Photography

Travel -a dream of my dreams- /  by harumi

It was kinda planned and kinda spontaneously happened. We went to Bangkok, Phuket and Taketomi Island, Okinawa within 6 days.

To me, the whole trip was a little bit in a rush to make myself relaxed, but for sure that was one of the funniest travel on my travel journey. I took a lot of personal photos with my mom and our friends as well as photos showing you here.



The beautiful parts of travel are about meeting new people, seeing beautiful natures, having different food, and getting a modern vibe from the town, which turns me into a new creative perspective and ideas on combinations of colors.


For the next few posts, I will keep posting photos from Bangkok, Phuket, and Taketomi island. Stay tuned, and you might see a different taste on my photos, but give me a chance to try out a new way of doing creatives : )

How to make DIY bath salt. /  by harumi

 

Hey, I hope you had warm, magical holidays, and now get ready for the new year, 2019.

I spent time with my family and had an excellent time to gain my weight and take photos.  

Probably, many of you traveled during the time, or even you were staying at home, the year-end is always hectic moments of the year. A time you unnecessarily feel in a rush to start a good year.

 

So today, I would like to show how to make the first bath salt that does not take your time and gives you an intimate luxury moment. A good timing, my friend's birthday is coming up in 2 weeks, so this art craft introduction is also for a tip of DIY gifts.

 

 

Instruction

  1. Put salt in a small jar.
    I used PYRAMID SALT from Trader Joes. It's just because salt is edgily cut and visually present well. Also, its lid and the size of a container are best for a gift.

  2. Add flower seeds or tea leaf
    Next, add any flower seeds or tea leaf. I used dried lavender tea leaf and rosemary flower. 

  3. Shake the jar

  4. Add your preferred aroma essences oil
    For this bath salt, I added aroma essential oil of lavender, vanilla, lemongrass, and Isabella from Aesop

  5. Shake the jar

  6. Completed!

That easy : )

 

I love aroma essential oil just for before bed-time, drinking water in the fresh morning, during yoga practice, or even when I vacuum rooms, spraying them onto floors.  Aroma essential oil, those change your life routines. Now, you have a good bath time with the DIY bath salt.

 

Hope this post helps you find a way of being creative and relaxing in the year start.

 

Thank you for reading.

 

Self-critiques on my old travel photos /  by harumi

It’s always embarrassing when we see our old photos, even not including a self-portrait in that. This self-critiques on my old images are for my personal growth, not only technical parts of it, but more facing what I missed and see my weakness without having biased glasses.

A couple of months ago, I posted “Practice cropping the components of photos“, quality-photography includes composition, containing elements of 1. lights, 2. colors, 3. texture (details of the surface), 4. moments (what moment could be significant), 5. shape (creates dynamics and harmony), 6. perspective (A photographer or subject's points of view. ex. Eye level to a subject, such as the same eye level as a baby in baby portrait.)


Based on the perspectives, today I am going to leave critiques on my old travel photos.
Those photos below were from San Francisco back in 2014. My sister and I had the company for ‘a hipster food trip‘ over there, and we found a cute/fine modern American restaurant in the town.
At the time, I did not know about light, details, or any other elements to amp up photos.. and those look… a little pushed me away from seeing how careless I was on editing…

Anyway, let’s review the photos with a short comment on each.

 
1. Too dark. Need brightness over the photo.

1. Too dark. Need brightness over the photo.

2. Not completed. A whole dish should be inside of the frame.

2. Not completed. A whole dish should be inside of the frame.

3. Colors off and boring.

3. Colors off and boring.

5. No good light with the scene.

5. No good light with the scene.

4. No detailed colors on food and missing the point.

4. No detailed colors on food and missing the point.

6. Missing moments.

6. Missing moments.

7. No significance.

7. No significance.

8. No colors and missing perspective.

8. No colors and missing perspective.

Maybe next time, I will go over critiques with more detailed explanation. But for today, I guess those are enough not to be too harsh on myself.. : )

Thank you so much for reading. Byee.

How to take food photos at home (Whitish-blight look) /  by harumi

 

This is for the series of taking food photos from the previous post. The series continues to the last post, "taking food photos outside." Today, I present "How to take a food photo at home (bright-light look)."

Those are photos from the time I started using a DSLR camera back in 2010-11. (Resolutions are not high because I did not know how to control that camera.)

In the previous post, I was talking about editing points that sum up photo qualities. Today, I give a little tip on editing for a bright light look.

 

 

Let me quickly show tips on taking food photos at home and make it bright-light look with tips of 1. Use a white dish, table or put a white table-cross, 2. Control levels, 3. Make it in high contrast with colors.

  1. Use a white dish, table or put a white table-cross

    It's before editing, at time of the shooting. To use a natural light wisely, a white base under dishes really helps to edit later. I usually use a white table or white plates for shooting. If not, buy at least A3 size of white papers, and that helps to reflect natural lights and brightness adjustment on LR/Photoshop.



  2. Control levels.
    The bright look is all about brightness over the whole photo. On photoshop, you open levels and move the right point to left. That creates more shining light over the picture, however, keep your mind that brightness does not color off on the main food.


  3. Make it in high contrast with colors

    Because of the other whiteness around food, now you can use high contrast and add colors onto food for more visually popping out. In the previous post, one of the tips were for the basic of color luminance. In addition to the point, high-contrast with colors really works out for the whitish-blight look, and to make the adjustment tool is handy, food choice for the primary photo object, the colorful fruits, such as grapes, strawberries, berries, peach, etc.., are the best ones to use to practice high contrast with colors in whitish-blight look. Those fruits are visually great when they are mature enough to eat. (It means the mature high contrast colors on the surface) as compared with other “side-fruits," such as figs, persimmons, green apples, etc.. 

 

In the end, it's all about your preference and perspectives for what could be matching with whitish-blight look or dark-moody look in food photography.

Enjoy shooting photos at home. :)