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Canon Blogtography: Memories

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Over the holidays, once our power and Internet connection were restored, I became a woman on a mission. Back in December, the lovely Canon team set me up with two kick-ass printers – Canon Pixma Pro-100 and Canon Selphy CP900, and I was determined to finally do some printing. You see, I’ve been married for over a year now, but we have yet to print a single wedding photo. Armed with amazing printers, I was finally ready to move the memories from those memory cards and into picture frames.

What happened next was pretty overwhelming. As someone who tends to take thousands of photos each year, I found myself going through the happy snaps, remembering the fun moments, and having a tough time narrowing down the print-worthy shots – so many of my Canon pics were just too good not to print!

In the end, I chose a few faves, printed them out, and proudly arranged them on our new shelves. It’s definitely work in progress, but I feel so much better about having some of my favourite moments printed out and on display in our home. Being able to print the photos almost as soon as they are taken will also help me avoid being overwhelmed next time around. No more memory-card-hoarding for this girl, thanks to Canon!

So tell me, do you print your photos, or do you tend to hold on to them in memory-card form? Share in the comments!

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More after the jump!

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Style Days of Christmas: Canon Selphy CP900 Giveaway

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We are almost at the end of our Style Days of Christmas Giveaways run, and while I don’t play favourites with my giveaways, today’s prize is going to be simply amazing for the holidays! As a Canon Canada Blogtography ambassador I take A LOT of photos daily, but the sad thing is, most of those images stay on their SD cards – never printed out, never framed. Well, no more! Thanks to Canon Canada, I am now a proud owner of the amazingly compact wireless Canon SELPHY CP900 printer! Instead of letting the memorable moments languish on a slew of memory sticks, I am now a printing ninja – printing everything in sight! Warning: owning a wireless printer may or may not be incredibly addictive!

So, what’s in it for you? Today, I’d like one of my amazing readers to win a SELPHY of their own! You can use it as a photobooth printer at your holiday parties (set up is a breeze!), to print photos of those family get-togethers, or simply to make sure that all of your fond memories can be proudly displayed in your home instead of your computer. The prize pack (valued at $244) will also include some extra paper and ink to get you started! Sounds good? Enter the giveaway after the jump!

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About Canon SELPHY CP900:

High-quality Prints: Dye-sublimation technology uses heat to transfer ink to the paper, reproducing approximately 16.8 million colours for amazing pictures in both colour and black and white. Then, a clear protective coating is added which helps prevent against damage from light, water and gases so your precious photos can last for generations.
High-quality Prints: Print a photo in just 47 seconds and share for generations! Photos printed from your SELPHY will be water-resistant and last up to 100 years.
2.7″ Tilt-up LCD: Easily view, select and edit your images for simple, computer-free printing with this adjustable full-colour display. No downloading needed, just pick your picture and print!
My Colours: Have fun with your prints as 5 colours effects are offered for added versatility: Black & White, Sepia, Vivid, Neutral, and Positive Film.
Portrait Image Optimize: For automatic facial detection and correction, Portrait Image Optimize optimally corrects images where subjects or faces appear dark due to strong backlighting.
Built-In Wireless: New wireless capabilities lets you print right from your computer, iOS, and Android devices.
Memory Cards / USB Flash Drive & PictBridge: Don’t feel like using a computer? No problem. Just insert a compatible memory card into the built-in card slot, or a USB Flash Drive into the USB port, select images on the LCD display, and print! Thanks to a PictBridge connection you can also print photos directly from your compatible digital camera, DV camcorder or camera phone.

Giveaway Details After the Jump!

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Happy Holidays From Canon Blogtography!

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Earlier this month, my fellow Canon Blogtographers and I were treated to a second photo session with fashion photographer Steve Carty, this time learning all about portrait photography. Right in time for the holiday get-togethers, where photos will inevitably get snapped, but not always ones you would want to keep. Steve showed us how to get the winning shot that your family and friends will keep and treasure for years to come!

To learn a bit about portrait photography, our assignment for the evening was to shoot a head-on portrait in black and white, shoot a holiday portrait, a holiday scene at a dinner table, and finally a portrait with very low light. Here’s what I learned about getting THE SHOT!

1. Use Creative Filters

One of the best things I learned about my Canon camera is that I don’t need to use Photoshop to spice up my photos with cool effects. With fun creative filters like Toy Camera, Monochrome, Fish Eye, Soft Focus, Grainy Black and White, which can also be layered, you can take any photo from boring to awesome. When using these Creative Filters in-camera, you don’t have to worry about losing your original image, because your camera will save an edited copy automatically. I used the Grainy Black and White filter on the below photo, and love how it turned out!

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2. Crop It

As I mentioned before, Rule of Thirds is a good one to follow. You can make any photo stand out by simply cropping it to make sure that the eye is drawn to the subject of the photo and not to the background or other random things in the picture. You can achieve this without having to do any post-production work by using various aspect ratios in-camera. If you want your image to be perfect for Instagram, use 1:1, want a standard image – use 4:3, want your photo to look good on a widescreen display – 16:9 is your go-to aspect ratio.

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Toronto Fashion Week: the shOws Spring 2014 Photo Diary

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Earlier this month, I was invited to participate in a Toronto Fashion Week Photography Bootcamp with Steve Carty and Canon Canada. The 3-hour hands-on session was meant to give us some useful tips for shooting runway photos, prep us to deal with less than ideal lighting and less than ideal seating, and teach us a few more Canon Blogtography tricks on getting the best possible photos under (fashion week) pressure.

Well, last week all of those lessons came in handy when I attended the shOws Spring 2014! As usual, showcasing a handful of seriously talented Canadian designers (Bellavance NYC, Calla, Jeremy Laing, and Steven Tai), the shOws was every Canadian fashion junkie’s dream event of the season, and I came prepared with my Canon EOS Rebel SL1 in tow.

While I couldn’t take Steve Carty’s advice of sitting in the pit during the show (seriously, if you want the best pics without much effort – the photographers’ pit is where it’s at), I still managed to take some fun detail shots from my front row seat. If you are looking for tips on how to shoot fashion shows here are few I learned from the great Steve Carty!

My Favourite Runway Photography Tips after the jump!

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What I Wore: Canon Blogtography #2

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Ever since I became a Canon Ambassador, le bf and I have been trying to leave our comfort zone and try different things with my Canon Rebel XSi. Leaving the Auto setting behind was one of the hardest things to do, but slowly, we have embraced the Av function for my outfit posts, and were ready to learn more!

For our second Canon Blogtography session, my fellow ambassadors and I were treated to a hands-on tutorial from the Toronto Star photojournalist Steve Russell, who photographed Michael Fassbender at TIFF last year, which made me respect him that much more (only half kidding) and prompted me to ask beg to be his assistant during next year’s TIFF. Fingers crossed, you guys!

Steve walked with us through the Distillery District, letting us run around and shoot things on our own, but guiding us along the way, and helping us try new things. Normally, I am all about the symmetry in my photos, and while there’s nothing wrong with shooting this way, as a result we’ve been missing out on a variety of angles and more interesting shots.

During our session, we learned about the Rule of Thirds, learned to hold the camera properly when shooting (with one palm under the body of the camera for steadier shots), and a few other tricks. And the funny thing is…our photos ended up being way more creative than usual. All it took was letting go of our photo habits and trying something new. One step at a time, but I just know that with some hard work and a little creativity, le bf and I will get better at this photography thing…

What do you think of these photos we shot at the Distillery District? Do you prefer traditional outfit shots, or creative ones? Share in the comments!

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More after the jump!

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What I Wore: Canon Blogtography

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As a blogger, I get quite a few questions about my camera, lens, and how le bf and I shoot outfit photos for Style Blog. So when Canon approached me to become one of their Blogtography ambassadors, I almost immediately said yes! I’ve been a fan of the brand since 2009 when le bf bought me my first DSLR camera – Canon EOS Rebel XSi, but shamefully, I’ve never really learned to use all of its features, choosing to shoot on Auto instead. Well, after attending my first Canon Blogtography session, I picked up a few beginner photography tips that I can share with you! I am still learning to use my new Canon EOS Rebel SL1 (World’s smallest and lightest DSLR!), so stay tuned for my journey from amateur to…well, a more capable amateur. Because let’s face it…I don’t think I’ll become a pro in the next few months…but I do hope that you’ll be able to notice the difference in the photos you see on this site.

Canon Blogtography Tips:

– Instead of shooting on Auto all the time, try using the Av and Tv functions. Av stands for Aperture Value, and is useful when you have to adjust the depth of field (how much of the background you want blurred out or not at all), while Tv stands for Time Value, and should be used to adjust the shutter speed – the quicker the speed, the sharper the image.

– Think of Aperture and Shutter Speed as balanced variables. If your settings are giving you a good exposure but you want to increase the size of your Aperture by one stop (or click) – you will also need to decrease your shutter speed by one stop to get the same balanced exposure.

– A photo’s exposure determines how light or dark it will appear, and exposure meter setting can help you manually adjust the amount of light you want to see in your photo. I guess technically it’s supposed to let you know whether your photo is under or overexposed, but I think adjusting the light via this little setting has been one of my fave tricks.

– If you are a beginner, don’t worry about ISO! While exposure is composed of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, as long as you know how to adjust the first two, the camera will get the shot on Auto ISO. One less setting to worry about…for now.

– For more tips and tricks on using your Canon camera outside of the Auto setting, check out Canon Outside of Auto – it’s a really cool site where you can actually practice what you learn!

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More after the jump!

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WHAT I WORE

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