Happy anniversary to me!

Yesterday WordPress sent me a notification that it was my 6 year blogging anniversary.  Six years. Wow! Who’d a thunk?  I never imagined when I made my tentative start that six years later I would still be blogging and still loving it.  Heck, I didn’t even realize I’d have to have a blog name when I reached the end of the signing up process!

I had no idea that I would meet a number of fellow bloggers in person in places like San Francisco, Kansas City, Branson (Missouri), Philadelphia, Chicago, and even France in places like China Town, homes, writer’s conferences, coffee shops, libraries, and aboard a barge on a French river in full spate, or that I’d be chatting with people from all over the world.  What fun!  One of my goals is to meet many more of you in person.

How do you manage your photo files?

Help! I’m drowning in photos with more constantly on the way.  I never imagined I’d have this many, so I never considered how to store them other than by date or an occasional vacation designation.

How do you manage your photos?  How do you find what you need?  Is there a way to tag them?  How and where do you store them? I’m looking for any and all input ,because the longer I wait, the more difficult the process is going to be.

I currently keep files ( by date and either iPhone or Nikon) on my laptop, have an external backup (Seagate Passport), and copy all the files onto discs (I’m getting a rather large amount of them as well).

While you share your insights, here’s a fun-with-editing photo I played with not long ago.  Thanks in advance for your time and advice!

Thanks!

Recently I shared a photo of a hummingbird for a Weekly Photo Challenge theme and you gave me lots of positive comments, including a number saying that it deserved to be hung on the wall.  So when I recently saw a sale on an 8X10″ wrapped canvas print, I decided to go ahead and order it with this photo.

When I got back from my little weekend road trip this afternoon, I found a box on the porch with my canvas inside.  I’m thrilled with how it looks and set it on the mantel until I can decide where to hang it.  Makes me feel positively professional!

Thanks for your part in this and all the great feedback.  Here’s how it looks.

Why I take photos.

Wanted. Photographer input.

I’m interested in doing macro photography with my Nikon D5100.  But do I need an actual lens or the macro extenders I see on Amazon?  I’m also looking for a tripod.  And finally, I’d like to carry the Nikon with me.  A backpack is useful if I don’t need to access the camera easily but is there anything that carries the camera so I can get at it for a quick shot?

Any suggestions?  All help is appreciated!!

Hints for better phone photography…framing, flash and more

This is the third and final post on hints for better phone photography.  Click here to access part one and part two.

Number ten: When taking a photo that’s not a close-up, try to frame it.

Catch a tree, bush, or tall grass on one side or the other and your photo becomes more interesting. It also provides perspective.

Hints for better phone photography…light, macros, and the unusual

In my first post, I covered four basic suggestions for better phone photography.  Today I’m getting more specific.

Number five: Light can be an issue.

I’ve found light to be something that takes practice and that doesn’t always come out right
with a phone camera. Depending upon where I tap, ground or sky, the photo might be darker
or lighter than it actually is. Take one each way and see what you think. This is also a good
time to use editing to adjust the light to the way it really was…or just to the way you want
think it looks best.  The following photos are unedited so you can see the difference.

Light

or dark

Number six: Phone cameras can take great macros. But it might take some work.

Sometimes it takes a bit of work to get the focus right. You may have to tap on the spot you
want several times or you may have to start with the focus a bit further away, then move in
and tap again, rather than just zooming in and shooting. Don’t be discouraged. Check your
photos after taking them to see whether or not the focus is correct. I have to take along my
reading glass in order to be able to do this!

Number seven: If you’re trying to get the focus on something thin, you may have problems
and it may take extra time. It’s even possible you won’t get the shot you want.

The camera wants to focus on the biggest thing and that’s usually the background. Keep
tapping on what you want to photograph and don’t be discouraged. A few days ago, I was
attempting to take a photo of the coils of a grapevine. It probably took me 2 or 3 minutes to
get the camera to finally focus and get the picture I wanted. Sometimes it just won’t happen.
Go back with your SLR camera and adjust the focus if you really want that shot!

Number eight:  Try turning your camera upside down sometimes.

Sometimes a shot from above isn’t all that interesting or doesn’t show depth. You can’t
always get down low enough to compensate. Turn your camera upside down and take the
photo. You’ll be surprised at the different it makes.  The first photo is taken from above.

I got this photo by turning the camera upside down.  I like them both, but the upside down photo gives a very different look.

 

Number nine: (Related to number eight.) Try taking the shot from a lower level than
you’d usually use. Put the camera waist-high and see the difference.

Everyone take photos from face height. That doesn’t make it bad but you can sometimes
get a more interesting shot if you take it from waist-high, especially when taking landscape
shot. Try it both ways and see the difference.  These photos show the difference.  The first is taken from a normal view, standing with the camera at eye level.  In the second, I’ve lowered the camera and the shot becomes more interesting.

Saturday I’ll wrap up my hints.  See you then.

Hints for better phone photography…general hints

Think you can’t get quality photos with a phone camera?  Think again!

I got my first smartphone less than a year ago and the camera is one big reason why I love it. Prior to that purchase, I used my iPad, which also took great photos but took a lot more space to carry. Now I use my iPhone almost exclusively and just about all the photos on my blog are taken with it. I do own a really nice Nikon, but haven’t yet taken the time to figure out all the bells and whistles.

I had a bit of a learning curve with the iPhone and from comments on the blog, I’ve realized this holds true for at least some of my blog followers as well. So here are the first of a few thoughts on taking good/great/better photos with a phone camera. Although I use an iPhone 5S, I imagine that most phone cameras are somewhat similar and certainly many of my hints will apply to all of them.

Number one rule: Take your phone/camera with you everywhere!

You can’t take a photo without a camera. The big advantage of a phone camera is that it’s so simple to carry. When I walk in the morning, I put my phone and a few other necessities in either my fanny pack or coat pockets. The few times I haven’t, I’ve always regretted it and seen photos I wanted to have but couldn’t take. Can’t emphasize this one enough. Take your camera with you all the time!  And use it!

Take your camera to lunch.

 Number two: Take pictures. Lots of them.

The beauty of digital is that you can easily get rid of photos that you don’t like or that don’t turn out well, even those you inadvertently take of your foot or while moving. Yes, I’ve had plenty of those. It’s not like in the past when you had to pay to have photos developed, whether or not they turned out well. You won’t regret taking too many photos, but you’re likely to regret the ones you didn’t take.  Don’t be too quick to delete weird or accidental photos.  They can be used in places, such as the Oddball Photo Challenge.

Taken just for fun during the 2013 Tour de France after noticing how the TV looked from one angle

Number three: Learn to really look at things and look at things you don’t normally see.

One of the compliments about my photos that I treasure is that my photos made someone look at things around her that she never thought would make good photos. I’ve paused while baking to take a picture of melting butter or drops of molasses in sugar. I take lots of pictures of shadows and reflections, through water glasses, and all sorts of “different” things. Look at shapes, colors, and lines. See raindrops and bugs on flowers. There are millions of things all around you that are just waiting to be photographed.

In the kitchen

Number four: Take the picture when you see it.

If you don’t, you might not get it. A few days ago, there was frost on the plants when I started my walk in the park. But less than half an hour later when I walked back, the sun had risen just high enough to melt it. I captured some glorious photos but if I’d waited, I’d have missed them. One day I took a shot of a tree covered with yellow leaves and glowing with the sun behind it. Two days later, many of the leaves had fallen, completely changing the shot. Don’t wait (unless you’re driving!)

This frost was gone when I walked back.

 

Thursday:  talking about light, macros and more.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Shiny

A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.
~Jeff Bezos

Shiny in the bathroom sink

 

Whither goest thou, America, in they shiny car in the night?
~Jack Kerouac

 

A bit of shiny spotted from an airplane

 

When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.
~Anne Lamott

Me taking a shiny picture with my iPad

 

 Here are more “Shiny” things.

 

Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge (Week 6)….Electrifying

Oddball photos are those you don’t know exactly what to do with (although if you wait long enough, there’s almost always a suitable challenge.)  I had a photo like this, taken in Philadelphia, that I decided to tart up a bit.  I reversed color and then Lomo-ished it and I think that makes is an electrifying oddball photo.   It’s the weekend; time to play.

Links to the oddball playgrounds of others can be found here.