Thursday 24 March 2016

What I Do To Take My Instagram Photos Of @Rabbitnibbles

First Step - Where the pictures are set
I first choose where I am going to take the photos at. I think about the lighting, the way the plants are, whether they are a bit untidy or there are to many leaves and sticks on the ground and if Nibbles will run away because he is not allowed to run free outside because it's not fully closed off so he won't run away, but I do let he go outside now and then with a harness on. Besides making sure Nibbles won't run away, the number one thing I think is the most important in taking photos is the lighting, as the lighting can either make or brake a photo because you don't want a dull and blurry looking photo, I look for an eye catching bright photo to catch peoples attention.

Second Step - Taking the photos
Once I have decided where I will take the photos I bring Nibbles outside, my favourite two places are on the bench

as this always has really nice moody lighting or on the red bricks with plants behind it
because I always get great focused shots of Nibbles with a blurry background (my favourite kind of picture).
I take around thirty to fifty photos each time I think it's a sunny day. I try low angled, close up, eagle eye view shots I try different kinds of photos whilst trying to make sure Nibbles wont run away, it's quite a balancing act when you have an adventurous bunny. I try and take the most natural shots as possible with natural lighting, naturally positioned bunny (I let him just play around, and always give him his favourite treat, kale afterwards).

Third Step - The choosing of photos
I take the SD card out of my camera (Sony DSC-WX500) which is a vlogging camera although I really want a DSLR they are a lot of money. I insert my SD card into my laptop and look through the photos and put them into my hard drive even if they aren't the best of photos. From there I choose
the photos which I think have the right angle, the right lighting and not to blurry, there may be only two or there may be twelve it really only depends on the day.

Fourth Step - Transferring the photos
From there I send the chosen photos via email to my ipad one by one as most of them are to big of files, and  downloading the photos before sending one photos takes around two minuets at a time even before sending them! So in other words I need to find a quicker way, but for now it works.

Fifth Step -  Cropping the photos
I take the photos from the emails I have sent to myself and one by one I position them on Instagram to get the right shape (Square) to fit Nibbles Instagram page, and to determine whether I should have Nibbles in the centre of the photo or to the side to give a nice effect. From there I make sure the wifi of my ipad is off so I don't post the picture to Nibbles instagram. I post it "offline" and it saves it to my camera role, the I delete the post so it won't post once I put the wifi back on.

Sixth Step - Adding the white background
I use Pic Collage to get the white background in Nibbles Instagram feed. I straighten the photo up and try to position it in the usual spot and try to have the same amount of white as my other photos, then I save it to my camera role and delete the original photos which were saved from the email and Instagram.

Seventh Step - editing unwanted text
As Pic Collage have a logo down the bottom of the page I remove the logo by using the app called Retouch as I want my photos to be of bunnies as it's a rabbits Instagram page. This app isn't really worth buying, as I once use it for that purpose only and the app was not for free.

Eight Step - Posting it
Out of the numerous photos which is prepared I want to post something around each day or two days apart on his Instagram so I prepare heaps of photos ready to post as I can't take photos each day because I get really busy during the weekdays and would like to keep refreshing his posts with new content every so often. As I have done heaps of preparation before posting I make them into a square on the photos app which comes with Ipads so I can just click on the photo and go straight through to the caption. The caption is where I like to try and write something to interact with the people who are following Nibbles so its a more open and friendly environment. I ask about the weather, where they're from, how long rabbit owners have had there rabbit for etc. I of course say where I am from (Australia), how long I've had my rabbit for (almost five years!) just so then people don't feel like they are the only ones replying to the question. I love engaging with his followers as they too most likely have a pet of there own.

So from this blog post you can see the steps I go through to post and Instagram as I love photography and Instagram is a great way of posting amazing artwork which I love seeing, I think everyone is an amazing artist in there own way. You probably have guessed it, my favourite subject in school was art, and surprisingly maths as well (weird combination, I know)  If you have read this far you are amazing and comment down below saying "I read it all!" and I'll know your an amazing person.
Thanks for reading!

links:
Instagram - @rabbitnibbles
https://www.instagram.com/rabbitnibbles/
Youtube - @rabbitnibbles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWAEVg2r9NY
Emai - rabbitnibbles.owner@gmail.com