon a time when I was about four or five, I took the train with her mom who wished the little girl would stay still and quiet longer than five minutes. I was fidgetting and paying closer than natural attention to the conversation two other ladies were having, sitting across from us. Obviously I was distracting them quite a bit so the ladies decided to move to the seats behind me. Not satisfied for a penny, Tartelette turned around and propped her elbows on the banquette and said "Talk louder I can’t hear!"… Now you know why a story is never just a story for me.

So folks, there is one week remaining to send me your entries (details here), Monday the 23rd being the deadline. Over 100 of you have done so, and we could not be more delighted by the turn out…but we are greedy for more pictures. So go on! Don’t wait until the last day….!

(Andrew, I hope you will forgive me this little side story)

Andrew knows how to make my heart jump…and I am not talking about his fabulous pictures or his mouth watering recipes…Nope, the man behind Does My Blog Look Good In This, a.ka.a DMBLGIT and Is My Blog Burning, sent me an email last week that made me literally jumped in my seat : "Hiya! Are you still OK to host DMBLGIT this month. You are down on my list as host for June." Did I write him in my sleep?…has my brain that many short circuits lately that I can’t remember? When? How? Who?…..

I remembered signing up when he asked for hosts months ago but I had not heard back so I figured I had been deemed not worthy of this great event…Sigh….After a few emails back and forth we figured out that his answers had bounced back and never reached me….Ugh…so ok, quick thinking….Contact people I wished to have as judges, badge tweaking, email account set up, gallery set up,…and long story short (I am trying, really!)….Tartelette will be your host for DMBLGIT June 2008 Edition!

I love this event and not only because I have had the honor to be a winner, a judge and now a host but because I am truly in awe of all the talents out there! Whether you have minimal or top of the line equipment there is always that one shot that makes you say "Yeah baby!" and for those moments, there is Does My Blog Look Good In This?

Before I give you the details, instructions and guidelines, let me introduce you to the four other judges this month: Graeme from Blood Sugar, Nadia from La Porte Rouge, Jen from Use Real Butter, Alyson from Milk Eggs Chocolate. I will tell you more about them later next week…

Rules:
Each food blogger can submit one photograph that was posted to their blog during the contest month (May). Photographs are reviewed by a panel of judges, who score them in three categories: edibility, aesthetics, and originality. The host then compiles the scores to determine the winners. The specific things the judges will be looking for are as follows:

– Aesthetics: composition, food styling, lighting, focus, etc.
– Edibility: “does the photo make us want to dive in and eat the food?”
– Originality: the photograph that catches our attention and makes us want to say “wow!”, displaying something we might not have seen before.
– Overall Winner: top overall scores in all three categories combined.

There are three overall winners for photographs with the highest point totals in all three categories combined, and one winner in each of the three individual categories.

How to participate:

– Only one entry per person (a single photograph, no diptychs)
– The photograph must have been taken by you.
-The photograph must have appeared on your blog during the month of May.
– Entries must be received by June 23, 2008

Send your entry to [email protected] with DMBLGIT as the subject. Please include the following:
– your name
– your blog’s name and URL
– your photograph’s title
– the URL of the post containing the photograph
– type of camera used, lens if you wish
– Please send photos in an attachment to your email in a jpeg format, of no more than 500 pixels in width

All submissions will be posted to the June 2008 DMBLGIT gallery, which will be updated as I receive entries. Please give me a few days to update the gallery with your submission!
Good luck!