Live Chat

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Photo Credit: Dawn Camp on Flickr | My Home Sweet Home

You all are fabulous and I love you more than my camera. You have so many awesome questions that I adore answering. Obviously, we don’t have all day to chat though. If we did that, the toddlers might be squirting mustard all over the floor or taking apart the lawn mower.

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Photo Credit: Dawn Camp on Flickr | My Home Sweet Home

What would you all think of a live chat for a couple hours one night? I could try to answer all your questions, if you wanted my opinion you could have it, and we could bounce ideas back and forth. What do y’all think? Would that be something you’d like to do?

Photography Tutorials: White Balance {Nikon}

The other day I posted about where I get my inspiration from and how I edit. If you noticed in the comments, Jenn posted the following comment wanting to know more about white balance. I’m sure that she’s not alone.

White balance is super easy! See? I’ll show you. (In crappy iPhone pictures, because I don’t own two snazzy big girl cameras.) This is a Nikon tutorial, by the way. Canon is probably very similar, but I know it can be confusing. I might have one of my Canon friends come in and guest post for y’all on that. ;)

White Balance Button

Pretty simple step, no?

Turn the Wheel

As a note, you’ll turn this wheel while holding the white balance button (pictured before).

Look at the Screen

See that little cloud in the box that the arrow is pointing to? This is the icon that tells you what lighting your camera is set to set the white balance for. (Did that make any sense?) Different white balance settings are represented by different icons. You can see photo examples of that here on the Ree’s blog.

Was that clear as mud or what? Feel free to post any questions you have about white balance or photography in general in the comments below. I’ll be more than happy to chat with you! :)

Etsy Shops, Big Cartel, and Your Favorite Businesses

I *love* creativity, Etsy and Big Cartel Shops, and fabulous companies that all began with an idea. I’m looking for your favorites! I want to feature family-friendly companies, businesses, and shops here. If you have one or several that you think are fabulous, do share! You may email them to me or leave the link(s) in the comment section. If you are a business owner, please contact me! I am very interested in hearing about your story, business, and product.

Some of my favorites are:

Gussy

Let Love Grow

The Vintage Pearl

Tweet

Eclectic Whatnot

The Pleated Poppy

Shootsac

*Shey* [B]

DownEast Basics

Christa Taylor

Blush

Epiphanie

Moirai

31 Bits

CurlsLikeUs

Bel Kai Designs

Kelly Moore Bags

Something Blue

Fresh-Squeezed Fabrics

Pretty Presets

Spunk & Sass Designs

Allora Handmade

Cotton Candy by Natalie

Love is Loud – Africa Shirts

Wild Olive Tees

What are your favorite shops? How would you like to see them featured on here?

Pixel Happy | Sweet Shot Tuesday

Pixel Happy

That’s my awesome pixel happy cousin Tina. She likes take pretty pictures too! Her and her mom and sister flew in to visit. Can you believe we’ve never met before now? Me either. All I know is that they’re awesome.

Have you taken some sweet shot’s lately? I would love to see ‘em! Link me up with them in the comments or email them to me. I might even feature them here on the blog!

Graphic Designer Turned Photographer

I am a creative; not a coder. I have no idea the amount of times I told myself that (Twittered and Facebooked it, too).  I was stubborn and kept my graphic design gig going. I didn’t listen to the signs coming from my family: “Hannah, you are always on that stinking computer!” “I really need your help with the Boybarians, Lou.” “Just 5 more minutes and I’ll be off here.”

Finally I realized, “Hannah, you used to be a girl living life and blogging about it. Now you are a girl blogging and blog designing living life and snapping photos in between.” That was a hard blow to take. Then came my best friend Darcy’s post Unsustainable. Both of us were experiencing the same thing and here I thought that I couldn’t tell her I had to stop this madness and unsustainable schedule.

We Skyped because that’s what two geeky friends do [when they live 2 states and many, many miles apart].

I cried because I didn’t want to quit.

She helped me realize that I am a photographer with graphic design dabbled in. Not the other way around.

She has helped me realize my priorities.

That being said, I am no longer a full time graphic and blog designer. I will still accept the occasional graphic design or blog design job and training on that subject, but no longer full time. I appreciate those of you who have hired me and/or helped me learn so much! It’s been such a pleasure.

Sweet Shot Tuesday: Green Carnation

Green Carnation

Pretty flower, no? I think so too. Especially now that it is in digital form and won’t make me sneeze. So. Darn. Much.

p.s. This was linked up to my lovely friend Darcy’s Sweet Shot Tuesday.

Photography Basics: Editing Photos

Always have a great shot SOOC (strait out of the camera). It will save you lots of time in the editing process. If you have a really great SOOC shot, you should be able to get by with your basic photo editing. If you have a bad SOOC shot, you will spend tons of time editing only one photo. In the long run, it is better to know your stuff and shoot right the first time. It will save you tons of time and you will get great shots!

Do you have a question about editing photos or a photography related question in general? I’d love to answer any question(s) you may have to try and help you out! Just hit the “Email Hannah” button at the top.

Photography Basics: What is aperture?

Aperture is the size of the opening in your lens when you take a photo. The larger the opening, the more light will get in – the smaller the openinging, the less light will get in. Those different openings are called f-stops.

small f-stop = large opening

large f-stop = small opening

Therefore, when you set your aperature, keep in mind the lighting. If it’s darker where your working, use a larger opening (smaller f-stop). If it’s brighter where your working, use a small opening (large f-stop).

Make sense? Have questions?

Photography Basics: What is exposure?

I’m exposure challenged. If you want me to explain exposure to you in a blog post, I’m not your gal. Ree is.

Photography Basics: What is shutter speed?

Shutter speed is simply this: how fast your camera snaps the shot. It’s easy peasy.

Shutter speed in low light:

If you are in a low light situation, your camera’s shutter will have to stay open longer to let more light in. In this kind of situation, if you aren’t using a tripod you’ll probably get a blurry shot.

Shutter speed in normal light:

If you are in a spot with normal light, your camera will snap the shot faster. Why? It’s because the more light there is, the shorter amount of time your camera will have to hold the shutter open.

It’s really easy. Really.