Category: Florida

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The Best Camera is the One You Have With You: 7 Tips for Taking Better Photos with Your Camera Phone

The Best Camera is the One You Have With You. 7 Tips for Taking Better Photos with Your Camera PhoneWe pulled into the near-empty parking lot at the Jacksonville, Florida Zoo and all climbed out of the car. I walked around, opened the back of the truck to grab out our adventure bag and my camera. A quick check of the camera to make sure all was in order before heading out, and wait! What? Where are all my memory cards?

I’m sure I’m not the only one this has happened to. Super excited to use your “big” camera on an adventure only to realize that you are missing a memory card, or your battery, or even your lens!

I could have been angry or frustrated and let that ruin my whole day, but instead I decided to challenge myself to see what photos I could capture with the one camera I DID have with me: my phone. You know what? These photos turned out to be some of my favorites.

Here are a couple of tips for capturing GREAT photos with your camera phone:

1. Photography Rules Still Apply. Probably even more so. Rule of Thirds? Check. Leading lines? Got it. Watch your angles, make sure your photos have an obvious subject, create balance, and isolate clutter.

2. Use Your Screen. You don’t have a viewfinder, so take advantage of your viewing screen. One of my favorite experiences at this particular zoo was watching my kids feed the giraffes. Something about their crazy long tongues had us all in fits of giggles. The nice part about using a camera phone instead of an SLR is that I can hold the phone out in front of me while still viewing the screen. This allows me to get a different angle (lower OR higher) while still seeing what I’m shooting. It also avoids the awkward photographer squat (yeah, you know what I’m talking about).

3. Crop, Don’t Zoom. Just pretend you have a fixed lens. Using your zoom will often pixelate your photo anyway (decrease the quality) so it’s better to crop in on a photo during editing. I cropped the above photo of the giraffe to help isolate him and make him the center of the photo.

4. Get Close. Really Close. Obviously at a zoo its difficult to get close to the animals, but what else can you take a photo of? The vegetation at this zoo was amazingly beautiful. Cactus, trees, bushes, cool plants, flowers, they had it all. It added to the overall experience, so why not take a photo so you can remember it?

5. Don’t Be Afraid of Sun Flare. I love sun. I love the added dimension the light gives to my photos. Yes, shooting on an overcast day is easy, but your photos can be so much more dynamic with a little back lighting. Face the sun, focus on your subject and then move the sun around in the frame by physically moving your phone. Once the sun hits the edge of the frame, you’ll typically get the cool flare that washes the light over your photo.

6. Edit, Don’t Filter. If you want clean photos that don’t look like everyone else’s, use an in phone editing app instead of applying the same filters everyone else is using. I rarely feel the need to filter after I’ve used Snapsneed to dress up my photos. Check our tutorial here if you’re not familiar with it.

7. Use a lens. Wait, what? Its a camera phone. If you want to be even MORE creative with your phone photos, add some lenses like those found over at the Photojojo store. Small, magnetic, and easy to take with you. They have a wide variety including even a polarizer (I don’t have that one yet!).

What else have you thought about while shooting with your camera phone? Share in the comments below, and happy shooting!

 

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Florida

I Learn How to Boogie Board in Florida

The #Gulf of Mexico. #nofilter #currentlywandering #ocean #beach

This is a post by our 8 year old daughter Rachel. She asked if she could contribute and as we are working on writing skills as part of her road school curriculum, I happily consented. Please leave her some encouragement so she’ll want to keep writing!

 

I know how to boogie board!
It is hard to catch a wave.
It feels awesome when you catch one!
Andrew is learning how and Cara never tried.
I’m the champion of the family!
Sometimes I get dunked.                                                                                                                                                                                                         You go super fast when you catch a wave too.                                                                                                                                                               When I get tired I go make sand castles on the beach.

Tips for people who are learning (or who want to learn):

1. You can’t be too late or early, the wave has to be white or bubbly.

2. You have to have your hands high on the board.

3. Jump onto the board when the wave hits you.

4. You can kick your feet to gain some speed.

Footnotes by Jess: Rachel learned how to boogie board at Dr. Julian G. Bryce Saint George Island State Park. This state park is located out on an island off of Eastpoint, Florida. Its out there. You cross a bridge, go through a small town, pass through the ranger station, and then KEEP GOING. If you are looking for remote out of the way, beach goodness, this is your place. There looked to be plenty of vacation/seaside houses to rent, or hotels, but the campground is gorgeous. You can even kayak in to one of their primitive campsites (totally has hit my bucket list).

The campground has water & electric hookups, with a great shower house. There’s also playground for the kids and a nature trail that was good for running/exercise for me. The beaches were great, but not the long stretches of beautiful white-sand beaches you’ll find along the Emerald Coast to the west.

What to do while you are there:

  • Rent a bike in town. We saw lots of bike & kayak rental shops. There’s a paved pathway leading through town that Sam rode a portion of on his road bike. Most of these places were closed while we were (too off season?).
  • Play in the ocean. Obviously. There are a few different parking lots with boardwalks. We walked to the one closest to the campground and deemed it good enough. This is pretty much all we did for 3 days. Our oldest two learned how to boogie board, Cara played in the sand. I read my book. It was fabulous.
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Florida State Parks

Jess Parks the Airstream – Manatee State Park, Florida

Manatee Springs State Park FloridaHaving slightly more trailer towing experience, I have been doing all the driving whilst towing the Airstream. Jess has been determined since we set off from Virginia to become familiar with all the ins and outs of daily operation. She knows how to safely connect power and water, and could probably dump the tanks by herself if she tried.

Her first towing experience barely counted: She started at a highway rest area and stopped at a highway rest area. Her major obstacle was a construction zone, where she deftly dodged orange cones.

Her first REAL towing experience was a few weeks later, driving North from Tampa to Manatee Springs State Park, our destination for the night. She took over when I needed to join a phone conference. She piloted us beautifully along the highway to the town just outside the state park for a small grocery stop. I was finished with my call by that time, but she wanted to take us all the way in.

Checking into the entrance station, we were assigned spot 84 and given a map to the site. We pulled up to the site, and I jumped out to spot Jess as she backed the 28 foot Airstream into our campsite.

I quickly gained a new level of respect for Jess’ skill at spotting me as I back up. I barely managed to keep an eye on all the trees, the water and power posts, fire ring, the Airstream and truck, all while staying in view of the truck’s mirrors.

She did fine, and even received an encouraging comment from a patiently waiting elderly camper. We added a few boards to level the trailer, then unhitched, hooked up utilities, and even pulled out the awnings. Success!

We were quite pleased with ourselves and the beauty of the park and campsite. About a half hour later, we realized that we had carefully parked ourselves in campsite 80, not 84 as assigned.

We checked the next morning to see if we could stay in spot 80 instead, but to our dismay told that reservations had been made for site 80, and we’d need to move. She let me re-park it.

Despite our parking mishap, we rather enjoyed our stay, including some play time on the park’s play set, swimming in the freshwater spring, and riding bikes around the campground. I managed to pull in just enough Verizon signal to get my work done. If we hadn’t been in such a hurry to get to our next location, we could have enjoyed a much longer stay.