Connect with Me!
Subscribe
Looking for Something?
-
-
Sites Marie Stalks
Things We Write About
Autumn Babies blogging books Business business success Children Christmas Colorado Colorado Photographer computers creativity email Facebook Family fireworks Flowers Food Photography health how-to inspiration internet jobs Lightning LinkedIn location portraits marketing Organization Pet Photography Photography Pinterest Portrait Photography privacy Productivity Seniors social media spam Twitter Weddings Wordpress writing
Tag Archives: how-to
Get More Likes with this Easy Facebook Welcome Tab Tutorial
If you have a Facebook page for your business or blog and you don’t have a Welcome Tab, you are missing out on a free and easy opportunity to help people see who you are and what your business is all about. What is a Facebook Welcome Tab? It is the page that first time visitors (or those who haven’t yet liked your page) will see when they visit your page. Here is a sample Welcome Tab.
If your default landing page is your wall or, heaven forbid, your info page with a map, you need to take action now. There’s nothing wrong with your wall—it’s what everyone sees IF they ever visit your page again after they’ve liked it (most people don’t; they get your posts in their newsfeed if you’re active and can engage them in your page). As for having people see a map of your location when they come to your page—is that really the most important thing you want them to know the first time they visit? I’m pretty sure it’s not. That’s not usually why people visit your page.
So, how do you get a welcome tab?
It’s not as hard as some would have you think. Yes, there are lots of page creation apps out there. Some are free; some cost money. I’m working on a review of some of them and will post more about them in the coming weeks. But we want to get you started NOW. Not only that, but this first page will be free and will give you a presence while you figure out what you might like to do in the long term.
First, you need to create a welcome image. Do this in Photoshop or the image-editing program of your choice. I’m going to assume (yeah, I know, it’s a dangerous assumption) that you know how to create an image. It needs to be not wider than 520 pixels nor longer than 800 pixels. If it exceeds these dimensions, Facebook is going to put scroll bars on it and that really doesn’t look good. You also don’t really need or want something bigger as you want them to see it as soon as they land on your page without having to scroll around. Make it 72 dpi and save it as a level 8 or 9 JPG file.
Next, go to your FTP account (yes, I am again assuming you have a website and know how to get to the back end of it). Create a folder to hold your image and give it a simple name. Mine is called fbpages. Upload your image to the folder. Before closing your FTP, make sure you have the image. Type its address into your browser to check. When the image comes up, either bookmark it or paste the address into a text file; you’ll need this later.
Now, go to Facebook and find the Static HTML: iframe tabs app. Hint: It’s here.
Click the “add Static HTML to a Page” button. Select your page from the list that pops up (if you only have one page, you won’t get a list). Once you’ve selected your page and clicked on “Add Static HTML: iframe tabs”, it will automatically go to your page.
In the left-hand column under your profile picture, find the little star with “welcome” next to it. Click on that.
Now, this is the tricky part. It involves a teeny little bit of html, but I promise you can do this. Add this text in the box that says “Enter your content here”: <img src=”http://YOUR-IMAGE-ADDRESS-HERE.jpg”> Replace the http:// with the address of your jpg that you saved earlier. Click the save button in the upper right and then click preview. You should see your welcome image.
Once that is all done you want to set this new welcome page as the default for visitors. To do that, click “edit info” at the top of your business page. From the menu on the left, choose “manage permissions.” In the box next to “Default Landing Tab” choose “Welcome.” Save changes and you are all set.
Now, your new page visitors can be wowed by your great welcome page.
There are many fancier things you can do. You can add special content once they’ve liked your page, you can add an opt-in for your mailing list, but for now, pat yourself on the back for taking the first step and setting your page and your business apart from the rest.
And in case you need a little more step-by-step, here is a video tutorial for you.
Posted in Social Media, Steps to Success
Also tagged business success, Facebook, marketing, social media
26 Comments
Two Quick Steps to Increase Productivity Now!
Would you like to painlessly boost your productivity today? Here are two simple ways to improve your productivity, save you time and give you a little clarity.
#1. Clean off the top of your desk or workstation.
Really. Remove everything from the top of your desk. Leave the computer monitor and the phone. You don’t need to mess with those—that will make more work. But everything else needs to go. No matter how critical you think it is to your work life, take it off your desk.
Dust your desktop and your monitors and clean the phone. Wipe the phone down with an alcohol wipe; get all the grime and dirt and germs off it. Once you’ve done that, look at all the stuff you took off the desk. Yes, the piles, the pens, the sticky notes, the business cards, the mail, etc., etc. Give it a quick sort and figure out what you really need.
For me, critical desk items would be my pen cup (empty out all but your favorite and most-used implements here—the spare pens can go somewhere else), my notepad, my timer (find out why here), my sticky notes and my water bottle. That’s it.
I really don’t need the canned air, yesterday’s mail, the memory cards that need reformatting or the Chinese Fortune Sticks. Are those stress balls and Kid Meal toys really helping you get more done? If not (and you know the answer is no), find them a new home.
Now, doesn’t that look better? Doesn’t that feel better? Do this at least once a week and you’ll find that you are working better and thinking more clearly.
#2. Clean out the drawers.
Confession: I have computer desk; it has no drawers (yes, that is my desk in the picture and all the workspace I have). That’s one of the reasons my desk top gets messy. What I do have is a set of rolling drawers that sits next to my desk, but it’s just out of reach. Since I don’t have a dedicated office where I can keep everything, most of my office supplies live in the basement store room so the drawers have become my portable office for things I need on a regular basis.
When I am tidying up in a hurry, or when my kids don’t want to take something back to the basement, it gets stuffed in my drawers. As a result, they end up cluttered and messy and full of stuff I don’t need. Giving the drawers a quick clean out can produce some amazing finds.
Let’s do this one drawer at a time. Open the drawer, take EVERYTHING out of it and wipe down the inside. Turn it upside down over the wastebasket if you need to and get all the little cruddy stuff out. Look at the contents you have taken out and decide what really needs to be there. If it isn’t something you use regularly in your work, consider finding it a new home.
Yesterday my desk gave up two tape measures, a flashlight, an empty tape dispenser, some colored pencils, a compass (the math kind, not the Boy Scout kind), three checkbook covers and some other junk. It may not seem like a lot, but my drawers aren’t very big. If you have larger drawers, put a drawer organizer on your shopping list. My favorite—especially for the pencil drawer—is a silverware divider. They are just the right size for most desk drawers and the perfect for sorting writing implements.
Take a look at what you got from the desktop and the drawers. Throw away the trash and the broken stuff and then get rid of everything that isn’t helping you be more productive. Your kids’ art supplies and homework tools can go into a labeled bin in the closet that they can access when they need it. Receipts and other forms should be filed in your file box or cabinet.
If you keep in or on your workspace only what you currently need, you’ll find your workday going more smoothly, you won’t waste time trying to find things, your productivity will go up and your stress level will go down.
What’s your biggest productivity challenge or your best tip?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below and let’s all get more successful together.
Keep Your Memories Safe
The holidays are over and if you are like most people, you pulled out your digital camera and took at least a few photos. If you have kids or grandkids you probably took a lot of photos.
Now what?
Are you going to print them and put them in an album?
Share them on Facebook?
Or let them languish on your camera’s memory card forever?
Are those pictures important to you? If they are, how will you keep them safe?
I hear on the news at least once a week the sad tale of someone whose home or car was burglarized and who lost their digital camera or computer with every single photo they ever had of their wedding or the birth of their child or some other important event. We rarely hear that the thieves felt remorse and sent back the photos. And if not loss by theft, what about accidentally erasing the card or having your hard drive crash? Yes, it happens. Hard drives fail. It’s not a matter of IF but WHEN.
Here are a few suggestions for preserving your important pictures so you can enjoy them, share them and pass them on to your children and grandchildren someday.
Back up your files. That little card in your camera wasn’t designed to be your image files’ permanent home. At the very least, download those images to your computer. If you can, use a dedicated hard drive for storage. My computer has one drive for the system and programs and one for image storage. If you don’t want to set aside a whole internal hard drive, consider a removable or portable hard drive for picture storage. There are many programs on the market for photo organizing and storage. My personal favorite is ACDSee. You can also use CD’s and DVD’s to store files, but be aware that disks don’t last forever. Disk writing software and technology can change, leaving older disks unreadable. Disks can get scratched or broken. If you back up to a disk, make more than one and test them after writing to make sure they are readable—sometimes the write can fail even when it says it didn’t (guess how I know).
Once you’ve downloaded your images, it’s ok to delete the bad ones. Just as you didn’t keep every print back when you were using film, you don’t have to keep every digital image. It’s always best to do your deleting from the computer and not in your camera. You are less likely to delete something you wanted and less likely to cause problems with your memory card. If you want to use photo editing software to make enhancements, go ahead—just remember, a little bit goes a long way. If you’re making big changes to a file, save it as a copy so your original will remain unharmed.
If you want an easy way to share your images with friends and family online, you can set up a free photo sharing account on a site like Flickr or Photobucket. You can also share them on Facebook, but some people don’t have Facebook accounts. When uploading photos for online sharing, remember to be sensitive to the feelings of your subjects and don’t share embarrassing or unflattering pictures without their permission; otherwise, they may return the favor.
Now that you’ve done all that, print your favorites. This is the best thing to do with a photograph and what they are really for. Take or send your files to your favorite photo lab and have prints made to frame and hang in your home or office, give as gifts, put in an album or pin on your bulletin board. Once they’re printed, display or scrapbook them so you can enjoy your photos. If you’re not into traditional scrapbooking, you can use a digital scrapbooking program and then have an album printed by any number of different printers.
I still recommend photo lab prints over home inkjet printers. It’s generally less expensive and the prints are more durable, though there are inkjet printers very capable of high-quality photographic reproduction these days. Some online labs even offer free photo storage for you so you have an online backup of your image files.
So what will you do with your holiday photos this year? Do you have any questions about storing or printing digital files? Please share your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.
And if you found this post helpful, please use the buttons above and below to share it on the web.
Use Alt Text to Increase Search Engine Rankings
Are you missing an important tool in the quest for search engine success?
If you are using images in your blog (and you should be), they can help move up your blog in the search rankings. But if you aren’t making use of the Alternate Text box that WordPress provides for each image, your images aren’t doing much for your blog’s rankings.
Using Alternate Text, also known as Alt Text, with your uploaded images helps Google (and other search engines) to more effectively index your blog. Search engines cannot “see” photographs or graphics, which means they cannot be indexed and included in search results.
When you add an image to your WordPress blog, you get this box.
For SEO, the most important parts of this box are the File Name, the “Title” and “Alternate Text.” The first step begins before you upload your image. Give your image a descriptive file name. If it’s a photograph it probably has a name like “IMG3456″ or if you have some sort of cataloguing system or are using a stock graphic it might have a name like “DIS1011.” That’s great for being organized and lousy for SEO.
Before I uploaded this image, I renamed it “epcot-at-twilight.” A descriptive name helps search engines to classify it in searches. Searchers may look for “epcot at twilight” or even “epcot” but they aren’t likely to look for “3456.”
WordPress automatically puts your file name in the Title Box. When a reader mouses over your image in the post, this is the text that will show up. You can change the title if you wish, but the file name is not changeable.
Next is the Alternate Text box. If your images don’t load for some reason, this is the text that will show up in their place. Alt Text should be descriptive and relate to both the image and the post. My Alt Text for this image is “Epcot at Twilight, Disneyworld, Orlando, Florida.” All of the text relates to the image and helps Google to know the subject of this image. Using just “Epcot” would also work, but the text should be as informative and descriptive as possible, especially if your blog or post are image-heavy, like a photography blog.
Avoid “keyword stuffing”, however, which can cause a search engine to decide your site is spam and maybe drop it completely. An example of keyword stuffing for this image would be “Epcot at twilight, Disneyworld, Orlando, Florida, Disney, resort, twilight, Disney Parks, sunset, Mickey Mouse, theme parks, Disney Resorts, Orlando tourist attraction, Walt Disney.”
In addition to using the alt tags, make sure the text on your page also relates to the images and puts them in context. If your blog or post is image-heavy, be sure to include some descriptive text in the body of your post that incorporates your keywords in a natural way. Combining relevant text with relevant Alt Text will help increase your blog’s search engine rankings and help to increase traffic and readers.
If you haven’t done this in the past, start doing it now and see how it helps your blog. And as you have time, you can go back and add Alt Text to previously uploaded and posted images to help your blog’s rankings even more.
Have you done this on your blog? Do you have any questions about Alt Texts or using images on your blog. Please share any comments or questions in the comment section below and I will answer them for you.
Use Gmail Filters to Organize Your Email & Increase Productivity
Do you spend too much time on your email? Would you like to cut that time way back and not miss any important emails.
You can! If you use gmail, today’s tutorial is just for you. Learn how to create filters that will automatically sort your incoming emails into the folders of your choosing, so you can easily see what’s important and what can wait.
By the way, if your email is through your domain, you can still use gmail to read and process it. If you’d like to learn how, leave me a comment below and I’ll let you know when the next tutorial is up.
If you found this post helpful, please use the buttons above and below to share it on the web.
Posted in Steps to Success
Also tagged business success, email, Organization, Productivity
4 Comments
Use a Journal to Boost Business Success
Do you journal?
You should.
Keeping a journal will help your business be more successful.
Having a daily or weekly record of your business growth helps you keep track of new ideas, measure your progress, celebrate your successes and analyze your flops.
What is journaling? Journaling is simply the act of putting thoughts or ideas onto paper. There are many ways to do it, but for our purposes, I consider journaling either using pen and paper or typing on the computer. Audio and Video journals serve a different purpose and aren’t as effective for business journals as writing is.
Write down ideas, record your successes and your failures, write about your challenges and how you handled them. A journal is a great place to analyze and note what went right, what went wrong and what you would do differently next time. Don’t waste time beating yourself up but if you need to vent, it’s better on paper than yelling at your partner or kicking the dog.
What’s the difference between a business journal and a personal journal or diary? A personal journal is just that—it’s where you write about your daily life, your kids, your vacation, current events and the price of milk. A personal journal is for the story of your life. Your business journal is the story of your business. It’s a place to brainstorm, to analyze and summarize meetings and events, and to plan strategies and assess your progress (or lack of).
Writing down thoughts and ideas frees your mind from having to remember everything, enabling you to focus on creativity and running your business. Having a written record of your progress helps you see patterns, organize your thoughts, find your passion, and see changes and refinements that will improve your business. Writing can help boost your creativity. It can be an outlet for emotions you aren’t comfortable sharing with others. Writing can give you clarity. I often find that a problematic situation becomes less so when I can put everything down on paper and then review it more objectively.
Write daily if you can. You don’t need to write a lot. Set aside 10 minutes at the end of each workday to journal. If not daily, write at least twice a week and whenever the thought strikes. Writing about things while they are fresh in your mind will give you a more accurate and complete picture of your life and your progress.
The beauty of journaling is that you can do it anywhere, anytime. I carry a small notebook with me wherever I go. I never know when I’ll need to jot down an idea or when I’ll have a few free minutes that I can spend journaling. Ideas that have made their way to my journal are not always implemented right away but I have found inspiration when I read back through it at a later time.
Do you journal? How do you do it and how has it helped your business? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Posted in Steps to Success
Also tagged business success, inspiration, Productivity, writing
4 Comments
Worry–the Wasted Emotion
Today I spent considerable time waiting at the doctor’s office. It wasn’t my idea; I got a call requesting my presence for a medical test. When they were quite insistent that I do it today instead of waiting for an opening at a more convenient time and location, my initial reaction was to worry. That probably makes me pretty normal. I think that would be most people’s reaction.
But yesterday was a busy day and I had a lot of things going on, including an outing with friends. After hanging up the phone and giving myself a few minutes to process the information and run through all the possible “worry” scenarios, I decided that I needed to put this aside and not make it the focus of my day.
It remained a distraction for a short while, but as I focused on what I needed to do and on my friends and their lives, it gradually faded into the background. I spent my evening hosting a group of teenage girls for a game night at my house. That was a great distraction; I spent all evening laughing and joking with some great people and sharing in their joy instead of introducing unnecessary worry into their lives.
By the time I got up this morning, it was simply another item on the to-do list. Even as I sat in the doctor’s office with a long wait, I realized I really wasn’t worried about the outcome. I brought along my current reading (book review to come soon) and was able to focus on my reading. I noticed that wasn’t the case with the other patients around me who were there for the same test. Most of them had brought someone along to wait with them, and I observed as they fidgeted and paced and whispered anxiously to their companions.
It was then that it really hit me what a wasted emotion worry is. Worry does not benefit us. While a little worry might be seen as helpful, such as when we concern ourselves enough to prepare well for a job interview or an audition, worrying about things that may or may not be–or may or may not happen, has no benefit. If we are concerned about the likelihood that something might or might not happen, rather than worry and fret, we need to do what we can to ensure the desired outcome. When there is nothing we can do, we need to learn to let the worry go. Worry can have a negative effect on our health. It can cause the same physical reaction as a physical stressor, including an increase in adrenaline production, headaches, stomachaches, sleeplessness, shortness of breath, inability to concentrate and a rise in blood pressure, among other things. Continuing to worry means allowing these symptoms to take up permanent residence in our bodies leading to a suppressed immune system and opening us up to more health issues.
So, how do we banish worry? Worry, or more appropriately concern, is a normal human emotion. We all experience it at some point, but that doesn’t mean we need to invite it in and give it a permanent home. We experience excessive worry when we allow our concern to grow beyond manageable limits. Here are a few strategies I’ve learned that help me keep unneceessary worry at bay.
Address the issue – In my case, it meant following the doctor’s suggestion and doing something right away. I got a clean bill of health on the spot. If I’d followed my first inclination I would have been waiting over a week for the appointment, giving my well-developed imagination ample opportunity to think up every negative scenario. The quicker you address the source of your concern, the quicker you can resolve it and move on with your life.
Do Something – This really goes along with the first one. If there is something you can do to alleviate your worry, do it. Make a phone call to check on that person you are worrying about, make that doctor’s appointment, finish the paper or article you need to write. If you can’t address the issue, find something else positive to do. One of the ways I deal with the stress of worrying is to tackle my project list. I find physical labor distracts me from other issues and the garden often looks much better when I take out my frustration on the weeds. Exercise helps, too. A good brisk walk, a bike ride or a swim can all relieve the tension that worry creates in your body and mind and help you relax.
Eat Healthy — A good, healthy diet allows your body to receive what it needs to function properly. Over eating or under eating both have negative effects on your system. Indulging in unhealthy “comfort foods” may actually compound the effects of worry, since they are frequently high in fat, sugar and caffeine. Speaking of caffeine, it’s good to limit your caffeine consumption in times of stress and worry as it stimulates the nervous system and can lead to increased adrenaline production, something worriers really don’t need more of.
Help Someone Else – Doing something positive for someone else often puts our own worries into better perspective–or at least gives you the opportunity to help alleviate someone else’s worries and really does make you feel better. When Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of the Mormon Church was a young missionary in England he worried that he wasn’t effective and was wasting his time and his family’s money. He spilled out his worries in a letter to his father who wrote back, “Forget yourself and go to work.” Focusing on someone or something else means you aren’t focusing on your worries.
Talk to Someone – Often the best thing we can do for our worry is to just get it out in the open and get it out of our system. Having a support system, someone who will listen and help you refocus, and just knowing that you aren’t carrying the load alone can all go a long way toward relieving your worries.
Prayer & Meditation – Sometimes there isn’t any real way to address the issue fully. Turn your worries over to God or to whatever higher power works for you. If you’re a religious person, you are probably familiar with the passage of scripture that reads “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). It really does work, but you’ll have to exercise your faith. Meditation is also a wonderful way to clear your mind. These techniques don’t involve forgetting about your troubles, but rather acknowledging them and then clearing your mind and focusing on the present moment to invite in positive thought instead. If you don’t know how to meditate, check out this site for some helpful tips to get you started.
So, how about you? How do you deal with the stress and worry in your life? Please share your feedback, thoughts and strategies in the comment section below.
10 Tips for Winter Photography Fun
Winter is a great time to get and take photos—if you’re prepared. Yes, you can safely use your camera outdoors in wintry weather. And with these simple tips, you can have more fun and get better photos while enjoying winter.
Marie’s 10 Winter Photography Tips
- Dress properly. It’s no fun to be cold. Layers work well, even with your gloves and mittens. One of my favorite finds is a pair of lightweight sport gloves (I can’t tell you the brand because it’s not on the gloves, but I bought them at Costco) that are thin enough to wear underneath my heavy gloves but still keep my hands warm and allow me to operate the controls on my camera with my hands protected.
- Keep your camera warm. Cold batteries are the cause of most camera problems. Cold batteries fail more quickly. Keep your camera inside your coat when not using it, if possible. Carry extra batteries and keep them in an inside pocket, as near to your body as possible to help keep them warm. You may have to switch batteries more frequently. When cold batteries warm up, they usually still work fine without a recharge.
- Keep your camera dry by using a plastic zipper bag with an opening for the lens, which you can secure with a rubber band. If you’ve got the budget for it, you can buy special “rain gear” for your camera–it’s just as effective for snow.When you are done photographing, put your camera inside a plastic bag when you bring it inside to protect it from condensation as it warms up. Leave it in the bag until it reaches room temperature; resist the temptation to download or look at your photos right away. I know this is probably the hardest part of all, but it’s critical to a healthy camera.
- Snow will fool your camera’s light meter. If you can adjust the exposure, open it up an extra stop on a sunny, snowy day so your snow photos don’t all come out too dark.
- Use your flash to help compensate for even harsher shadows when photographing people outside in the snow and sun.
- When photographing people, encourage them to wear bright colors which stand out wonderfully against the snow.
- Get the family in action. Snowboarding, skiing, sledding and snowball fights all make great photos. Use the action mode on your camera if you don’t have manual settings.
- Look for close-ups of natural items in the snow—winter berries, pinecones, autumn leaves and rocks all look completely different covered in snow.
- Head out–carefully–after a snow or ice storm. Snow- and ice-covered objects, both natural and manmade make great subjects for artistic photographs. If necessary, consider investing in a pair of SnowTrax for the bottom of your shoes to help with your grip on the ice. A slip on the ice that breaks your camera could ruin your outing, but one that breaks your arm could ruin your winter.
- If your camera has a macro or close-up feature, try photographing snowflakes and icicles for unique winter patterns.
- Have fun. Experiment with colors, textures, patterns and exposure. Winter is a season like no other for photography.
Have any questions about winter photography or about anything you see here? Please leave your questions and feedback in the comment section below.
And if you found this helpful, please use the buttons below to tweet or share it with your network.
____________________________________________________
Marie Leslie is the chief Creative Genius at Marie Leslie Media. With 30 years experience as a professional writer, editor and photographer she has had work published in many regional and national magazines. Marie currently writes and teaches about business, photography & life, helping people to understand and make use of the ever-changing internet. She offers WordPress blog design, set-up and optimization as well as photography, writing & social media services.
Become a Mind-Reading Marketer
I’ve been busy digging into a new book this week. I am an avid reader–and that’s probably an understatement.
I have a whole shelf in my bookcase dedicated to business books. It’s not the time in my life to go back to school and get another degree, so I’m busy learning all I can from successful business people and authors.
Read Their Mind is my latest addition. It showed up in my mailbox a couple of weeks ago and I’ve already read it once and going through for the second time with my highlighter and my idea book.
Of all the business books I’ve read, this one really cuts to the chase and gets to the point in plain, straightforward English.
There’s no magic bullet, no secret key to success in business. It’s all about learning to listen to the needs of the marketplace and specifically to the needs of your target customers–and Read Their Mind tells you just how to do that.
I LOVE to know what people are thinking. I like to know why they do what they do–and in the business world, if you don’t know what your customers are thinking, well, you might soon be looking for a new job.
Read Their Mind couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I recently took over a blog from someone else and I’m just finishing up the process of redesigning, updating and relaunching it to become the incredible successful resource both its founder and I have envisioned.
On top of that, I’m putting the finishing touches on a new photography venture that will be launching in the next few weeks (need terrific, professional, affordable images for your blog or website?–stay tuned–you’re going to LOVE this). I finished Read Their Mind just as I was developing a market research survey for my new business (if you have 5 minutes to spare, please click here and take the survey) so I was able to tweak the questions to make sure they were really giving me the information I need.
Now, being the giving, sharing person I am, I am sharing my success with you. If you click on the link below, you, too, can get this great and amazing book by the always informative and ALWAYS entertaining Sandi Krakowski for FREE. Here it is: http://www.arealchange.com/blog/read-mind-book-tour .
So, go get the book, read it, apply it and come back and tell me how great it’s made your business. And if you’ve already read it, share your thoughts in the comment section below.
And if you found this helpful, please use the buttons below to tweet or share it with your network.
____________________________________________________
Marie Leslie is the chief Creative Genius at Marie Leslie Media. With 30 years experience as a professional writer, editor and photographer she has had work published in many regional and national magazines. Marie currently writes and teaches about business and social media, helping people to understand and make use of the ever-changing internet. She offers social media training and set up, including blog set-up and optimization as well as blog writing & social media management services.
Posted in Steps to Success, The Bookshelf
Also tagged books, business success, marketing, Productivity
21 Comments
Fall Family Photo Fun
Autumn is here and the leaves are beautiful. I’ll bet you’ve thought more than once that you ought to get out and get some holiday card photos before the leaves are gone and it’s not pretty anymore.
If getting those great family photos are on your mind, but a professional portrait isn’t in your budget this year, here are a few tips for making the most of the opportunity.
While professional portraits nearly always produce the best results, we understand that isn’t always in the cards. If you are wanting a portrait of the whole family, bring along a friend to actually take the photographs for you. Yes, most cameras have self-timers these days, but you’ll still get a better result if you have a real live person checking to make sure you don’t look stupid before the picture gets snapped.
Choose your location ahead of time and check to see how it looks at the time of day you want to photograph there. Lighting is one of the most critical elements in photography. Lighting can make or break your portrait. When I am making portraits, I try for late afternoon (my favorite) or early morning. Mid-day light is too bright and too harsh and produces nasty shadows that are very difficult, if not impossible, to correct.
Speaking of correction, it’s always better to get it right in the camera. Some things CAN be fixed afterward, but like the commercial of a few years ago, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Plan your clothing. No, you don’t need to match; that’s entirely up to you and what you want your portraits to look like. You should still have some degree of coordination, though, especially if you want to hang this up on the wall or send it out in your holiday cards. Things to avoid: big graphics and text, especially logos; busy patterns, bare midriffs, bare shoulders, bare legs (they’re going to look out of context in a fall portrait anyway); white socks or shoes, unless you’re wearing white pants (which I also recommend avoiding). I generally lay out everyone’s clothes together ahead of time. If they clash there or something really sticks out, it’s going to do the same in the portrait.
As for those white pants, lighter colors on the bottom will make your bottom half look larger. Enough said? For your bottom half, we recommend dark pants or skirts, dark socks and dark shoes. White socks & white tennis are like little neon signs for your feet and they won’t make you happy when you see your portraits. Lighter, brighter colors by your face are ok. Our eyes are drawn to the lighter colors and you want people to see those beautiful smiling faces (at least your kids’), so keep the lighter colors nearer to your face. Bold, bright colors are more than acceptable. The old days of everyone wearing a black shirt and dark pants are gone. However, if you’re photographing a big group, having everyone wear the same color or color family in a solid really do help unify the image.
Bring your pet. If he or she is part of the family, why not include them? Of course, you may want to bring along a pet wrangler, just in case they’re uncooperative or you don’t want Fido in every pose. Just be sure to bring along a good supply of treats for bribing. Oh, and make sure they are allowed if you’re heading out to a park for your photos.
Bribery? I’m a firm believer—at least on picture day. If you have kids, bribery works WAY better than threats for good photos. As a pro, I can’t even count the number of sessions that crashed-and-burned because a parent told Johnny if he didn’t smile, he was going to get spanked. Ummm, yeah, that would definitely make me smile. Not. I always encourage families to make it a special day, go out for ice cream or dinner afterward, or plan to take part in your kids’ favorite activity. Let them know that after the photos, you’ll go do something really fun. I also use Smarties candies as a favorite bribe for preschoolers and toddlers. They don’t stain and they usually don’t drip and they’re small enough not to be a choking hazard.
And finally, remember this is supposed to be fun. Relax! No one expects perfectly posed perfect portraits (except maybe YOU). Lighten up and have fun. My favorite portrait of my kids is one where they’re all laughing and being goofy. Everyone who knows them and sees it says it is “them”. Take lots of photos (digital is cheap and you only have to keep and print the ones you love), focus on the fun and focus on your family.
And if you’d like more tips for posing and lighting, stop by Marie Leslie Media and check out my Photo Tips album with images and ideas for better photos.
And if you found this helpful, please use the buttons below to tweet or share it with your network.
____________________________________________________
Marie Leslie is the chief Creative Genius at Marie Leslie Media. With 30 years experience as a professional writer, editor and photographer she has had work published in many regional and national magazines. Marie currently writes and teaches about business and social media, helping people to understand and make use of the ever-changing internet. She offers social media training and set up, including blog set-up and optimization as well as blog writing & social media management services.
Connect with Me!
-