Photography Tips For Bloggers: Part Two

Hello! Welcome back to the second half of my photography tips, hints, ideas, whatever you like to call them. I was so touched by your response to part one, thank you for your comments. I hope you like this post as much. Many of you mentioned that you had to use your phone for blog photos, and lamented the quality of the images. I think it's worth emphasising that you do not need a fancy camera to enjoy taking photos for your blog (or photos for yourself, for that matter) and that the important thing is that you enjoy what you are doing, that you enjoy taking the photos, and I think that this will be conveyed in your images.

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7. Editing

By this I mean playing around with an an image on the computer by using a package or a website like Photoshop, PicMonkey or Pixlr. PicMonkey is the one I usually use, and certainly the one that I am most familiar with. It's largely free - the functions I use are - but you can pay more to access extra filters and effects I believe. I tend to use it to to correct wonky horizon lines, crop images  or sometimes, during the winter, add warmth to the light and colour settings if I took the photos on a very bleak day.

You can have tremendous fun by uploading your photos and playing around with the filters that are there, or creating your own effects by playing around with contrast, colour saturation or focus. I changed the effects of the leaf skeletons below by going into "Sharpen" and moving "sharpness" and "clarity" to their maximum settings, for example.

I'd really recommend you play around on it and experiment. 

The other thing it's great for is creating collages. All the collages you see on my blog were put together using PicMonkey. Sometimes they can give a feel or flavour of something in a way that one single photo can't. 

Sarah at Mitenska uses collages very successfully to capture the feel of an event, day or holiday to great effect, such as here, rather than showing us lots of individual photos. They become pieces of art all of their own. I think she also uses filters really successfully, and they work well because her original photos are so good.

Annie at Knitsofacto is a very gifted photographer, and she recently put together this excellent tutorial for using colour in PicMonkey collages. But I'd highly recommend a look at all Annie's photos, she has a unique talent. (in my humble opinion!)

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8. Be Observant

I find I often wish I had my camera with me when I see something I like the look of, or something I want to capture. Often it's a view or a sunset, but sometimes it's something more mundane. My eye is always drawn to interesting or unusual shadows around the house...

...or reflections...

...or the way light is refracted through glass.

Things like this fascinate me. You might say that images like these don't really serve any purpose, but if they catch your eye or pique your interest, then it's a challenge to try to capture them on camera in the best way you can, and rewarding when it works out. Scenes like these challenge me and make me more observant, and I like that. Also, they remind me how much beauty there is in the everyday, and that's worth remembering.

I think that these four bloggers all have a genuine knack for capturing the beauty in the real, everyday, even mundane things they see in the landscapes around them. 

Leanne's love of her local Cornish coastline comes over time and time again, such as here and here. Jennifer's love of homemaking, of her crafts, her garden and ever changing local desert landscape is a rich vein running through her blog. CJ has a gift for capturing her local area, her allotment and her life with three small boys, not to mention a very wry sense of humour. And Sue's talent for spotting and documenting the happiness there is to be found in simple pleasures - food, fresh flowers, sunshine, knitting, her quince tree - is a joy to behold. (Also - if you don't already know Sue's blog, do have a browse through her recipe page - you wont be disappointed.)

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9. Break the rules 

I always thought that all photos had to be taken with the sun behind you. I'm sure we all remember those family photos taken outdoors: a group people stand in a row, squinting into the sun, with the long shadow of the photographer in the foreground of the photo. 

But guess what? You can take photos into the light! It can create wonderful, dramatic, sometimes magical effects. (But please, be careful, don't blind yourself.)

These two shots were taken on the beach where the reflection of the sun on the water created extra light. I know that these are not technically good shots, but when I look at them, straightaway I remember that feeling of the bright winter sun and the cold wind

These two were also taken in the winter, proof that the low, bright, cold winter light can be as photographically rewarding as the golden light of summer.

These three were taken into the setting sun in the summer months, creating a softer, warmer effect, and wonderful rainbows on the lens.

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10. Take lots of photos. 

Then take some more for good measure, then delete most of them. The joys of digital photography! Or, you can get your husband to take lots and then go through them until you feel there is one that does not make you look like an idiotic poser. (John taking a photo of me is an unhappy situation not unlike when one of us is navigating while the other drives; me tetchy and uncomfortable, him not really sure what I want or what he is doing, both of us unsatisfied.) I loathe having my photo taken and am now wondering why I've shown you twelve photos of me. You can laugh, if nothing else.

If I'm trying to get a good photo of, say, this cowl, then I'll take far too many and delete about 90% of the ones I take. This works for me because I've learnt to edit quickly and I'll whizz through them, deleting or not, until I'm happy with what I've got. Here, you can see me moving it in and out out of the sun, arranging and re-arranging until I was happy I had some clear photos that faithfully reproduced the colour of the yarn and showed the texture of the stitches.

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11. Go Large

I would advocate uploading a bigger photo onto your blog, if you can. This is purely my own personal preference, but I would suggest using the large or extra large settings. It's as simple as clicking on the photo while you're composing your blog post, and then choosing your size preference. Here is the difference for you to see...

Small:

Medium:

Large:

Extra Large:

One of my absolute all time favourite blogs is Posie Gets Cozy. Alicia always begins her post with a long series of images which fill the screen and almost stand alone to create a post of their own, like a visual story ready to be told, and that's before she even starts to write.

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12. Avoid Using Flash

It's the middle of winter. You left for work in the dark and returned home in the dark, and your weekends are most likely filled with a mixture of hobbies, chores, seeing friends and family, getting out and about, and having fun. That leaves precious little time to take any daylight photos and so, if you want to photograph something you've created, you are left with the option of electric light. It doesn't always show colours accurately and your camera will most likely want to use the flash, as it will tell you there is not enough light. This one is up to you - try the electric light in different rooms (maybe the bright spotlights in the kitchen give too much shadow?), try experimenting with and without flash, just snap away and see what you come up with. Try using Picmonkey to add a little more light into the photo if you think it needs it. I don't have any solid advice here, I am sorry! What I would say is, with electric light, go with the low light levels, go with the interesting shadows and effects it can create, rather than trying to control it too much.

However, in daylight, it's a different matter and I'm very wary of using the flash on my camera during the day. I'm always amazed at how keen my camera is to use the flash! It decides there is insufficient light constantly, so I generally switch it off. I took the photos below on a bright day and was surprised that camera still felt flash was needed. The two below were taken with the flash turned on and I think the glare spoils the depth of the photos and gives an unnaturally bright, false look.

These were taken with the flash turned off. Yes, they are very slightly darker, but I prefer them. It's a matter of taste I think, but my preference is not to use flash unless it's really necessary.

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Well that's it. I've enjoyed putting these posts together enormously, thank you for indulging me. Snap way, practice, and most of all have some fun.

Spring, thank you.

Is it me or has spring been really rather spectacular this year? It feels like everything is growing and blooming; the blossom seems to be everywhere, extra-colourful and lasting longer than usual. The skies have been gloriously blue, the sun has shone. Maybe it's just that we were all so ground down by that long, wet winter with endless grey skies (and we didn't even have floods to worry about up here) and I was just so ready for spring and some vitamin D. I've just been looking back through my photos from the last two weeks and I've noticed that most of them were taken outside; on the beach, in the park, in the garden. I do love it when the weather is good in the school holidays, the difference it makes - to the quality our days, to my mood, to our health - is not to be underestimated, I think.

The children and I spent the first week on the south coast, staying with my parents. John stayed behind as he had to work, and we missed him of course, but I did enjoy all that time with my sisters and parents, and with my nieces and my nephew too. Honestly, those little people are all delicious. That's Eleanor you can see above, looking out to sea. At just turned four, she is the baby of the group of six cousins, Bella being the oldest at seven. Eleanor used to be very shy with me, warming up to me just at the end of my visits, but this time she was delightful, non-stop chatter and kisses, wanting to hold my hand and sit next to me. No-one prepared me for how much I'd love them - even when they are little monkeys and hitting each other - and I love seeing them grow bigger and watching their confidence increase.

We all visited Arundel to see the Wetland Centre, or Wildlife Park as it was called when I last visited about twenty five years ago. Angus called it a "bird zoo". Wetland Centre means nothing to a four year old. There were a few comical moments in the bird hides, watching Angus try to look through the telescopes....

...bless him, he just wasn't getting it. He found a stick and spent the rest of his time in the hides pointing it at the birds and making shooting noises, much to my mortification...This is West Sussex, Angus, I hissed, these Boden-clad children do not pretend to shoot the birds!

Spring is the time to go though, I think, as chicks and ducklings were everywhere.

This lot sneaked out of their fenced area and were waddling around the path, cute as you like. It was all I could do not to squeal - they were about two feet away from me - and put one in my pocket and take it home. We had a dreamy boat ride around the wetland, where the motion of the boat and views of the surrounding area made me veeery relaxed indeed.

I'll take that over a theme park any day.

We met up with my friend Abigail (my BFF as Bella would say) in Chichester and spent an idyllic morning in a beautiful park right in the city center.

Since moving away I've come to appreciate how rich in history Chichester is, how attractive I find the low-lying Georgian architecture, what a pleasant buzz the whole place has, while also feeling very peacful. I like how you can see the minster spire from almost everywhere within the city walls.

This week has been all about gardening and Easter preparations. I've done about fifteen loads of washing. I decided to wash every single hat, scarf, glove and woolen jumper this week, before packing them away. I like to do this, I feel like it sort of marks the end of winter. Of course I am never without a scarf (and have worn my cowl constantly this holiday) but I have winter scarves, spring scarves and summer ones. Don't mock me. I also have these pretty new tea towels, from Asda of all places. I'd thought about using the fabric for cushions but decided I just like them as they are, hung over the oven handle or pegged on the line. There's nothing like pegging out washing to dry in the sun to make me really, truly, deep down happy.

We made our usual fayre, Easter nests and egg-shaped biscuits. That's about as traditional as we get round here - I'm still scarred from my hot cross bun escapades two years ago when I spent about eight hours in the kitchen, pampering and nursing a very needy batch of dough.

Easter baking tends to involve children, sugar and pastel shades round here. Damn tasty, they were, and pretty too.

I made an Easter wreath the other evening. It took as long as two episodes of House of Cards* and it was fairly low-level crochet, no real concentrating. I needed to focus on the television!

I like how it came out though, and the yellow looks nice against our grey front door.

I finally cracked and bought a copy of the latest edition of Kinfolk Magazine, mainly to see what the fuss was all about. It's expensive, true, but that's because it contains no adverts, which I didn't realise. It's just page after page of very good writing and photography. Sometimes I found it a little bit precious, but overall I liked it. The current issue is all about the home, which particularly appealed to me, and I think of it more as a book than a magazine. It's my current bedtime reading, that and Donna Leon.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, I hope you have a wonderful, joyful day, whatever you are doing. We'll be making the most of these last few days of what has been a truly glorious two week break. 

Spring, I think you may be overtaking autumn as my favourite season.

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*Is anyone else watching House Of Cards? We're on the second series now. Oh, it's good, so good, I feel like I need to talk to everyone about it! The Underwoods - I am both captivated by them and terrified of them. Great writing, great acting. What did we do before box sets of US dramas, I wonder?

Easter Mantels and Rabbit Garlands

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my photography post! It did take a while to put together but I enjoyed writing it so much. Part two is almost ready and I hope to post it soon.

Anyway, Easter. I didn't intend to post today but I spent such a time faffing around with Easter decorations this afternoon, and made such a cute garland that took about two minutes (no, really!) that I knew that I wanted to share it with you lot because you would all totally get why a rabbit garland over my mantel made me so very happy. I realised with mild panic today that I was not at all Easter Ready, not one bit, and so I dug out the boxes of decorations from under the bed and got to work. Don't you think that opening boxes of decorations is one of the nicest things to do in the world? Christmas or Easter, it's so fun to see what is hiding amongst the tissue paper. I mean, I packed that box, so in theory I know what it contains, but there is still a pleasant feeling of surprise and recognition when I pick up and look at each item.

Like, oh hello Easter Egg garland, I forgot how much I like you!

I made this garland three or four years ago by cutting acrylic crafting felt into egg shapes (I used a cookie cutter), then I drew on a pattern with fading ink pen and stitched over the design with embroidery thread. I then attached both halves together with blanket stitch and stuffed them and threaded them onto a length of ribbon. This did not take two minutes, this took about two weeks. But I think I appreciate this garland all the more because it's only on display for a fortnight each year.

My Danish egg cup family are filled with wooden eggs, borrowed from the Bella's shop. The eggs are a bit small, giving them a funny cone-head look.

We never have an Easter tree as such, but I do keep some pussy willow in a vase in the living room and I like to decorate this each spring. 

The leaves are from a pattern in an old edition of Mollie Makes and you can read about when and how I made them here, if you wish. Again, I like them all the more because they only come out annually.

But the decoration which made me most happy today was my little rabbit garland. I just love the white against the grey with the repeating pattern and the shadows it makes. Mostly I love it's simplicity.

I bought this big box of foam stickers in Hobbycraft at the weekend. We've already made cards so heavy with stickers that a first class stamp probably wont be sufficient.

 I simply left the stickers unpeeled - so that they are not sticky - and attached them to a length of string with mini pegs, also from Hobbycraft I think. It was one of those crafting-with-the-kids activities where we all pretend it's done by them but really we know that I am going to re-do it afterwards, making sure the rabbits are evenly spaced.

You could make a really colourful one with the glittery egg stickers, or peg your own fabric or cardboard creations onto string or ribbon. Anything really. And then we can save the garland until next year of just dismantle it, putting the stickers back in the tub and re-using the pegs. I can see this is something I'm going to have a lot of fun with in future!

Edited to add: The little bird boxes are from a pattern here.