{"id":15000,"date":"2016-03-11T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=15000"},"modified":"2016-03-11T06:35:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T14:35:24","slug":"happy-friday-randomness-119","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=15000","title":{"rendered":"Happy Friday + Randomness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo-setup\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Happy Friday! Have you ever wondered how I set-up my shots whenever I share my me-made-clothes? You probably haven’t, but just in case…I place a mirror on a chair in the spot\u00a0where I’ll be standing, and set the focus using my reflection. I then use a remote that has this awesome\u00a0ability to\u00a0shoot consecutively non-stop with a single push of a button. This is the brand<\/a> I use, which was a bit of an investment, but it\u00a0has given me zero problems these last two years, which was not<\/em> the case with my first cheap-o remote. Sometimes I forget to switch my lens focus functionality to manual…this is when the lens tries to automatically focus as I’m moving about, resulting in my many, many (oh so many) blurry photos. My photo sessions usually last five minutes. Easy-peasy.<\/p>\n

I’m in awe of the folks who scout out cool locations and have beautiful backgrounds, but you know what? This works for me, and it’s about the clothes and process for me anyway.<\/p>\n

I’ve been thinking a lot about that tension between wanting to up my game and\u00a0sticking with what is tried and true. I would love to create those gorgeous shots with palm fronds framing my outfit or a panoramic seashore backdrop with windswept waves or whatever, but the reality is that I squeeze in my sewing and photo-taking between running a small yet demanding household and attempting to make a career out of creating books and products and who-knows-what-else my brain is trying to concoct. I sew to learn and not\u00a0to shoot\u00a0highly produced photos (though that would be lovely too, and maybe down the line it will be possible for me to do so). In fact, because I’ve never put that much pressure on myself to\u00a0have top notch photography, it’s the reason I’ve been able to sustain the blog for as long as I have. “This is the best that I can do given my current situation” and “Incremental progress” are my mottos.<\/p>\n

A friend said to me once, “I wish I could start a blog, but everyone in my field\u00a0is so critical.” I found that so curious. “But you’re<\/em> not like that,” I said. It stands to reason that yes, there are critical people, but as my nearly four years of blogging has proven, there are far more kind people than critical ones. I’m a firm believer in reciprocation — if you put good energy out there, it’s nearly impossible not to get good energy back. It’s easy to find reasons to delay starting. What I’ve heard over and over is that folks seem afraid to start [sewing, painting, writing, a business, etc.] because they’re not sure they’re up to snuff.\u00a0Of course I get it, and I’ve been annoyingly vocal about how I never<\/em> feel up to snuff. That first step is always the hardest, but when taken,\u00a0it’s like the unfurling of a surprise ball. Have you ever had one of those? It’s usually a long strip of crepe paper rolled up\u00a0into a ball with prizes embedded between layers. The prizes are usually kitchy things like plastic toys or a sticker or maybe a piece of gum. The point is that it’s fun to see them plop out as you unwind the ball. I’ve had so<\/em> many prizes these last three plus years!<\/p>\n

Anyway, those are some random thoughts on a Friday. Have a delightful weekend, all!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Friday! Have you ever wondered how I set-up my shots whenever I share my me-made-clothes? You probably haven’t, but just in case…I place a mirror on a chair in the spot\u00a0where I’ll be standing, and set the focus using my reflection. I then use a remote that has this awesome\u00a0ability to\u00a0shoot consecutively non-stop with a single push of a button. This is the brand I use, which was a bit of an investment, but it\u00a0has given me zero problems these last two years, which was not the case with my first cheap-o remote. Sometimes I forget to switch my lens focus functionality to manual…this is when the lens tries to automatically focus as I’m moving about, resulting in my many, many (oh so many) blurry photos. My photo sessions usually last five minutes. Easy-peasy. I’m in awe of the folks who scout out cool locations and have beautiful backgrounds, but you know what? This works for me, and it’s about the clothes and process for me anyway. I’ve been thinking a lot about that tension between wanting to up my game and\u00a0sticking with what is tried and true. I would love to create those gorgeous shots with palm fronds framing my outfit or a panoramic seashore backdrop with windswept waves or whatever, but the reality is that I squeeze in my sewing and photo-taking between running a small yet demanding household and attempting to make a career out of creating books and products and who-knows-what-else my brain is trying to concoct. I sew to learn and not\u00a0to shoot\u00a0highly produced photos (though that would be lovely too, and maybe down the line it will be possible for me to do so). In fact, because I’ve never put that much pressure on myself to\u00a0have top notch photography, it’s the reason I’ve been able to sustain the blog for as long as I have. “This is the best that I can do given my current situation” and “Incremental progress” are my mottos. A friend said to me once, “I wish I could start a blog, but everyone in my field\u00a0is so critical.” I found that so curious. “But you’re not like that,” I said. It stands to reason that yes, there are critical people, but as my nearly four years of blogging has proven, there are far more kind people than critical ones. I’m a firm believer in reciprocation — if you put good energy out there, it’s nearly impossible not to get good energy back. It’s easy to find reasons to delay starting. What I’ve heard over and over is that folks seem afraid to start [sewing, painting, writing, a business, etc.] because they’re not sure they’re up to snuff.\u00a0Of course I get it, and I’ve been annoyingly vocal about how I never feel up to snuff. That first step is always the hardest, but when taken,\u00a0it’s like the unfurling of a surprise ball. Have you ever had one of those? It’s usually a long strip of crepe paper rolled up\u00a0into a ball with prizes embedded between layers. The prizes are usually kitchy things like plastic toys or a sticker or maybe a piece of gum. The point is that it’s fun to see them plop out as you unwind the ball. I’ve had so many prizes these last three plus years! Anyway, those are some random thoughts on a Friday. Have a delightful weekend, all!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-life","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15000"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15019,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15000\/revisions\/15019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}