All In The Details

It's really no secret that I'm passionate about detail shots. They're probably my favourite thing to photograph. And hey, they're important! You want to remember the scene, right? Anywho, I'm wrapping up editing and officially moving on to other things tonight. Working on these pictures really helped me further develop my editing style and learn a few tricks! (In other words, editing 350+ pictures is good practice).

Here are two of my favourite detail shots. I'm in love with the bottom one - especially in black and white. Yay!

Greetings from Canada

Got up at 7 this morning so we could drive to an art show in Toronto, but surprise surprise! We got a ton of snow overnight. The roads were terrible, so instead we trudged throw the snow on foot to a nearby Tim Horton's for some coffee and breakfast (true Canadians).

The plan for later on is to bake shortbread cookies and watch movies. It really has been the perfect, cosy snow day.

Outta Here

Gone for the weekend! My ride will be here in 15. Eeeeek excitement. Below are some pretty pictures from my life recently for you to enjoy.

 

 

 Be back soon XOXO

Easy How To: Fancy T-Shirt

Hi Guys!
Here is a super easy project I completed in less than an hour. Although it's really straightforward, I always find seeing someone complete a project like this really motivating! So... maybe I'll inspire a little creative motivation :)

1. Find a t-shirt. I choose a plain black one for $6.95 from H&M, but you can do just about anything you want... polka dots would be sweet!

2. Find an old collared shirt to use. (Note: you must be willing to cut this shirt). I picked an old white one I had that was full of holes. I loved the material, but the stitching just didn't hold up very well.

3. Measure 2 triangles (using the collar) and then use scissors to remove. The dimensions of my triangles were 3x4x4.

4. Take your two triangles and sew them to your shirt. Easy peasy.

What I love about this project is that it uses something old to create something new. I also enjoyed how little sewing was involved. I do recommend using a sewing machine, unless your hand stitching is very neat (mine is not).

It's a fun shirt to layer. I would like to eventually add gold buttons to mine, but for now I'll leave it be.

Happy shirt-making!

Big birthday blog post

Guys!! It was my birthday yesterday. I turned 21. Naturally, I took a ton of pictures. It was such a nice day. Highlights included:

- Lunch as a cosy little local cafe (Chicken Havarti apple sandwich? Yes. Please.)
- Mini photo shoot with my 3 best friends
- An amazing painting from my little sis Natalie
- ALSO she played "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter on the piano for me - soo sweet!
- Dinner with my fam
- A very adorable Skype call with Austin
- Snuggles with Zoey while opening gifts

This birthday made me realize I'm getting older. Wanna know why? The gifts from my mom included an allergy case for my pillow, new sheets, and socks. And I got... so excited. Honestly! Getting older is fun. I know I'm going to like being 21 :)

Super special birthday Skype date! Yay. I love that he wrapped it in comics from the newspaper. Too cute. What a bachelor. ;)

5 Simple Photography Tips

Here are 5 simple tips that you can apply to your every day photography. These little tips will help you to stop taking haphazard photos and add a little direction to your composition!

• Straighten up: This was probably one of the most simple (but best!) tips I have applied to photography. In my first year of University, one professor to told us to “watch our lines”. It might sound a little puzzling, but I promise it's really simple. First find the most dominate horizontal line in your photograph. Then, try to align your camera so that it is straight. See? Easy. What I love about this principle too is that it’s an easy fix when you’re cropping in whatever editing program you use. However, it may result in a more closely-cropped image than desired, so it’s good to get into the habit of straightening your lines when taking photos.

• Watch the limbs: Another favourite tip from my Professor is to watch where you’re cropping people’s limbs. This means not cutting off hands or feet. You don’t want to accidentally cut off any limbs! Ouch. When you crop at either the thighs or forearms instead, your composition looks much more intentional.

*Photo by Amanda (but cropped by me to show how awkward pictures look when the subjects don't have any feet.. haha!)

• Keep the time of day in mind (for outdoor photography): It’s a beautiful day out. It’s lunch time, the sun is shining and your camera is calling to you. But wait! Why aren’t your pictures turning out the way you planned? It might be a combination of things. To avoid uneven exposure (and squinty subjects!), keep weather, and time of day in mind. Noon is a tricky time to shoot because the sun is so high in the sky and shadows tend to be pretty harsh. To avoid this, retreat to some shade. Your pictures will have a more even exposure and will be less shadowy. Same goes for any sunny day. Overcast days are in reality the best days for getting pictures because you can shoot pretty much anywhere and achieve an evenly lit look. However, not every day is gonna be overcast. So again, if it’s noon or sunny, find some shade and everything should be just fine and dandy.

If you want to create a more ideal situation, aim for shooting at different times of the day. My personal fav is something called “Magic Hour”. This is the hour after the sun rises, or the hour before the sun sets. Although it’s a small window of time, it really makes for beautiful, softly lit pictures.

• Learn simple editing skills: Editing is your BFF. Knowing how to edit can greatly change the strength of a picture, and save you when something doesn't turn out how it should have. There are lots of great tools out there to help you learn programs such as Photoshop and Lightroom. And if you choose to edit with Photoshop, there are lots of fun things called “Actions” that you can download for free and use. They’re really easy and fun to play around with! Editing is a great resource (and pretty much a must for photographers) so go ahead and give it a try :)
  
  *Coming soon: Simple portrait editing tutorial in Photoshop*

• Remember the details: Cheesy - but true! Great photography is in the details- especially everyday photography. The texture of your sweater, your sweetheart holding your hand, the face of your pet… it’s all special and all worth remembering.
  If you’re capturing someone else’s special day, don’t forget the details then either. Watch for hair in the face, tags sticking out, and clutter in the background And be sure to take photos to set the scene! They’ll want to remember the atmosphere, the little things, those special moments.

Thanks for letting me share my tips with you! If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment in the box below!

Pictures of Miss Amanda

Hey guess what... I'm back! Haha two blog posts in one day?! What is this madness.

This is my dear friend Amanda. She's hilarious, crazy and creative. She's always up for a Value Village shopping trip or an artistic adventure. She's a huge inspiration to me.

Here are some just-for-fun pictures I took with her a few weeks ago on one of the last warm days. It's always so fun to capture both Amanda's goofy side and her serious side as well- she's a great model.

P.S Amanda was the one who took the picture of me that I use as my main bloggin' profile pic! Love her.

Cosy mornings

(Pictures soooooon. I'm almost done the editing the Fall-Fam pics, and then I'll be importing Steph and Max's.)

Want to know something scary? There was only 3GB of space left on my laptop last week. 3GB. You know what that is? That's a small MP3 player right there. Oh boy. I downloaded a program called WinDirStat, which basically analyzes your computer and tells you what's taking up the most space. Surprise, surprise... It's all my RAW picture files. Not shocked. I'll need to do something about that, because it's not like I'll be taking less pictures any time soon :)

Anyways, I'm up early (for me) sitting all cosy in Austin's armchair while he's at work. Today I'll be planning an idea I have for making my own sweatshirt (!!), edits edits edits, and then around noon Austin is coming home so that we can have lunch together.

I'm sooo comfy, but my stomach is telling me it's breakfast time.