Drop-Shadow

I love drop shadows. It gives a label or ad some depth and dimension.  They're so simple but a bit tedious.

Start with 2 copies of what you want to say.  Size them equally.

The first set of fonts should be a lighter shade. The second should me much darker but in a complimenting shade. Keep your colors in the same category.

Indigo=Light Blue

Maroon=Pale Pink

Black=Grey

Stagger your fonts on top of each other. Decide which side you want your shadow to be on. You don't want too much white space in between your 2 fonts. Too much space will make the shadow look messy, discombobulated, and lazy.

An easy way to keep your shadow clean is to use your arrow keys. Put the fonts directly ontop of each other and start by taking the dark top font 4 clicks up and 4 to the right. Do this with each word and you will have perfect spacing with a nice shadow. 

Add any other decorative fonts to pull your poster together. I chose to add the continents in a bright yellow typewriter font. I wanted it to encircle "See The World" and mimic the shape of the globe. In the TEXT panel, adjust your font into an "arc" or "circle". Add spacing to the end of the words in your text box to create a circle with a gap on the bottom. Leaving room for the word "world".

I added an anchor to put emphasis on the nautical theme. 

 Here's the completed sign!

 Cheers, mate!
-Laura

Business As Usual + Ads

Exciting progress:
I had a former customer contact me for another shoot. Artsy headshots. I am all for it.
My first paid Facebook post got me 800+ views in 1 day.
I decided to offer Mini Sessions for prom season. Doing lots of promotion for those.

I love creating my own adds.  Mixing fonts is something I enjoy and take pride in. I'm like a font nerd. Have you ever been on DaFonts.com? It's like creativity heaven. Thousands of fonts. Each different from the other. When mixed properly you can create tasteful eye-catching posts and ads. I'm not a tutorialist or a DIY queen or professional blogger. But I thought I'd share my thoughts and ideas.

The black, square ad is for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The white one is resized and edited for paper copies.
I also completed a spring ad that will be released on the Spring Equinox. I use PicMonkey to create all of my ads. Any fonts can be saved and used through PicMonkey...which is just too handy to not take advantage of.

That's all for today. I'm gonna print out some flyers for the Prom Mini Sessions and get them out into the areas around nearby high schools. Cheers to that endeavor. Only 1 day left between me and the weekend. :)
-Laura

Random

I made it out onto the lake in Spring Park. It was totally freezing, but I was able to connect with a bunch of small business from the Mid-West. It was probably one of the most interesting and random experiences I've ever dealt with. Imagine this- You head out to the lake to retrieve some stunning photos of the sunset and instead, end up chatting with business owners and taking pictures of their business' fishing competition....which honestly was kindof a cool idea for a business. Scrap the corporate dinner and head out to the ice. Anyway, I emailed them the photos and they loved them. Basically I wanted to take sunset photos and ended up getting my name spread while taking pictures of a local business. It was a cool day. :)

Options

So, I started selling photos on Shutterstock. I've been reading that it's a good way to sell photos and bring in extra income so that's the new thing I'm trying. I also have a wedding to shoot on Wednesday so I am super excited for that! It's good progress. Slow but steady. I'm getting pumped for this spring as well....as I'm hoping that I can book a bunch of senior sessions. I'm also looking into some internships with successful photographers from the area. Lots of options and lots of stress :) Typical life.

Bloom Where You're Planted

2/1/2018

Took photos of some beautiful bouquets yesterday in preparation for Valentines Day! I'm not big into the festivities...but these botanical blooms are just too pretty and perfect to not enjoy.

My mini shoot giveaway ends the 4th and I'm excited to see who I end up doing sessions with.
Still trying to brainstorm how to bring in INCOME...but I'm gonna slave away on this and keep building my photography empire.
I'll be bringing in a stack of photos to a business later tomorrow to spread my name more in the local area.
-Laura :)