Move Mountains In Your Home
I thought I would take a break from the projects and share a bit of behind the scenes stuff. For the first several months of my blog, I didn't edit my photos. Not at all. I finally picked up on the fact that photos were important for the growth of a blog, so started adjusting the brightness and contrast and basic stuff in Windows Live Photo Gallery. I still didn't do it on most of my … [Read more...]
I currently have a huge to-do list of tutorials to make for HGTV.com, so I thought while I was in the middle of making all of these tutorials, I would share some tips with you on making a tutorial. A tutorial on making tutorials, if you will. Good tutorials to be exact. 1.) Pick a good project. Try to show how to make something that's totally original, a hack of something really expensive … [Read more...]
I've written a few posts about the experience I had writing my book and it's been a while since the last one. I thought it was about time I picked it up again. When the reality of a book offer from Thomas Nelson was right around the corner, it needed to be decided if I would do the photography or if we would hire a professional or perhaps a hybrid where I take some pictures and a pro swoops in … [Read more...]
I know photography is an area of blogging that be overwhelming. You may drool over gorgeous, magazine quality photographs on other blogs and feel like you can never do that, so there's no point in trying. That's how I felt when I first started my business, then my blog. I just raised the white photography flag and took pictures on automatic. This was the result of that … [Read more...]
I've become a bit of a lens junkie over the past year. It all started when my old Nikon lens (that came with the film SLR I bought about eight years ago) wasn't working with my new D7000 Nikon. It worked, but it took forever to get it to focus, so it was finally time for an upgrade. Since then, I've bought four new lenses and just added one more...a 50 mm. (If your curious about my camera … [Read more...]
I kinda have to pinch myself today. I have four of my blogging icons here to share some words of wisdom on using quality photos to grow your blog and then I get to chime in on the subject as well. Kate from Centsational Girl brought us together to share a series on Growing Your Blog. I know I would've loved to read something like this when I first started, so I'm honored to be a part … [Read more...]
When I first started my business, I would paint a piece, pull out my camera and snap a picture of it...just right where it was. Usually the lighting was poor, so I used a flash. I would send the picture to my web designer and ask her to put it on my site. I didn't realize what a poor representation of my work it was. I just didn't think of the fact that I should take the … [Read more...]
The clock ticked past 9:00 tonight and I still had no idea what I was going to post about. It was one of those days when I work on things that are very uninteresting. I primed the baseboard heaters in my family room and the under side of my kitchen cabinets. Bo-ring. I was about ready to get my camera out and snap a "before" picture of my heaters, but that seemed a little … [Read more...]
Last week I posted about my camera and lenses and this is the follow-up post about watermarks and actions that I promised. Let me preface this by saying I am not a PSE (Photoshop Elements) expert and there are a lot of other great programs out there, this is just what I use. If you use a free program or prefer another software, that's totally OK. Just use what works for … [Read more...]
I get a lot of questions about what camera and lenses I use as well as how I process my pictures. I received a bunch last week, so I thought it was time to share it all in a post. Well, a few posts. This post is about what gear I use. My camera body is a Nikon D7000 digital SLR. This picture is from Gear Patrol, because it's hard to take a picture of your own camera … [Read more...]
If you take a poll of new DIY bloggers asking what's on their Christmas list, probably over half would say a nice digital SLR. It doesn't take long for a blogger to realize the importance of photography in the blog world. The above shot is from a recent Cottages and Bungalows photo shoot. The above picture is from my first blog post. It's not bad. I had taken a photography class … [Read more...]
My new lenses finally arrived late Wednesday evening. It was after 7:00 pm and I was the last stop on the UPS route. I practically hugged the delivery guy. "I've been waiting for you ALL DAY LONG!!" He apologized and I grabbed the package, signed for it, dashed to the back of the house and sat on the floor to open the long-awaited package. It was really … [Read more...]
There are some cool perks to having a blog. There are really, really sweet ladies out there who send me things they think I might like or be able to use. I've already shared the overwhelming response from the blog world when I asked for sheet music. I am going to be set for months, maybe longer. In the last few weeks, I've received some really fun goodies in the … [Read more...]
I've received a few questions in response to Tuesday's post and I thought I would share the answers with everyone. This post is very wordy and long, but I truly hope this helps those who have questions... Camera Advice First, I was asked to recommend a decent low-cost camera. I have not been a point-n-shoot girl for years, so I really don't know what good bargains are out there. I do … [Read more...]
