Gift Tags

It's Christmas time! It's only three days until Christmas. Now, I've been doing a lot of last minute gift wrapping. I have a whole color scheme for all my presents, and I had all the twine and wrapping paper for it, but I didn't have any gift tags to go with it. Gift tags can be rather expensive, and I wanted them to be similar and cohesive. So, I decided to make my own. Here is what I did.

Supplies:

• Cardstock
• A cup {I used the size I wanted my tags to be}
• Pens, pencils, stamps
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Thread or twine

First trace the cup with a pencil on the cardstock. Repeat this however many times you want, or for how many tags you need.

Cut them all out. You ca be very precise when you cut them out, or give them slightly wavy edges. You can cut them into different shapes and decorative scissors if you want to. Hole punch them.

Stylize them using pens, pencils and stamps. You can create multiple of the same type, or make each one unique.

Cut a piece of twine, thread or ribbon and thread it through the hole. Tie it around a gift bag, or attach it to a wrapped present. And there you are! Simple, cheap, and easy gift tags. Merry Christmas!

Five Photo Tips

First off, i am so sorry for not posting in so long! Life and school are very consuming right now {advanced biology is a time intensive class} but I was on break this week, so I got this done! I hope to be posting more frequently now. So, onto the post. I love to take photos. I also love photo shoots. So when I got a little remote to take pictures fro my dslr, and a new dress, I just had to do one.

1. Lighting

Lighting is a huge part of a photo. It can make the photo warm or cold, set the tone and mood, and change the quality of the picture. It can change the subject drastically. This is why overcast days are wonderful. You still have tons of natural light, but without all the harsh effects of direct sunlight. You can use it creatively too. I used the setting sun to cast my shadow onto a sheet. A simple silhouette of someone or something can be just as interesting as the real thing, sometimes even more so. Without the sheet in this picture, it would just be a girl in a dress posing with trees in the background. The sheet defines the lines and removes distracting elements from the photo while keeping the important things about subject, and adds some mystery to the photo that would not be there otherwise.

2. Action

Still life photos are great, but action shots can give the photo a life that cannot always be portrayed in still photos. The motion in a photo tells a totally different story then one without motion. There is no way to capture the feeling you get from the spinning in this photo without the motion. Blurring is fine in action shots, and sometimes actually completes the sense of movement in the photo.

3. Rule of Thirds

Some photos draw your attention to the subject more then others. Part of this reason is the rule of thirds. Think of a grid with two lines going parallel along the photo, and two going horizontal, dividing it into thirds. Try to place your subject in one of the sections {left, middle, and right} or sometimes even in a just one ninth of the photo. This is especially impacting when the rest photo is negative space. Negative space is the area that surrounds your subject {which is the positive space}. In the photo above, I am the positive space, and the trees behind me would be the negative space. The less distracting your negative space is, the more impacting the subject can be. Even though I'm not really in one of the thirds, the negative space still helps draw attention to myself in the photo.

4. Perspective

Perspective on a photo can give it a whole new feeling. If I took this photo staring directly down at the ukulele, the focus would have been on the design of the instrument as a whole. Since I got close to the body of the ukulele, your focus is on the grains and individual swirls of the design. The majority of the instrument is still in the picture, but it is not the main focus.

5. Focus

Photos don't always have to be perfectly in focus. You can blur out parts of the background to draw attention to a specific part of the photo, or blur things completely in some photos. The focus helps tell part of the story you portray with your photos. You can tell what everything is in the photo {the person, the instrument} even though nothing is in focus.

~Hannah

The Golden (or Magic) Hour

I love photography. As a person who is almost constantly carrying some sort of camera around, I am always looking for things to capture. Lighting is a big part of this. An overcast day is photo gold, because you won't get the harsh sun causing unflattering shadows. A few weeks ago I took some photos during what's known as the golden hour, sometimes known as the magic hour.

The golden hour is the hour right before the sun sets, casting a fuzzy, warm light on everything. It also allows you to position a subject in front of the sun, creating sun spots at the right angle and giving the subject a warm glow.

This is a slightly whimsical photo that reflects the camera in my sunglasses. The light illuminates my hair from behind, adding to reflective and detailed effect.

Air photos give a fun summer-ish vibe to photos. I used the timer on my camera, but you can also a remote to snap the photo at the right time.

Trying new perspectives can add a new feeling to your subject. It can be refreshing from the normal portrait stance, and the subject doesn't always have to be smiling and looking at the camera. Photos often feel more natural when they aren't. The rosy light adds warmth and color to my clothes and hair, making the photo more relaxing as a whole.

The same tree is pictured above on both photos, at different times and angles. The same tree is also in the first photo in the blog post. Lighting and positioning can give a whole new feel to pictures. The first picture is more focused on the colors in the photo, how they contrast and interact. The photo feels warm and small, so the sky doesn't seem to vast. The second one gives a much more airy, open feeling, with a bird flying out of the tress silhouetted by a light sky reaching into oblivion. The fact that the bird is so small compared to the tree and the sky, makes the picture feel that much bigger.

The magic hour is one of the best times to goof around with picture techniques, especially involving light. Light can change so much in a picture, the mood, colors, style, the quality of a photo. I encourage you to explore the world of possibilities with a camera to help.

~Hannah

Summer Days

I've had a crazy summer. Now summers almost at it's end. Here are some photos I took over the summer.

1. My brother goes outside to play basketball in the summer a lot. I took this shot during the 'magic hour', right before the sun fades.
2. This is one of my favorites. We have a big backyard, and we had the wedding reception for our pastor's daughter in it. At the end of the reception, when they leaving for their honeymoon, they couple ran through lines of sparklers.
3. This one is also from the wedding reception. It was part of the decorations they put. I love the raw bulbs against the wood with the metal rims.
4. When my family was visiting my cousins in Colorado, we went on a picnic in the woods. This was my seat.
5. We went to a small town called Cottonwood for the Fourth of July. I took about forty photos of fireworks, trying to get one to turn out just right.
6. We have been having some huge monsoons in Arizona. This was the start of the third storm in four days that passed over us.
~Hannah