There is definitely pressure to have nice photography when writing a blog. You want to put out pretty pictures that readers will enjoy, and you also want to show your mediocre amazing projects in the best light possible their true glory.
Both Sage and I have DSLR cameras that we use for most blog photos – and this makes a huge difference. We take the time to clean up, arrange good shots, and edit our photos so this place can look nice. I’m not saying we’re stellar photographers, but we do try to put our best foot forward.
If our theme, set-up, and logo are like the decorations of our online home, then our photos are like good staging and accessories – changing, but ideally coordinated and stylish.
However, half of our name is “Disaster,” and, trust us, we’re not actually coordinated and stylish. We’ve been tricking you this whole time! Hah!
Just kidding. We’ve been trying all along to show off our disaster sides. Sage shared her tale about trying to install a toilet, I pointed out everything that went wrong with my big doors project, and we’ve shared a lot of what is wrong with our homes along the way, like holes in the walls and doors, gaps in the ceilings, and the truth about “our garden sheds.”
In keeping with that grand tradition, today I am going to share a little about what was going on behind the scenes of three of my recent photos.
Of course you remember the side table that we made out of a thrift store plastic cactus as part of the Mystery Thrift Off by Lindsay at Better After. I mean, it IS award-winning, after all. To show off that project, I arranged this nice shot of it sitting next to my favorite red armchair, in a sunny room filled with light and plants.
I feel great about this photo – it was even featured on Apartment Therapy! But the reality is that it was not a nice sunny day: it was horrible, cloudy, and muggy. (Cloudy is much, much better when shooting into the window.) And that nice row of plants?
Yeah, totally faked by stacking pots at various heights onto my dinky metal shelf. I love they way it looked, but unfortunately don’t have anything that is the right height and size!
“Tra la la, I wonder what I should make for dinner – certainly nothing that needs a pot!”
I somehow needed to disassemble the entire living room and kitchen to get to that simple arrangement. Brad laid on the couch looking at me like I was crazy (I was) and asking if I was going to “take that cactus thing out of the living room when I was done” (I wasn’t).
Speaking of the living room – in my post to show off my new throw pillows, I shared some shots of them looking all bright and happy in a tidy living room.
But, really, I took those shots in a rush before going to work one morning, and my “cleaning” in the living room actually created this disaster in the dining room.
Brad was not pleased when he got up and couldn’t find any of his stuff. (You might be noticing that he gets the short end of a lot of these blog-related photo shoots.)
Finally, when I talked about the fun Pacman magnets that Brad and I made last week, I shared some nice shots of them in use, holding up photos and quotes against a crisp white fridge.
… Or, rather, them sitting on a piece of painted plywood that is mascarading as a fridge while lying in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Hey, at least it was the right room!
My fridge is unfortunately beige. It is useful for keeping food cold, but not really for glamorous photoshoots. Here is how the magnets would look in their natural habitat: fine, but not quite “pin-worthy.”
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed going a bit behind the scenes into the making of some of these posts! As we keep improving our photography, we’ll keep coming up with increasingly clever ways to fool you into thinking we live in bright, happy, pristine wonderlands. Don’t believe us.
(Sharing at Think and Make Thursday, Weekend Retreat Link Party, Remodelaholic, Two Uses Tuesday, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Tip Me Tuesday, Thrifty Decor Chick’s Before and Afters, Create It Thursday, Pin Junkie Pin Party, Link Party Palooza, Idea Box, and Your Turn to Shine Link Party)
oh the things we do to get a pin-worthy shot! love seeing your behind the scenes!
Thanks, Amanda! It’s all pretty ridiculous, when you think about it 🙂
It makes us all feel a little better that we aren’t the only ones falling over toys and junk. Life is too much about other things, RIGHT? I think so.
I’m glad, Gail! There are so many more important things to do than clean the house.. make awesome pacman magnets out of cement, for example. Or write posts about awesome pacman magnets out of cement 😉
It’s so interesting to see what goes into a photo shoot. And here I thought you lived in a model house, je , je , je. All kidding aside, I appreciate your efforts in helping us imagine what our house could look like.
Thanks, Melva! What a terrible model house it would be….
Fun post! My favorite is when I can’t even find a clean surface to snap an instagram pic of something from the thrift store or whatever. It’s not really my favorite. I hate it. But that’s I get for having four kids, I guess 😉
Oh, I can’t even imagine trying to do this with four kids! Although my trick for a clean surface is having those painted plywood pieces… they just lean up in a closet when not in use so they don’t even have a chance to be dirty 🙂 Thanks!
Your “disaster” posts are among my favorites. Keep up the great content!
Thanks, Stephanie! Don’t worry… it is VERY EASY for us to create disasters to write about 🙂
I love how you share so honestly about the behind the scenes aspect of your posts. As a reader, it is easy to feel like I could never do anything as picture perfect as what you feature on your blog. The mess in your dining room when you were getting the living room photo ready is REAL and I think it’s great 🙂
Thanks, Keri! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I’m astounded at how picture perfect this place can sometimes look in photos. Let me just say that cropping stuff out of the shot goes a long way 🙂 I’d say its 99.9% mess, so I aim the camera at that 0.1%!
Gail I know exactly what you are up to. I had climbed up on a bunk bed the other day to take a picture. But once I got up there I noticed there were shoes in the picture frame, so down I climbed… moved the shoes and then up again on the bunk bed. As I was ready to take the picture I noticed something else that did not belong in the frame… well you get the idea. Reality is messy. Thanks for sharing and for the laughs.
Oh, that drives me crazy, too! It takes so many adjustments to get it just right. I’ll often just give up and “rethink” my shot to a closer crop 😉 Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I absolutely loved this! So glad to know I’m NOT alone!
Thanks, Ronda – glad to know I’M not alone!
Oh! So True! How many times I have kept transferring things around the room in order to get a good picture! Thanks for a good laugh and making it real!!
I know! Sometimes I feel like I am playing a game of mancala will all of the stuff I own. My poor coffee table gets dragged all over the place to get its edge out of every shot. Thanks for reading, Pamela!
Ha ha! My husband is just starting to learn about me rearranging everything for pictures. Or I have a perfect spot in our side yard that has amazing light right after the sun goes down behind the house after dinner so we hurry and load everything outside to do a photoshoot before it gets too dark.
That’s so funny about the side yard! I think it would be a hard sell to get Brad to carry things in and out of the house on a regular basis, although he is pretty tolerant of the insanity, actually.
I love that you shared these behind the scenes photos and explanations! I actually got a few ideas too!
Tania
Thanks, Tania! It is great to be no longer carrying all those dark secrets 😉 Glad it was helpful!!
I love this post. Its encouraging to know that other people have to spend a lot of time taking photos as well. I’m not good at it at all lol but i’m working on it. It’s a little annoying because it takes FOREVER to get a good picture. Glad to know that’s normal haha 😀
I know, it takes so long! But I guess everyone does it. Unfortunately, life doesn’t just make itself picture perfect (looking at you, dust and clutter).
I love your honesty in this post! I think all of us bloggers can relate. 🙂 Thanks for sharing it at Totally Terrific Tuesday Link Party this week!
Thanks for coming by, Christie!
I love that someone finally did a post about this haha
XO Ellen from Ask Away
http://www.askawayblog.com
Thank you! Glad you found us!
Love seeing the truth! Thanks for sharing! Here from 2UsesTuesday.
Thanks, Melinda! Nice to get that off my chest 🙂
I love this post! I’ve been trying to improve the photography on my blog by “tricking” the viewers into thinking I have a pristine home and life too. I love your tricks and think that your photography looks fantastic! 🙂
Thanks, Gina! Tricking is totally the way to go – actually having a pristine home and life would be just too much 😉