Slightly Nautical Manicure
In my recent exploration of nail polishes I bought that I hadn’t yet used, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone on some Julep polishes I had hanging around. I held some swatches up beside each other and decided that I really liked Julep Margot, a metallic gold, and Julep Monaco, a cobalt blue labeled the Color of Spring 2014, together. I find that, of all the colors I wear, I don’t really wear bold blues that much, so I liked the idea of not going nuts with it and tempering the look with the soft gold.
Read MoreA Fun Weekend Doing Photography
By no means am I a professional photographer! But I have had a couple of opportunities to pretend I am one. The first was my sister-in-law’s wedding a few years ago. My husband’s aunt and I were able to get some very good shots of their wedding that everyone was very happy with. Usually I only take photographs for me, but this weekend I donated my equipment and services to the San Leandro Historical Railway Society, an organization my husband and I work with.
Periodically throughout the year, the Society holds Open House & Train Shows where they stay open for extended hours all weekend to allow the public to come check out the interior HO scale model railroad, the history museum, and our back yard G & O gauge Garden Railway display. It’s a chance, not only for the public to come enjoy, but also for the Society, which is a non-profit, to raise funds to pay our bills, maintain the model layouts, and continue to improve them. In addition, this year we’re also raising funds to repaint the 115-year-old Southern Pacific Depot that we call home. It has not been painting in a number of years, and the eves have not been painted in decades. One of the highest expenses is that it’s lead-based paint, so we actually have to hire professionals to come do lead abatement instead of just repainting ourselves. So, as a new fundraiser this weekend, I set up my laptop, camera, tripod, photo printer, and a big cardboard train for little ones to get their very own Engineer photo for just $5. We had a ton of fun (well, except for this sunburn I have on my neck and ear) and got some fun shots of some adorable little tykes. And some adults, for testing purposes (right… testing…)
I got the idea from taking my dog, Winston the Wonder Pug, to get his picture taken with Santa at Petsmart a couple years ago. For $10, I received an OKAY photo of him with a dude in a lackluster Santa suit in front of a crumpled up cardboard backdrop with Santa’s head cut off because the lady taking the picture was using a point-and-shoot camera without a tripod. $5 of the fee went to a pet adoption charity and I also received a fairly nice rubberized Christmas light frame for the picture, which I felt was at least worth the other $5, so I couldn’t feel to bad about the price. But it did get me to thinking about how much better I could do something similarly with my equipment for the Society (or any other cause).
It was an idea bouncing around in my head until this Christmas, when I found this cardboard train for a very reasonable price at Oriental Trading Company while looking at other train items they had for our Winter Open House. That’s when the gears went into overdrive. I researched the costs of the photo printer ink, photo paper, and nice photo folders to put the photo into. I’d been looking for an excuse to get a photo printer anyway, so I was willing to eat the cost on that to own the photo printer and just donate it’s service. We determined that there was a lot of potential “profit” (donation) to be made on this for not that much of an investment, so the project was approved.
Just within the last week I finally realized I could plug my Nikon D5000 DSLR directly into my laptop via USB (only took 4 years to figure it out) and purchased an inexpensive but invaluable Pixel Wired Remote Shutter Release Control so I could set up the perfect positioning for the tripod and camera and just hit the buttons while looking at the screen. I’m very adept with creating Actions in Photoshop, so I was able to color correct the images and then use my previously created image and action to add the fun little train and date image to each picture. Provided there were no technical complications (like the printer turning itself off), it only took about 5 minutes between taking the picture to having a printed photo in a nice folder to hand to the visitor.
The pictures will be visible sometime this week at SLHRS.org, but here’s one I can share of my niece Joy, who came down to explore! We were able to work out the kinks of the placement, the printing, and the general semantics, which means our photo opportunity will go much more smoothly at our next Open House in September. If you’re local to San Leandro, CA and interested in receiving updates, you can sign up for the San Leandro Historical Railway Society Newsletter. We’d love to have you come on down to the Depot!
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Wanted: Photographic Inspiration
Being an amateur photographer (with skills somewhere around intermediate, I think) I always want to improve my skills. Four years ago I took the leap to upgrade to a DSLR from a regular old point & shoot, and have not regretted it. Since then I’ve taken a few classes to sharpen my skills and really learn more of the functions of my camera (a Nikon D5000). I’ve upgraded to a longer lens after a great experience renting one from BorrowLenses.com a few years back, and I’ve increased my arsenal of accessories, from tripods to monopods, rubber hoods to rubber skins. It got to a point last year that my dad wanted to buy me something camera related for my birthday and everything I could possibly want was up in the hundreds of dollar range (like different lenses, flash units, etc) since I’d bought all the little stuff (filters, remotes, bargain flashes) myself.
It’s gotten to the point where I don’t take many pictures anymore. A perusal of my Flickr feed (a yearly birthday present to myself to keep the Pro account) shows a set I took about a month ago, before that some I took at the beginning of February, and then before that… Christmas. I need ideas for photographic inspiration!
Where do folks find inspiration for going out and shooting? I like nature shots, flowers, sunsets, but it seems that anywhere I’d like to go, I either can’t get anyone to go with me or there’s a LOT of walking involved. Which, I’m into photography… not hiking. So I know that if I got tired of walking around some place, my pictures would suffer.
I’m still kicking myself in the butt for not capitalizing inspiration I had a couple months ago. There was a carnival in town near the Oakland Coliseum, and I thought that it would be cool night shots to go to the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline across the estuary from where the carnival was and get the rides all lit up with the reflection of the water. But of course, before I got off my lazy butt to do it, the carnival had moved on to a less picturesque location.
So, photographers out there… where do you go for photographic inspiration? Where do you look?
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Happy Birthday Tiny Prints!
If you’re anything like me, you love to see your photographs shared with family, friends, and everyone! Sometimes there’s just nothing better than to see a photo you took in print. I love Tiny Prints for combining designers more talented than I am with my cherished photos for announcements, invitations, and holiday cards.
Today is the last day to save during Tiny Prints’ best sale of the entire year. Their birthday is this week and from now through March 4 (yes, today!), they are giving you the gift of 30% off everything. There has literally never been a better time to order with this kind of sale at your disposal.
Tiny Prints is the industry leader when it comes to personalized stationery, photo gifts, and more. Whether you need birth announcements, graduation party or baby shower invitations, photo iPad cases or notebooks, and any of your personalized stationery needs, Tiny Prints has it all. Their designs are spectacular and fresh – the kind of invitations or cards that make the recipient go “Wow!” when they open the envelope.
All of their products are customized to your needs. You choose the photos and text to add to their awesome designs and then…you impress the recipients.
Oh and the part about there never being a better time? Totally true since this is their best sale of the year.
Visit them now (the sale ends tonight at 11:59pm Pacific Time) and choose from any of their products and when you check out, use the promo code BDAY10 to save 30%.
Happy Shopping!
Read MoreThe Feeling of Authorship
It feels great to say that I have finally started self-publishing using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. I have been encouraged for more than a year at least by Deborah Carney’s work with BookGoodies and her Kindle coffee table photography books to start putting my photography to work and publishing a series of my own.
Read More3 Tips to Effectively Use Instagram in Brand Marketing
More and more major players in various retail industries have begun using this free picture-sharing platform to broaden their consumer base. Just like other major social venues, Instagram can be a seriously helpful tool for branding your business and ultimately increasing sales. However, like all newer social avenues out there, business owners often wonder how to use this application in the most effective way possible.
Seeking reputation management is one of the best and most hassle-free ways to ensure a quality online, social presence in general, and something to seriously consider. But for those more keen on the DIY approach, here are a few tips for using this free application to effectively market your brand.
1. Unique Content
It’s important to keep in mind that while people want to see interesting pictures, they should be uniquely tied to your brand or business in some way. Take nH Hoteles for example… This Hotel brands itself well by adding unique pictures of various sunrises from their many locations, in addition to other pictures dealing with various hotel-related items like menu offerings or nearby attractions. Keeping the pictures interesting but simultaneously related to their brand keeps users coming back while making them aware of nH Hoteles offerings at the same time.
2. Consistency
Consumers like to be entertained but not overwhelmed by your presence. By keeping your picture number consistent and relatively low is the best way to ensure a continued following. Something like two or three quality photos a day is probably enough to keep followers interested without overloading their picture wall and turning them off to your brand.
3. Consumer Involvement
Brands like Levi’s are using Instagram in a uniquely customer-oriented way. In their latest campaign to find the next top Levi’s models, they have simply asked that users tag photos of themselves wearing Levi’s products with the #iamlevis hashtag. This is not only a brilliant marketing strategy, but it’s also a great way for Levi’s to leverage the free medium to find untapped potential in new models for their clothing. Genius. Getting the customer involved is always a plus in this day and age.
No matter what your brand happens to be, Instagram offers a distinctly unique and incredibly easy way to market that brand. As the retailers continue jumping on the bandwagon, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the effects are indeed positive; the platform is proving effective. Best of all, there is virtually no cost associated with this method, and therefore, virtually no reason not to give it a try.
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