How to Take Your Own Great Pictures Pt. 1

I love to encourage other people to take their own fabulous pictures. Whether it is with a cell phone or a pocket camera you can take good pictures by following a few simple tips.

I will be writing a few posts in the weeks to come with tips like these:

1. Always make sure if it is sunny out to stand in solid shade.

There are these annoying little things called "sun spots". As a photographer they drive me crazy when I am trying to work around them. The best way to avoid sunspots are to stand under a large tree that provides a lot of shade, take pictures on an overcast day, or if it is late or early in the day position the sun behind you.

Here are some of my favorite pictures taken in the shade on sunny days.

2. When taking family pictures color coordinate outfits.

I don't mean everyone wear blue shirts, or floral printed dresses. Pick 2 or three colors that look good together and make sure that each member is wearing 2 of those colors, simple as that! 

Check out these pictures and how the families chose to color coordinate to make their photographs look great.

3. Capture the candid moments too.

Some of my FAVORITE family portraits I've done are the ones that were captured when the families weren't posed or didn't think I was taking pictures. This captures the natural love and dynamics within a family.

I love these candid family moments. The love and happiness is totally visible.

Those are 3 tips for taking your own family pictures for today. Follow along for more tips in the weeks to come.

How to Put Together YOUR Perfect Gallery Wall

One of my favorite things to do with my family pictures is to display them around my home. It truly makes a house feel like a home, and displays the unique type of love your family embodies. Today I am going to show you how to easily, and affordably put a gallery wall together in your own home. 

First:

Go through your computer and pick the pictures you want to display. Tally up how many are horizontal, and how many are vertical. 

Second:

Take that list to the store - I personally like to bargain shop at Goodwill - pick out any frames that you enjoy looking at. Make sure they can hang the way your photos are captured. 

Third:

Lay the frames out onto the floor and try to put them together in a way you like. Make sure to have the same number of vertical and horizontal frames laid out as you do the pictures you tallied. 

These are the frames I had found at my local Goodwill and these are a couple ideas I came up with before hanging them on the wall.

Fourth:

Put the pictures into the desired frames, and hang up the center picture first. Then work outwards. Making sure to measure as you go and checking the each frame to make sure it is level. This will ensure the wall looks well put together. 

Here is what my final gallery wall looked like. You can see I chose to go with the second option I made on the floor above. 

Another wallet friendly gallery wall idea is to hang all 8X10 photographs in a line on a wall. I purchased 12 frames at the dollar store for a total of $12! 

I also hung these photographs up in chronological order. They are major events that happened in our family so I call it our family timeline. 

Of course there are printing companies that print beautifully, but if you are looking to stay on budget my advice is to always print photographs on satin finish, and if you want to order them online I have had great success going through MPix.

This is my photography tip for you today! I hope you enjoyed it, and are encouraged to build your own gallery wall for an affordable price with pictures you love.