Things to Do - LENSBABY GIVEAWAY (oh, and pictures of our week at the beach in Corolla, NC)

One house, eight kids, six adults, and two dogs = lots of opportunities for photos.

Lensbaby sent me their Composer Pro with Double Glass lens to try out and I must admit, I'm a little in love with it (some of my favorite lensbaby photos are posted above). Lensbabies work incredibly well for beach photos, in that they create a defined focal point and a dreamy/surreal look. Plus, Lensbabies are fun to work with, so many opportunities to be creative.

The Composer Pro lens comes with a series of aperture rings, perfect for trying out different effects. I spent most of the trip at 4.0, because the focus on the 2.8 proved too narrow, even for me. I never ventured higher than the 4 because I never usually venture higher than 4 on my go-to lens (I'm normally a 2.8 girl, but with the Lensbaby I needed a little more wiggleroom).

Luckily, Lensbaby has offered to GIVE AWAY A BRAND NEW SPARK LENS, which is a great opportunity to check out their product and see if it works for you. In order to enter, either (1) Comment to this post, making sure to include your email address in the body of the message or (2) Like No Monsters In My Bed on Facebook and write on my wall that you're entering the giveaway (also, please make sure that your facebook account allows you to receive messages from non-friends).
Easy Peasy.

I will close the contest and randomly choose a winner two weeks from now at 5 pm on FRIDAY, JUNE 22nd. Also, the Spark lens only works with Cannon and Nikon DSLR cameras, so please don't enter if you don't own a DSLR (and click here for more info on the lens).

[THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED, A RANDOM WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN AND NOTIFIED!]

Oh yes, so onto more beach pics . . .



The sand dune in back of our rental house provided almost as much entertainment as the beach itself. A bumpy sandbox that the adults could supervise through a window. Pretty nifty.



Duck Donuts is on my list of top 10 best restaurants ever. They're positively addictive. I couldn't stop.



I think the last photo might be my favorite ever - milk, corn, hamburgers, and a gun. Seriously, you can't get more American than that. Especially when the plate belongs to a Mongolian.



The beach is exhausting (and, yes, I'm actually posting a photo of myself, such things happen rarely, but I'm so happy there's a picture of T sleeping by my side).

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE LENSBABY GIVEAWAY!!