The best way to be a great photographer is to take pictures
If you want to get good at something, you have to practice. It’s just that simple. Sure, you can take classes, read books, and embrace the learning that is readily available. All of those activities are good and will also help you improve. But there is no substitute for doing. When I look over my past photos, I can honestly see the difference regular practice makes.
Check out some of my favorite photography posts:
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If you want to be a better photographer
I’ve written about this before, but there really is just one trick that has helped me improve my photography the most, and that is daily practice. I’ve noticed that the time periods in my life where my photos look the best coincides with when I was actually taking pictures each and every day.
Great video tutorial for depth of field in photography
One of the best ways to improve your photography is to learn how to use and master depth of field. If you aren’t sure of how to do that, or even what that means, I have the perfect video to share with you today!
Photos are meant to be shared and enjoyed
Do you remember when I shared this post about the memory keeping class I taught a few weeks ago? I hope you downloaded the handout I put together for that presentation. It’s free and I think it’s quite useful if I may say so myself. Today I’m sharing the handout I put together for the second and final week of my local class. Another free gift for you and I hope you will enjoy it! This one is 2 pages long so I split the pdf into 2 pages in case you just want to print one of them.
Can't take pictures at the event? Try this trick!
There are several events and venues that don’t allow photography. You can’t snap photos during performances like plays and symphonies. You also are not allowed to take pictures during a movie. If you love to document these events, you might want to use one of my favorite tricks. Just hold up a program or ticket for the performance and take a picture of it before it begins.
A funny thing happened to my iPhone photos a few months ago. I had no problem working with them on my iPhone or iPad and I could even open them from my photo stream on my Mac. However, I couldn't import them into Photoshop Elements or even put them in a word document. Even when I downloaded them from Google Photos, I still couldn't use them in any programs. I noticed they had a new type of file extension ending of .HEIC instead of the familiar .JPG so I did some research. Sure enough, you can't open HEIC files in most programs. So why the switch?
How I learned about photography
While I still have a lot of room for improvement in the area of photography, I have to say that I’ve come a long way since the old days of just picking up a camera and hoping for the best. Sadly, that was the only training I had until about 12 years ago.
Last night, I taught a group of local friends about photography, photo organization, and how to enjoy their photo collections. It was a lot of fun and I’m excited to be able to share my handout here with all of you and also include some links. You can save this image to your own hard drive or phone. If you want to download the image + a PDF, you can download it for free right here from my shop.
5 fast ways to make the photos you've already taken more amazing
If you are like me, you probably take a lot more photos than you used to. Many of us have cameras with us at all times because of smart phone technology. Digital shooting means you can take unlimited pictures without worrying about cost. As a collective society, we are producing a lot more photographs and they are better than ever. However, there are a few simple tips that will be helpful to any type of photographer. Here are five FAST ways to make the pictures you've already taken (and will take in the future) more amazing.
Next time you simply can’t think of what to take a picture of, try looking up! Clouds are constantly changing and they create amazing skyscapes to photograph. You can use the cloud photos to add to the story you are telling through pictures. Or save them to use as backgrounds for word art and journaling. Clouds are very versatile!
Why #throwbackthursday is my favorite hashtag
I personally believe #throwbackthursday is the most useful hashtag I've ever encountered. It inspires me to find an old photo to share and when I do that, the memories come rushing back.
More than 5000 photography ideas
Do you ever feel stumped for photography ideas? I really don't have that problem. Not that I'm bragging or anything... I really think it has more to do with the fact that I read and save lists full of ideas all the time. Oh, and I take at least one photo every day and I've been doing that for a few years now so that helps keep the ideas flowing as well. It gets easier the more you shoot!
When my daughter and I went shopping back in 2014, we giggled over this t-shirt about hashtags. I’m not against hashtags in general, but they can get crazy and become quite annoying in many cases. When my Dad saw this photo, he emailed me and asked me what the # sign meant? This was my response:
Do you ever go looking for free to download images that are copyright free? I do all the time! You might wonder why
I've blogged about a lot of photo apps over the past few years and I thought it would be helpful to post a list of my very favorites all in one place. I've narrowed done the best of the best and these are the apps I use the very most.
Did you know that June is National Rose Month? It makes perfect sense because this is the month when roses are in their prime blooming stage!
The impact of natural disasters for photos and documents
I live in Utah and I’m quite certain we will never experience a hurricane here. We did get a very rare tornado once back in 1999. We are sitting on a giant earthquake fault though, and my middle school Geology teacher used to love to scare the daylights out of us about that! I guess every area has it’s hazards, but it sure seems like it would be tough to live in a coastal area these days. I know that I have many readers and some online friends who will be right in the path of Hurricane Florence and I want you to know that I’m hoping that you all stay safe!
I’m always on the hunt for new apps that give me new and creative ways to play with my photos. My most recent discovery is the Becasso app and I think it’s one you will enjoy as well. It lets you apply the looks and techniques behind the greatest art masterpieces to your own photos.
I participated in the #AColorWeek challenge earlier this month using the #AColorStory app and I had so much fun playing with all the fun colors!
It might seem like semantics, but I think there is a big difference. When I TAKE a picture, I am just snapping something as it happens - often without a lot of thought about composition. When I MAKE a picture, I spend time (even if it's only a few seconds) and energy on deciding what to include in the frame.
I needed a fresh new perspective today so I thought it would be fun to make up a little game of photo prompts. If you want to play along on Instagram just use the #whatsonprompt so your pictures will show up under that category when the hashtag is searched. It's a fun way to get inspiration from others and share your own pictures.
How I edit my photos (both digital and scanned)
As a follow up to my previous post on How I Organize My Digital Photos, I'm sharing how I edit my photos.
Who would have ever thought that I would be a pro-selfie advocate? This coming from a woman who continually struggles to get in front of the camera. I am trying to be more forgiving of my flaws and let the camera capture me.
I have a lot of photography books and they seem to run together after a while. This was a refreshingly creative book. There is good information to help direct your photography skills and I love the 44 creative exercises. I often look through lists like that and think that I would maybe do two or three of the prompts. I actually plan to try all of the ideas in this book!
Every single day since December 1st of 2013, I've been taking at least one photo a day and keeping track of them on a calendar in the Collect App. That means I've been at it for 624 days so far!
How I organize my digital photos
I've had a few evenings to spend with my computer this week and I've been working on organizing and editing my 2015 photos.
Looking through a different filter
I take photos all the time. I look at them often and think about the subject matter, the composition, and many other details. I just love pictures! Just when I think I've seen everything there is to see in my photos, I always find something new.
When one photo isn’t enough, I usually use the Diptych app (available from Apple, Google, and for Mac & Windows) on my phone to create a collage of photos. For me, 4 photos seems to be the perfect number to tell the story. When I photographed my little LEGO guy on Cinco de Mayo, I purposely took 4 pictures to create this scene.
I just love finding fun new photo editing apps and I’ve really been enjoying Waterlogue ever since I downloaded it earlier this month. It’s like playing with watercolors by simply pushing a button on your phone! Here are some of my own photos to show you what you can do with the Waterlogue app:
Safe photos to download for projects and Flickr settings
I stumbled into this great website called Photos for Class that lets you search for images to download that are appropriate and free to use according to licensing permissions
Instagram has become one of my greatest memory keeping tools. It is so easy to share a photo and include a few sentences explaining the memory. It really has become an ongoing photo journal for me.
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Appreciating the evolution of iPhones
I recently purchased the iPhone 11 pro and I’ve been so happy with it. I usually will update my phone every other year and pass the old one on to one of my children. They are definitely the beneficiaries in my trickle-down-phone-economics plan! Then I usually trade in their old phone for Apple credit. I don’t need to upgrade as often as I do, but I like to use the excuse of needing to stay up to date on the latest photography technology for this blog. Sounds reasonable, don’t you think?
It just hit me last night that I better start planning a family photo session sometime soon. We always send out a photo card for our holiday greetings. This is something that my husband has always felt strongly about and I have to say I’m grateful to him for making me get myself in a family photo each year. There have been several times I tried to convince him that we could just use a picture of the kids and he wouldn’t have it. He is absolutely right on this and now it’s time again to try and get over my excuses and make this happen.
How to create a quick and easy photo collage in Google Photos
Google Photos is such a great resource for storing and sharing photos, but did you know you can also use it to whip up super quick collages? Here's a quick how-to on creating collages in Google Photos.
Printing 4x4 photos for my office board
If you want to turn rectangle photos into squares (Persnickety Prints is a great place to order square photos), then you will need to do some quick editing. This is the process I went through for my big board of photos in my office so I could use over 20 years worth of pictures. If you are printing Instagrams (which are already square) you can just skip these steps and get right to the printing.
I love to play with my photos and there are so many ways to do that now. Almost too many! While there are tons of great apps to use on my phone and tablet for photo editing, sometimes I like to just open up a browser window and play with some editing tools - especially when it's all free!
As I was browsing through pictures of past holiday seasons, these photos from 2009 stood out to me because they are a little better than the ones I’ve taken since then. Why? Because I was taking the time to get out my “big camera” aka DSLR back then.
As I was browsing through my photo files the other day, I found a few dashboard photos - meaning pictures I have taken from the dashboard of a car while on a road trip, from the passenger seat of course. Rest assured that I don't take pictures while I'm driving!
Free Printable Photography Cheat Sheets
My daughter is taking a college photography course this semester and I suspect she might have thought it would be one of her easier classes. After all, she is already a great photographer! She has a natural gift for great subjects and composition and she definitely has practiced over the years. However, she has never shot in manual mode and her professor is requiring that for all their assignments. No auto!
Instagram is my favorite place to share everyday memories and inspiration. I hope you are following me there so you can connect with me.
I also understand that there are some people who just don't want to be on certain social media sites though so I thought it might be useful to have a place where you can see my 20 most recent Instagram images.
Great resource for photo ideas
Whenever I run into a great online resource, I always get excited to share it with my readers here. I was checking out the Shutterfly site recently and I found this wonderful page of photo ideas.