Banned Books Week 2015: A Photo Challenge!

Banned Books Week is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm celebrating with my third annual Banned Books Week photo challenge! :)



I'm changing the hashtag to #bbwphotoaday this year (#bookphotoaday seems to have been appropriated by other forces), and I hope to see many of you join in on Instagram and Twitter! As usual, I'll be featuring my favorite photos on my Instagram account and here on the blog. Please feel free to share the above image on your blog or Instagram if you plan to play along!

What is your favorite banned book?

P.S. — If you love Instagram and books, check out these fun bookish hashtags while you wait for this photo challenge to begin!

I like my Instagram feed pretty and filtered.

Good morning, my name is Megan, and I'm addicted to Instagram.



But really.

I love Instagram. I love looking at the gorgeous book flatlays created by Instartists like Ursula and Andie. I love adding to my never-ending wanderlust list when I see where Christie and Jenna have traveled lately. I love learning fun facts from the National Archives and American History Museum, among others. I love keeping up with friends from college through filtered and perfectly cropped squares, and I love seeing the final results of 'grammers taking 23 pictures of their lattes to make sure they captured the foam just right.



I know there has been a lot of buzz—especially in the blogosphere—about Instagram putting pressure on people to have "perfect lives," but I don't feel that way at all. Yes, sometimes when I see the vibrant colors on Melyssa's account or the crisp white stills from Helene, I wish I had fun little office accessories to photograph. But to be completely honest, if someone were to share unfiltered photos of boring, everyday things, or used Instagram to complain about what was going wrong in his/her life, I probably wouldn't follow that user. I like my Instagram feed to be full of positive, beautiful things. Is that so bad? I agree those photos shouldn't be at the expense of honesty, but I don't see why those two ideas have to be mutually exclusive.



Are you an Instagram user? What are your thoughts?

Linking up with Kenzie and Angie for their August 12x30 Challenge: photo a day! All photos in this post are my Instagram photos for the challenge.

Banned Books Week 2014: A Semi-Charmed Photo Challenge

Good evening, friends! I write to you tonight from Seattle, Washington, where I am spending the next few days attending orientation for my Master of Library and Information Science program. Woohoo! During our introductory lecture today, our program chair had a few great quotes that I had to write down, including:

"We're all better off when people can read and think freely."

Well said. Naturally, this got me thinking about Banned Books Week, which I then looked up and realized is next week! Last year, I hosted a photo challenge for Banned Books Week, which I found to be quite entertaining and received some positive feedback on. Therefore, I am turning this into an annual challenge!

Instead of providing specific prompts for each day this year, I decided to leave it open to all of you to post any bookish photos you wish throughout Banned Books Week (September 21 - 27). Please tag your photos with #bookphotoaday, and I will curate my favorite posts each day and feature them on my personal Instagram at @mcstroup and also here on the blog!

Please feel free to share the above graphic on your own social media and/or blog to encourage others to join the challenge! I hope to see your bookish posts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr next week. :)

Linking up with Nicole for Treat Yo' Self Thursday.

Photo a Day: November

My thoughts tonight: "Quick! Better get my November photo-a-day recap up before December ends!" *whoops* But really, I almost skipped November because it is so late until I noticed I only participated four times last month anyway, so this won't take too long to share. And I really liked these photos, so I wanted y'all to see them. :)

Photo A Day: October

What's that you say? This challenge from Fat Mum Slim ended 23 days ago? Oops.... Well I only took five photos for the entire October challenge anyway, so just humor me for the three seconds it takes you to look at them. :)


1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
My favorite picture of the bunch is definitely the bottom middle: That's the trail near my house where I did my longer training runs this fall. So beautiful!

Photo A Day: September

My participation in Chantelle's photo a day challenge last month wasn't so hot. I think part of that was because I was pretty focused on my own photo challenge for one of the weeks. But, I did get a few nice shots to contribute to the #fmsphotoaday hashtag on Instagram:

Photo A Day: August

full list | something beginning with N | a sign | 2 o'clock

Photo A Day: July

It's been a while since I've participated in an #fmsphotoaday challenge consistently enough to post about it. Five months, actually. But now that my traveling is done for a while (both as a Leadership Consultant and backpacking through Europe), I think I did pretty well in July! I completed 23 of the 31 categories; that might be the best I've ever done! :)

Photo A Day: January

So I may be absent from Instagram right now, but I made these collages a while ago, so this is still okay, right?

1. I saw Les Miserables my first day back in the States over winter break.
2. I also actually got to watch the new episode of SVU on real television. That never happens!
3. I posted this little beauty on my 100-month anniversary. <3

Photo a Day: December

Before we get too far into February, I figured I should probably post my December photo a day challenge recap so I can also share my January photos before the end of this month.

Photo a Day: November

Woot! I'm posting my November Photo A Day challenge recap just before the December challenge ends. Thumbs up to me. I'm also linking up this post with Taingamala's last-ever InstaTuesday. (Sniff sniff.) Does anyone know of another good Instagram link-up I can join next year?

Photo A Day: October

It's time for another photo a day challenge recap! At least this time I'm getting it up before the next month is halfway over. :)

I decided my previous way of sharing my challenge images was not very user-friendly because you couldn't read the captions while you were looking at the pictures. I'm trying a new design this week to make reading my post a little more convenient. What do you think?...

Photo a Day: September

I have to admit, I think I did a pretty good job with September ... at least during the first half of the month. Here's the round-up:

Photo a Day: August

Now that it's almost time to share my snapshots from September, I'm finally getting my August photo a day challenge up! I was doing pretty well until I hit the road for my first month as a Leadership Consultant, and then I started failing pretty miserably. Here's what I was able to capture last month:

Photo a Day: July

I wasn't too on top of the photo a day challenge for July, but I'm surprised at how many days I actually did. Check it out:

Photo A Day: June

I'm a little late this month, but here's my #photoadayJune recap. Did you participate?

Photo a Day: May (Round 2)

I shared the first half of my pictures from Fat Mum Slim's #photoadayMay challenge earlier this month. Now that the month is over, it's time for round two:

Here are a few quick explanations for the photos that need it:

Photo A Day: May

I was planning to join {a little dash of ash}'s Instagram link-up today to share the first half of my #photoadayMay pictures, then she announced this morning that she is no longer doing it. :( But you get to see my photos anyway; lucky you!

Like last time, most of these photos are pretty self-explanatory. Here are a few quick explanations for the photos that need it:

Photo A Day: April

As an Android user, this was the first month I could participate in the Photo a Day Challenge through Instagram! I wasn't very consistent, but here's what I did this month:

Most of these pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but here are a few notes:

16. This is kind of an awkward angle, but that’s me sitting at my desk, looking down to snap a picture of my silver scarf and floral dress.
17. I don’t like limiting myself to make my bag of Starbust jelly beans last longer!
18. Self-portraits are soooo awkward.
24. I’m so grateful to be serving as a 2012-2013 Alpha Delta Pi Leadership Consultant! This is my official acceptance.
27. I found this little puffin at the REI Scratch 'n' Dent sale.
28. This salad was delicious. Spinach, strawberries, pears, feta cheese, almonds and cherry tomatoes (though I didn't include the tomatoes again; they tasted kind of weird with the sweet fruit).
30. Obviously, my boyfriend doesn't make me sad, but the fact that I haven't seen him in two months and don't know when we'll be able to see each other again before June makes me sad. :( But I know it could be worse! At least he's not deployed.

Now, on to May! Are you participating?