DIY cheap and easy valentine's day gifts

Valentine's day can be an excuse to splash out on your loved one but if you're strapped for cash or simply prefer to make the presents then here are some ideas. Don't do a chandler and get a sock bunny...

1. A valentine's day gift voucher. Make your own by designing a gift voucher for your other half. The voucher could be for a free breakfast in bed, massage or cooking them dinner! (Canva.com is a great site for templates) 

2. Strawberry chocolate hearts! Easy to make, tastes and looks great! 

Tutorial here

3. Print a photo of the two of you and put it in a lovely frame. Decorate the frame yourself if you're feeling crafty.

4. Hand Make a card. Get inspiration from Etsy or Pinterest, personalise it!

5. Create a hamper or bag full of their favourite sweet treats. 

6. Create a yummy valentine's day special breakfast, Click here for a list of recipes 

7. Make a personalised colouring book. Use photos of you and your partner together to create a colouring book of your relationship. You can easily do by following these steps. 

8. 

Chocolate bar card - see here

9. A romantic evening in a box. Things the box could include: a film you both like, popcorn or sweet treats, take away menus, rose petals, wine, chocolates. 

10. Make some paper flowers 

11. Valentine's party poppers 

tutorial here

12. Plant some seeds..

tutorial here

Hope this list gives you some inspiration, and that you all have a wonderful Valentine's day. 

My favorite instagram accounts to follow

I've recently become slightly addicted to Instagram, and its no wonder really, with thousands of accounts and tonnes of awesome people to follow! The accounts I follow usually tend to be art or photography based, but I also like some food, fashion and pet accounts as well. Here are my favs..

@mermaidens  - I simply love the style of Kailey Flyte and adore her outfits and photos. Think pink! 

@Joelrobison   This guy has some serious skills and I've personally been a fan of his work for a while, so following his account was a no brainer for me.

@arts_help is a great account that showcases artists of instagram, helping them to gain followers. Check it out for some amazing work.

@Alexbeadon - If your a business owner or freelancer and you haven't checked out this girls videos, then get on it! Alex shares such useful info on how to build your business. Her instagram is full of inspiration as well.

@happy.soul - Self taught artist who creates these beautiful illustrations that are simply instagram gold! 

@bodyposipanda - This girl is such an inspiration, she openly talks about her recovery from an eating disorder and she is proof that recovery is possible! She posts inspirational and body positive images! 

@Effyourbeautystandards  This account was set up by super famous plus size model Tess Holiday. She campaigns for plus size women everywhere to feel good about themselves. I love seeing pics of photoshoots with plus size women. Follow this account for inspiring pics and quotes!




Don't forget to follow me as well  @beckynetleyphotography 

Have a great weekend everyone!

[Junes's monthly] 10 photos that...Will melt your heart.

Happy June everyone! Summer is almost here! 

This months '10 photos that...' is to show of the cutest photos I could find! And I'm not allowing myself to put photos of my own dog in this list. 

1. This photographer captured his bunny growing from birth. Caution: Heart will melt. Click here

2. This mother and 17 day old kitten is too much for me to handle. Photo by flickr user: Christian Holmer 

3. Such a sweet hat...and the baby I guess. (Cant find the photographers name unfortunately!)

4. Such a lovely nature shot of mother and child. Photograaphy by Lyndsi Espinel

5. Megan van der Elst loves to take cute photos of her pet guinea pigs. Follow them @boobooandfriends on instagram.  

6. How cute is this new born baby photo by Elate photo. 

7. Backpack wearing bunny! (unknown source)

8. Russian photographer Elena Karneeva takes these adorable photos of children and animals as part of her business. Check out her site here.

9. Meet little Kodie here, a male Yorkie from California. This is one of the cutest dogs ever. If your unconvinced check out his tumblr.

10. Alex Solis is an illustrator and web designer who creates these super cute photos to show how to learn sign language. This is A for Apple. See the whole alphabet here.


And thats it for another month! Keep an eye out for next months '10 photos that...'

Becky x 

[May's monthly post] 10 photos that...get up close. (Macro shots)

Macro photography, usually means photographing objects or living creatures extremely close up. For this months '10 photos that...' I will taking a look at things that are so close up that you'll either be amazed or slightly creeped out!

While searching for macro shots, I wanted to pick ones that were slightly different, not your usual up close flower shots.

1. Amazing cat shot by Kristina Buceatchi

2. I can't decide whether I find this cute, or really creepy. Photo by Jose Deluna

3. Macro shots look great when photography new born babies, letting you get all the little details like toes, nails and little hands. (Unknown source)

4.I never thought I would think a snail was cute, but Vadim Trunov has proved me wrong! Check out more of these magical photos here.

5. This is a beautiful photo of inside an Ocean Jasper rock. Photo by MicROCKScopia 

6. NOPE, this is too much! (photo by John Hallman)

7. This up close look at a fingerprint is part of a series called 'Skin story' by Jarket Kozjar.

8. This cute froggie was photographed by Wil Mijer,

9. Check out these sweet mushrooms photographed by Steve Axford. For more magical mushrooms click here.

10. Photo by Japanese photographer Shihya Kowatar. I love the colours and patterns made by leaf in this!



Hope these photos have inspired you to experiment using Macro, most DSLR cameras have the setting. I'll do a future blog post on how to best use macro. 

Next months (June) '10 photos that...will make your heart melt.'

The creative person's 'quit list'.

I came across a blog today called 'Cordelia calls it quits' written by a lady who gave up her day job to pursue her passion. Shes got tonnes of great articles to check out when you're lacking in motivation, Click here for her site. Anyway on her blog she makes a list of things that shes going to quit, for example things that don't benefit her life or help her to pursue her goals. This gave me the idea to write a list of things that we should probably quit as creative people to help us develop our practice. 

Lets get started...

We need to STOP..

1. Judging ourselves. Although seemly impossible to do, we have to practice being non judgemental of our work and just enjoying the process of making. After all thats why we started right?
2. Comparing work. Again we're all guilty of this and sometimes it can motivate us, but most of the time it just causes unnecessary worries about ourselves and our work. There is probably someone out there comparing their own work to yours and wondering why they can't be like you! 
3.  Being impatient. The best things in life take time, like great art work or a steady freelance business. I often get impatient, wondering why I'm not a full time photographer yet, hoping that it'll suddenly happen over time. But of course I know it doesn't work that way, and although its been a slow process, I've definitely come along way from when I started out, I just need to remember this. 
4. Feeling guilty. Just because you're not doing a 9-to-5 job and some days may be slow doesn't mean you need to feel guilty about doing something you love. If you enjoy it but work hard then what is there to be sorry about? 
5. Second-guessing pursuing your dream
6. Worrying about the future. Enjoy the now! (Learn some mindfulness techniques for this!)
7. Perfectionism. Sometimes I'm a super perfectionist with my work, and if I show it and I'm not 100% happy with it, I will always judge that photo. I need to get rid of this idea and just enjoy the process of creating it. 
8. Letting people take advantage. When you're starting out in a creative career path, you usually do things for cheap or even free! (God knows I did my fair share of freebies) This can become a little bit of habit, but you have to learn your worth! You need to remember that you are doing them a service, and you deserve the right pay for that. 
9. Saying YES to every job, even though its not worth it. Saying yes to a job even though, for whatever reason you are doubting it, don't do it, its often more trouble than its worth. 
10. Being fearful of showing our work.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this. I'd love to hear any ideas you have for your creative quit list!

Many thanks to Cordelia's great blog for inspiration and motivation! 

http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com/

12 Ways to jazz up everyday photos.

Here is a list of ways you can jazz up everyday photos. In the future I plan to make some tutorials based on these techniques but this is just a list of inspiration. Some techniques can be used when shooting and others can be applied to past photos. 

1. Birds eye view for the everyday objects. (unknown source)

2. Play with reflections. (Photo by Flickr user: rainywomen)

3. Get creative with water! (Photo by Me!) 

4. Try a double exposure, super cute for weddings. (Unknown photographer)

5. Capture motion with a slow shutter speed. (photo by Peter Lindbergh in Numéro) 

6. Edit it to make it look like a Lomo shot.(photo by Ayako Furness)

7. Experiment with adding art. (Sophie Hirschy for Harpers Bazaar) 

8. Add some text (another one by me)

9. Play with grain and textures. (unknown photographer)

10. Try a new perspective. (Bamboo towers, by Shothotspot.com)

11. Wait for natural laughter. (“Syracuse University , 1949″ – photograph by Lisa Larsen)

12. Try your photo in Black and white (unknown photographer)

Alot of these techniques may take some practice before you start seeing results that you like, but never stop experimenting! If there is a particular technique on here that you would like a tutorial on, please let me know in the comments and I'll do it! 

Happy Thursday! 

Becky x