Sorrellville Third year with the same New Year's resolution - blog more!   I'm going to keep resolving until I accomplish it - I hope.....I've even managed to dodge it for the entire month of January because I spent all month preparing my marketing,  setting up my editorial calendar  and updating my new website.  It sounded like a good excuse at the time..... Whew, I'm glad to be getting back to the part I like about my photography business - creating portraits!! This other stuff is a necessary evil I know, but I don't have to like it!  At least as far as my photography is concerned I'm so thankful that I do have a studio to use at this time of year - outdoor stuff would be awfully cold and judging from the last few days, wet!! There'd be a whole lotta' rescheduling goin' on!

By the way, check out the new website - still needs a bit or tweaking but I just had to stop and let it percolate for a bit. ... http://www.RondaSorrell.com

As you can see from the image above, I did manage to get very lucky with this beautiful sunset a few days ago.  -  next time you want to catch a sunset, use it as a background with some other focal point in the foreground to give the photograph more interest.... a house, a mailbox, an interesting tree, etc.  Notice "ev-r-ey li-ght in the house is on"!

How about  a couple of "how to create better photos" tips to start off the month? 

My #1 favorite is a simple one:

Get Closer to your subject - decide what the object or purpose of the image will be and focus the viewer's attention on that.  So many times the items in the background, and along the sides draw your eye away from the subject matter. Don't be afraid to take a breath and stop to adjust your position ( or their position) to compose the image properly.

My second fav  goes along with the first  - remove the junk out of the frame of your image. You see this a lot during the holidays when someone is photographed at a table with all of the dinner dishes in front of them. You'll be so much happier with the final result if you'll take just a moment and push those empty dishes to the side -especially those tall bottles with the peeled off labels ;-)

Until next time...I promise,

Ronda