Photo competitions like Gurushots often run "colour theme" contests, where the entry guidelines indicate your submissions should have a specific colour being prominently displayed. Follow 👉@my_togblog for tips, ideas, and stories about photography, content creation, and social media. One thing I've noticed about the "Red" theme contest is that "Red Barn on a snowy field" tends to be a very common entry. And there are a couple of reasons for that: 1. contrasting colours (like red on white) can really help make your photos "pop," and 2. many barns across North America are painted red. But something I didn't know before was why so many barns are painted red. Apparently, this is because of tradition.🚜 Early on, pioneer farmers would mix rust in with their paint (which was often made from orange coloured linseed oil). This was useful for preventing fungi and mosses from growing on the barns, and incidentally, it turned the paint colour red. Later, the tradition was reinforced by the popularity of the colour and the fact that major retailers like Sears-Roebuck sold red paint at a discount - likely knowing that frugal farmers would be looking for a deal and would be buying that colour in bulk. Anyhow, this "red barn on a snowy field,” near Angus, Ontario, is my contribution to this genre. 😉📸 . . . . . #ruralphotography #barnphotography #barnphoto #barnphotos #ruralphotographer #photoblog #photoblogger #photoblogging #ontarioblogger #ontariobloggerphotographer #mytogblog

The cold weather finally eased up earlier this week, so it was nice to get out for a while. You never know what you'll find, or where. This set came about as I noticed the sunrise reflecting off the windows of this strip mall in Barrie, Ontario. From a distance, it was tough to capture the full effect. But up close, I managed to get this first shot that shows a sense of what it looked like. The view going in the other direction is shown in the second shot. If you get a set of photos you like from a particular location, posting them in a short carousel can be a good option because: 1. It can give you a chance to incorporate a bit of story about the location. 2. You can give your audience a better sense of the full scene of what's there. 3. Although carousels do get lower reach, they can appear twice in your audience's feed (as the first and the second slide), giving you a chance to boost engagement. Just don't overdo it with like 8-10 slides. I'd keep it more in the range of 2-5. Do you like photo carousels? Let me know your thoughts with a few emojis in the comments 😀👍😴😝 🗨️, and follow 👉 @my_togblog for more tips on photography and social media. . . . . . #photographytips #photographytipsandtricks #photographytipsforbeginners #photographytips101 #suburbanphotography #parkinglotphotography #photoblog #photoblogger #mytogblog

Your link in bio (on your profile page) is a great opportunity to connect your audience to your full suite of social profiles, websites, other digital assets. But with many options out there, what link-in-bio solution is best for you? This post compares two popular options, suggesting the best solution depends on what you're looking for. You can also check out the video on my YouTube channel for more details. See my Link in Bio. 😉 Drop me a like ❤️ if you found this helpful, and follow 👉 @my_togblog for tips on photography and social media. . . . . . #linkinbio👆 #socialmediatip #socialmediatipsandtricks #socialmediatipsforbusiness #socialmediatipsmarketing #socialmediatips101 #socialmediamarketingtip #socialmediamarketing101 #socialmediamarketingmanager #socialmediamarketingstrategist #contentcreatortipsandtricks

This is supposed to look like a fancy pocket watch in this shot, but it's actually a toy souvenir. The secret: good lighting and staging. 💡📸 Since it's still pretty cold out there, I decided to try out some indoor product photography. To light this scene, I used two Ubeesize LED lights. These are cool because you can change the hue of the light by using the interchangeable cards that come with the lights (see slide 2). In this case, I used one blue and one white light on either side. I then set the watch onto a white background to reflect the light. But I didn't put anything else into the scene, so as not to detract attention from the main subject. What about the watch? It's a replica of the watch used by C.A. Alfred, the train conductor of the Kanas City Railroad. The watch was stolen by the Jessie James gang when they robbed one of the Railroad's trains in 1874. But "legend says" it was later returned to Alfred by James himself, who felt that the beautiful timepiece should be reunited with its original owner.⏱️ My brother-in-law got me this for Christmas one year because he "knew that I liked history and trinkets." Nailed it! 🎯😀 Do you like stuff like that? They almost always get me at those gift shops at museums and tourist attractions. Hope to visit some more soon. 😉 Let me know in the comments 🗨️ and follow 👉 @my_togblog for more tips and stories about photography, content creation, and social media. . . . . . #productphotographytips #productphotographystudio #photographytips #photographytipsandtricks #photographytipsforbeginners #photographytips101 #photographyhobby #photographyhobbyist #photographyblog #photographyblogger #mytogblog

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you "boosted" one of your posts with Instagram ads? Well, when I recently converted my account back to a business account (so I could post via Canva), I got this chance to find out. Let me just start by acknowledging my experience with running social media ad campaigns is pretty limited. I had tried a couple of ads very early on, but found it mostly resulted in "buying likes" vs making any real progress in building an audience. But with this $10 credit, I thought: "why not try again?" After all, more profile is a lot more developed now than it was back then. As you can see, the results for this campaign were not great either. I think part of the issue may have been the post I selected and because I let IG select the audience "automatically" vs customizing it more. Either way, it's still made me question whether ads can be very effective for audience building compared with sales generation. Or maybe it's just the fact that conversion is just tough regardless, whether building an audience or making a sale. Both require a relationship and level of trust to be established, which can take time. After all, they say people need to see your offer about seven times on average before they commit. Whatever the case, it was kind of a fun experiment. What do you think? Can ads be an effective vehicle for content creators looking to build an audience? Let me know in the comments 💬 and follow 👉 @my_togblog for more stories, ideas, and tips on content creation and social media. . . . . . #socialmediatipsandtricks #socialmediatipsforbusiness #socialmediatipsmarketing #socialmediatips101 #socialmediatipsforsmallbusiness #socialmediaads #instagramhacks #instagramtipsandtricks #instagramtipsforbusiness #instagramtipsdaily #socialmediamarketingtip #socialmediamarketing101

I see you! These Blue Jays can be incredibly elusive. Despite the name of the baseball team, I rarely saw them in Toronto. 👀 ⠀ However, up here there can be “flocks” of six or seven of them that land in one tree or bush at a time. The problem is: every time you get your camera and approach their direction in any way, they’ll fly away! 🐦 ⠀ Not this time! I saw this on through the window of our spare room, and my phone was right there in my hand. Gotcha! 📸 ⠀ Blue Jays would be in my top five of favourite birds. Do you have a favourite bird? Let me know in the comments 💬 and follow 👉 @my_togblog for tips, stories, and ideas about photography, content creation, and social media. . . . . . #photographyhobby #photographyhobbyist #birdphotographyworld #birdphotography🐦 #birdphotos #bluejay #bluejaysofinstagram #photoblog #photoblogger #photoblogging #discoverontario #angusontario

One good thing about photography in Winter is the opportunity to take some landscape photos in B&W. With the snow covering the ground, there are plenty of chances to find high-contrast scenery which is perfect for B&W images. This example is a shot of the Nottawasaga River in Angus, Ontario, after one of our bigger snowfalls. I took this image in Monochrome format in camera. It's easy to do this on Canon or most other DSLRs. You just set your dial to Manual mode and then go to the picture style item under one of your red shooting menus. Follow 👉 @my_togblog for more tips on photography, content creation, and social media. The main benefit of shooting in B&W in camera is so that you can see the results of what the image looks like on location. This gives a chance to make changes or try different angles to see how things look where you're at. Otherwise, you would only see it in B&W once you were back home working in post-processing. Bonus tip: You can shoot in RAW+JPEG at the same time if you want to produce a high-quality RAW file and JPEG with the same snap. This setting is under the image quality red shooting menu. If you don't do this, your B&W shots will be JPEG files only. Do you enjoy B&W photography? Let me know your thoughts in the comments 🗨️. . . . . . #ruralphotography #rurallandscape #rurallandscapephotography #rurallandscapes #blackandwhitephotographylovers #blackandwhitephotographylover #nottawasaga #mytogblog #nottawasagariver #simcoecountyphotographer #simcoecounty #photographyhobby #photographytipsandtricks

Yesterday, I tried the second one. It worked! 😉 What's your favourite way to hit the reset button? Let me know in the comments 💬 and follow @my_togblog for more tips on content creation and social media. . . . . . #creativitytips #creativitytipsandtricks #contentcreatortips #socialmediatips #socialmediatipsandtricks #socialmediatipsforbusiness #socialmediatips101 #socialmediatipsmarketing #socialmediamanagerlife #socialmediamanagers #socialmediaexpert

Sunset photos are great on their own, but if you want to bump these up a level a good way to do that is to frame the sun with something or put an object of interest into the foreground (to add depth). Thanks to @acromephoto for this awesome tip. This shot is my effort at applying it in practice. 😊 Let me know if you've tried this or are going to give it a go for your next sunrise or sunset photo. Also, feel free to tag me, so I can check out the results. And don't forget to follow @my_togblog for more tips on photography, content creation, and social media. 🔥👏 . . . . . #sunriselover #sunrisephotos #sunrisechaser #photographytipsandtricks #photographytipsforbeginners #photographytips #photographyhobby #photographyhobbyist #photoblog #photoblogger #photoblogging #mytogblog #photographytips101

I'm often a little bit torn on the use of photo filters. 📸 On the upside, applying filters can be a quick way to enhance an image to make it look even better than the original. The downside is that sometimes the use of a filter that's "too heavy" can make an image look fake. Applying a filter may also clash with the philosophy underlying a particular genre of photography. For example, for me, part of the appeal of suburban photography relates to how it can capture a moment in time in a place that looks both familiar and new at the same time. And filters that look overly stylized can detract from that by undermining the authenticity of the image. Having said that, the stylized views can look kind of cool sometimes. Where do you land on this image of the "unfinished snowman project," which I spotted early one morning at the side of the skating arena? The first photo applies the Ludwig filter from IG; the second is the image as it looked coming out of the camera. ⛄ Let me know in the comments 💬 and follow 👉@my_togblog for tips and ideas about photography, video, and social media. . . . . . #suburbanphotography #streetphotographyhub #streetphotographycommunity #streetphotographyincolors #streetphotography_color #streetphotographyintheworld #streetphotographyjournal #streetphotographycolor