Photography & Blogging

cameras cameras and puppy IMG_4680
At the moment, I have two main hobbies; blogging, which you've probably noticed, and photography. There are quite a few others along the way, including cooking, baking, crafts and general adventuring, but a combination of blogging and photography seem to encompass them all beautifully.

I feel like I should start by saying that for me, photography has become a large part of my blog, because I love it. I've been into it for a long time, when I was younger I used to steal my Dad's camera to take endless snaps of whatever I was doing, before eventually saving up to buy my own. Just because I do it though, doesn't mean you need to too. There's a lot of chat in the blogosphere surrounding which SLR you need to buy for your blog, and that's really not the case. Yes, photographs have the ability to seriously enhance any blog post, but with smartphones around at the moment, there is no need whatsoever to splash out on an expensive camera. Some amazing blogs I read shoot with iPhone cameras, I personally used to use my iPad (my iPhone camera is a bit pants unfortunately) and was perfectly happy with the quality, especially with some of the amazing editing apps out there now (there's a post on that coming soon!). I then chose to upgrade when my photography needs went beyond that of an phone. I also only chose to upgrade to an SLR after learning about how to use one on my bridge camera, and on my Dad's camera, I personally really feel there is no point in buying one unless you are going to be able to access it's full potential.

Cameras
As I mentioned, I started out borrowing my Dad's cameras, before eventually getting a phone that was good enough for everyday snaps. I then upgraded to the Fujifilm s4500, which is a great bridge camera for getting started. If you shop around, you can find them for around £80, which is great. It has some basic controllable modes to, so perfect to practise on. After around a year, I upgraded to my Canon 600d, which the majority of my blog photos are now shot with. I bought it from Jessops in a deal with a kit 18-55mm lens, with a bag and tripod for around £400. Very recently, I invested in a compact camera for travel and videos, and something I can pop in my handbag when adventuring. I bought the Canon IXUS 265HS, which I am absolutely loving, and will do a full review soon! If you follow me on instagram, you'll see I still do a huge amount of photography on my iPhone and iPad which really are fantastic little cameras!

Composition
I've had a lot of comments recently about what I use for backgrounds in my product photos, so I thought it's time to divulge some of my secrets. That white background you see in a lot of shots is in fact a large sheet of white denim fabric. Bought from fabric land at about £3.50 a metre, it's magic stuff. I tend to just lay it out under a window, iron it, and shoot away. I find it gives you so much more space than shooting on a surface too, and at the moment, there aren't actually any blank surfaces in my house to do the job. I also sometimes use my blogger-favourite floral Ikea bedding, or the denim laid over a box or a desk. Recently I have been favouring my mini dressing table, with an arrangement of flowers and pretty perfume bottles out of focus in the background of the shot. I shoot these pictures with my 600d, with a low aperture to create that shallow depth of field. A tripod is also my most useful tools, especially when shooting flatlay style top-down pictures, or with longer exposure times. I took these pictures at my parent's house so used a fleecy blanket, which you can see the dangers of in the second photo, as Fen decided my background was a window seat for her.

Processing
After shooting, I input my photos into my Mac, and though I try to limit the amount of editing on my pictures, I do any necessary edits with either iPhoto (where I organise and store all my pictures) or Adobe Elements. For the blog, I then upload the pictures to Flickr, a hosting site with a HUGE amount of free storage, and link them to my blog from there.

I took these photo's with my Brother's camera while I was back home, when planning this post, I forgot how impossible it might be to take photos of all of my cameras! I hope this post was helpful, if you have any questions then please email me on carriebakescakes@gmail.com or tweet me @carrie_brighton!


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