Category: Photography Page 9 of 24

Tips and guides for readers who want to take better photos to display on their Nixplay Frames.

nixplay blog importance of having a curated instagram feed

The Importance Of Having A Curated Instagram Feed

On October 3, 2018

Photography has turned out to be the universal language among us human beings, and many people haven’t realized the important role photographs have in their lives nowadays. Today we want to give you something to think about: The quality of content on your Instagram feed.

With such a massive invasion of images flooding our feeds constantly, keeping a highly curated Instagram feed is going to enhance your life like nothing else before. And we are not saying this in a cocky way, but you should keep your Instagram feed under control in order to make it a useful thing in your life. Otherwise, you’ll end up looking at tons of pictures with no meaning at all in your professional and your personal life.

Curated Instagram for Stronger Bonds

Keep Things Exclusive

First, let’s talk about our personal lives. It is impossible that we could ever have hundreds (or even thousands) of truly close friends and family. It is important to have a certain degree of exclusivity when it comes to our personal Instagram Feed, and you shouldn’t feel bad about it. This should respond to our necessity of keeping in touch with the lives of the people that we truly care about. For broad networking, use other social media accounts like Facebook or LinkedIn.

This Will Be Your Window to What Matters to You

Have you noticed that the family photo album has become almost extinct? This object was one of the most important assets for any family just a couple of decades ago. Now, all the images, from school pictures to travel photos, are floating in the cloud.

As long as we keep control of the beautiful things technology has to offer to us, there is no reason to freak out about this.

Less is More

You should keep in mind that not everything that is being published out there is meaningful for you; hence the necessity of keeping your Instagram feed curated. Otherwise, how would you strengthen those bonds that made the family album a valuable asset of the household?

Curated Instagram Feeds to Create Better Stuff

Your Instagram Feed as your Daily Input

The creative economy has become extremely powerful in the last years, and every creative needs to keep consuming stuff to keep updated and relevant within their respective disciplines. If you are a creative, you’ll understand this without further explanations.

Developing a Useful-Instagram Mindset

You need to see your Instagram account as a pristine place to consume the finest images out there from the creators you admire the most, as well as the peers you adore and respect. Instagram is fantastic because it allows you to discover emerging talents, as well as many great creators from all over the world.

How to Curate Your Instagram Feed

Just keep things separated. Your personal Instagram account should only have family members you care about, as well as your closest friends. Your professional Instagram account should be a meaningful place for your discipline; a portfolio that embodies your work.

The best way is to start fresh, keeping things clean right from the beginning. Of course, this isn’t always the case, so you should start doing some cleansing by designing a set of criteria that will make your feed exclusive. For example:

❌ Promotions from the newest creamery on the block
✔ The Photographer that made you fall in love with photography

High-Quality Image Consumption

You won’t escape the current state of image consumption in the world, but what you can do is to have a higher quality experience while looking at them. Viewing images through a frame satisfies this because there are no distractions such as text messages or app notifications.

Now, imagine having your highly curated Instagram feed showcased in a digital frame that will give you a richer connection between you and your loved ones. It’s almost like going to a gallery with all your favorite creatives, right at your own place.

This is exactly what you can get with a Nixplay frame: An absolutely nurturing image consumption experience with no distractions at all, updated in real time. Unlike other digital frames, Nixplay lets you update your images wherever in the world you may be.

Always Keep This in Mind

One thing that you need to keep clear about when curating (or even designing) your feed, is that Instagram was born as a social network in which the only way of sharing stuff is via images. Nowadays there are comments and direct messages, but the spirit of the platform is still the same: Image-based content, period.

Therefore, you should only follow accounts that publish images that will inspire you or will keep you uplifted, and not the other way around. If you can manage to spot those accounts, you’ll be a healthy image consumer.

Federico Alegria

Federico is a documentary photographer, writer and educator based in El Salvador. Check out his photography portfolio.

https://federicoalegria.com/

cute pet corgi dog animal photography on nixplay

4 Animal Photography Tips You Should Try With Your Pet

By Beatrice Bisais

On September 14, 2018

In Photography

It’s said that you should never work with children or animals, and this certainly rings true when trying to conduct a photo session with one of your pets. You may know them and their behavior like the back of your hand, but when it’s time to look good in front of the lens, pets can be rather difficult to work with.

Here, we have compiled four animal photography tips that you should try with your pet. Let us know if they work!

1. Use treats

Although your dog or cat may have an idea as to what’s going on when you try to get them to do certain things, they definitely don’t understand the notion of “posing”, let alone animal photography. Because of this, the easiest way to get them to look in a certain direction is by luring them with treats or toys. They’ll be camera-ready in no time!

2. Play the waiting game

If you want to take a certain picture of your pet but they’re just not playing ball, consider simply waiting around nearby with a camera in your hands. You cannot communicate what you want your pet to do, and it may be a good idea to wait for them to “naturally” pose before taking that elusive picture.

If you’re taking part in a professional animal photography shoot, then the pet is likely to be excited or nervous at first, so be sure to remain patient and allow them to get the nerves out of their system.

The nicest animal photography shots are usually taken at the most unexpected moments.

3. Use natural light

If you’re new to animal photography or just photography in general, you’ll quickly learn that natural light is one of the easiest and best light sources to work with. It’s especially nice when the daylight is naturally soft and diffused on a cloudy day, making for a pleasing picture. Windows and windowsills are also great for this purpose, as the glass tends to soften the daylight even further, making for a flattering photo.

4. Take notes from sports photography

When photographers are taking pictures of sporting events, they tend to use fast shutter speeds, burst mode, and continuous autofocus. Despite the fact that we’re talking about animal photography here, the ethos is very much the same.

A fast shutter speed (preferably at least 1/250) allows you to capture still-looking pictures of a pet that won’t sit still, while activating the burst mode means that you’ll take a flurry of pictures, at least one of which will hopefully be perfect. The continuous autofocus mode is designed to prevent your images from lacking sharpness, making your animal photography as hassle-free as possible.

Animal photography is no walk in the park, but with these top tips, you should be able to get that perfect snap in no time! Besides, taking photos of your cute companion will never be a waste of time. They love you unconditionally, and it’s nice to always be reminded of your furry best friend. Don’t forget to display your pet photos on your Nixplay Digital Photo Frame! Take advantage of our back-to-school sale and buy the Nixplay Seed 8-Inch Wi-Fi Cloud Frame to get up to 30% off!

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

7 Reasons To Save Those Older Vintage Photos

By Kristy McClenagan

On September 11, 2018

In Photography

Nixplay has partnered with the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO) for the Save Your Photos initiative, a public service outreach campaign that teaches individuals how they can preserve life’s irreplaceable photos, videos, and documents in case of an unforeseen accident or disaster. Visit the Save Your Photos website for more information.

September is Save Your Photos Month, a time to raise awareness about the benefits of safeguarding your photos. In the spirit of this initiative, let’s focus on why you should not just safeguard your photos, but save your older, vintage photos as well.

Maybe you’re thinking, “why should I keep those photographs? I’ve not looked at them in years so they’re just collecting dust. I don’t know many of the people in them and they won’t mean anything to my children.” Or, maybe it’s simply that you’ve scanned them and have them stored in digital format.

I’m at a time in my life when I’m going through boxes of photos stored in my home and my parents’ home. I’ve found baby pictures of my dad and older pictures of family, which have brought back so many fond memories. I even found my Grandad’s little box of photos that he used to bring out every time we visited. I’ve probably seen every photo in that little cigar box over a hundred times, yet when we saw them again, they made us laugh so hard and share funny stories about him.

So, whatever your perspective, let me share with you why you may want to save those older vintage photos!

Why keep older, vintage photographs?

Nostalgia and memories

This is the main reason photos are taken—to capture and preserve memories. Maybe you need to weed through your photo collection to remove duplicates, blurry photos and bad shots, but you want to preserve those special moments in time. Your child’s birth. Birthday parties. The first day of school. Weddings. Anniversaries. Photos enable us to remember these moments much more vividly, bringing back the emotions—the laughter, the tears, the excitement.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It’s my Grandma when she was three years old. They were taking family pictures and she did not want her picture taken. She screamed and cried until she was given her mom’s pocket watch. She finally allowed her picture to be taken (although she still has a bit of a sour face).

In 1910, having your picture taken was a big deal—they had to dress up and go to a studio out of town—so they wanted to be sure to get everyone’s picture. Unfortunately, this is the only photo taken that day that survived; all the others have been lost over the years. It sure would be nice to have them now.

Personal history

Photos tell your own personal history, one that you want your children or other loved ones to know about. Every photo is part of your experience, showing the people, places, and events that have shaped your life and made you who you are. They are part of your identity.

Storytelling

Every picture tells a story. You may learn stories that you never knew. You may never know the story behind a photo, but photos can stir the imagination and you can give them new life by having your children create stories to go with them.

Signs of the times

How much fun is it to look at photos of your parents and grandparents to see how groovy they looked when they were younger? Different decades lead to different hairstyles and different fashions. Were they part of the cool kids, the nerds, or the jocks?

When you look at photos from the early 1900s, when taking pictures was more of an event, you see people in their best outfits, starched and posed.

It’s easy to forget about how things were done in the past years. Older, vintage photos capture the lifestyle of the decade. They help us imagine the past and remember how things were done. How many people in their 20s today know what a rotary phone is? How about an 8-track, cassette, or even a vinyl record?

Help a loved One remember

Do you have loved ones who suffer from memory loss? Old photos can help them remember people or special events or give them back their childhood for a period of time. Looking at these photos may spark some stories that you can capture and pass along with the photo. What a wonderful way to spend some time with an elderly loved one!

Pass on for posterity

In truth, your photo collection isn’t just for you; it’s also for future generations. Your photo collection is a way to leave your legacy, so your grandchildren and their grandchildren will know from whence they came. Photos give them a chance to connect with deceased ancestors and family history. Family pictures are storehouses of long-forgotten memories, just like that of my grandma.

I created a photobook for a friend to help honor and remember her grandparents. There were so many photos that showed what their lives were like as a young married couple and as their children grew into adults. This is one of her favorite photos—taken during her uncle’s wedding, with many family and friends she has only heard stories of and never had the chance to meet, such as her mother’s grandmother.

It captures a moment in time when her grandparents were young and vital, and her mother was just a teen. This image, as well as the other photos in the photobook, show what life was like in Great Britain during the early 1950s. It is something she can pass along to her son and his children one day.

History lives on

We don’t want history to fade away. Your ancestors may have been involved in WWII or the Holocaust or the Civil unrest of the ’60s. Your photos may document historical times that you want to share with future generations.

Don’t lose that precious history. Cherish them. Share them. Display them.

The printed photograph is meant to be shared and displayed, not to be solely scanned and stored away to pass on for posterity purposes one day. I love having tangible photos, coming up with creative and unique ways to share and display them.

Why not snuggle up with pictures of your grandparents or grandchildren or even pets on a warm fleece blanket or pillow? Create a unique wall display that shows different generations of your family. Find some fun frames to display those goofy shots that make you laugh. I love using canvas and metal to print pictures on, they make great gifts and have a unique texture and finish.

I just recently got the Nixplay Iris WiFi digital frame. I love the peach copper finish; it really dresses up my mantle. It’s fun to be able to share photos anytime, anywhere. The key is to enjoy your photos now!

What’s your favorite way to share and display your photos?

Kristy McClenagan

Kristy is the owner of Lifetime Memories. She has a passion for helping others save their memories, keep them safe, help you enjoy them today and be able to pass them along to future generations.

https://lifetime-memories.net/

4 Ways To Smartly Digitize And Organize Your Photos

By Mars Salazar

On September 6, 2018

In Photography

In this day and age, there’s simply no more reason to lose your old photos. With new technology debuting on a daily basis, future-proofing your photos has never been easier. You can also display all your images on a Nixplay Frame so you’ll always have your memories at your fingertips.

However, many people put off organizing their photos because, in the grand scheme of things, a messy photo collection seems like a trivial problem. That is, until *knock on wood* you become affected by an unforeseen disaster or accident that renders all your irreplaceable images unusable. Only then will you regret not creating backups of your photo collection sooner.

To help you start making sense of your photos, here are four things you can do to make the task easier.

1. Only keep what truly matters.

Be intentional about the images you want to store for keeps. These photos need not always mark important milestones–even images that capture everyday life can be kept, as long as they elicit certain memories or tug at your heartstrings. Screenshots, duplicate shots, photos of receipts or documents, silly selfies–you don’t have to archive these.

2. Scan old photos in batches.

A lot of families have at least a dozen albums of printed photos, most likely with no digital backup, gathering dust in a corner of their homes. Just looking at those albums and imagining the gargantuan task of scanning the images one by one can make even the most patient of people sigh in despair. Make it less of a chore by doing just two or three albums at a time. Better yet, divide the albums between the different members of your family so you can accomplish the task faster.

3. Arrange them by date.

Don’t just dump your images in one folder. Sure, it’s easy, but this makes it difficult should you need to dig up a specific photo. After scanning or uploading your photos, make it a point to immediately sort them according to the event or time period during which they were taken.

4. Get in touch with a Photo Organizer.

Photo Organizers help people curate and safeguard their photo collections so future generations can access, share, and enjoy them. Get in touch with the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO), whose members can, in addition to helping you organize and digitize your photos and videos, also help you create photo albums, restore old images, and do research about your family history, among other invaluable services.

Join Nixplay and APPO in commemorating Save Your Photos Month! Visit www.saveyourphotos.org for more information.

Mars Salazar

Marianne is Nixplay’s Web Content Editor. Her hobbies include exploring new places, playing table tennis, and cuddling puppies. Send her a message at marianne.salazar@nixplay.com.

5 Things You Can Do With All The Travel Photos You Took This Summer

5 Things You Can Do With The Travel Photos You Took This Summer

By Mars Salazar

On August 20, 2018

In Photography

Summer’s almost over, and we’re sure you went on a few out-of-town trips to enjoy the great weather. You probably also took hundreds of photos to immortalize your trip, as you should.

Now, we’d like to ask you a question: What have you done with all the photos you took? Are they still languishing in your phone or camera’s memory card, with none of them (save for a couple of Instagrammable ones) ever seeing the light of day?

If you find yourself nodding along—we’re guilty of this, too—then here are some things you can do to truly immortalize your photos. This way, if you find yourself reminiscing about lazy days in far-off places, you’ll know exactly where to look.

1. Organize and back them up

The first thing you should do with your travel photos is to go through all of them and sort them according to place or date. More importantly, don’t forget to back them up on an external hard drive or better yet, on a cloud-based data storage system. This way, if your computer breaks down or your memory card gets corrupted, your photos will remain secure.

If you don’t have the time or the willpower to go through your images one by one, you should try using Google Photos—it automatically sorts your images and keeps them secure online at zero cost. How’s that for hassle-free?

2. Share them on social media

Just because you’re back from your trip doesn’t mean you can’t upload your vacation photos anymore! Your Instagram or Facebook account, your rules—and if you want to upload a photo from your Barcelona tour a month ago, you shouldn’t let anyone stop you from doing so. You may be back in your “real world,” but you can still let your social media persona bask in vacation bliss.

3. Frame them

When you have dozens of photos of beautiful places and incredible moments, it can be difficult to pick a few to print and frame. The easy solution: A digital photo frame that can store and display hundreds of images. NIX digital frames have USB and SD card ports for your pictures, while Nixplay Wi-Fi Cloud Frames lets you store and access your images and videos from the cloud.

And since we already mentioned Google Photos in a previous item, here’s another great thing it can do: If you have a Nixplay Frame, you can enable your Nixplay app to access your Google Photos account so it instantly updates the images on your frame for you. Displaying your travel photos has never been so easy!

4. Create art based on them

During your trip, you were probably lucky enough to take photos of some incredibly majestic sights. It doesn’t have to be something incredibly spectacular—a vivid sunrise or a particularly tranquil afternoon at the park can be just as inspiring. If you’re artistically inclined, take out your paints and brushes and paint your interpretation of the scene. If you’re pleased with your work, hang it in your home for an instant feel-good vibe.

5. Do some scrapbooking

Do you tend to keep tickets, receipts, cards, stickers, and other small printed paraphernalia accumulated during a trip? Take them out of the box you’ve been keeping them in and arrange them in a scrapbook along with printouts of your travel photos! This way, your children and grandchildren will have a well-preserved glimpse of all the adventures you’ve had.

Mars Salazar

Marianne is Nixplay’s Web Content Editor. Her hobbies include exploring new places, playing table tennis, and cuddling puppies. Send her a message at marianne.salazar@nixplay.com.