Shutterbug Sunday: The Rule of Thirds

Have you ever heard of “The Rule of Thirds?” It is quite possibly one of the most essential parts of photographic composition, and I must admit I was clueless about it when a friend first mentioned it to me. Rule of Thirds? Composition? I remember thinking that photography was just about aiming and clicking that shutter button at something I thought to be a worthy subject. But, no! As I have come to learn, there is more to a great photograph than just getting lucky.

The easiest way to explain things is that an image is made up of nine equal parts (refer to the above example). The "thought" or "rule of thumb" is that when taking a photograph, the point of focus should be placed along these lines or match up to one of the intersections. When taking a picture, most people probably never think about this concept.  It's something I never used to think about.  I just took pictures and aimed my focal points where my “eye” was directing me.  I never thought that what I saw as a good shot, was actually falling in line with the rule of thirds. I always feel visual examples are the most helpful. Bellow are some pictures with the graph so you can see how the focal points in each image line up. If you've never heard of this concept, keep it in mind the next time you are out shooting and experiment a little.  I would love to hear feedback on the effect it has on your images when applying it to your photography!

Happy Sunday!

www.marynicholsphotography.com

Shutterbug Sunday: My Top 10

When I was getting started with photography, I took a basic studio class at the Community Darkrooms in Syracuse. The instructor of the course gave us a piece of advice that I will never forget, for multiple reasons. He told our class that the best thing we can do, is follow other photographers' work. At first, I was confused. The word copycat kept coming to mind, and that was the last thing I wanted for myself. In spite of thinking it was a weird idea, I started following other photographers' work.  Now, as I look back, that little tidbit of advice could quite possibly the best I have ever received!  Following the work of others has provided me with many learning opportunities, resources, and support throughout my journey.  Now, I want to share my 10 favorite photogs with you!

1. Barb Uil of Jinky Art: She is absolutely my favorite photographer ever! The creativity this woman possesses is mind blowing and her photographs constantly leave me speechless!
2. Kristen of K. Holly Photography: Her images are breathtaking, with a soft dream like quality that I love. She is sweet as can be and I would get married all over again, just so I could have her photograph my wedding. Ask her anything!
3. Jasmine Star: This lady is perhaps the best go-to photog and most famous of the bunch.  Want to know something? Ask her for advice, I dare you!
4.Kelsey Anderson: I love her unique style and use of natural light.  She is another great person to answer your questions.
5.Annie from Paint the Moon Photography: Color. Color. Color. Annie is not afraid to use it and is the creator of some of the best photoshop actions and textures I have found. She also has a great support system for those of us who aren't very photoshop savvy!
6. Jose Villa: Believe it or not, he still does the majority of his shooting with film. Yes film! His images are beyond gorgeous.
7. Baby as Art: Maybe a more suitable name for them would be "The baby photographer gurus". Check their work to see what I mean.
8. Keri Meyers: Another newborn photographer that is able to get those little babies into perfect positions.
9. Skye Hardwick of Work of Heart Photography: I love the expressiveness in her photos.
10. Lupen Grainne: She has some of the prettiest nature and landscape imagery ever!

I processed this pic with textures from paint the moon.

Enjoy your Sunday!

www.marynicholsphotography.com

Shutterbug Sunday: Preparing Your Images for the Web

Ok, so I know we have all experienced it, our gorgeous photos being scrunched and distorted once they are uploaded to the web!  Does this frustrate any of you, as much as me??  There is hope and a way to export your images so the distortions are not as bad.

Image before being processed for the web.

Image before being processed for the web.

Step One: After all of your edits are finished and you are ready to upload your image to the web, in photoshop go to file, and Save for Web Devices.

Step 2: When you see the Save for Web Devices screen pop up, you will want to make sure your settings in the top right hand corner are as follows:

• jpeg format selected
• maximum setting selected
• quality at 100
• optimized box checked

Now just click save and place the image in your desired folder. I save all mine to a folder labeled "website".  Once I am done uploading the images to the web, I delete everything. This is just one of the ways I help keep myself organized.

Now for the finished products. The end result is by no means perfect, but definitely an improvement! Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Same image after.

Same image after.

www.marynicholsphotography.com

Baby Blessings

Crafty Life and Style would like to announce a baby blessing for our Shutterbug Sunday contributor, Mary Nichols.  Between her busy preparations and oh...delivering a baby, Mary still managed to get us her blog post over the weekend.  Mothers are fierce.  We're sure to see amazing photos of this bundle of joy as Mary tests her skills and teaches us what she learns along the way.  So, this is a crafty cause for celebration.  I mean, can you imagine what her scrapbooks will look like with this being a typical photo?  Congratulations Mary.  Your child is beautiful.

And if you'd like to see examples of Mary's work....just scroll down to the next blog!!

Shutterbug Sunday: Natural Light

I positioned them so the sun was to their backs.

Since spring is just around the corner (fingers crossed), and everyone is itching to slip on their flip flops, I thought it would be fun to think about natural light. Believe it or not when I first was starting out and clueless, shooting in manual mode using natural light seemed so intimidating to me! I was more than happy to keep using the basic P mode on my camera, but thankfully my husband encouraged me to branch out and LEARN! You have all seen those pictures. The ones where the everyone is sitting perfectly and its close to being a perfect photograph, except for one HUGE problem. All of the subjects faces are squinty and distorted from the direct sun. I made this mistake many times back in the beginning!

Shady spot with a tree as a natural reflector.

When scheduling summer sessions in NY you never know what you’re going to get for weather. I have had clients ask me on several occasions if we should reschedule due to the overcast gray skies. From a normal persons perspective a cloudy day does not seem like a good day for pictures. Due to our severe lack of sunny days around here we consider a perfect day to be warm with lots of sunshine. But for the rest of us behind the camera, a forecast of cloudy skies is music to our ears! On cloudy days the sky acts as one giant soft box which makes almost any outdoor location ideal. On sunny days however, let’s just say my job is a whole lot harder! So what do you do when the sun is blazing and you want to avoid those squinty eyed and scrunched face pictures? Concentrate on shaded areas, try using natural reflectors, and pay attention to how you position your subjects. The first thing I do is look for areas with shade. The shade will provide you with the break you need from the sun, but will still allow for you to shoot your subjects with natural light. The second thing I for look are natural reflectors. This could be almost anything that works to softly reflect the suns light onto your subjects. It could be a wall, a tree, or other object in the area. Lastly, if your chosen spot is short on shade, and placing people in direct sun is your only option, position them so the sun is either to their backs or their sides. This should also help to eliminate the harsh shadows and scrunched eyes. So the next time you’re out taking pictures in the hot sun, try to use natures natural soft boxes and reflectors. It might just make all the difference!

Shady Spot

For some great info on using natural reflectors check out this blog post from Jasmine Star, and amazing “GO TO Photographer”. http://www.jasminestarblog.com/index.cfm?q=reflections+%3A&x=0&y=0

Enjoy your day!

://www.marynicholsphotography.com/

Shutterbug Sunday: Framing the Shot

I wanted to share with you one of the very first pieces of advice I was ever given when taking pictures. My father and grandfather were both photography hobbyist, and the reason my love affair with photography began. My father first placed a professional camera in my hands at the age of 16. I remember holding the old piece of equipment, and taking in its leather smell. I was so excited to try it out, I think I went through an entire roll of film in about 20 minutes!

Tip: The closer you are to your focal point, the lower/wider you want your

 aperture setting to be. For example mine was set to f/2.2, this is how I was 

able to keep her face sharp, and the palm branches soft. You will also want

to make sure to toggle your  focus points in your lens when using wide apertures, 

 especially on people. The focus point in my lens was directly over her eyes.

Once teaching me a few technical things about its operation, my Dad gave me a great piece of advice that I have now applied to every aspect of photography. While we were out shooting for the first time I had practically tripped down a hill when trying to avoid some brush that was getting in the way of the shot I wanted. My Dad told me that instead of avoiding the brush, to use it. Frame the shot he said!  So I tried it. I outlined the shape of the base of the tree I was trying to photograph with the brush. After getting the photos back I flipped through them and one picture in particular caught my eye. Yup, you guessed it, the one where I had framed the tree with the brush. It had so much more visual interest than any of the other pictures I took. So, long story short? I started using that technique in nature photography and now I apply it to every aspect of photography I do. So the next time you’re out and about taking pictures try using some of nature’s natural elements and FRAME THE SHOT!  You might just love the results!

http://www.marynicholsphotography.com/

Shutterbug Sunday: The Perfect Prop

The balloons in this pic are from Wegmans. I always grab a bunch for my photo

 shoots where the babies are turning 1 to celebrate the big event!

Who’s ready to talk props? At the end of this post I would love to hear some feedback from some of you other prop enthused savvy individuals!

So for me, a good prop should have 2 key ingredients. The first? It needs to be cost effective. I go prop shopping with a limited budget so I like to find things that are inexpensive, yet photo worthy. The second? I need to be able to multi-task with it. In other words, I want the prop to work for more than just one photo shoot. If it doesn't, I feel it was a waste. When choosing a prop to use with babies for example, I like something that has enough room for them to sit comfortably in all their different stages, that will also play well in different settings. For instance, the bucket you see in these pictures was used for a tiny newborn, a one year old, and some other ages in between. It also worked well for multiple looks and locations. With babies, first and foremost, always remember to keep safety in mind when choosing your props. For this bucket, I used blankets to provide comfort and support which also added a little more visual interest.

 When finding a good prop, a couple of things to keep in mind are...know what you are looking for and give yourself time. As my fall season was approaching this past year I knew I wanted something I could use for babies that had some fall flare to it. I wanted to be able to somewhat contain them considering the ground is not always great that time of year. I also knew I would have a variety of ages that it would need to be good for. I started looking in August and came across this great little apple tub at the Christmas Tree Shop. I had seen other things similar to it at some craft stores, but they were all coming in at around $50.00. To my surprise when I checked the price on this one it was only $12.99! You can imagine I was ecstatic! It was exactly what I was looking for and the grand total was less than half of my budget!

Those funky oversized ornaments that you see were also

from the Christmas Tree Shop. They were an inexpensive way to

add some Christmas flare. 

Not all of my prop endeavors have been as successful as this one was. It takes a good amount of patience, and experimenting but eventually you will find your nook and the process of finding something great gets a lot easier. Some places that have had great finds for me are EBay, the Christmas Tree Shop, Hobby Lobby, and other craft stores. A lot of times the craft stores will have their 50% off sales which will usually lend a good opportunity. Also keep an eye out for their coupons for additional savings. I do also recommend doing some browsing through Esty. They have some incredibly unique things that can be very reasonable! Lastly, if there is some hard-to-find item that you just can’t seem to get your fingers on, make a Facebook post about it. I just inherited an old vintage chair that worked out amazingly for kids' Christmas pictures and it cost me absolutely nothing! A very nice person had it sitting in storage and they didn’t want it anymore!

So whether your just a hobbyist that enjoys photographing babies and kids or more of a pro, a little patience and perseverance can go a long way to help to find the perfect prop! Happy prop hunting everyone!

Thank You Crafty Life and Style for having me as your guest blogger today! :)

The floor/background you see in this was is a piece of fadeless paper that I ordered from Mardel. It cost $7.99 and has worked great so far!

Thank you Mary.  See more of Mary's lovely work on her website:  http://www.marynicholsphotography.com/

Meet Mary

I became a fan of the photography of Mary Nichols after she took some pictures for a friend who was grieving the terminal illness of a close family member.  It was a sensitive situation and Mary took extra time, used extra patience, and captured extra special memories.  Because her approach was less about business and more about showing some humanity...I thought she would be the perfect fit for our little blog family, which is full of a bunch of ladies from different backgrounds, sharing pieces of themselves.  We hope you enjoy her posts once a month on our Shutterbug Sundays.  Here is Mary, in her own words:

About Me: I was your typical stay at home Mom with a little hobby called photography. After having my son I very quickly became obsessed with learning how to improve my skills. I wanted to be able to take better photos of him which is what spiraled me into starting my own business. I love all things photography especially black and white photographs. To describe myself in a nut shell? I am madly in love with my husband and son, addicted to latte’s, a writer, art lover, dog lover, procrastinator, ditsy at times, inspired by vintage, wearer of pearls, hobbyist of interior design, and I love and I crave simplicity in life.


Welcome Mary!  You can find more of Mary's beautiful work on her website:  www.marynicholsphotography.com