#instacamp week 1: beautiful sunshine

WELL.

When you people get an #instacamp prompt, man, you do not mess around. I simply say "sunshine," and all week long I've been awash in a sea of beautiful, sunshiny images, both of the actual sun and representations of the sun, each and every one of them putting a smile on my face each and every time I saw them. It's just so heartwarming to think that there's all this beauty, all over the world. Thank you so much for sharing your images on Instagram, on Flickr, on Twitter ... everywhere. You guys do beautiful work.

As promised, here are a few that particularly caught my eye this week. Please be sure to click on the images to see more about the photographer:

"Beautiful cavernous hike today. #moab" by Holly Hamann

"Time to raise the umbrella" by Nicole Blades

"Sunshine glistening" by Katherine Lightner

"#nofilter all angle, babee!" by Melissa Ixcheldevi

See? You're smiling!

Thanks so much to all of you who have been taking part in #instacamp -- it's seriously such a pick-me-up looking at your awesome images. And please, don't stop now -- if you've been shooting sunshiny images with your cameraphones this week (or will continue to do so this weekend), please leave the links to your shots in the comments below. I seriously can't get enough. And similar to last week, on Sunday, I'll pick a commenter at random to receive a signed copy of The Beauty of Different, as well as a copy of my friend Susannah's new book, This I Know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart (which we talked about earlier this week). Because summery images like this deserve some good summer reading.

Have a great weekend, friends. I can't wait to see what you share. And stay tuned for our second #instacamp prompt on Monday!

Update: According to Random.org, the winner of Susannah's book and the signed copy of The Beauty of Different is Mary Philips, who said in the comments below: "Love the #instacamp idea. Love any reason to take photos so it works. :) Looking forward to seeing everyone's mad photo skills!" Congrats, Mary! Please email me so I can get you your books.

And again, thanks to everyone who shared their beautiful camera phone photos! Stay tuned for tomorrow's #instacamp prompt -- I can't wait to see more of your work.

Song: Have you seen h er by Just a Band