Sparkler Photography Tutorial

I'm so excited for the 4th of July! There will be cookouts, fireworks, family, and sparkler photography. That's right. Sparkler photography. This is honestly one of my favorite shots. I wait year round to get pictures of sparklers and fireworks! One of the shots with sparklers that I like to do is a slow exposure photograph so that you can draw something out with the sparkler and it will show up like in my picture.

Here is how to take a slow exposure shot of a sparklers:

1. First of all, you'll need to put your camera in manual mode so you can control the settings.  Try out your camera  to see what works best. It's best to put your camera on a tripod for slow exposure shots so you can't see the blur.
2. Your shutter speed should be as least 5 seconds, or long enough to capture whatever you want to draw with the sparkler.
3. It is best to shoot these photos in kind of a twilight light so the person holding the sparkler is a silhouette in the background.
4. The ISO should be 100-200 so the picture is not grainy and to make the sparkler stand out.
5. Now have someone try drawing something with the sparkler! Adjust setting to personal preferences if needed.

Fourth of July Nails

If you're like me, it's a struggle to paint your nails. I can barely get a coat of plain nail polish on, let alone paint a design. However; I found that I could do super cute 4th of July nails without all of the difficult designs. With these nails, all it takes it two coats of paint, but it still incorporates red, white, and blue.

First, I chose to paint all of my nails except my ring finger this red color. This nail polish is by Sinful Colors and the name is Ruby Ruby (#369).

Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby (#369)

Next, I painted my ring fingers with this gorgeous blue color by Pure Ice. The color is French Kiss (#538).

Pure Ice French Kiss (#538)

Lastly, I covered all of my nails in this gorgeous glitter clear coat by Revlon that has different sizes and shapes of red and white glitter. The name of this nail polish is Daring Graffiti (#678).

Revlon Daring Graffiti (#678)

That is all I did to get these 4th of July nails. Most of the holiday designs are complicated, but it doesn't have to be. This nail idea is perfect even if you don't have a lot of time.