Mother's Day Giveaway from Mamatography Photo Workshops & Print My Picture Online

Mother's Day is this Sunday, which means it's OUR week!

To kick things off, Mamatography Photo Workshops & Print My Picture Online have joined teams to present to you a PRINT YOUR PICS Mother's Day Giveaway.

{No time to read this post? Just scroll down to the Rafflecopter form below to enter this GIVEAWAY!}

I am a fan of Print My Picture Online because I've ordered from them in the past to output my family photos. For this series below, I had them print a series of my Instagram (Follow me here!) snapshots either done w/ my iPhone or iPad. I was super impressed with how they came out! Who would ever think that you could get such quality pieces to show off in your home w/ a smart device?

5x5 Canvases from Print My Picture Online

16x20 Canvas from Print My Picture Online 
Photo by Lisa Della Bella

I recently sat down via web conference with Erica Bean, founder of Print My Picture Online, and asked her where the inspiration for her business came from. AND if she had any tips to share with the Mamatography readers on how to output their photos on Canvas.

Here's what she had to say: 

When my children were small I wanted to save every moment in time. I knew it was all going to be over in the blink of an eye. I took pictures of EVERYTHING! My home was filled with albums and supplies for scrapbooking, but I still felt as though I was missing out. I had all these great “pages” but none of them were on display anywhere. I decided I wanted images on my walls instead of the oil paintings they were filled with. I ordered large prints from all the typical “labs” but hated how they never looked right. The low quality had me searching for professional labs. To my dismay, their services were not available to me because I was not a professional photographer. But why did I need to be a professional to get quality images printed? I was determined that my pictures were deserving enough of quality printing. That is when my mission began! I wanted to offer the availability to anyone for professional quality printing at an affordable price. The same goes for our new frame line, BEAN Framed. They are available to anyone who takes pictures at an affordable price!

Some tips for printing on Canvas: 

Personally I've always LOVED photos on canvas! It gives such dimension and adds interest to your wall art. Have you ever wondered why some have the image on the sides and others don’t? It is a simple explanation, however, getting this effect doesn’t happen without some planning and forethought. When you are submitting photos to be printed on canvas you need to plan for the image to have approx. 2 inches of “expendable” space on all 4 sides. It's helpful to have computer software like Photoshop or Elements to custom size and crop your photos. Enlarging your picture to be 2inches bigger is not the fix, because you are making the images larger, you are not creating more expendable space. Expendable space happens when you are editing, even taking the photo! Don’t crop it all the way to the edge. If you do crop all the way to the edge the result, when printed on canvas, would be 1 of 2 things:
1). Blank space on the sides or 2.) 2 inches of your image (on all 4 sides) wrapped on the edge with back. This can change the whole vision you had for your art! When we feel an image is going to be affected by the wrap, we let the customer know that opting for blank sides is a better way to go!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!
xo Vicky

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A Spectacular Family Day & a Story Book Giveaway : Children's Photography Techniques : Mamatography Photo Workshops

This past weekend we had a detour in our plans. For weeks, I've been scheming with a new friend here in Panama to venture to the Caribbean coast so that I could start a photo documentary on the Kuna Yala indians and camp with our families. (My camera having been collecting dust for weeks.) But, the "sicky spirits" had a different intent for us. Both of us and our kids were completely laid up with a mega virus that apparently shows up here at the beginning of the rainy season. There are no seasons here really, just rainy and dry! With that, we wouldn't be venturing on a 3 hour car ride then to an hour wooden boat ride to a remote Caribbean island with 2 sick moms, 3 feverish kids and 2 WELL husbands.

Feeling a little better, Safi's Daddy and I decided to make lemonade out of this situation and take off for an overnighter to El Palmar Beach, a shorter drive on the Pacific side.

There, we enjoyed splashing in the water and just escaping the city. Sunday morning we took a stroll on the sand and had an al fresco breakfast. The light was perfect to snap some shots, so of course I did!

One of our favorite activities to do with Safi is reading. She especially enjoys it at breakfast time. So with the light what it was, I captured her enjoying a good read. 

I have these brand new colorful books that I've been dying to show to Safi. Back in May I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit in Miami and mingled with the best of the best Mama bloggers. There, I met an extraordinarily warm and smiley lady, Leah Lesser. She's the Communications Director for Barefoot Books, an independent children's book publisher with a vibrant twist! This month on their Facebook page they asked "What does storytime look like in your family?" and photos from moms around the world flooded in. I took quite an interest to this concept. So, this is our take on it…

Check out the giveaway that Barefoot Books is offering to Mamatography readers at the end of this post!

Later that day, we took a drive up to the mountains to El Valle for a cool off and to stroll the zoo that was highly recommended by my friend, the co-sicky. An hour drive up, then slightly down into "the valley" we arrived at  Zoo Nispero. It was an ethereal place made from my dreams I tell you! Like The Secret Garden of Panama. All the surrounding mountain peaks were covered in mist and everything was a glistening green. With that, it was PICTURE TIME!

Inside the zoo was a wide open garden with a dreamy pond and of course the backdrop of the mountains. Safi was dressed in her same vibrant orange dress from the morning which was a nice contrast to the green around her.

Now for some shooting tips…

1st, make sure that your shutter speed is always fast enough when shooting under low light conditions. As the clouds rolled in I had to increase my exposure but leaving your shutter open longer isn't usually the best way to accomplish this because you will see blur in your photos as did I. When I reviewed my shots at home, I noticed I had used 1/60 for many of what could've been my best shots. Thus, having to scrap some of them due to motion blur. Don't make my mistake! Stay in the safety zone of 1/80 when shooting off of a tripod and subjects in action.

Next, look for some kind of light in the eyes. This isn't always easy, especially when it's overcast. If possible, use a reflector if only to add a "catch light" to your subject's eyes. This means that the eyes are reflecting some sort of light source coming from the sun, flash or any other reflective service even water can produce this quality. So, always be mindful of additional light sources around you.

Lastly, when you're somewhere scenic, create some variety in your series of photos. Shoot the space you're in! Your kiddos are forever adorable, but don't forget to capture the scene itself so that when you output your photos whether it be in a printed album or on Facebook, etc. you'll always have a memory of that special place you visited with your family.

AND HERE'S THE GIVEAWAY: Enter in the Rafflecopter below to win your choice of a Barefoot Book! Check out www.barefootbooks.com/shop and see what's up for grabs.

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Safi reading Who's in the Farmyard, another colorful publication by Barefoot Books

Now for an end note, I have some very BIG announcements to make in the coming weeks and have been plugging away on the Mamatography Instructional Photo App. 

Stay tuned for all the goodness!

Happy Shooting, Vicky