Summertime Coming of Age Story! and New DIY Challenge!

Figured everyone needed a dose of summertime memories .. and pink pills!

I don't recall posting this caption before, and for 2 reasons: one is my memory is bad and I couldn't find it when I searched for a few possible keywords, and the second is that even though the caption was created in August 2010, I just "fixed" it now so the background and text would be less distracting to the story that had been written. Here is how it look originally.

Yeah, in my quest to make everything tidy and "fit together" I really knocked out of one of the most important things in a caption, the legibility. So when looking for something to post tonight, I just went and updated the style of the piece, plus added one word so the paragraphs would scan better.

What I did specifically was to change the color of the text and remove the darkened outline around the font. I took the picture and added a shadow as I do now to most if not all images I use nowadays. I picked new colors for the caption background which would make the text pop out more.Lastly, I increased the width to 1000 pixels from 850, which at one point was the maximum width a caption could be on Rachel's Haven.

Mostly this was an act to show off an old caption I still liked, but also remind people that presentation counts .. but at the very least it has to have words and images that work together to set up a scene and embellish the plot in a reader's mind. Everything after that, is pure gravy!

<><><><>

Here is a shortened version of the DIY Challenge due to the shortest month of the year. As such, you have exactly ONE WEEK to complete the challenge, as the deadline is Wednesday, February 24 at midnight PST. The theme of this month's DIY is "The Getaway". I was inspired by the Valentine's Day last minute romantic getaway my GF and I pulled off, and figured it would make a great subject. It can be about romance, crime, or the pursuit of a whole new life and/or persona .. and you must use the word "getaway" in the caption itself.

I have included a setting for those who need one or wish to figure out how much space with which to write their caption, and also the original photo for those who will create an entire caption on their own. For those using the caption setting as a guide, I recommend brevity, as there isn't as much space available to use as there usually is.

So you can email it to me, leave it in my trading folder with a DIY designation, or if you are just writing up a story that I'll place into the caption setting, leave it in the comments in the "Latest DIY" section via the tab below my blog banner. Just remember, the deadline is Wednesday, February 24 at midnight PST. Hope to see lots of submissions!

DISCUSSION QUESTION: How much of a difference did the changes make to the 2010 version of the caption affect your enjoyment of the fixed version? To me, it makes it at least 40 percent better, if not more.