free photo quick-fixes

In this day and age, photos are HUGE. They are everywhere we go. This means if you want your photos to stand out, you have to make them your own. Sure, some photos definitely stand out on their own like crazy-cool vacation pics, but otherwise, quick editing is a great way to give your photo something special.

Photoshop is a great photo editor, but it’s $10 a month, and that’s just for the basic version. For someone who isn’t a professional photographer, blogger, model, or anything along those lines it probably isn’t the best option.

But if you just want to spice up your pictures, what is a good option? For filters, I like VSCO and HUJIcam. These are both apps on the Apple App Store and, most importantly, they are free!

VSCO does have options to pay in order to buy some extra filters; however, overall, all you need in the basic ones you get for free and you’re set. It also has a lot of other editing features such as exposure, contrast, saturation, highlights save, fade, sharpen, and much more. It truly is the most expansive and elegant photo editor I have found (for free). On top of this, VSCO allows you to share the photos you edit. Its sole purpose is to share photos as an art form not for a lot of likes or comments- which is a nice break from the pressures of social media you would experience.

HUJI is free as well and super easy. All you have to do is take a picture, and the app edits it for you! For someone who is just looking for an easy way to take some cools pics on the spot, I ten out of ten recommend this.

In case you don’t believe me, here are some examples:

VSCO

Processed with VSCO with jm1 preset

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with 1 preset

HUJI

As you can see, Huji adds interesting light accents and adds a more purple and orange hue to pictures. If you’re unsure if you like it, my advice is: just try it out! It can’t hurt, right?

If you are more vintage videography there is also an app called RAD VHS that will change your life. However, it is not a photo editor. I know, I know, I apologize, but once you try it, you’ll thank me later. It takes videos and turns them in old-fashioned film, like this:

I can’t post a video so, like Huji, just try it out! It’s free too 🙂

And if you enjoy short, cute vids, VSCO can also be used to create DSCOs. You might remember an app called DSCO… well it’s merged with VSCO now and you can access it through the camera feature on VSCO:

With DSCO, you can create shorts videos like this:

FEEDS are a huge part of gaining a social media following as well.

There are two types of people, well three I guess. Those who care about how many followers they have and those who don’t (and those who don’t have social media or followers). If you are the first of these, you’re probably constantly thinking of ways to get more followers.

Maybe you follow random people and hope they follow you back, or you pay 99 cents for one of those “Get Followers” apps to help.

There is another, easier way! How do you think famous blogger or a model get your attention? When you look at someone’s Instagram, what stands out or makes you want to follow them?

Ok, now I’ll answer… well it’s TWO things.

1. What’s in their photos – If all their photos are of them doing cool things, wearing cute outfits, or they just look good in, you are more likely to follow them because you want to see what they are doing from day to day. I won’t lie- I do this. Let’s be real, we all do this.
2. How their photos look together – We all know when you look at someone’s Instagram feed, you first thing you see is their profile picture, bio, AND (usually) the nine pictures most recent pictures they have posted. Now if a lot of these pictures look bad together or really just don’t grab your attention, you’re probably not going to follow this person. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at some professional bloggers/social media influencers to see what their feeds look like:

You might be thinking Jeez, I don’t have a professional camera OR the time to take pictures like that or that’s all they do for a living… of course, their feeds are going to look beautiful and YES, I totally agree with you and think the same thing.

But if you WANT MORE FOLLOWERS, this is a sure-fire way to get some. Make your account “public” so people can actually see your feed, and make your account have a “theme.” This might mean not posting a picture that you really want to post, or putting it on Twitter or VSCO or Facebook instead. It might mean editing all your pictures with the same filter or only posting pictures that you take during the day (natural lighting).

And be careful my loves of what you post online. You might think everyone wants to see you on the beach, but also think about the reputation you are building for yourself. IT IS STILL A REPRESENTATION OF YOU!

All in all, feeds can be really fun to spend time on, but if it ends up looking bad, don’t fret. Life goes on and I can assure you, you will be taking a lot more pictures in the future that’ll help you create a beautiful account.

Time we wrap up this ramble.

SOOO, to summarize, get VSCO, HUJI for pics.

RAD VHS and DSCO for videos.

AND FINALLY

A PRETTY FEED=FOLLOWERS

hope this helps mah homies 🙂 good luck editing/shooting!

much love, soph

rolling with punches (oh and disney)

There is this magic about Disney. Even though I was only six the first time we went and can’t remember anything about it, it was probably the most magical thing known to humankind. Yes, everything is overpriced, but it is so worth it. Something about the place that just makes you want to smile. And not just the Magic Kingdom, but Epcot and Hollywood Studios too.

For this past Thanksgiving break, I went to Disney for the first time. Well, that’s a small lie. But I went to D I S N E Y  W O R L D for the first time that I remember. {side note: I did go to universal, but it isn’t nearly as magical}

I went with my family. I love my family. But here’s the thing, when you travel with your family, it can be SO much fun. Which I wish I had known at the moment. I had never experienced having THAT much fun. It is something you just never forget, and at the moment, you might cringe at some (well, most) of the things they do, that just makes the memories even better. Memories with your family stick, always and forever. And sometimes in the moment, you need that reminder.

So being the planner I am, the minute I found out about the trip, I obviously started planning. I’m a planner. Food, rides, shows, parks; you name it. I had our entire schedule pretty much together. So when my mother told us we weren’t going to have a plan (WHAT?!?!?) and that we would just “roll with the punches” (WHAT THE EFF?!?!?!?!), I was devastated. That was a bit dramatic. I think I was just anxious.

Me still trying to embrace the spontaneous approach to a vacation, we left for FL… me with my perfectly packed suitcase, my brother with a backpack, and my sister with what seemed like seven bags. For some reason, I got the aisle seat, which was good (I could make a fast break to the bathroom when my motion sickness set in), but bad (because the window normally calms me down) Not even half an hour into the trip and already I’m stressed out.

We land in Florida, and how am I not supposed to be moody? How could I think the vacation was going to go well? So far, I was “having a bad time” and on top of that we had no plan, nothing to keep us on track but we still had to do everything there was to do at Disney. It was going a be a bust.

Nevertheless, we got to Florida and the warm, humid air rushed in thru the sliding doors that led out of the air-conditioned airport and guess what we effing did? “ROLLED WITH THE PUNCHES.”

UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE.

But here is when it gets good. You ready? I loved it. I loved not having a plan. Being able to be spontaneous. Live free or die amiright! I still had my goals, like food from every country in Epcot, dole whip, and space mountain, but we could do them in whatever order and just go with the flow. We did things I didn’t even realize I wanted to do. The light show at night, the rockin’ rollercoaster at Hollywood studios and buying a delicious sandwich from room service.

In these precious moments, I learned that these spontaneous unplanned times are the best times and that as long as you are with good people the universe is on your side. So you go girl, make that random trip to Chick-fil-a with your friends and keep your life on its toes. Live life the way it was intended to be lived.

Now I am gonna take a step back and talk about dole whip. Oh my lord, just hear me out. Think about those dole pineapple cups you used to have. If you didn’t have them as a child I would suggest looking them up and trying one (no joke do it!! spontaneous moment!). So the dole cups, imagine the liquid, that personally I would always drink first, whipped so fast that it literally turns into ice cream. So light, so airy, so cold, so sweet, SO GOOD. Hello, WELCOME to FLAVORTOWN!!! Wow, just heaven.

SO, live life randomly. Speaking as someone who does not drive yet, it is hard to be in the spur of the moment sometimes. But if you can find a way to mix up the pattern of your life every once in a while I promise you, you will be three times happier. So get behind the wheel of your life (or a car if you have your license) and make sure you are in control of the direction- but let yourself take a random detour every once in a while. Because you don’t know what type of dole whip and great times you will find on the journey.

xoxo em