Family photo displays don’t have to be a cheesy thing that only grandmas do, and to prove it, here’s a bunch of tips and different ways to create family photo displays in your home!

Whether you want to cover a whole wall with memories or just add an accent to a shelf or mantle, we’ve got your options covered …

Looking for a frame DIY for your photos? Check out:

• Wooden Circle Photo Frame DIY
• Pom-Pom Photo Frame DIY
• Lucite Block Photo Frame DIY
• Floating Acrylic Frame DIY
• Quick + Easy Wooden Hanger Frames

For this post, we are partnering with Canon USA, and one of our favorite things about using their printers to print at home is the flexibility it gives you to choose from. You can print large scale photos, mantle-sized options, as well as smaller pocket-sized 2″ x 3″ photos (and everything in between) depending on the printer option that’s right for you.

Printing from home also means that you can switch out your photos whenever you like from the comfort of your own home!

One question we get asked quite a bit is which printer we recommend, and we do have a few printers across the team. Our three favorite printers are the:

• First, the PIXMA TS9521C, which is an all-in-one crafting printer. It can handle up to 12×12 borderless prints and is an amazing multi-function printer.
• The PIXMA MegaTank G3260 printer is super versatile and has a massive ink supply, so you don’t have to refill your printer ink very often. There’s nothing worse than being ready to go on a project and having to go find ink!
• The Canon IVY is the cutest pocket printer that lets you print directly from your phone. It uses ZINK technology so you don’t need ink and you can turn your photos into stickers by peeling the back!

Stick with the same frame and size for easy matching:

Elsie’s large family gallery wall is full of photo memories, but by keeping the same size and frame for each one, it really helps it all look like part of a collection. You can choose frame colors that are similar to your wall color if you want them to blend into the wall a bit more.

Sometimes this is helpful for large galleries so it doesn’t look too overwhelming and heavy. Or, you can choose a frame color/material that stands out if you want to make it more of a visual statement.

Use one frame to contain multiple related photos:

When you have a series of photos that are related to each other (first day of school every year, yearly family vacation photo, etc.), using one frame like I did for my daughter’s first year photos is a great way to have a photo collection in one spot.

Simply cut a mat to your frame size and then cut as many windows as you need so your family photo collection can live in harmony in one frame.

Choose a similar color palette for your photos:

Keeping your photos within a limited color palette is a great way to give a balanced and cohesive look to a photo display. Whether you choose an all black-and-white option (probably the easiest way to go) or choose photos that have similar colors in them, matching the tones will go a long way in making it feel like a curated collection.

If your photos have a range of colors that are a bit all over the place without much of a theme, then turning them black and white or sepia toned like Emma’s Mineral Photo Display is a good way to get them all to match and override the color clashing.

Choose a mix of close up and further away shots for your photos:

Having different photo crops is another way to add visual interest. Sometimes you may want to show more of the setting (like your beach photo or when you went to the Grand Canyon), but mix that in with closer shots or selfies so all the people and faces aren’t far away.

You can also hang a small display like I did with this Vertical Gold Hoop Photo Display!

Go big (and small):

Using a large scale photo display on a wall is a great way to add a personal touch to a space, but not every family photo display needs to be huge.

Mix it up with larger displays in some areas and use other smaller displays (like this easy five-minute wooden ball photo holder DIY or Lucite Block Photo Frame DIY) on mantles, desks, dressers, and shelves.

Don’t forget to update!

I’m definitely guilty as a parent of keeping around photos of my daughter when she was teeny-tiny, but I try to make sure that I also have a mix of photos throughout the years so I don’t eventually have a teenager with only her baby pictures up.

Make an effort to take new photos and actually print out and display recent memories so that your walk down memory lane can come right up to where you are now.

There you go! Following these simple tips can help you get a cohesive family photo display that fits into your home and your personality.

Hope this inspires you to print out some of your favorite memories! Do you have any other creative ways you like to display your family pictures? xo. Laura

Check out our Home Decor category for more decorating ideas!

Love this post about great filters to use for food photography. I also just love looking at pretty food photos. Anyone else?

Here is a tutorial on how to get vibrant blue skies in your photos. Pretty!

Tips for taking photos in direct sunlight. Always such a challenge—love the perspective the author, Katie, shares.

Really love this post about being present while holding a camera. We want to MAKE memories in addition to capturing them with our cameras. Love it!

And if you’re a fan of our design app, A Design Kit, then you might like this tutorial for five ways to use the collage feature. Plus tips for creating clean designs and choosing a color palette.

For so many +packs of filters or effects we have tutorials on how to use them (often written by the creators of the pack) and so much more! And did you know that A Color Story has a marketplace of Lightroom presets and Photoshop actions created by some of our favorite photographers as well as the ACS team? You can also submit to sell your own presets/actions by emailing us at: hello@acolorstory.com.

If you’re looking to up your photo skills (from your smartphone OR a DSLR), check out our website as we’re always looking for ways to add more value. Thanks for letting me share! xo. Emma

Where and what to shoot: My favorite time to shoot great bokeh shots is at night, especially city scenes! The best part of being in a busier city or even on a busy road is that you have plenty of lights to use for your bokeh. Let’s say it’s nighttime and you have some great city lights … now what? Your lens choice is really the key to unlocking great bokeh. You will want the lens with the lowest aperture or biggest opening. Some great lenses for bokeh include the Canon 1.8, 1.4 or 1.2.

Once you have your lens ready to roll, look for lots of lights. The more lights the better! Also look for a range of colors so that your bokeh is visually interesting with lots of contrast in colors! In the photos below, I decided to shoot my bokeh on a rainy day through glass because it added an extra dimension to the photo, making my final images feel very abstract (this also protected me and my camera from the rain, added bonus!). Try shooting through a window or some kind of glass to capture a reflection, raindrops or just to give your photo added interest.

In the above photos, I wanted to create an abstract type photo, so my bokeh is technically not in focus. It sounds a bit funny, but you can actually make your blurred lights out of focus. Try taking photos of your bokeh really sharp and then some with them slightly out of focus. I wrote a post on creating shapes in bokeh that might challenge you to get creative! You can also find more instructions for how to get bokeh in general on that post. You can also put an item between you and your lights. Focus on the item while keeping your aperture at a very low number (larger lens opening) and by having low depth of field then you will have bokeh created from the lights in the background. I find that keeping your lens on manual focus instead of automatic focus is really helping in getting sharp and distinct bokeh shapes.

Next up is lens flare. Who doesn’t love a beautiful light beam streaming through a photo? That glowy feel can make any photo SO much better. A lens flare happens when sun hits your lens. Lens flare can be your worst enemy or your best friend, as they are beautiful, but if you don’t know how to control them, they could block your subject or ruin a photo. Knowing how to manipulate lens flare can be a huge asset to your photography. When you learn a few tricks, the lens flare can be a tool that enhances your photos instead of a pesky thing that ruins them.

How to stop lens flare: Sometimes lens flare can utterly ruin your photo! The strong light coming into your lens can wash out the whole image, creating a muddy, low contrast photo. Even though you might have a gorgeous beam of light flowing through your frame, your image as a whole can be very poor quality. You can diminish lens flare by blocking it! In order to block lens flare, you need to block the sun from flowing directly into your lens. This can be achieved by using a lens hood or even your hand.

Simply put on your lens hood and the plastic hood will block the flare! If you don’t have a lens hood, place your hand above your camera. Look into your viewfinder and move your hand above your camera until the lens flare is gone. Be careful not to get your hand in the frame. A blurred thumb in a photo is definitely a possibility when you are using your hand to shield the light. Another way to prevent lens flare is move around until your lens flare is gone. I know this sounds so very simple, but it is quite effective! In the photo below, I had no lens flare, but just great golden hour light pouring onto the cactus. By simply moving slightly to the side, I caught the sun’s light in my lens. The direct light flowing into my lens created a strong lens flare. Do you notice how a lot of the detail in the right photo is lost due to the lens flare?

In the photo below, I lowered my camera a bit so that the sun was hidden behind some bushes. The bushes created a diffuser to the sun and made the lens flare not as harsh. I am still getting that great flare while maintaining detail in my photo!

Always use a diffuser if your lens flare is too harsh. A diffuser could be a tree behind your subject or a tall building, anything that will block the light a bit to lighten the strength of the lens flare.

You can also use the maximum lens flare to your advantage. In the photo below, I wanted the little girl’s skirt to be really light and airy. I didn’t care about detail in the skirt that much, as I wanted to capture more of a feeling than a clear representation of what was present. I wanted the glow from the sun to take over my whole frame. In this photo, I did not use my lens hood, and I really love the results.

Your preference of whether or not to use lens flare comes down to what you like. Every photo, model and lighting situation is different. So just play around with lens flares until you like what you see.

Happy shooting! – Janae

Credits // Author and Photography: Janae Hardy.

Whenever I see a real Claude Monet painting, I am amazed by his ability to transform a scene and make it seem like it is dancing in front of my eyes. I feel like you can actually see the water lilies floating on top of the water or see the clouds moving across his landscapes. There seems to be a light jitter in these paintings that gives the feel and effect of movement.

In a somewhat similar way, we are going to try to make abstracts, but we’ll be using a different medium—our cameras. Through keeping our shutter open longer and by letting things move in our pictures, we will create abstracts.

With a longer shutter speed, a simple reflection on the water turns into a glassy wave of colors. Or a child running in a bright outfit results in swirls of color darting through your frame. The options are endless when it comes to the outcome of images you can create.

Seeing the movement: As with many aspects of photography, you need to be able to notice things in your scene. Noticing all the details takes practice because you have to actually stop, look and study. I think seeing the movement can be even trickier because your brain really has to focus on what is happening. You have to see the movement before it happens.

In the photo below, I heard the man on the motorcycle coming. I knew I wanted him to be blurred, so I fixed my camera settings so that my shutter was on for a longer period of time. We will go over shutter speed in a bit, but by knowing he was driving by, I could foresee blurring him.

Capturing the movement: To capture movement, a lot has to happen in camera, but don’t let that intimidate you. It’s actually quite simple. Yes, this is very much about shutter speed, but some other elements from your camera come into play as well. First, to ensure that you get a clean image with low grain, set your camera to the lowest ISO possible.

This shouldn’t be a problem at all if you are using your tripod. In fact, whenever you are using your tripod, always use a lower ISO. It is a free gift that the tripod gives, so always take advantage of it! If you are outdoors (it depends on how bright it is), but start with using ISO 100 and work your way up. I try to not shoot over ISO 400 if I am outdoors.

Once your ISO is set, you’ll need to set your aperture. Think about your depth of field (DOF) and how much you want in focus. Do you want a deep focus that extends through the picture, just the object or just a small area in focus? A quick tip: Start your aperture at 2.0 or 2.8 for shallow focus. If you want more DOF, start somewhere around 5.6 and work your way up to a higher number. Once your ISO and aperture are set, the fun part begins!

Let’s just take a picture with a correctly exposed image. Your camera will tell you when it is correctly exposed when you turn the dial of the shutter speed moving it up or down and take a picture.

Do you see movement? If not, turn your shutter speed to a lower number (this will overexpose your image) and snap another picture. You’ll see that you have a brighter picture than the last. Do you have movement? If not, move your shutter speed and slow it down a bit more.

It can take a little while to find the amount of movement you want to show. When you move your shutter speed up and your image is overexposed, you will need to compensate the exposure by lowering your ISO (making it less sensitive to the light) or taking your aperture to a higher number. Doing both of these things will help compensate for a longer shutter speed.

To freeze or not to freeze: When do you know whether a picture will look good blurred or sharp? It all comes down to trial and error. There have been SO many times when I have taken a picture, but when I explored a little more and tested my limits, the end result was so much stronger than the original!

So my advice is to take a still picture (with a fast shutter speed) and then a blurred picture (with a slow shutter speed). Now review both pictures on your camera screen and see which one you like best. If you aren’t crazy about what you’re getting, move on to a different subject or change your camera settings. It all comes down to what pleases YOUR eye!

Can’t wait to see what you create! – Janae

I know if I have ever rushed through a shoot and haven’t adequately reviewed my images and zoomed in on each subject to make sure they are sharp, I can be left with someone or something out of focus.

It is a VERY frustrating thing. One thing in your frame can look perfect while the other is blurry. This can be worse when photographing multiple people in one image.

Just to recap a bit, when you use your focus points (when your camera is in manual mode), you get to choose the point that your camera focuses on. Having this control is absolutely important because it gives you the freedom to focus on EXACTLY what you want.

But let’s say you have two subjects in a frame, and you want both of them focused. Is there any way to split your focus and get both of them sharp? Let’s look at several ways to make this happen.

Depth of field: When you are wanting to have multiple things in your photograph sharp and in focus, it can be a bit of a technical game. You have to manipulate one thing to make another thing happen. Your depth of field is basically what is in focus in your camera frame. What is depth of field? Think of it as “how much of the depth is in focus” in your frame.

It is the distance/length of the objects in focus in your frame. The less depth of field, the less you will have in focus. The more depth of field, the more you will have in focus. In other words, the lower your aperture (small number but big opening), the less you have in focus.

The higher your aperture (big number but small opening), the more you will have in focus.

It seems backwards, doesn’t it? Another way to think of it is if you have a low aperture number (f-stop), your depth of field will be thin. Your depth of field gets thicker when you go higher in your f-stop number. It can be a tricky theory to conceptualize and fully understand.

You may need to re-read the above sentences a few times until it really sticks in your brain! OK, using the above info, we will apply it to getting multiple subjects/objects in focus.

If you want both subjects in focus, then you will need to use a higher aperture number (f-stop). The higher your f-stop number, the more depth of field and the more you will have in focus! So shooting at say, 2.8 would probably not get both subjects in focus.

If they were standing close together it might be possible. Typically though, if I want both subjects in focus, I would start at f/5.6, focus and see how it looks. I might need to take my aperture to a higher number and increase the depth of field until I am happy with the sharpness.

Each and every situation is different, so you really must play with your camera settings until you like what you get!

How can you use your focus points and get BOTH things in focus? Remember that you can choose your focus points! Focus points are such a handy tool that you should definitely take advantage of if your camera model has them.

Choosing your focus points will drastically change your photo. If you focus on one part of your photo with a focus point and then in the next picture choose something else, it changes a lot … especially if you are using a low f-stop number! Set your focus point on the subject or subjects you want in focus.

Once your focus point is set and you’ve determined your DOF, snap a picture. If everything is not in focus, use a higher f-stop. Also, play around with your focus point, put it on different things in your frame and see the outcome.

In the shot below, we needed all of the shoes sharp. (They were hung in a tree to give them a quirky background.) So how did I get all of them sharp at the same time?

Quick tips for photographing groups of people or multiple objects: use a higher aperture number and put your focus point in the very middle of the group. In the shot below, I have the shoes in focus by putting my focus point in the middle of the tree and using an aperture with more depth of field.

A few tips to ensure sharp photos: If you follow the tips above, you should get your subjects sharp! If you’re still having issues, maybe you’re getting motion blur from your shutter speed being too slow. If you are shooting with a higher f-stop number, you are closing the opening in your camera to a smaller hole which lets in less light.

You must compensate for this by using a higher ISO OR a slower shutter speed if you have a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod, then it might be best to make your camera sensor more sensitive to light by using a higher ISO. You will get more light this way AND be able to use a higher f-stop. – Janae

Looking for more photography tips? Check out my other posts!
–What is Magic Hour?
–How to Shoot a Double Exposure
–Tips for Taking Photos in Cold Weather

Credits // Author and Photography: Janae Hardy.

To do a double exposure intentionally, you just expose the same frame of film twice. It was really easy to do with manual film cameras. You end up with two pictures put together. But you can also do it with a digital camera and get exactly what you want without having to go through rolls and rolls of film.

Quick disclaimer: Only some digital cameras have the capability to do double exposures in camera. If you’re unsure whether your specific model will do a double exposure or not, just look at your manual. I know manuals can be tricky sometimes, so just google it and check if you’re having trouble finding out!

First, let’s go over how to technically do a double exposure. Here are the steps for my camera, which is a Canon 5D Mark III:

-There is a little button on the back. It’s on the top left, and it looks like a little paintbrush and a rectangle. Press that button and it will take you to a menu.
-Scroll to the middle option, which says “multiple exposures” and select it.

-Now select “On: Func/Ctrl”. On the multi-expos ctrl, select “additive”.

-Next, on number of exposures, choose “2”.

-Next, on save source imgs, choose “all images”.

-Then, on continue mult-exp, choose “continuously” only if you want your camera to keep shooting double exposures. If you want your camera to stop shooting double exposures, select “1 shot only” and your camera will go back to normal mode after one double exposure is made.

-The very bottom option lets you choose the image for your base image. Since you need two images, you can choose one that you already took! So if you have a photo in mind that you’d like as a base image, select it! If you have a Canon 5D Mark III, you can turn on your “Live View” option and see both images together. This is called an overlay.

With the live view option, you can see exactly how you want to frame and compose your second image on your base image.

Quick note: As with most things in technology, there are many options that you can choose/change. Here, I just give you the basic idea, but there is SO much more you can do! This tutorial is just meant to get you started and jump start your double exposure knowledge.

Once you have a grasp on the basic concept, I would encourage you to dabble with your camera, read your manual, and discover all of the different options that your camera offers with double exposure. You can change blending options, how your camera saves the images, and much more.

Once your options are selected in the menu, tap your shutter release to get out of the menu and hit your live view button. Now you are ready to go.

For your base image (if you didn’t choose one you previously shot), find your subject, focus and meter, then take the picture. Your camera will have a little icon that will flash once you take the picture because it is telling you that it is in multiple exposure mode.

Now when you move your camera to take your next image, you will see what I like to call a ghost image of the picture you just took. Your camera keeps the hazy image on your screen so that you can see what your next image will look like on top of your previous one. Cool, huh?

Once you have your second image framed, don’t forget to put your focus box where you want it, and your camera will focus on that specific part of your second picture. And again, this is what my specific brand and model does; your camera could be different.

When you take the next photo, keep in mind that your SECOND picture will be seen in the dark areas of your first image. So where is a good place to start? Try taking a photo with negative space and only a minimal dark part.

This could be a cityscape with the sky blown out or a simple silhouette of a person. Your second photo will now fill in the dark spots. Since you had negative space in your first photo, your second photo will kind of melt into the white nothingness.

To practice this concept, make sure you keep your manual handy! It helps SO much when you are learning a new technical skill. Practice taking pictures with your base image being a really light background or blown out sky with a dark silhouette.

For your second image, try capturing something with lots of detail and color! I hope you guys have fun with this and are able to create some really beautiful images!! The options are endless. Just create whatever your heart desires. It can be something abstract as well.

The shot below is straight out of the camera. The image was turned for my second image and it created a right angle.

*If you have done your research and your camera will not do a double exposure in camera, don’t lose heart. You can easily create a double exposure in Photoshop by opening the two images (use the same principles that we talked about above), and drag the second image onto your first (base) image.

Once the pictures are on top of each other, lower the opacity of the second picture until you like what you see. Once the second picture’s opacity is lowered, you will start seeing the beautiful results.

If this makes you feel totally lost, don’t worry! It just takes practice. Let me know if you have any questions! – Janae

–What is Magic Hour?
–How to Split Your Focus
–Tips for Taking Photos in Cold Weather

Credits // Author and Photography: Janae Hardy.

1. Film cameras 
This is the area I could improve in the most, as I have taken several rolls of film with Nova this year, but haven’t gotten any developed yet. Film photos are for sure less instantly gratifying, but there is NOTHING as exciting as getting back the prints (or digital files) from rolls of film you took months ago!

2. Instant film
I’d definitely say this is the area we were thriving in. We took dozens of rolls of Instax Mini film this year (find a camera here, white film here and pink and blue here). I like to say it’s “the best thing we waste money on”—haha. It’s the truth! Yes, it can be a bit of an expensive hobby when your toddler “wastes” a lot of photos, but I fully believe it’s a valuable investment in her creativity and self-esteem. When we first started out, she could hardly operate the camera at all. Now she can do it completely by herself and I LOVE when she realizes it’s a moment she wants to take a photo of.

In Nova’s instant collection so far, it’s pretty random (LOTS of photos of Jeremy and I and piggy—haha), but the thing I love about it is that it’s so clear how her creative mind is growing. It’s a treasure!

The Instax Square is our newest addition. SO excited about this.

3. Photo booths
When I first found out about Nova’s sensitivity to light, one of my first thoughts was that she would probably not enjoy photo booths, but she completely shocked us and was obsessed with them from the first time she tried it. I mean, the last time we went, we had to physically remove her from the booth … hahaha.

As you can see from the photos above, these are a pretty special collection already. My heart could not be more proud of our little photo booth queen! We use the booth at Arcade Nashville (one of our favorite children’s boutiques!) about once every other month and it’s the most magical thing. We’ll definitely keep going with it in 2019!

What are your creative goals for the coming year? xx. Elsie

Credits//Author: Elsie Larson. Photography: Amber Ulmer. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

Here is a photo we took of the resort we stayed in a few weeks ago for our five-year anniversary. I always love getting ocean photos with the drone now because you get to see all the color variations from seaweed and other ocean life.

Trey and I both LOVE photography. As you may already know, Trey runs our app company, A Color Story, so he’s pretty immersed in phone photography all the time. I mainly take food photos and other things like that for our blog. So when we go on vacation it’s probably not surprising that getting to play around with photography (on our phones, DSLRs, or a special camera like our drone) is one of our favorite activities. Our drone is super easy to use and works with a remote that attaches to your phone. I would recommend flying it a few times before taking it on a vacation, or flying over large bodies of water just so you feel really confident landing it. But it’s seriously super simple and you do not need to be tech-savvy to use it.

The only real drawback is it is quite loud when it’s taking off or landing. If you’ve never flown a drone, or been around someone who was, it sounds kind of like a giant beetle or something. It makes a pretty loud buzzing noise, as it flies with propellors, similar to a helicopter (a mini one, anyway). For this reason, flying a drone is a bit, well, embarrassing in certain settings. It can feel a little disruptive, so just be aware of your surroundings. There are also some areas that do not allow drones, so for sure check into that if you don’t know. This really isn’t a big deal though. I remember feeling super self-conscious to pull out my big DSLR camera in certain settings. It’s kind of a similar thing to that. The main thing to remember is that if you’re not disrupting others—IMHO it’s OK to enjoy your hobby.

Just like high-quality DSLR cameras, drones are also quite an investment. If you don’t love photography like we do, then it’s probably not worth it to you.

Here are a few photos we took on our Norway trip earlier this year. I love getting aerial photos of oceans or buildings, but a drone also just allows you get higher up so you can get better landscape photos in some settings. Trey also loves to get short video clips with the drone, which is why we bought one that works well for both video and still photos. I really enjoy video too, but I really love framing photos (or just printing for our annual photo album I do), so still photography is where it’s at for me.

Sometime this summer, I’d really like to get a drone photo above a swimming pool somewhere. Not sure when that’s gonna happen but it’s on my summer bucket list.

Anyway, I just waned to share what drone we use for some of the photography you’ve seen Trey and I post (he’s @williamgeorgeiii on IG), in case you’re thinking about getting one.

And two other photographers I LOVE who also use drones in their work are Arielle Vey (@ariellevey) and Colby Moore (@colbyshootspeople), so check them out if you want to get inspired! xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Trey George. Photos edited with A Color Story.

Trey and I NEVER check bags, we’ve both had bad experiences with it before. And most of the trips we go on aren’t super long (except for one month-long trip, but we drove there), so it’s not too hard to pack just a carry-on bag. But since I had extra camera gear, the drone, and snow boots to pack, we decided that we would probably need to check a bag. And you know what happened? THEY LOST IT FOR MOST OF OUR TRIP.

Sigh.

Thankfully, the host of our Airbnb was (extremely) gracious and let me borrow a camera, tripod, and snow boots. (!!!!!!!!!) I am still thanking the universe for this kindness because although I would have enjoyed the trip no matter what, I would have missed my chance to photograph the lights as we only saw them the first night we were there. And I would have been extremely cold and uncomfortable on our hike.

Even though I was incredible thankful for the borrowed camera (a Canon 500 with the kit lens and a tripod), as any photographer reading this knows, it’s a bit uncomfortable using a different camera for the first time. Even if you know exactly what settings you want, figuring out how to find the right menus and buttons might be a little different from your camera, so it takes a little bit to get the hang of it. So I was pretty nervous to use an unfamiliar camera to photograph something that was bound to be challenging anyway.

We were staying at a cabin in Leknes, Norway. This is part of Lofoten, which is a great place to see the northern lights during the winter. You also will need a clear night, where you can see the stars easily. I also recommend downloading the My Aurora Forecast app as that really helped us to know when they were happening in our area. It’s quite cold in the winter so sitting outside all night long could be pretty challenging, but the app was super helpful. Above you can see a photo of when the lights first started to appear, it’s a super faint arc over the mountains. They picked up more as the night went on.

I also recommend warm, fingerless gloves with a mitten flap—that way you don’t have to keep taking your gloves on and off to mess with your camera when the lights are happening. They are not crazy fast; each time we saw them, they would appear for anywhere from 5-20 minutes. But they do move around as light clouds that are being blown by a strong wind, so you want to be ready.

The best photos I got I had the camera set to:
ISO 150-200
F-stop 400+
Shutter 30 seconds (yep, open your shutter for as long as you can to capture the movement)

I also found that the camera had a really hard time focusing in the dark. Of course, you can use manual focus but I found this super challenging because I myself could not see that well in the dark of the night. So it was hard to know if I had the camera focused properly as well. What I did that worked best for me was to focus the camera on the horizon area, just under the northern lights, and hold the shutter button down halfway so the camera focuses but doesn’t fire. Then aim it at the space you want and take a photo. This is similar to when you photograph two people and you want both in focus, this little trick works then, too (along with having a wider aperture so more is in focus anyway).

Here is a photo taken way up above our heads, no horizon in sight. I would not have been able to focus this shot at all without this little trick. But I also found that the particular night that we saw the lights, I liked the shots with some of the horizon and surroundings in the shot more. I think it gives it a little more perspective, so you better see how big the lights were in the sky.

Of course, even if you’re not a photographer or have no interest in photography, I still think seeing the northern lights should potentially be on your bucket list. They are truly magnificent and just really special. I can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like them and I throughly enjoyed the experience with or without a camera (although I was glad I had one).

For any Aurora buffs out there, feel free to share more information on viewing the lights if you want! Or any photographers who want to share their experience photographing them! Would love to hear from you on the subject because I (clearly) found the whole thing super fascinating. xo. Emma

P.S. Also, if you are on Instagram, check out #lofoten because there are some REALLY amazing photos of the northern lights in there!

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman.

Well, a few months back I got confronted in a store for taking photos for the blog. I won’t go into too much detail, but just know that I had asked permission and that the confrontation was SUPER EMBARRASSING. I left the store in tears. It was just so weird.

As I was recapping to Jeremy what had happened, I said that I felt like maybe our big cameras made us seem more suspicious or something. I mean, in this day and age, everyone takes 95% of photos with their phone. It’s less and less common to see people out and about with a lot of camera gear. Or maybe the shop owner was just having a stressful day. But either way, I felt that moving forward I wanted to have an OPTION to get photos better than an iPhone, but without a large DSLR.

I had been looking at Fuji and Leica cameras, but was hesitant to purchase one because I felt like I only wanted it because it was cute. I was afraid I wouldn’t really use it, so I held off. These cameras are very cute, and look like vintage film cameras. I love it because my hero in photography is my late grandfather, who carried a very similar looking camera. And depending on the lens you have on, they can be super small … purse size.

A couple hours after that crazy embarrassing experience in the local store, we met up with Jeremy’s label owner for dinner and drinks. He had a tiny Fujifilm camera with him, the Fujifilm X100F. I asked him a bunch of questions, he gave me a little sales pitch (he is SUPER into his camera) and I was totally sold. DESTINY!

I did a bit of research and decided to opt for a model with the option to change lenses. I wasn’t ready to have a camera with no lens changing, as I wanted something more in between my big Canon and my phone. So I chose the Fujifilm X-T2.

I purchased lenses with family vacations and photos at home in mind. I wanted a wide angle lens (for wide room photos and scenery).

OK, so first a little photos show and tell and then I’ll share my review of the camera and the three lenses I have been using.

I am still getting the hang of it, but totally impressed with the quality so far.

Lenses I use:

Pancake Lens (FujinonXF27mmF2.8)
This is the smallest and lightest option. I keep this on a lot of the time, especially for travel or if I’m taking my camera out in my purse. Some of the other lenses I chose are a little on the large size, which is fine at home or if I bring a full camera bag. But this is the basic lens I would recommend if you only want to buy one!

Wide Lens (Fujinon XF14mmF2.8 R)
This lens is my most used lens at home because it’s perfect for interior photos, and I like to take a lot of snapshots that show a wider view of our home. I also used it (exclusively) on a trip to New York for Jeremy’s CD release. I’ll show a photo of that below. I thought it handled a diverse lineup of photos really well. The only downside to this lens is that it’s not tiny, but it’s definitely more powerful and gets a wider view than the pancake lens.

Portrait Lens (Fujinon XF56mmF1.2 R)
I added this lens because it can create beautiful portraits, and with a kiddo on the way, it seemed like an obvious choice. I just used it recently to snap a few photos of Laura’s little Lola and it felt pretty magical. My first lens (ever) when I bought my first DSLR was a portrait lens, so this gave me some nostalgia.

*Amazon shopping tip! Click below on each product where it says “Used and New”. Sometimes you can get HUGE discounts (of these I got at half price that way and it was still brand new).

In summary, here are my pros and cons of this camera …

Pros: It’s tiny, it’s adorable, and it has a novelty element to it that make it really *fun* to shoot. It has built in film simulation filters (I used the black and white in the concert and rain photo above, but for color I leave it turned off). It has options for adding grain, which I like because it feels more like film.

Cons: This is a mirrorless camera, so when you look through the viewfinder you are seeing a video screen, not real life. I have found that the photos look at lot better once I get them on my computer than they do on the playback screen. Overall, it feels more like a toy than the bigger SLRs I am used to shooting.

I am having so much fun with this camera. I will definitely take it with me on our next vacation! It’s filling a need I had in my life for a less serious, less bulky and more fun camera. It’s brought me a lot of inspiration to just shoot random photos again.

If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer in the comments! xx. Elsie