How to Take Pictures in a New Dorm Room

How to Take Pictures in a New Dorm Room 

{A Step-by-Step Guide}

* indicates an optional step

Step 1: Convince your roommate to stand in the middle of the room.

Step 2: Make her stand there as you adjust camera settings, curtains and blinds until you are able to achieve the lighting you were aiming for.

Step 3: [Using two tacks] Pin up a super fancy backdrop (*cough cough* bed sheet bought at Target specifically for this purpose)

Step 4: Allow your roommate to tuck the bottom of the super fancy backdrop out of the way when not in use (because she did let you put it over her doorway, after all.)

Step 5: Bribe your roommate to stand in the middle of the room [in front of the sheet] for you again.

Step 6: Continue adjusting things to achieve desired "look".

*Step 7: Invite your friend with newly dyed pink hair to come pose for you.

*Step 8: Tell her to pose like she is Gwen Stefani and she knows how awesome she is.

*Step 9: Introduce a fun prop (such as this pretty blue chair that complements her hair color wonderfully)

Step 10: Load them to your computer and have lots of fun editing!!

And that's the end.

~Karalee

Photography styles

I've been debating about what to post today. The other day, I took a whole bunch of photos (warm weather inspires me), intending to post them on Sunshine Valley and here.
Then I thought, "Maybe I could tell them a little bit more about my photography style."
We all have our own styles. Some of us like portraits, some landscapes, some macro, some black and white, the list goes on and on.
My personal favorite? The little things in life--macro, textures, and so on and so forth. I like to take pictures of things that people don't think about very often. Shingles, shadows, and sunshine.
It seems like everyone's so busy being in a hurry these days that they don't take time to look at the little things in life. It's our job as photographers to capture special moments, ideas, little things, places, and so many other things, so that others might at least take 10 seconds out of their busy day to look at some photos.
I think everyone likes looking at pictures. Some of us like to look at pictures of far off places and dream of sunny beaches and crowded streets. Some of us like to look at pictures that make us think, "Mmm... chocolate chip cookies!"
And it's good that we all have our own style. What would this world be like if no one took pictures of food? What would it be like if no one bothered with portraits? What if no one took pictures for the newspaper?
A world with only one type of photos would be rather boring.

So here are my photos that capture a bit of my photography style.