Welcome back for another creative challenge!  If you are new to the blog, every month for 2017 I will be posting a creative exercise / mini photography project for you to do.  So if you like the idea of a monthly flex of your photography muscles, come back on the first Tuesday of every month for your assignment.  

Yup. we've got another Scavenger Hunt, but this time for Fall. Now, this wasn't what I had originally had planned, but because I had so many people request it, via email and in our Facebook Group, I like to give you what you want! 

As per the Summer Scavenger Hunt, you've got a downloadable list of prompts, and all you need to do is go out is simply go out and capture what is on the list. 

You have no doubt heard, time and time again, that you should learn how to shoot in manual mode if you want to improve your photography skills - so many times that I bet you are probably sick of hearing it!) 

But exactly WHY is it so darn important? 

Well, that's exactly what we are going to dive into in this blog post :-)

One question pops up time and time again when people first consider moving to manual mode, which is:

"How on earth do I keep up with changing my settings when shooting in manual mode, and my kids are running about all over the place?!" 

I hear ya! 

It is a little bit more tricky to be sure, so in this post I'm going to give you a few tips that will hopefully help make the process of keeping up when shooting in manual mode just that little bit easier. 

In my free Facebook Group the other day, someone asked a question that I know pretty much everyone thinks when they are first starting out (myself included!) which was:

“Why do I need to worry about getting the exposure right in camera, when I can fix it in Lightroom / Photoshop / Post Processing?"

Such a great question! And it's true, with digital photography, we are very lucky to be able to fix a vast amount of mistakes in editing software, and exposure is definitley one of them.  

But there are few reasons why you will want to at least attempt to get exposure as close as possible to being correct in camera, and that my friends, is what we are going to go over today! 

Hands up if you'e ever thought to yourself.....

"oh, well, that person shoots with a professional grade camera, that means I need to invest in gear to get good photos"  

or

"Well, this photographer I met in the park only shoots in AUTO so I don't need to bother to learn manual mode" 

or even

"I can learn this all by searching Google - it knows everything"   (😉)

Did you put your hand up? Yes? Well, don't worry, a few years ago I would have been right along with you!

That's why today we’re talking about all the myths that people believe about learning photography - and why you should ignore them! 

Yes, it's time for me to share my photography journey with you!

I realised that I have all these wonderful guests on the blog, sharing their stories, and I've never really shared mine.  So, I've taken the exact same questions I ask everyone else, and answered them!

Yep, I sat there and spoke to myself.

It was worryingly pleasant.

Learning photography is so much fun, but it can also be hard work! There is so much to learn and take on board, that it can feel a little overwhelming. 

In this post, I'm going to give you just seven quick tips that you can take action on TODAY that will help give you better photos. So, for each tip, you also have an action item - there's no sitting around being an armchair photographer here 😀

Ready? Let's get stuck in!

Today we are going to go right back to the very beginning for any brand new photographers out there, and lay open the foundations of capturing an image - exposure.

We’ll look at what exposure is, what the three elements are that allow us to control it, and finally how they all work together in something called the Exposure Triangle.  

This is literally Step 1 in learning photography (and in fact is the very first lesson in my Auto to Awesome course!) but although it's fundamental, it can be anything but easy to grasp! So it might take a few read throughs before it starts to make much sense if this is your first time learning about it, but don't worry, it does get easier as you move on 😃

So without further ado, let's get crackin'!

Welcome back for another creative challenge! If you are new to the blog, every month for 2017 I will be posting a creative exercise for you to do.  So if you like the idea of a monthly flex of your photography muscles, come back at the first Tuesday of every month for your assignment.  You can of course do these at ANY time, so at the bottom of this post you will find links to the previous challenges too!

For this month's exercise, we are going to use an often overlooked composition tool - framing. 

Framing your subject is ja really powerful way to bring your viewers attention to what’s important in your image, while also bringing an extra element of interest, so it's a great composition tool to be able to pull out of your back pocket. 

The good news is it’s not hard to do, it's only a question of being able to see the possibilities around you when shooting - and that's what this creative exercise will help you do! 

When I ask members of my Facebook group what their biggest struggle with photography is, the same thing comes up time and time again: lack of time.

I completely understand that it can sometimes be hard to find time to physically practise photography on a consistent basis - in fact, as I write this, I don't think I have picked up my camera for at least a couple of weeks either 😀.  If you are anything like me, you will probably also find  that the only time you really get to yourself is after the kids have gone to bed, which maybe isn't the time we want to whip the camera out and start taking photos!

The good news is you can still improve your photography skills without necessarily needing to have a camera in your hand. So if you find yourself with only a few minutes to spare during the day, or find that you get get most of your "free" time when everyone else is sound asleep, here are some other ways you can improve your skills without even needing to take a photo. 

I pretty much exclusively use natural light for my images, because I love the variety and beauty it offers. I also love the challenge of working with what mother nature has given me to work with on any particular day!

However, learning to work with and see light effectively does take some time, so today, I want to go over some tips for working with natural light that is just for beginners. 

Let's get stuck in! 

I started doing these case studies a few months as a way to show you the different journeys people take to get to where they are, and to shed some light on the ways you can grow your photography skills too!  Today, we are featuring the wonderful Danielle Stanley, who is also another long time reader of Live Snap Love.  I'm so thrilled to finally have her on the blog (I'm been pestering her for months!) as I have loved seeing her progress and how beautifully she captures her days. If you want to read more photography journeys, there's links to more at the bottom of this post. Hope you enjoy them.......Audrey xI

Did you recently start to take photos of people OTHER than your family?  Yes? Then, let me guess how you felt.....

You found yourself getting more and more flustered, unsure of what you should be doing next, worrying that you haven't got any good shots and feeling like you really needed to hurry things along because you were really taking too long getting your settings right.

Did that sound at all familiar? I bet it did! Most people when starting out have those exact same feelings: like we are being judged by how long we take, and not knowing how to make the session flow, or feel confident throughout. 

So, in today's post, I am going to do my darn best to make sure that you feel calm and in control during your next photography session. 

Let's get going shall we? Read on! 

I have another photography case study for you today: the ultra talented Monica Dominguez Carlson.  Monica is another long time reader of the blog, and I so delighted to have her here, because she is a wonderful photographer who has come so far.  I started doing these case studies a few months as a way to show you the different journeys people take to get to where they are, and to shed some light on the ways you can grow your photography skills too!  Hope you enjoy them.......Audrey x 

Let's get 2017 off to a kickin' start shall we?!

I don't know about you but I always think that the start of a New Year is a great time to focus on the year ahead, and what we want to achieve. 

If getting better at photography is on YOUR list of things to do this year, then check out these 5 ways to level up your photography skills this year!