Category Archives: Uncategorized

June 24, 2015

How to Use your Phone as a Remote

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Recently my friend Sylvia shared about this app with me EOS Remote App for Canon Cameras like mine.

OMG….life changed in that moment. What it does is that it allows you to use your phone as a remote to take your DSLR photos as you can see above. Not only that but it allows you to see the live view as you’re capturing the photo. Plus, you can also access the photos you took (and any other photos on your memory card) and save them to your phone.

I know, game changer.

I thought I’d share a bit about how I’ve been using it. At first I was all about using it as a remote to initiate the photo, but after getting quite a few photos like this:

eosappimage1

I realized that I needed to go back to what I know and use the 10 second timer on the camera. You can still use the app to start the timer, but then it gave me enough time to either get to the spot I wanted to take the photo or tuck the camera away in my pocket.

I also started to use it only as a way to see where I’m standing and frame the photo so I’d lean it up against the camera facing me, essentially having it show me what would be on the back of the camera if it’s on live view and I had recently bought a new remote (and have yet to loose this one) and I’ll use the remote to initiate the 2 or 10 second timer and use the phone and app to see where I was in focus, and how I wanted to frame the photo. Fun, right?

The part about being able to save it to your camera…epic. In the past I’ve been pretty stuck on sharing only iPhone photos on Instagram, partly because that’s the way the culture of Instagram started out being our phone photos. But also because I want to not only share fancy DSLR photos with you but more accessible iPhone ones too (as I really believe you don’t need a fancy camera to take selfies that you can see with kindness and love…it’s not about the gear). But being able to skip the step of having to upload the photos to my computer and then send them to my phone and instead save them directly there was seriously exciting.

That’s what I love so much about photography. There is always something new to discover be it a subject through the lens or the technical option we have to take them. I feel like this app has had me falling in love with my DSLR again!

Here are a few shots that I’ve taken recently using the app!

eosappexamples

So yes, you might see more DSLR photos on my Instagram these days, though it will be a mix cause I love my iPhone too and it’s simply easier to take out on an every day basis.

For those of you who have a DSLR you might be wondering if you can use this app too. The biggest factor to whether the answer is Yes or No is whether your DSLR has a Wifi Option. To be honest I knew mine did but had never used it. That’s what this app needs to work. Essentially it makes your camera a wifi hotspot for your phone to communicate with and be able to save photos from it. Without a wifi option it won’t work. To see if it has wifi you could see if there is any indication of it on the camera. On mine I had seen a symbol saying Wifi Off on the top panel where all the information about your photo is displayed or in your menu you may see the option to turn wifi on or off. My camera is a few years old so if you’ve bought your camera recently it may be an option.

Without further ado…here’s all the details: You can find it here and all the apps they have available here, and there are two apps, one for a camera like mine (the Canon 6D) and another for Canon Powershot cameras. Oh, and while I’ve been talking about using it with my iPhone in this post, it is available for Android too! And it looks like there is a Nikon, Panasonic and Olympus versions too. You’ll need to check if it works with your gear, but it’s worth checking out.

May 31, 2015

Making Friends with Our Mirror

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Kind of like photographs, the other place where it can be so tender to have negative self-talk come up is the mirror.

It’s a tough one, I know!

In a couple prompts in Be Your Own Beloved (class starts tomorrow by the way) I get folks to try taking self-portraits in the mirror and I know it is often a tender one for participants.

Much like taking self-portraits, it is one of those places where our inner dialouge comes up, which might make us feel like it is a danger-zone or a place of tenderness. But I believe that those are the same places, the same tools that can help us write a new story and to see ourselves with kindness…because they are so potent. When we push past the inner critic, kindness does await us on the other side.

Even before I picked up a camera and started taking self-portraits to cultivate self-love, the mirror was a place where I tried to do self-love work. At the same time, it was also the place where I was most critical of myself.

Lately when I walk into the bathroom I feel something so different than those years past when my stories would hit me like a slap across the face when I entered the room. These days I see the woman in the mirror as a friend and ally and smile at her. That isn’t to say there aren’t moments when they do come up…but the thing that I try to remember is that self-love is about resiliency. It is about having moments where we don’t choose love and not getting down on ourselves and just saying…in the future I will make a different choice or acknowledge that we are just doing our best right now.

So I though I’d share with you a few tools that have helped me make friends with the person in the mirror!

Write Yourself a Love Note

One of the most powerful ways I’ve found to remind yourself that the mirror is a place you want to see your ally reflected is to find words that will remind you of that and in a way, leave yourself a love note on your mirror. You could write it on paper and tape in on there with washi tape. Or even write it on a post it note. One of my favourite ways is to get some acrylic paint and paint it on the mirror (making it easy to wash off later). I especially find this is great for those big bathroom mirrors….they have so much space you could even write a poem on them! For a long time I had the entire poem Love after Love by Derek Walcott painted on my bathroom mirror. Of course you can also just use your own words and say ‘I see you’. Or ‘You look beautiful today’ or ‘Trust Yourself’…whatever resonates most with you!

I find that after a while you almost forget these messages are there but they are like these guiding forces. Or you can also have them be a point of focus for when you are getting into negative self-talk.

Adorn your Mirror with things that feel like YOU

So, when we look into the mirror, the negativity that may come up for some of us…well, they are stories, right. Not truths. Another tool I like to use is to invite other stories that can remind us of the stories that DO feel like us, that support and enrich us. You might put up a photo of someone who by seeing their image reminds you of how you are loved (and that you deserve to love yourself in that same way).

Or you could just surround your mirror with things that feel like you. I always love seeing mirrors that have jewelry or found objects or photos around it that are so rich in storytelling about that person who’s mirror it is. How could you make your mirror a place that is rich in stories of you…the ones you want to focus on?

Find a Mirror You Love

Yes! We can do this work any place we choose.

It could be your bathroom mirror.

Or your reflection in things around your house (like a window).

Or in a small mirror, or a full sized one.

I highly recommend finding a mirror that you like. It could be that the frame of the mirror makes you smile or means something to you. Or perhaps the mirror itself is so lovely that you enjoy standing in front of it!

It doesn’t even have to be a big mirror but getting a mirror that you decide will be a place that you will see yourself with kindness is mighty powerful. I have one mirror that I have carried from home to home for a decade now that is just my happy place mirror. I can just see myself clearly in it and not the stories that follow us there.

Seek Out Mirrors in your World

You could kind of consider this a treasure hunt for cool mirrors to take self-portraits in! I especially love finding ones where I am part of the big picture and can photograph a part of myself in it.

This can be a really powerful way to begin taking mirror self-portraits, to just add some adventure or fun seeing ourselves in the mirror.

Some suggestions for when you are out ‘n about in the world to seek out mirror reflections are:

Restaurant bathrooms
Mirrors in Stores
Store windows
Remember too that it doesn’t need to be a full length mirror! Look for smaller mirrors or reflective surfaces too.

Look Yourself in the Eye (and through the Lens)

A big piece of making peace with ourselves through the mirror involves looking ourselves in the eyes, doesn’t it. And then not looking away. It’s not always an easy thing to do either. But that has felt like a pivotal part of healing my relationship to my self-image…to looking myself literally in they eyes with kindness.

I shared a bit about this in a previous post but when we add a camera to the process, it gets a bit more complicated. Especially with phones where we can see our image on the screen, we might be drawn (as so many people are) to look at ourselves in the screen rather than ourselves in the mirror. Or we might find that when we literally look ourselves in the eye in the mirror and take a photo, when we look back at the photo we don’t get to make eye contact with ourselves.

Being able to look back at our photos and look ourselves in the eye is incredibly powerful, so I encourage you to try looking directly into the reflection of your lens in the mirror…that will allow you to be making eye contact with your future self looking back at this photo! This is not a tried and true rule of course, or something you must do…but I find it’s not something people think to do (or we hide behind our cameras and don’t even make eye contact with our reflection through the photo) and next time you and your camera are at the mirror taking a selfie, I encourage you to try all these options and see what feels best for you.

Make a Ritual of taking self-portraits in Your Mirror.

You knew this one was coming, right! Sometimes making a theme or a focus for taking mirror self-portraits can be super powerful. It might be taking a self-portrait in your bathroom mirror each morning to check in with yourself, or to write a different love note on your mirror each week and take a selfie with it.

I also like to make a ritual of taking a self-portrait in the same mirrors out and about in the world, each time I cross paths with it….so that could be a way that you take a regular self-portrait in the mirror too.

I wanted to share a few links to friends who’s work overlaps with this post so beautifully. Check out Liz Lamoreux’s post about how the mirror helps her shift how she sees herself. Another project that I’m loving these days is Kelly Rae Robert’s #thewearyourjoyproject where folks are sharing the joy they are finding in getting dressed each day and it can be a great focus for taking a mirror self-portrait each day!

Choose to Befriend the Person in the Mirror

Now, this one is something that we dig deeper into in Be Your Own Beloved, building our relationship to not just the physicality we are in the mirror or in a photo, but to use it as a doorway to greater self-love.

And here’s the truth about what I’ve found with making peace with ourselves through our camera or a mirror. We get to choose to make a change and start seeing ourselves differently. I once thought that would be truly impossible but slowly but surely, the woman in the mirror no longer feels like my enemy and she and I have committed to making peace, even if we have our rough days. We’re now allies.

These tools and the ones we explore in Be Your Own Beloved aren’t just for those days when you are feeling excited or happy too. When I’m having a really rough inner critic day or am having trouble seeing myself with kindness, sometimes I just stand in front of the mirror and just say something to her, try to meet her with the same compassion I would meet a friend.

I hope all of these tips I shared in todays post will be helpful for you and that find a mirror along your path today and capture a selfie in it or just pause and try to see the person in it with kind eyes. If you find yourself thinking “Well, this all sounds great but I’m not sure how to make it happen” ponder coming to join me for the Be Your Own Beloved class (starting tomorrow) and while the class isn’t focused on the mirror, day by day you will find yourself becoming more comfortable and more kind to the person you see in the photo. I’d be honoured to support and cheer you on in that journey.

If you do take a selfie in a mirror and would like to share it, don’t hesitate to use the #beyourownbeloved hashtag so the Be Your Own Beloved community & I can cheer you on!

April 8, 2015

3 Things You Might Not Know About Double Exposures

I started exploring double exposures early on in my photo journey and what I found was that they felt like a beautiful balance to the creative energy of being a photographer. I thought they would be complicated and something I needed to perfect.

But instead I found something that surprised me.

What I found was that they opened the door to something that I couldn’t plan out, that I couldn’t control and well, that just felt really beautiful and from that point on, it has been something I return to regularly to get creative!

In offering the Double Exposure Love class starting soon, I figured if they surprised me…they just might surprise you.

So here they are…3 things you might not know about double exposures.

You don’t need ‘perfect’ photos to make them

You truly don’t. The wonderful thing about double exposures is that it is a creative way to use your photos, especially ones that you may not have decided were your final outtakes.

Because we are layering the photos, you can’t see the detail of each photo, you just see the way they blend together. So if you’re not totally comfortable sharing your photos (or especially selfies) this is a great way to ease ourselves into it! Your photos truly don’t need to be perfect, in fact the ones that might have been ‘mistakes’ will probably work the best for double exposures!

So if that’s what feels like it’s holding you back from trying double exposures, let’s let that go! There are certain types of photos that I’ve found work best for double exposures but it’s not about what kind of camera you use to take them or even how perfectly exposed or in focus they are.

What matters more than your camera is just that you have an openness to experiment and have fun with the process!

They work better when you experiment with them rather than plan them out!

This is my favourite thing about double exposures. They make us get out of our heads and into the creative experimentation of it. When I first started playing with double exposures there really weren’t such a thing as apps to use to make them. I’d just layer them in photoshop (which I’ll show you how to do in class too) or use a film or digital camera to take them. What I’d find is that when I tried to plan out the pairing the kind of fell flat. But if I picked two photos where I thought ‘there is NO way these are going to work together’ often they were downright magical.

It wasn’t about how fancy my photos were, it was instead about how much I was willing to experiment. The super fun thing these days is that lots of the apps have a ‘randomize’ feature where they pair together two random photos on your photo stream. That is just the bees knees and often brings forth pairings that I couldn’t have even imagined.

So if you’re feeling like this is going to be something you’ll need to ‘perfect’ or figure out how to do perfectly, well…let’s let go of that too. Instead, we’ll embrace the imperfect, the unexpected and even the accidental to make photo magic!

The secret really is having photos that are inspiring for double exposures!

The big secret to taking double exposures is that there are certain kinds of images that well…just work really well for them! So while any photo could work for a double exposure, I wanted to share from the start (for real…as soon as you register for the class I send you a list of ideas for simple things to capture).

The good news too is that the best kind of photos for double exposures are also the same kind of photos that feel really mindful and calming to take. That sun peeking through the trees above you on your walk home? Awesome! That flower that caught your eye this morning? Take a photo of it. The more simple the photos, the better.

So you see why I love double exposures so much…they sound much more relaxing than you’d think don’t they?

I’ll be digging further into these elements of double exposure in class as well as providing you with tutorials for how to actually make a double exposure in apps (like the Diana App) or on your computer in programs like PicMonkey and Pixlr Editor (which is a free program that is much like Photoshop).

Come geek out over double exposures with me!

April 5, 2015

Facebook Giveaway!

This week we reached the 3000 mark over on the Be Your Own Beloved Facebook page and to celebrate I wanted to host an EPIC giveaway to thank everyone there for their support! There will be 5 winners and the prizes are:

A self-paced class (of their choice)
A spot in Double Exposure Love
A spot in the May Community Session of Beloved Beginnings
A spot in the June Session of Be Your Own Beloved
A Skype Mentoring Session!

The giveaway started on Saturday and runs until Tuesday April 7th!

I’ve done giveaways before but I’ve got to share, this one is feeling really different. Right from the very first comment entering the giveaway folks have just been leaving such kindness.

Usually with giveaways the comments are mostly ‘I’d love to win this’ which is totally fine but folks have been going above & beyond and are making my heart swell with your supportive, giving and loving comments about #beyourownbeloved. I’m feeling so deeply grateful for the love and wanted to take the above selfie to thank everyone for their kind words.

So, without further ado head on over and enter!

April 2, 2015

30 Days of Selfie Tips!

Guess what!

I’ve gathered together 30 of my favorite tips & tricks for taking selfies (with love of course)!

So for the coming month I’m going to share 1 each day with you! The fun is happening over at my Instagram page which you can find here! Though if Facebook is more your style, I’ll also be sharing them to the Be Your Own Beloved Page too!

While they aren’t prompts, I hope they’ll inspire you to grab your camera and try them out each day!