5 SURE FIRE WAYS TO TAKE A GREAT BLOG PHOTO

Do you ever try and take a photo for your blog and it's just not happening? Yeah, it's le poo. Some days I'll take over a hundred photos and the camera is still kicking my ass. When I'm stuck like that I'll usually go back, look through some of the better photos that I've taken in the past and try to pull from them. What I've noticed from doing that is that I have 5 sure fire ways to get a good shot. Well actually, there are probably more than 5, but 5 is such a nice, round number that sounds great in a title. If I go for one of these tricks I can turn things around.

HOW TO ADD LINES TO YOUR BLOG DESIGN: THE CHEAT SHEET

Adding lines to a template changes the flow of the page. It's breaks up each section of information and gives your eye a clear understanding of what's what. Style lines aren't for every design. A more minimalist approach works better for some templates, but if you're like me and you want to play around to see what you can create, I've got a little cheat sheet for you. Below I've listed how to add lines or borders to pretty much every section of your blog possible. Hope it helps, and remember, this is for Blogger, not Wordpress.

10 STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH WRITER'S BLOCK

In the past year or so since I started blogging, I've hit a few rough patches. There are times when I sit down to write and nothing seems to come out. Sometimes my brain just shuts down and other times I get down on myself for not being better or more creative or this or that. When this happens I need something to help me climb out of it all. I need a strategy. Well my friends, these are some of the strategies that I've relied on over time to help myself along in the creative process (and yes, I do feel like a douche saying creative process).

THE BEST BEAUTY BLOG PHOTOGRAPHY

Today I'm going to keep my trap shut and let these images do the talking. Without further adieu, I present to you some of the most beautiful beauty blog photography I've come across. 

MY 10 MOST USEFUL BLOG DESIGN POSTS

That title really makes it sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet, but I didn't know what else to call this post. Basically I just wanted to collect together my top blog design posts and put them all in one place for anyone out there looking to start a blog or do a redesign. So here they are. Additionally, if anyone has an idea for a design post that they'd like to see come to life, please let me know!

5 ESSENTIALS FOR BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHY

Ahh photography. My old friend. How you challenge and frustrate me always. Photography is possibly the most difficult, but rewarding, part of blogging for me. I think a lot about how to improve my blog photos and I enjoy studying what the most successful beauty photographers are doing right. I thought a lot about what good photography boils down to. I went back in forth in my noggin many a time and finally decided that these are the five essential points.

8 BEAUTIFUL FREE FONTS

I've become a font hoarder over the past year. To be fair, it's not as bad as my makeup hoarding or my clothes hoarding... or my skincare hoarding... or my homeware hoarding... I've just seen a bit of a trend cropping up. Moving swiftly along, I've searched Dafont and Fontsquirrel to their darkest corners and I've resurfaced with some beauties. A couple of things to note before we delve in. One, I'm a big fan of using fonts in their uppercase form. May as well put that out there. Two, remember that font spacing can be just as important as the font itself. Now knock yourselves out!

HOW TO MAKE YOUR IPHONE PHOTOS LOOK PRO

As I'm sure you've all heard a million times before, photography is a major part of blogging. It's what initially draws people to your blog. For that reason you want your photos to look beautiful and professional. A DSLR camera with a nice lens is obviously the easiest way to achieve that. I'm very fortunate to have been able to invest in a nice DSLR, however, I'm aware that not everyone has the budget for that. And, honestly, there are some things that a phone camera just does better. So, in keeping with the photography theme of my last post, I wanted to show you guys how you can get your mobile photos looking in tip top shape.

PHOTOGRAPHY: CORRECTING LENS DISTORTIONS IN PHOTOSHOP

It's time to get picky with it. I think if you want your blog to get noticed for its photography, which, let's face it, we probably all do, you have to be anal about the details. People often register the details without really consciously noticing them, if you catch my drift. They make all the difference. So I think it's important to train yourself to consciously notice little imperfections and to correct them in the editing process. One of those imperfections is lens distortions.

HOW & WHY TO SIZE PHOTOS CORRECTLY IN BLOGGER

This might seem like a bit of a dull, technical post, but I'm hoping that it will help some people nonetheless. I've had a few people ask me how I size my photos and I'd like to share with you what I think is the best method.

8 BLOG DESIGNS TO DROOL OVER

When I first started blogging, I knew I loved the beauty aspect – the makeup, the skincare, the tutorials, etc. What I didn't anticipate falling in love with was the blog designing aspect. Getting to tweak my own blog here and there, and slowly building into something that I liked the look of (though I never seem to be quite satisfied) has been such a joy. With that in mind, I thought it might be nice to do a shout out to some of the most beautifully designed blogs I've run into.

PHOTO EDITING: 1 SIMPLE TIP · CLEANER PHOTOS

I recently discovered a simple editing trick that I think has helped to clean up the look of my photos. Essentially it's brightening the edges of your photographs. Now I hope I've got this explanation right, but when you photograph with your aperture wide open (as a lot of beauty photographers do) the lens can block the light from the corners of your photos. This results in a vignette effect. A vignette can look gorgeous, but it doesn't necessarily always work for bright beauty photography. I've started editing out this effect using a couple of different methods. Note: this tends to work best on untextured backgrounds.

PHOTOGRAPHY: CATCH-ALL DISH CRAZED

Forgive me my noodly father, for I have sinned. Gluttony is my crime. Gluttony of the catch-all dish variety...

BLOGGER: HOW TO MAKE HOMEPAGE IMAGES CLICK THROUGH TO POST PAGES

One of those funny little things that Blogger does is to open homepage images as a full resolution version of themselves. Instead, I think most of us would prefer that homepage images clicked through to their full post page. Only from the post page should the image open as a full resolution version of itself. Does that make sense?...You click your image on your homepage and it takes you to your post, then you click on your image on your post page and it pops up as a larger version of itself.

FAVOURITE BLOGGERS OF THE MOMENT: ROUND 4

I realized that it's been way too long since I've done a post on my favourite bloggers of the moment. I think it's important for us to support one another as a community and sharing the love posts are a great way to do that. After all, I would be nowhere without the help of other bloggers. So without further adieu, here are the ladies that have been the many apples of my eye. My eyes are filled with apples.

PHOTOGRAPHY: PROPS AND BACKGROUND IDEAS

The right background and props can really make a photo. I find that changing up the background completely alters the tone of the photo. Likewise, props can add that little something something that helps to create some visual interest. However I often find myself feeling stuck when I go to take a photo. Somehow all ideas seem to fall out of my head. So I wrote myself a list of prop and background go-tos and I thought it might be nice to share it with you guys.

FAVOURITE YOUTUBERS OF ALL TIME

I have put off writing this post for ages. I guess I wanted to be a little more experienced with Youtube myself before I got into this subject, but the Youtube thing seems to have fallen by the wayside for now. So no more procrastinating. I'm finally talking about my favourite Youtubers. This is a wonderful subject for me because I actually got into Youtube well before I got into the blogging community and a lot of these women ignited my passion for the beauty industry.

DESIGNING A BLOG: 10 TIPS I WISH I'D KNOWN PART 2

A few months ago I did the first Designing A Blog: 10 Tips I Wish I'd Known post. When I started brainstorming for that one, I ended up with far too many ideas for just one post. A good two and a half months later, I finally got around to fleshing out my thoughts for round two. As I mentioned in the previous post, I use Blogger, and while some points here may apply to multiple blogging platforms, others will only apply to Blogger.

HAPPY ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY!

About a week ago I hit my one year blogiversary. I think I subconsciously put off writing a post about it because I don't even know where to begin, but I'm going to try.

GROWING AN AUDIENCE THROUGH BLOGGING

BLOGGING BUILDING BLOCKS: GROWING AN AUDIENCE
Whether you’re working towards making blogging a full time job or it’s simply a hobby, having a community to share with is incredibly rewarding. Personally, it makes me feel as though I’m a part of something bigger. Chaitra and I thought the subject of growing an audience would be fitting as the final pillar in our Blogging Building Blocks series. I’m more comfortable discussing how to grow an audience through blogging means, so that’s what I’ll be taking on today. However I’m fairly useless when it comes to utilizing social media. Luckily Chaitra is a pro in this matter and she’ll be giving you guys some tips. Here’s what I’ve got for you today.