Showing posts with label Photo Fiascos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photo Fiascos. Show all posts

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Snapshots of Pinterest Success

Pinterest is used by some as inspiration for photo ideas. Pinterest is full of ideas for creative vacation photos, funny Christmas card ideas, cute pictures for your kiddos, and outfit ideas for family portraits. There are many professional photographers, hobbyist photographers, and everyday "snapshotters" that use ideas they found on Pinterest. Today I thought I'd share with you the 5 Pin Win and Pin Spin submission we have in our inbox from various people with their success stories.  

Original Pin #1
This photo is linked and reposted all over the internet and has been replicated over and over again. 
Sherri Butler Photography sent in this Photography Pin Spin. She said, "I am often asked to replicate images people have seen on Pintrest and I try to do my best – especially when it is really cute and I have the materials. The [above] pin was shown to me. Now you wouldn’t think this would be difficult. However, babies never want to be agreeable to specifics! No matter how many times Mom and Dad tried to get the baby to put her feet down inside the heels, she refused and pulled her legs upwards. I had a great chuckle and Mom and Dad were good sports. We went for something else and just let her sit and play with the shoes (they were brand new). I love the final result.  Go with the flow J" 

Pin Spin #1
You definitely have to be willing to improvise and go with the flow when photographing children, but that is what makes a child's portraits so fun and special. You can't help but capture a peek of their personality.

Original Pin #2
http://www.thephotoart.org/cute-picture/#.U6nFtvldWa8
Kaila sent in her Pin Win from a wedding she shot. "I have always loved photography and I recently had the chance to photograph one of my friends weddings! Of course she had some ideas she found on pinterest and so did I! This photo was one of our favorites and I was determined to get it right! I think it turned out ALMOST close to what the pin showed :) PIN WIN!"

Pin Win #2

Oh I love weddings. Love love love them. They just make me happy.


Original Pin #3
http://www.thephotographerswife.com/play-dates-and-pumpkins/
Merissa saw our post about babies who really hated being  put in pumpkins for photos and had to send in her chunky cherub who has no problem with pumpkins.

Pin Win #3



Original Pin #4

Jolene found the pin above and knew it was perfect for her new nephew. "My nephew was born on 12/11/12 and was the best Christmas gift this year! I wanted to do some cute newborn pictures of him so I thought I'd try out one of these pictures with infants inside stockings. Well, I think the photo speaks for itself. It came out great!"

Pin Win #4

That first Christmas is just special. Jolene's photo turned out much better than the one we've seen before here on Pinstrosity!

Original Pin #5

Erin decided to get some festive photos of her dog with the idea above as inspiration. "I think it turned out pretty well. I did have to fix a large scar on our dog’s nose and clean up some of the snow. Kahlua was very patient."

Pin Win #5

What I said above for photographing children applies here to pets as well. You definitely have to be willing to improvise and go with the flow when photographing animals, but that is what makes a pet portrait so fun and special. You can't help but capture a peek of their personality.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Show and Tell Saturday Bloopers and Blog Bits

2 Saturdays ago I came across an idea that I got really excited about. It is called the Create 365 Project. Many of you have probably heard of the 365 Project where you take a picture every day. This is similar, only instead of it being strictly photography related, you create anything! It gets you creating daily, stretching those creative muscles, and using up extra craft tid bits you have lying around your house. I nearly started that day (February 22), but I knew the next week ahead was going to be rough (doctor appointments out of town, joy oh joy). So I figured I'd start on the 1st of March. It has now been one week since my starting date...and I don't have a whole lot to show. This past week I've immersed myself in a big project we've had going on here at Pinstrosity. We've been asked to do a guest post and interview for a website (we'll share that with you when it goes up!), so this week was full of taking new headshots, writing the article, answering interview questions, tidying up the blog, taking new new headshots, and tons of emails between the three of us. So...I did create all week long, but not in the way I first had intended. But, creativity is creativity. I just don't have a whole lot to show for it right this exact moment. But, I will share what I can show you right now. 

Some of you may have noticed two of the blog updates. If not, let me direct your attention to the top of the right hand sidebar. Social media buttons! We've wanted these for a while but html code and tweaking the blog is a little intimidating to me. I finally womaned up (why is the phrase "manned up"?), and looked up articles on how to put the buttons in. They were confusing. Luckily I finally found this awesome and very helpful tutorial on YouTube: http://youtu.be/H4hI5WmqpBw   (I keep embedding the actual video in here, and it stays in the post for about an hour, but then it disappears-even the html. Not sure what's going on, so there's the link instead.)

I made our own buttons (so we didn't have to buy any), and then just followed the directions in the video. Voila!

I also have been working this week to figure out instagram and twitter (Rachel and Emilee are way ahead of me here...I'm a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to social media). I posted my first Instagram, explored the pinstrosity and pinstrosityworthy hashtags on twitter, and even went in and resurrected our Pinterest account. We've had these social media connections for a while, but we haven't been using them which really is kinda silly. So go check them out, follow us, and we'll do better about keeping up with them!

The second change you may or may not have noticed is our updated "author profiles". Now that we have Rachel on our team (still so excited about that!), we needed her picture and info up. So, also on the right sidebar, you can find a vertical collage of the three of us. You can also find updated profiles on our "The Pinstrositeers" page.

Taking new headshots was an adventure (one we wish we could have done with Rachel, but that'll have to be saved for another time). We planned on taking pictures outdoors. We've had such beautiful weather here lately, it was going to be perfect. Well that day it was rainy (which is wonderful! We're not complaining!) and cloudy and gloomy. So we were stuck indoors, which really kinda threw us for a loop. We didn't know what to do. So what do we do when we don't know what to do? We end up just kinda goofing around. Here are some of our photo "bloopers".

"I don't know what to do with my hands." 

Emilee has some of the coolest globes and pipes in her house!


Darrow helping out...poor guy wasn't a happy camper that day. 


Spinny chairs are the best. 


Emilee thought I was just goofing around...until I told her that seriously is are far as I can go toward touching my toes. 
So there is a small snapshot of our week. We can't wait until we can share the guest post and interview and an awesome new website with you! We hope your week was awesome.

Come back tomorrow for the next installment of Rachel's Sunday Surprise post.
And don't forget about our Use It Up Challenge!




Thursday, January 16, 2014

Throwback Thursday!! Photo Fiasco!!!

 I mentioned this post a few months back when my ugly llama face it went viral...but it's a good one and the story still cracks me up. That and I keep getting messages, texts, and e-mails from random people telling me they saw my hubby and I on iFunny, or Buzzfeed, or Photo-Fail among other things, I think people would understand better if they read the story. So for Throwback Thursday here it is again!! If you have seen it around, now you will finally know the story behind it!!

We have all seen these cute pictures on Pinterest, and you say "Hey! Super awesome fun idea, we would have no trouble taking these!" I am here to prove that wrong, like we have done before. Sometimes the picture we are expecting is far from the reality of the situation. Here is my (lengthy) tale:
This last March my husband and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary (that was in 2012), to do so we decided to go on a cruise to the Carribbean! Woot! Awesome right?! Well we were super excited for the whole adventure... minus the 15 hour layover we had from the time we got to our port city, till we could board our ship. We had originally planned to get a hotel and stay the night, but we would get in at like three-ish (in the morning),and then have to check out at ten, which kinda stinks because that's a lot of money for a few hours of sleep, and come to find out a lot of hotels won't let you do that. Lame sauce. So we decide to sleep in the airport. For anyone who has ever slept in an airport, (I am hearing a resounding "DON'T DO IT!!!!!" from some of those readers right now...) it isn't a pleasant experience. 
For a little background on the sleeping in the airport experience we had, here is this little gem: The year before this we went to Alaska to visit my sister who lives in a tiny village named Kaktovic. Kaktovic happens to be in the arctic circle at pretty much the northernmost part of United States. We ended up sleeping in the airport after about 18 hours or so of plane hoping, three or four different airports, and it just kept getting colder...(did I mention we went in December!). Anyways, the point of all that was that we have done the whole airport sleeping thing, and it's  pretty much my least favorite thing in the world, right next to sharks, onions, and opening biscuit cans. Don't judge.
So we get off the plane at our port city, and we both know it's going to be a hellava night, we decide to try to call a cab and get a hotel for even a few hours sleep at this point (3 A.M. remember?). So we call I kid you not no less than 23 hotels, all of which say we don't take customers at this point or we are full or we are $500 a night all we have left are executive suites. After paying for all the extravagances of a cruise $500 dollars for 6-ish hours of sleep just wasn't going to happen (even if we hadn't done the cruise, that's a lot of money for a college couple to spend on a hotel, but it is especially a lot when they have scrimped and scraped for a cruise for over a year). 
We decide to call it a night and sleep on the floor of the airport. Yes the floor.
We did find a bench, however it had those metal armrests about every two feet and seeing as neither of us are toddler size , climbing through them to at least lay down wasn't an option.
By this time it is the day of our anniversary. Woot! Only by this time we are beyond exhausted, just spent over an hour on the phone with every hotel within a 45 minute radius and we now have to sleep on the floor and change in the family restroom...Happy anniversary sweety!
What is the point of all of this you ask?! ("Why am I still reading this?! Get on with it already!) For this picture:

The Original

Notice how happy, rested, clean, rested, fed and did I mention rested they are?! P.S. They have theirs framed, it's a nice touch.
Anyways, a lovely idea to commemorate where you were for your anniversary and what you were doing. We gave it a go, and well Chip had the bright idea to do it right before we tried to "sleep"...did I mention we slept next to a homeless lady and a guy in a thong? Well we did.
Here is our less than perfect but definitely US anniversary photo...

The Pinstrosity

A few points to recognize here:
-My llama face, the one I do when I am just NOT having it. (Note to self, stop making that face, it's not attractive).
-Chip in his ninja turtles PJ's
-Custodian who is waxing the floor behind us, try sleeping with that. Boo.
-Also my blonde hair phase, that deserves another negative note to self.
-Can you tell we are tired?


 So we looked at the first one we took and tried to look at least a little bit like we were enjoying the adventure, here is what we got:
Not as bad, but if you knew us you would know we I look exhausted lol.

Moral of the story, your photo doesn't have to look perfect to help you remember what you were doing and where you were. I took one look at these this morning and laughed, it's funny now, it wan't then but in all honesty I had long forgotten about that awful 24 hours in lieu of how wonderful the time with my man was, and what an awesome adventure the rest of the week was. In case you were wondering, we will be using the first photo in our anniversary picture next year, because well, it tells way more of a story than the second, and I look like a llama. And who doesn't like a llama wife?!

Happy Throwback Thursday Pinstrosipeeps!


Thursday, October 10, 2013

Photo Ops...or Oops

You would think out of everything on Pinterest, photos would be the easiest to recreate. You can't get half-way through the pin and find out you're missing an ingredient and have to substitute something out of your fridge in hopes it works. You can't use the wrong glue. There are no conversions you have to make between US measurements and metric measurements. Just stand/sit/lay in the same pose and instant cute photo, right? Let's see what our submitters have to say and show about that. 

Original Pin #1
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ad/69/8d/ad698daac3fe00d0b6ec25852ac85cf0.jpg
Laura says, "I did a maternity photo shoot for a friend earlier this year.  Since it was my first time doing maternity photos, I decided to turn to my trusted friend Pinterest for some inspiration.  A fan of unique poses, I decided to try this one out. Super cute, right?  Well, here's my Pinstrosity (faces have been blurred to protect the innocent):"

Pinstrosity #1

"At first, I really liked this photo because they are both really easy to photograph and they looked great in this picture.  And then I showed my husband.  "It looks like he's peeing on the lamp," he said.  And then that was all I could see.  We had a good belly laugh over it, as did my friend when I shared my husband's comments with her.  Luckily we got lots of other really great, non-peeing shots that day!  And you're welcome for ruining this pose for you forever :)"

Original Pin #2
http://artsignaturegalleries.com/galleries/lumiere-collection/

Krystle says, "So this past Christmas, I got a fabulous idea from Pinterest for a photo for our holiday cards, starring my (then) 3-month-old baby. I went to Party City and bought two Santa hats and a pair of white gloves. I chopped off the tops of the Santa hats to make them look like Santa sleeves when worn with the white gloves (this was also based on a Pinterest pin and ended up being a quasi-fail). I put my baby in a cute Christmas outfit and grabbed a pair of my high heels. I tried to find a solid colored blanket to use as a backdrop. The attached photo is what I ended up with." 

Pinstrosity #2
"Needless to say, we went another route for our holiday cards."


Original Pin #3
http://www.wendihillerbaby.com/index2.php#/home/
Jennifer told us "So my beautiful granddaughter was born 08/08/12 and when she was about 2 weeks old, we took a bunch of pictures.  And here is what I got!"
 
Pinstrosity #3

"I would rate it as a 3 on the GCT scale – it didn’t turn out whatsoever like we wanted it to, but everybody got a good laugh, and it’s a memory we can share with her when she gets older."

Original Pin #4
http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/05012013-baby-mugging-19-criminally-cute-photos/
Krysta says, "I saw this cute idea to photograph babies with a mug in the foreground and thought I'd see if I could pull it off. My baby was about 7 months old at the time and as evidenced in the photo, she did not much care for it."

Pinstrosity #4

"Since I wasn't actually trying to stage a real photo shoot I just laughed and gave up for the day since she wasn't in the mood for pictures. You can also see that the camera focus is on the mug and baby is blurry, but I'm sure there are any number of blogs or other tips I could find online to remedy that. I still think it is a cute idea and maybe I'll try again at some point down the road." 

Original Pin #5
http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2012/09/first-day-of-school.html
Kayla decided to try this one out with her siblings for their first day of school this year. She says, "I LOVE photography so I decided I just had to try it! I started with drawing out the "1 grade" and "5 grade" on our driveway. Then it was time for the models. It was a VERY bright day today, so getting them to look up at me and smile was a challenge. Most of the photos came out with squinted eyes and fake grins lol."

Pinstrosity #5



"In the future I would have done it either in the evening or early morning so the sun isn't shining down in their faces."


So...perhaps it's not so easy to just set up the Pinterest inspired shot and snap away. But you do get some funny memories to put in the photo album (does anyone still do photo albums? I keep meaning to make one, but it just hasn't happened yet). 

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Autumn is Coming!

Today I'm feeling Autumn-y. It's drizzly, cloudy, and cool here today so I pulled out the long sweaters, the boots, and I can't wait to get home and make soup. I know we'll still have summer days before true Autumn kicks in, but it's fun to have a day that feels like Fall. September is my favorite favorite month. Golden light. Green Chile roasting all over town. Jacket weather. Beautiful skies. Sunflowers. I LOVE it! So, in honor of it feeling more like Autumn than Summer here today, I thought I'd show you 2 Fall Pinstrosities for today's post. 

We'll start with the shorter one. The Baby in a Pumpkin pin. We've seen this on here before, but these never get old.

The Original Pin:
In my efforts to find the original owner of this photo I traced this back to someone's personal Facebook profile. I figure I probably shouldn't link up and advertise her personal profile for the whole world to see. 

Cute baby in a perfect pumpkin. Charity said, "I fell in love with this photo op, and did the calculations when I was pregnant with my son, Tripp and knew he would be the perfect age when Halloween rolled around.  I obsessed with picking the perfect pumpkin and carving it just so, so that Tripp would fit inside just like the sweet little girl in the original pin.  To say the least, he did not have the reaction I had anticipated, but I will admit it turned out hilarious!"

The Pinstrosity:


Our other Pinstrosity today comes from Murielle. Here's her story:

"I have another example of my love/hate relationship with Pinterest.  I saw this cool thing with a pumpkin, a plastic fake kind of course.  The lady mod podged the whole thing with tissue paper. Simple enough right?!"

The Original Pin:
http://smithfamily-az.blogspot.com/2010/08/fall-craft.html
"I had a feeling that this was going to be an future Pintrosity for sure, just because it seemed too simple. Her blog is here if you'd like to read for yourself, but really, I followed her simple instructions.  I bought two pumpkins from the Dollar store and the tissue paper there too, knowing that I wouldn't break the bank for my future Epic Fail..."

http://inmansfromqueencreek.blogspot.com/2013/09/epic-fail.html
"So here is my beauty!!! Isn't it awesome.  I cut small pieces and did like she said, I knew that the orange would show through and I was right! And I knew that the paper wouldn't just lay flat on a round surface! I'm pretty crafty, I think I took this project on just to prove that I am smart too."

"So my hubby turned around and said "wow, the second one looks much better"...well yes, it's gold paint, after just two coats!"
"Luckily, I am a very smart lady, as previously stated, and the tissue paper I had bought for a whole dollar, had a pattern piece along with the gold ones I first used.  I recovered the whole thing with the pattern one, knowing that it wouldn't show the flaws and wrinkles as much.  This picture doesn't do it justice, it actually turned out alright."

"See, it's not that bad. Too bad the Dollar store pumpkins have a line in the middle of them, as if they were cheaply made, oh wait, they were. I sprayed them with Mod Podge after also, but the one I have is Matt finish, probably would have been better with more shine, but that will do for now.  I looked at Gold spray paint at Joann's the other day, and no way I'm paying $5.99 for it, I just used the paint for .99cents!
Now off to the next project, or maybe I'll just have a baby, we'll see!
PS: no, I didn't weave the wicker pumpkin, Mr. Target did a couple of years ago."

So there you have it. The first Fall/Autumn Pinstrosities for 2013. Thank you Charity and Murielle for kick starting our Fall season. What are you doing to get ready for Fall?

http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMy01ZjVjYWE1OGRlZjkyNTYy

Happy End of Summer/Almost Fall everyone! 

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Watermelon Shoot

The Fourth of July is coming up here in the States (well...I guess everywhere has a 4th of July, but it's not Independence Day for everyone)! I LOVE Independence Day. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love the parades, the food, the fireworks, and the fun. I still don't know exactly how we're celebrating it this year yet, but it'll be fun! 

I went back through our submissions from this past year to pull out any 4th of July emails that we hadn't posted yet, and we don't have all that many! I was surprised. We must have used them all last year (I guess that means we need more 4th submissions!). But I did find a gem to show you today about a 4th of July photo shoot. Rebecca saw the pin below and used it as inspiration for their Independence Day picture adventure.

The Original Pin

Her happy baby couldn't sit up on her own yet, so they decided to modify things a little to fit the situation. Instead of having the watermelon sitting up, they hollowed it out and had it laying down. They left it out in the sun to warm up, lined it with a towel for comfort, and then they put their normally happy baby in. To see the photo that they found on Pinterest go to http://fullerfun.blogspot.com/2010/07/baby-watermelon.html.


The Pinstrosity


She just wasn't impressed at all, poor thing. But Rebecca did say "Luckily she cheered up as soon as we stopped, and the watermelon was one of the best ones I have ever had!"


At least the watermelon was yummy! For tips on taking pictures of babies (especially babies in pumpkins/watermelon), see our previous post, Pumpkin Patch Babies. One extra tip I can give with the watermelon is to cut a slice off the bottom so it stays in place better. That doesn't do much to help an unhappy baby, but anything you can do to make taking pictures with babies easier is a plus in my book!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Dandeflames

Em's with our friend Camille for her graduation vacation (we're so proud of her!). The poor things have to go to Disneyland and the beach. I know...I'm sure they wish they could have stayed here in the wind and dust, but they aren't as lucky as us. Oh well. ;) I wish I could post every day this week, but life has dictated otherwise, so I'm going to just hit Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We'll get back to normal soon we hope. 

Today's Pinstrosity is a quick one (the clutch went out on the car, so we need to go take care of that before work). It's another in the saga of "Don't trust all the captions you see on Pinterest." Behold:

The Original Pin:
http://pinterest.com/pin/207517495302754944/

The caption under the pin reads "Dandelion on fire. Bucket list for this summer... It burns all different colors! :) so neatttt." So Jesse decided to give it a go. 

The Pinstrosity:

"There were no general directions to follow, just light a dandelion on fire...so we did that and it burned super fast and just looked like any normal plant on fire, orange flames..so that pin is not true and dandelions do not burn in different colors."

So what did I do? I turned to Google and typed in "dandelion on fire" to see other people's results. 

The Extra Proof:
http://letoilenicoisedaphne.deviantart.com/art/dandelion-on-fire-211157791
http://favim.com/image/428127/
http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/334803823?view_mode=2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26359084@N08/2556120263/
So....dandelions don't produce rainbow fire as they burn. But, they do produce fire when they burn and you know how we love fire (responsibly, of course). Only this time of year we don't hardly want to even look at a matchbox in fear that it will combust and set the countryside aflame. We had some rain yesterday (the first in a LONG time)...but not nearly enough. Maybe the whole town should get together and wash our cars. That should do it, right?