How I Take My Blog Photos

I get asked this question all the time. I’m always getting emails about blogging and what I do and how I do it and the most frequently asked question is always how do I take my blog photos?

I think that photos on a blog are really important – I try to make my blog as visual as possible – I think it makes the content more engaging and I love being able to demonstrate exactly what I’m talking about otherwise I would just talk in drivel for paragraphs trying to describe it! (I’m very good at drivel-talking!)

Honestly, I don’t know much AT ALL about photography. As in, at all. It is something that is on my list of things I want to work on and improve for my blog. Along with finding a logo designer I love who can make my front page look awesome (any ideas of who to go to, please please comment!) and many other things that I want to build on as my blog grows and rapidly becomes a bigger part of my life.

For my 21st birthday I asked for an SLR digital camera – I’d done my research and asked around and knew the kind of thing I wanted – but when it actually came down to it, I didn’t really know what I was looking for.
Despite my apparent naivety about photography, I chose a pretty good one – The Nikon D3100 – and it has served me REALLY well since. Since I started blogging it has been pretty much everywhere with me in my bag or over my shoulder and it is still in remarkably good shape. (It’s had it’s fair share of bumps and bruises and has spent time in my handbag that wouldn’t be survivable by any living thing!)

What I like about this camera is that it is very very easy to use. You can put it on an automatic flash setting, on a “flash-off” setting or you can get very detailed with changing of shutter speeds/sport mode/night mode etc if you have a bit more time to work out what you are doing. I tend to use a mixture of all of the settings, but for most of my blog photos, particularly products, I just turn off the flash, find some decent natural light and click.

Editing-wise I don’t edit my photos much – I upload them in to iPhoto and alter the brightness and saturation a bit, but honestly apart from that, I don’t really have a clue how to do much more to them, and I don’t really think a huge amount is needed.

So, in answer to the several people who have asked – I use a Nikon D3100 with no snazzy settings in good natural light and I don’t really edit much at all.

Hope that helps!

Ironically, the first two photos in this post were taken on my iPhone…..Unfortunately, A Girl On A Journey doesn’t quite have the budget to have a camera to take photos of her camera just yet! 🙂

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21 Comments

  • Reply
    Carmen Varner
    August 16, 2015 at 8:32 am

    I began with an iPhone as well & then started using my Sony Alpha. Photos can definitely make the blog so much prettier. :]

    // ▲ itsCarmen.com ▲

  • Reply
    Dana Andersen
    August 16, 2015 at 10:39 am

    I really need to up my blog photo game! I love the photos on your blog so much and definitely thought they'd take a really long time to edit 😛

  • Reply
    Laura Clarke
    August 16, 2015 at 11:10 am

    I love your honesty, I don't have a clue about editing my photos and agree they look absolutely fine xx

  • Reply
    Jasmine Poole
    August 16, 2015 at 11:57 am

    Woohoo photography! My main love.
    Jas } jaspooleblog.com

  • Reply
    Kimberley Vassell
    August 16, 2015 at 12:42 pm

    Holly Goldingay designed my logo and she was lovely! Exactly what I wanted! Her link is on my blog in the 'Contact/Disclaimer' section, but if you Google her name she should come up
    http://www.brightgreenroom.com

  • Reply
    Renee
    August 16, 2015 at 1:49 pm

    I received the Nikon D3100 for my 22nd birthday! I'm 25 now and that thing is still working great. I actually dropped it the very first day I used it and smashed the viewfinder! Its fuzzy when I look into it but it still works. I hope to learn how to take better photos/edit my photos better as well.

    Renee | Lose The Road

  • Reply
    Jon Stansberry
    August 16, 2015 at 7:39 pm

    Natural light is THE best light, I reckon! Although, I bought some soft boxes and they are beautiful to use alongside natural light, they make it a tad bit brighter and prettier!

    Jon. x | Jonnuxx.com

  • Reply
    Diana Parum
    August 16, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    We have the same cam 🙂
    I love mine!! Works amazingly

    http://dianaparum.blogspot.co.uk/

  • Reply
    Frizzy Teapot
    August 18, 2015 at 2:19 am

    I do the exact same thing with my photos. It can get a bit frustrating though!

    frizzyteapot.blogspot.com

  • Reply
    Alina
    August 28, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    I'm always fascinated to hear about how others do their pics!

    PS I have a NIkon too and have a list to improve on 😉

    The Fairytale Pretty Picture

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:52 pm

    I totally agree – just makes it all more engaging! 🙂
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    Thank you – so glad you like them. 🙂
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:54 pm

    Hehe – I'm all about honesty – much better than pretending I have a clue when I don't! Ha!
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:54 pm

    Glad you like the post! 🙂
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:55 pm

    Oh Thank you! I'll do that! You star! 🙂
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:56 pm

    It's fab, isn't it?! So good!
    I'm still learning – but I do enjoy it! 🙂
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:57 pm

    I think as I get to know a bit more about it all I may end up investing in something like that, but at the moment, I don't know enough about it all! 🙂
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:57 pm

    So good, isn't it?! I love it!
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:58 pm

    The thing that gets me is how time consuming it is – it often takes me longer to do the photos than it does to write the post!
    R xx

  • Reply
    Rosie Ladkin
    August 28, 2015 at 5:59 pm

    I think we all have a list of things for our blogs – its nice to see them develop! 🙂
    R xx

  • Reply
    Blog A Book Etc
    February 6, 2016 at 10:42 pm

    I started out taking most of my photos with my DSLR and still love it but it is really quite bulky. A couple of Christmases ago now I got a smaller camera but now mostly use my phone as the camera is pretty good. If I had to choose a replacement DSLR I would definitely go for a Nikon. I don't know much about camera settings etc but the pictures I have seen come out of a Nikon vs Canon just without flash in good light are better for some reason xx

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