Month: March 2015

Photography

{Picture Perfect} How to Become a Better Photographer

Photography Tips

As far as I’m concerned, photography is a life skill like swimming or driving. You don’t have to be someone who makes a living from photography for it to benefit your life, everyone takes and keeps pictures throughout their lives and the sharper your skills, the better visual memories you will be able to capture! So, here are five of my best tips for becoming a better photographer no matter what your current skill level!

  1. Practice, Practice, Practice! Take as many photos as you can, whenever you can. Practice makes perfect!
  2. Review your own work frequently, and note which methods, times of day, setting on your camera, etc gave you the best images. This is truly the only way you will learn as your progress with photography.
  3. Study and critique the photography of others. Go on Flickr and search through images, figure out what elements stand out to you in great photographs and the style of photographs you like the most. This will help you develop your own person style and help you to create more compelling images.
  4. Learn to engage your subjects. A lot of times whenever you are meeting with a professional photographer, they often ask a lot of questions when they are photographing their subjects. This helps the subjects relax and get engaged with the photographer, which always makes for better photos. Obviously, you will do different things to engage different subjects, you wouldn’t treat an adult the same way you would treat a child or even a pet if you wanted to engage them.
  5. Continue to research and learn. Photography is such a wide subject and there are always new techniques and photographers out there for you to learn about, so if you get stuck or you don’t like a certain style of photography that you find yourself in, dive into the online community, find some new inspiration and get a fresh perspective on your craft!

A great way for your to hone your photography skills would also be for you to jump in and participate in my current Instagram Photo Challenge #CharmedGTD! Don’t worry if you missed the first few days, just pick up with today and get started working on your photography skills while also inspiring productivity in your own life!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Business

5 Apps for the Creative Business Owner

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As a creative business owner, I have to wear multiple hats throughout the day. It’s not uncommon for me to work on new designs, marketing plans, spend time on photography and images, and then end the day working on expense sheets. I feel like most days I am using all of my brain power to manage details of my business from the creative side to the practical business side, but luckily for me, my one woman show is made easier through the use of some powerful tools in the form of smartphone applications that allow me to manage my workload from home or the coffee shop without missing a single beat. So here are the apps I recommend for the creative business owner.

DocScan: I have written before about my love for this workhorse of an app that basically turns your phone into a scanner. For a few years, this was the only scanner I actually used because it was easy enough for me to use the app to take a picture of a document if I needed to email it to a customer, sign it for a client or just store it for my record keeping. As a creative business owner, I use this handy app to save images of business related receipts, and to open and annotate PDF documents regularly, in order to keep my business working wherever I am.

Followers +: There is no doubt in my mind that my number one favorite social media platform is Instagram, and I consider my community on IG to be a major priority of mine. It’s not just about creating excellent images to keep my followers inspired and informed, but I also get great insights into the way my business in performing by watching in real time my communities response to my images. Followers + is a great app that helps you track your IG photos so that you can see how your customers are interacting with you on Instagram, which photos they are liking and to help you pin point gaps in your community.

Analytics: Analytics is another app that I have written about before because it is a great way for me to manage my website’s statistics on my smartphone. If you use Google Analytics to track your website or blog, you should definitely have this companion app on your phone for those moments when you want to see how well specific content is performing. And if you aren’t yet signed up for Google Analytics to track your site, you need to make that happen asap!

Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a very handy little app that really helps me to batch my work and stay on top of my social media marketing campaigns by scheduling tweets and Facebook posts. Although, admittedly, I am more involved with my Instagram account, I still find Twitter and Facebook to be valuable marketing and community building resources at my disposal and for me, I do best when I am executing in those platforms through marketing campaigns that I can pre plan and preschedule through the use of Hootsuite.

Dropbox: Cloud based storage systems are a godsend for the creative entrepreneur who may need to have any number of media files, documents or images in their hands at a moments notice. Dropbox really helps me to organize important or frequently accessed business and marketing tools from not just my smartphone but also from my iPad or any other computer I have access to. It’s like having a filing system that just floats around in your system where you can refer to items or share them with clients or contacts at a moments notice without having to waste precious storage on your device.

If you are a creative entrepreneur, I highly suggest checking out these apps to help you with your workload so that you are spending less time on the business and marketing of your creative business and more time creating, which if you are anything like me, is your favorite part! Let me know down in the comments if you have ever used any of these apps or if you have any others that you consider a lifesaver for your creative business. If you are looking for more tips for creative business owners and entrepreneurs, make sure to check out my new series, Plan Like an Entrepreneur on YouTube for some behind the scenes action and insight into how I plan for my business! If you are not a creative business owner, feel free to check out this article I wrote called my Must Have Apps for Working Professionals!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature

Letter from the Editor

Letter From the Editor: In Like a Lion

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In like a Lion…

As I sit in my living room writing this post to you all, I’m all bundled up in layers of pajamas, blankets, and a warm little puppy on my lap, also trying to fight the cold and snow that’s roaring outside. Like they say, March is in like a lion, and I hope it goes out like a lamb sooner rather than later! But it doesn’t matter how cold and icy it is outside because March is here and it’s one of my favorite months of the year. Why? Because my birthday is in March, which I am looking forward to. Friday the 13th this year, which would perhaps be a bad omen for some people, except for me, 13 has always been my lucky number, and I consider Friday the 13th an auspicious day! I think I may throw myself some sort of horror movie themed birthday party or at least dress up like Wednesday Addams that day! Feel free to leave me some good party ideas down in the comments, they would be appreciated!

CharmedGTD

This month I also have a few important projects going on, like my #CharmedGTD photo challenge on Instagram that you still have time to get in on! I was blown away to find that by the first day, there was already over 120 pictures using the hashtag and so many more added every hour! I’m blown away by the support of my friends in the planner community, so thank you all if you are participating. I honestly can’t thank you enough for helping me celebrate this month in such a fantastic and inspirational way!

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Also, if you missed it, I already announced my March Free Printable entitled “Make Your Own Luck” which you can check out here. And of course, I also recently announced a new addition to my online shop, Printable Inspirational Wall Art. If you are looking to add some positive motivation to your office or home, check these out and start your own gallery wall!

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Since March is such an important month for me, I have planned a lot of great content for you all on my blog and YouTube channel. If you haven’t already seen it, I recently started a series on YouTube called Plan Like an Entrepreneur, where I show you how I plan for my week and then answer your questions about business and entrepreneurship! On the blog this month, I have some great productivity tips coming your way, including tips on how to be a better photographer, books you need to read, and my take on staying inspired as a creative! This month is going to be packed with great content, so I hope you stop by regularly to see what I have created for you!

xoxo,

Alexis-Signature