Did you guys know that you can create your own business listing on Google Maps? Pretty cool, huh? Those Google guys are pretty darn awesome. This is a great way to make it easier for your customers to find you on the internet. If someone were to Google “photography studio, Kuna ID” for example – they would see me as a dot on the map, with a link to my website – just like the screen shot above. So, if your business is one that people might Google, looking for a local business – you should create your listing, and soon!
Here’s how you can add your business listing to Google — it’s easy and free!
1. Create a Google account, if you don’t already have one.
2. After you’ve created your account, go here to add info for your business.
3. You should see an Add New Business button – click that, and you will get a page like this, where you can enter your information (notice you can enter several business categories, as well as all your info):
4. When you click on the “Next” button, you can specify more details – do you want your exact address displayed in the listing? Do you want to display operating hours? What geographic area do you serve? You can even add photos and video if you’d like.
5. After you are finished adding all of the information, you will submit your listing. After that, Google will verify your identity by either sending you a text message or a post card (your choice). Piece of cake! And, if you need more help, Google Places Help will answer every question you can possibly think of!
It took a day or two after I confirmed my identity to show up in search results … and another week after that before I was in the top 3 results showing at the top of the page.
For our 2nd weekly date night, I tricked Brian into doing something creative by calling it “date night”. (Just kidding, he had fun. He’ll do most anything as long as there is beer involved, so he’s not that hard to trick).
We did something called light painting – and we will totally be doing this again with the kids. So fun.
So, here’s how it works. Get some flashlights (or some other light source. Sparklers, off-camera flash, little LED lights, etc.) Maybe some colored cellophane for variety. Then you need your camera and tripod. You have to be able to hold your shutter open for a long time – so break out your camera manual and figure out how to set your shutter speed to bulb mode (which means it stays open until you tell it to close). You also need to have a remote shutter release, or you need to know how to set the timer on your camera.
You need to wait until dark, and then find an area where you can move around a bit. We did some outside, and some inside our living room. The process is pretty simple. When it is completely dark, set your camera up on the tripod, and then use your timer or remote shutter release to open your camera shutter. Use a flashlight to “paint” words, patterns, etc. in the dark. When you are done, close the shutter on your camera and see what you came up with!
In the top image we wrote the word “love”, of course, with the flashlight against the wall. Below you can see my red “J” – I just covered the end of the flashlight with some red cellophane. And below that is our amazingly artistic smiley face in purple.
I think next time we do this, we won’t do it inside. We will go outside and stand in the middle of the yard or something so that you don’t see the texture of the walls behind our “artwork” … And I think a couple of different sizes of flashlights would be fun to try. Also: this is a great technique to use with sparklers during your 4th of July or New Year’s party. Also (again): There are much better, more explanatory, and less lazy-like tutorials out on the web for light painting. Like this one or this one. And go look at the fancy-schmancy light painting examples here!
You can see all of our date-night ideas by going to the 52 Date Nights category. And don’t forget to head over to Simply Modern Mom for tons more creative date-night ideas from other participants.
A little side-note for anyone keeping track – I’m behind in posting our date nights (of course, what else would you expect from me?). We did this one a few weeks ago – and we’ve had some other, less blog-worthy date nights in there too. We actually remembered our anniversary, and got rid of the kids for a night and went out for drinks … but since we didn’t do anything extremely creative or out-of-the ordinary, I won’t bore you with those details. More creative date night posts to come in the future!
A few weeks ago I signed up for this really fun idea by Piper at One Sydney Road. An alphabet walk – a bunch of different bloggers going on a walk around their neighborhoods, taking pictures inspired by a letter of the alphabet.
My letter is J (of course) and today was my day … but I’m a loser. It’s been a rough day, and I’ve tried to walk as little as possible. So, one lonely J-inspired photograph to share … and then go visit the many other non-loser bloggers who accomplished much more with this super-fun idea.
July
On another note – I am totally going to be one of those organized bloggers who schedules her posts ahead of time … so I don’t have these loser moments when I can’t get it together. So, goal for the week: Schedule next week’s blog posts.
Welcome to the next installment in Photography 101! I started with an intro post and 5 quick tips to take better pictures, then we moved on to an introduction to aperture. Today we will continue on in this journey to using our camera in manual mode by discussing the basics of shutter speed. (Remember in our aperture discussion we talked about the three things that make up exposure? Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO – don’t forget!)
Essentially, shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter stays open to let light in. The longer the shutter stays open (which means the shutter speed is slower), then the more light gets in.
Shutter speed is usually expressed in fractions of a second. For example – on my camera, when it says 125, that actually means the shutter stays open for 1/125 of a second. When it says 320, it actually means 1/320 of a second. Your camera may display the entire fraction, or just the bottom number. Be sure to read your camera manual to determine exactly where and how your shutter speed is displayed. Additionally, as you get into slower shutter speeds (where the shutter stays open longer), you could get into whole second increments, which adds a bit to the confusion. On my camera, whole seconds have the ” sign after the number. So I know if my camera says 30 – it really means 1/30 of a second – but if it says 2″, that means 2 whole seconds. Again, you will have to read your camera manual to determine how to tell what your shutter speed is set to.
So, what does shutter speed do for you? Well, in addition to allowing for the correct exposure when combined with aperture and ISO, it also controls blur in your photos – in two different ways.
Blur can affect your photographs by either the camera moving during the time when the shutter is open, or by the subject moving when the shutter is open.
Camera shake occurs when you are holding your camera in your hand (not on a tripod or other stable surface) and your shutter speed is slow enough so that your natural wobbly, shaky hands cause your photo to be blurry. I personally don’t shoot anything slower than 1/80 handheld (and even more than that if I am shooting professional portraits and it is important that I get tack-sharp images). But this could vary for you depending on how big your camera and lens are, how steady you are, etc. Do a little experimenting – but if you notice a slight blur to a lot of your images, you may want to check that shutter speed.
Motion blur occurs when one of the subjects of your image is moving. For example, if you photograph your child whizzing by on his skateboard, if your shutter speed is set too slow, you might just see a big blur in your photograph. When you bump your shutter speed up higher, you can sort-of “freeze” the action, and get a clear picture of your kid on his skateboard. I took some example photos for you below. In both of these images, the pinwheel is spinning. In the image on the left, I used a much faster shutter speed, and you don’t see much blur – the pinwheel doesn’t even appear to be moving. On the right, you can see the blur of the pinwheel as it spins – I used a much slower shutter speed there.
So, a note about how shutter speed and aperture work together – on the left, I set the aperture to f1.8 – this let more light in so that I could use a faster shutter speed (which lets less light in) and still get a correct exposure. On the left, I used a f2.2 aperture – letting less light in and allowing for a slower shutter speed. (I also had to change the ISO a bit between the two images – in our next installment we will go over how ISO affects all of this).
Just like with choosing an aperture, there is no “right” or “wrong” choice in shutter speed. You need a correct exposure, but you can see in both of these photographs I was able to achieve the correct exposure by using different settings on my camera. Use your creativity to decide whether you want to see the motion blur, or whether you want to freeze the action (or some setting in between).
Dump Truck Original Painting by PickledPumpkins
My studio is currently torn apart for construction (ok, just adding some shelves – but there is enough mess for a huge construction project!). I will return tomorrow with the next in my Photography 101 series and more fun content for the rest of the week. For now, go check out Pickled Pumpkins – a little Etsy shop with THE CUTEST artwork – great for kids’ rooms!
The winner of the free portrait session is ….Commenter number 11, Nikki Ford! Congratulations Nikki!
I’ll send you an email, Nikki, and we’ll get it all set up!
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. I really appreciate your enthusiasm! If you didn’t win, I will be at the Melting Pot tonight for 1st Thursday – with a limited number of 50% off portrait session coupons! Stop by, say hi – and pick up a discounted portrait session! Plus you can meet the lovely Angie Sarich and get your copy of Leaving Parma! See you there!
Twitterpated by Tim’s Sally
Some fun things from around the web that I enjoyed this week:
1. I am currently taking Kelly Rae Robert’s ecourse – and loving it! If she offers another one someday, and you are the creative type, I highly recommend it! One of my favorite things about this course, besides the content of the course itself, is being introduced to all sorts of new, creative people. One of my new favorites is Mindy Lacefield, the artist behind Tim’s Sally. She makes the cutest mixed-media art (that is one of her’s above). I love it! And even more fun – a lot of her work is inspired by 80’s toys (like Strawberry Shortcake! LOVE!)
2. I totally want to make this rainbow cake for Rachel’s birthday. (via wee wonderfuls)
3. I also want to make these decorative flower balls out of crepe paper … maybe for her bedroom, maybe for birthday party celebration … not sure yet (Rachel’s 2nd birthday is in November. You can totally count on the fact that I will forget all this by then and be making a plain cake from a box the night before). (via How About Orange)
4. How cute is this ruffle pillow? I want to make a bunch of those, too …
5. This post from Cori Dantini is from a month or so ago, but I still love it. I love the idea of just painting over and over and over whatever you don’t like … and keeping the parts you do like. Kind of a good metaphor for life, no? Just keep redoing the bad stuff and leave the good stuff …
6. I joined One Sydney Road’s Alphabet Blog Hop, happening next month! Go check it out and sign up – it’s going to be a lot of fun!
TGIF, friends!
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Don’t forget the giveaway for Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Nampa, Kuna area peeps! Less than a week to go!
