Daily

3 words per picture

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I don’t believe in the whole concept of blogging “just because”. I blog when I have something to say, even though I say I like to blog each weekday. Monday & Tuesday I didn’t have anything new to tell you, thus the lack of posts. However today I’m stealing an idea from Janae, and doing a 3 words per picture type of blog post. Something a little different!

What are you guys doing today? I’m heading out with Jessica today. It’ll be exciting, I’ll blog about it later.

/// King of Castle ///

/// Beautiful Santana Row ///

Blueberry Muffins/// I made these ///

15 target/// $15 well spent ///

bright polish/// Being colour adventurous ///

Therapy cardigan/// Shoulda bought it ///

Giggle Juice/// Good present idea ///

/// New favourite drink ///

Easter Breakfast/// Our Easter breakfast ///

/// Forever 21 purchases ///

Chocolate Mooed Jamba Juice/// Dude. Chocolate Moo’d ///

abs/// Just bought it ///

bacardio2/// Need this next ///

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Blog Tips, Daily, Geek Speak

Taking blog photos indoors

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Let’s face it. Photos add interest to one’s blog. If I see a volume of text on one’s website without photos, I’m less inclined to continue reading more than one or two posts. Simply out of visual boredom.

I rarely take my blog photos outside, and prefer not to use artificial light. I’m here to help you how to make the most of your time, and tell you my tips I’ve learned along the way.

Know when and where to take your photos

When I worked, I took blog photos on the weekends for the upcoming week. My balcony was the only place that had decent light so I worked between 11am − 1pm. I’m not working now, but I still only take blog photos once a week, and try to get it done within an hour. At our new place, the perfect time of day for photos like these are between 1pm − 3pm on the upstairs landing.

Make your photos visually interesting

Clean up your area before you photograph. Garbage in the background, dirty plates, stacks of paper, it doesn’t add much to a photos appeal. You don’t have to style your images as they do in magazines, but have fun with what you’re photographing. Be unique, take photos from different angles.

Use a backdrop

When you see that I have a plain white background in photos, it’s because I’m using a painters canvas as the background. Something more cost efficient but not as durable, is plain white printer paper. You could also grab a colourful placemat, a piece of wrapping paper, or even books.

Edit your photos

If you’re stuck inside with artificial light, try your best to light your subject with light bulbs that don’t have yellow undertones. Then go into Photoshop and play with the layers. Here’s an example of a photo edit before and after.before-after-poutine

Hope these tips help you out!

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Climbing, Fitness, Photos

Climbing out of my comfort zone

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I think I will always be a little shy. I’ll never truly grow out of it. Which is why I did something out of the ordinary for me, two days ago.

Last week, I received an e-mail from a long time reader of my blog, introducing herself as someone who lives sort of close to me in the Bay Area. She knew I was a climber, and suggested we meet up and go for a climb at the local indoor rock climbing gym. It caught me a little off guard since I never receive e-mails from readers, let alone a reader wanting to hang out with me! That, and she never left a comment on my site before so I didn’t really know who I was meeting. We added each other to Facebook first, so at least I had an idea as to what she looked like :)

It took me a few days to get the courage to write her back and tell her I’d join her at Planet Granite for a climb. I AM SO GLAD I DID. I was totally on the fence for a moment there. I mean I’d be afraid to contact a person who’s blog I’ve been reading, asking them to hang out — it’s not something I’d think to do. I’m just not that outgoing! I’d be so afraid of rejection hahaha.

Looking back, I wished we had taken a few photos together, or at least a photo of the place inside so I could show you how amazing “my” new climbing gym is. I can’t wait to go back already. You’ll have to deal with this selfie, that I took after we climbed for a few hours.climbHer and I are on the same climbing level. Meaning, we climb the same route-difficulty as one another. Which is such a good thing to find in a climbing partner. It’s not as much fun when you climb with someone who is just a beginner, where you have to teach them technique and ways to position themselves, or someone who is a powerhouse and can climb 5.13’s with ease. That being said, I’m surprised at how strong I still am. Considering I haven’t really climbed hard, and regularly for about 10 months. So I managed to do one (or two) 5.10a’s that afternoon and it felt amazing. #StillGotIt

Next time, I’ll take photos while inside. I think I’ll head in for a bouldering session within the next few days. Already itching to get back at it.

Have you ever tried rock climbing?

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