My Creative Tools & Process
There are a consistent number of tools and techniques that I rely on for blogging, photography, and planning, and I’d love to give you a behinds the scenes look!
Photography Tools & Process
In the past, I’d say about 75% of my photos were taken directly on my iPhone, but I am admittedly now incorporating more personal, lifestyle imagery into my feed. It’s not an exact science, but it’s safe to say that any photo of a person or product was taken with a professional camera, whereas a photo of a place was likely taken with my iPhone. I don’t have the latest and greatest iPhone - I believe that it is the 10 Max!
For my professional camera, I purchased the mirrorless Sony A7iii almost a year ago, and cannot recommend it enough! I also purchased a Sigma, 35MM, F 1.4 lens. This setup has given me a lot of flexibility for interior photography and portrait photography, and I absolutely love the quality of photographs that the mirrorless produces. I am eyeing a wide angle lens so that I have a little more versatility!
That being said, you certainly do not need a professional-grade camera to take awesome photos. The phone cameras these days are truly exceptional, and I recommend only investing in larger setup if you are ready to take the next step in the world of content-creation. I do take on paid photography projects here and there, which helps to offset the cost of my tools.
Photo Editing Tools & Process
After a shoot, I use this adapter to download the photos onto the Lightroom App on my phone, which allows me to edit and upload on the go. I edit exclusively in Adobe Lightroom - even the photos you see in my stories have been edited in Lightroom 95% of the time, though that is just personally preference, and there are many fun filters available now in the Instagram Stories feature.
When I first got started in Lightroom, I downloaded a bunch of presets from Etsy, like warm honey and rich and moody. I have found that these presets can usually give me the color tones I’m looking for, but not necessarily the brightness and the contrast. I always manually edit my photos, even after applying a preset, in order to achieve the look I want. I usually adjust for brightness, contrast, warmth, and grain. I’d love to develop my own presets one day, but for now, these options from Etsy serve my needs really well.
Planning
Planning out my instagram feed is a key part of the process - it allows me to see how the content is working together and to adjust colors and brightness as needed. I rely on a app called UNUM! I have also heard great things about Preview and Later. I believe that Preview allows you an unlimited of uploads into your gridspace, so if you are looking to start fresh with one, I would recommend Preview over Unum. However, UNUM has some beautiful, very editorial story templates built directly into the app, and the user interface is just more minimal and modern.
Most of these apps also allow you to write out captions and save hashtag groups! Recently, I’ve begun writing out my captions (or at least the meat of them) in advance for the week. I’m used to figuring out what to say for each caption every evening, and though this comes from a place of authenticity, I end up spending waaaaay more time on the app than I need to. So, I now dedicate time on the weekends to plan what I am going to say and when I’m going to say it, as well as write out any the bulk of any blog posts for the week.
Writing & Blogging
Honestly the word “blog” makes me cringe from head to toe - I consider myself more of a writer and a creative than I do a blogger. I find writing to be cathartic - it is an avenue for me to externally process my thoughts and emotions, as well as have a dialogue about topics that are important to me. I’ve also found the process of writing to be very healing, but when I journal with a pen and paper, my hand can’t keep up with my thoughts and my wrist usually starts to cramp up because I write with so much tension!
Regardless, my writing and creative work are organized and designed with a platform called Squarespace. Though squarespace is $100 or so a year, I love love love the flexibility it provides, especially as someone who will spend hours tweaking colors and fonts instead of actually writing and producing content. The interface is incredibly user friendly - you don’t need to know how to code in order to create a sleek website. The new version of Squarespace (7.1, I believe) uses an entirely different user interface that I have played around with - if you were to build a website tomorrow for the first time, you’d start in 7.1 As a 7.0 user, I’m looking forward to making the leap to 7.1 once it’s time!
Additionally, I plan writing content with Airtable and the iPhone’s native Notes app. The hot mess of ideas and inspiration typically lands in notes, which is then sorted into Airtable or onto an Instagram post caption. Airtable is really just an elevated spreadsheet - I prefer using this format for planning blog content because it allows me to stay organized and intentional, while also allowing me to move things around as directions change. I will also add notes, images, links, and relevant talking points to the Airtable “record” as the idea continues to evolve.
Inspiration
There are many great minds in the world of creativity, and it’s really easy to get lost in looking up and comparing myself to all of them instead of marching to my own drum. I recently made a little vision board for myself, and selected the top four accounts that inspire me the most, so that I can be intentional about learning from their process and style. The people I look up to the most tend to be multi-faceted, creative multi-hyphenates, which is to say, they own the space of being a lot of things in a lot of lanes, instead of focusing their energy on just one lane. Most experts would tell you to focus on one lane, but over time I’ve had to accept and celebrate that my mind just doesn’t work that way. When I look at these creators, my heart rests in knowing that being my most authentic self - a Jesus-loving multifaceted creative who loves fried chicken and glitter (and who would aspirationally love to own her own business one day) is the ocean I am meant to wade in until God tells me to just focus on a little pond instead.
My favorite accounts right now are:
+ Anna Nunez
+ Eyes Swoon
+ Zio and Sons
+ Jasmine Dowling
If this information was helpful, please drop a comment on this post in Instagram so that I can say hi! Also, feel free to DM me on Instagram if you have any additional questions. Happy creating!