FIRE!

I am by no means a photographer, but I like to fool around with my camera. This holiday weekend we’re going to play with sparklers and see what kinds of pictures we can get…

I have found a few tips for taking sparkler pictures:

• Plan ahead – the darker it is the better, as little ambient light as possible. 
• Use a tripod or a level surface to lay your camera down – the person taking photos shouldn’t hold the camera, any movement at all will make photos blurry.
• Set the camera to a long shutter setting if you have a shutter priority choice (5-10 seconds depending on what you are writing), or the fireworks setting if your camera has it.

The technique:

Hold the sparkler away from yourself, and move quickly. If you’re writing letters, draw them backwards.

Have fun practicing and experimenting!

Vanessa Felie, aka "Queenvanna" juggles a husband and two blond pixies while running her burgeoning paper arts and crafts business, QueenvannaCreations. Her job and family inspire her to create crafty projects for holidays, vacations, as well as times when there's just not much going on. Perpetual calendars and other home items, scrapbooking album kits and personalized gifts of all kinds - She looks to add a little flair to everything she makes, to put some extra fun in to daily life, as well as special occassions.
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | queenvanna@cox.net

Photo Tutorial: iPhone and Camera+

Hi everyone! Patti Wunder here, from Easton Place Design Studio. I'm bringing you a photo tutorial featuring the app Camera+. I've been using this app to take shop photos for roughly two years. Although I do own a lovely Nikon with lots of fancy stuff on it (most of which I have no clue how to use), I have become really comfortable using my phone and this app to take 90% of my product images. It has reduced a lot of the editing time because I do most of the editing on my phone before sending things to my computer or uploading directly. (Disclaimer: Some of the photos are blurry, because I was actually using "screen capture" to get the shot of how I use the Camera+ editing options. It's hard to keep the camera super steady while pushing the two buttons at once. Sorry.)

Okay, let's get started!

(Yes, I my kitchen doubles as my photo studio. Dishes will be done in about an hour.)

(In a perfect photo you wouldn't see my white iPhone either!)

This was a bit blurry, but I wanted to again show you how easy it is to brighten a shot even in a dark space.

I hope this is helpful when thinking about your product photos. I would probably take the final photo a step further to remove the line in the background using iPhoto, but I wanted this tutorial to just show you how easy it is to use your phone and the Camera+ app. When last I looked, the app cost $2.99. Really a deal in my opinion.

Best of luck! Let me know if this helps or if you've used it!

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