Instagram - loving it!

Lately I’ve been expanding my social media outreach to include Instagram, and since it is a photo-based platform, I’ve been loving it.  Please check out my Instagram feed @elisifphotography.

I found lots of people to follow and the more people I follow, the more follow me.  I've tried to find the Instagram accounts of companies in the building industry in the area, and follow them so they might notice me.

In learning more about Instagram and hashtags, I found out it is best to put the hashtags in a comment, rather in the description of the photo - so that way they are less in the way, but still searchable.  If you search for various hashtags, you can find out what other people are using, and use those same ones.  One recommendation was to put about 20 hashtags on each post.  You use general hashtags (#architecture, #photography), specific hashtags for your geographic location (#bostonarchitecture, etc.), and hashtags specific to the photo you are posting (#kitchen, #modernarchitecture).

Are you on Instagram?  What do you like/dislike about it?  Have you found interesting people to follow? 

Elisif Photography's new website is LIVE!

The biggest news this month is that MY NEW WEBSITE IS NOW LIVE! Check it out at www.elisif.com. I used Squarespace to build it, which worked beautifully.

I was taking photos of a house in Falmouth for one of my oldest clients, Rockwood Inc., a company based in Walpole that does home remodeling, including kitchens, bathrooms, additions, decks, siding, and now, whole houses. The second floor of this house in Falmouth has a lovely wide hallway at the top of the stairs, so they set it up like a reading nook. But before the shoot they only had time to finish one of the two curtains.

After thinking about it for just a minute, I realized I could fix that in Photoshop. Now I'm not the best whiz in Photoshop – there are so many people whose business is focused primarily on retouching or other effects in Photoshop who know much more than I do – but I knew I could combine two photos. Instead of Photoshopping the existing curtain from one side onto the other side, I took two photos, one with the curtain on the right and then I physically moved the curtain to the left and took another photo. Much easier to combine in Photoshop that way than to try to copy and paste the curtain there with the chair only on one side. Here are the two photos I shot.

Voila! Matching curtains on both sides, using the same actual curtain. I continue to be amazed at what can be done in Photoshop. It is almost always easier to get it right in the camera, but when it is needed, Photoshop can save the day. And I shoot knowing exactly how I'll use the shots in Photoshop later, to get the result the client needs.

Here is a wonderful new testimonial I received recently from my client, PCA: "Elisif is a delight to work with...consistently quick, creative and flexible, helping us to capture key design and planning elements of our projects for all of our marketing needs. She brings a sharp eye, excellent skills and a 'can do' attitude, making even complex photo shoots breeze by. We consider Elisif an important contributor to our marketing efforts at PCA."Dagmar von Schwerin, Marketing Director, PCA
Laura Ligon, Marketing Coordinator, PCA

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: JOIN A CAMERA CLUB

I sometimes say I learned everything I know in photography from my camera club. It isn't totally true; I did take several great classes and workshops at New England School of Photography (NESOP) in order to turn pro. But I joined Newton Camera Club soon after we moved to the Boston area in 1997, and I gained a lot of my knowledge, my eye, my technique, and my confidence through the camera club.

The first thing I recommend to people who want to become better at photography is to join a local camera club! There are so many advanced amateurs out there who are eager to share what they know, and from whom I've learned so much. I now judge competitions for various camera clubs in the area, and I still learn things and am inspired by the photography of camera club members.

Doing a shoot beyond security at the airport

This photo was taken at Logan Airport, at the Legal Seafood restaurant in Terminal C.  Prellwitz Chilinski Associates, also known as PCA, hired me to shoot this restaurant after they designed it.  As you can see, they were going for an atmosphere of being under the sea, with light from above.  The ceiling light evokes bubbles rising to the surface. 
 
It was interesting doing a photo shoot inside security at the airport.  Since we didn’t have plane tickets, we had to go a day in advance to the main security office of the airport, where they did a background check and reviewed our IDs.  Then we had to go back for the shoot at nearly 11pm so we could take photos right after the last customers left.  The interior designer and I spent a lot of time getting the placemats and napkins and chairs lined up just right!  You can see from the pattern that even one thing out of place would be very noticeable.