How to Reverse The Writing On A Selfie

I took a photo of myself wearing a New Year's Eve hat. It came out well. The only problem was, the writing was reversed. I knew that if you take yourself in a mirror the writing is reversed. I had not realized that you get the same problem with a selfie.

Reversal would also take place if you wear a t-shirt with a slogan. The same applies to a baseball hat with writing.

I wanted to get to this:

Selfie with writing rversed.

There are two ways around this.

1 Ask a bystander to photograph you. Ideally not a stranger who might run off with your phone. In my view a safer bet is a member of the restaurant staff.




2 Take another picture without the hat

3 Reverse the picture left to right.

Selfie reversed.

How do you do this? We did not know. But we reckoned there must be a symbol somewhere that fixed the problem. It had to be somewhere in our edit photos mode on the mobile phone. Failing that, we would have to fix it later on a photo editing programme in a laptop or computer programme.

Before risking ruining the picture we liked, we took another picture on which we could experiment.

Then we went into the editing photo mode on the mobile phone.

On a Samsung Galaxy this is the process:

1 Go into photo taking mode.

2 Use the reverse photo mode which on the Samsung Galaxy is a circle with two arrows around itand

3 Take a photo of yourself wearing a hat with writing.

4 $o see the photo you have just taken, you could go back into the main menu and press the photo view symbol. On the Samsung Galaxy it is called Gallery. The photo you have just taken is at the top of your screen under Today.

5 Once you are in photo taking mode, I find it quicker to click on the small picture of the photo you have taken in a circle to the left of the big white circle you press in the middle of the lower band on the screen.

6 Under the photo you see four symbols. One looks like a pencil for editing photos. click on this.

7 Up comes a small set of five symbols, below that a series of vertical lines which you slide from the middle to the left and right to adjust the horizontal.
Below that is the third set of symbols.

8 I usually use the two on the left of the bottom row.  the one on the far left enables you to adjust the middle line of vertical lines to adjust the horizon and get the picture level. Placing the pointer on the corners and pulling the corners of the picture diagonally enables you to cut out background such as
too much ceiling or floor, other people you don't want in the picture, or just to focus on the face and hat.

9 On the top row of symbols under the picture, the second symbol from the left looks like a vertical line with two arrows pinting away, like the symbol on a lift to open the doors. Click on this with your fingertip and your photo reverses right to left. (Click on it again and you will return to previous view.)

10 Remember to save the new version by clicking on the word save above the top of the screen.

11 If you have a different phone, go into Google and type in your phone brand name and model and the words how to reverse photo. Or ask the same question in help mode in your phone.

12 Using your experimental photo, click on all the symbols in photo edit mode to see what they do.

13 When you are with a large group of friends or family, ask a technical person, or a keen phtographer, or somebody who has the same phone, for their advice on editing photos.

14 If they do not know this trick, show them and ask what tricks they can teach you.

You may wish to avoid standing in front of any sign which will be reversed when you take a selfie photo.

However, I like to take a photo of a sign to tell me later where I was in order to help label the photos later.

Happy photo taking.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please bookmark your favourite posts and share links with your family, friends and colleagues.

Recording Yourself Speaking, Reciting Poetry Or Singing

Problems
I often photograph other people at a meeting and forget to record myself.

You give a speech or workshop, or ask a question from the audience, and neither you nor anybody else thought to make a recording.

Answers
1 Have your mobile phone set up on a desk near the front (for good sight and sound) ready to activate when you give a thumbs up to the person sitting beside it.

2 At Swanwick Writers School I recited two poems but had no recording. So another person, Steve, took the trouble to record me and others.

We thought of recording again at the end but people were tired and needed to go to bed ready for the next day, and the room was being shut for the night.

So we did the recordings next day.

The recording of two of my poems is on Youtube and I was alerted to it when it was mentioned on Facebook.

Thank you so much Steve. Useful lesson here. If you forget to record yourself at an open mic evening, or recordings are banned, you can do a recording later or next day in the same venue with the same clothes and props. If you make a mistake on the night, you can record the corrected version next day, without the pressure of an audience, until you have a version without hesitations.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How to make camera shy people look good in photos

Problem
Your friend says:
Doesn't matter what I do, I look awful in photos. It akes a genius photographer to make me look halfway human.

The staging makes all the difference. You need to put some effort into it. You must have seen makeover shows. Here are some suggestions:

1 Take several photos when you are all dressed up - weddings, anniversaries, birthdays.

2 Wash your hair in advance of the special occasion. If hair is too fly away, use conditioner. You can buy conditioner, find it in hair dye packets, get it free in many hotel bathrooms.  Buy a shampoo containing conditioner.

3 If your hair is greasy or badly cut, or you have a blad patch, or roots of a tint showing, cover head with a hairband, scarf or hat or tiara or paper hat from a Christmas cracker.

4 Place a plain person in a group photo with everybody in the same costume (like bridesmaids).

5 Dress up as a character at a fancy dress party in a costume with a hat which covers your hair and maybe part of your face.

6 Smile.

7 Add a cute cat or dog or bird or baby or soft toy.

8 Stand or sit at a distance next to an attractive feature such as a log fire in a hotel.

9 Take several photos to avoid ending up with only one in which the subject's eyes are shut.

10 Work out your most attractive feature (feet, legs, body, hands, face, eyes, hair, cleavage). Take photos which emphasize your best feature. 

11 Try different poses, such as back to camera looking over shoulder.

12 Try various outfits.

13 Go into fitting rooms of a department store and try on some fancy clothes and get a friend to photograph you.

14 Spend time photoshopping your photos. Cut out frown lines. Try showing yourself slightly blurred instead of sharp.

15 Hide behind a bouquet or vase of flowers.

16 Hold up a book you have written or your favourite book so the book is the central point of the picture.

17 Feature something you do, such as digging the garden, displaying a cake, holding a fish you have caught, standing beside your painting.

18 Put your head in a frame such as a circle, oval, heart.

19 If you are now old and wrinkled, do a collage of four or more pictures of yourself at different ages so that you or others can comment how gorgeous you looked in one of your photos when you were younger.

20 Do a funny face. Comedians such as Kenn Dodd and Mr Bean make a feature of their odd looks. Maybe you can be 'a character'.

21 Look at professional photos to find interesting poses. For example, two children or mother and child sitting back to back on a piano stool. Sitting in a meadow of flowers, hugging your dog, or eye to eye with a cat, and handing an animal a plate of food.

22 If you do any charity work, a photo of you collecting money or helping others has emphasis on what you are doing, rather than what you look like.

23 Be photographed next to the portrait or statue of your hero. 

25 Stand next to a sculpture in a sculpture park.

26 Take lots of selfies sitting at home or in the mirror in a hotel. If you take twenty-five photos you should have one good one.

27 Lots of people will say, "You don't want a photo of me!" or, "Why do you want a photo of me?" You might get them to pose if you say, "I want photo of your certificate," or, "I want you to hold the dog still".

28 Fussy people might well reject most of your photos but pick out one which they like.

29 Hide behind stage make-up such as a Union Jack or American flag on a national day or sports day.

If all else fails, and one person doesn't want to be in a group photo, ask them to take a photo of others.

Author

Novelty Photos You Can Try - Wearing A Welsh Hat, Holding Up The Eiffel Tower

Problem
How can I do a different personalised photo?

Answer
Put yourself in a picture like this:
1 Wearing a hat at an exhibition.
2. Holding up a building.
Favourites are the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I've also seen similar things done in Cambodia at temples. You can do similar tricks with falling walls.

In Prague, Czech Republic, adults and children alike pose beside a naked man fountain in front of the Franz Kafka museum.

You can also pretend to fight dinosaurs, and do similar trick photos with statues.

Stories
I wanted a photo of myself next to Jemima, the Welsh heroine.When I saw that one model of the Welsh heroine, Jemima, was wearing a hat, I realised I could be photographed wearing the hat.
www.visitwales.com

Travel Tips
https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/ (trips, tours, offers: London; England, Scotland, Wales)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk (You get the UK version when you log in from the UK)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Angela Lansbury and Welsh hat at The Last Invasion Tapestry museum alongside the library in The Town Hall, Fishguard, Wales. Photo copyright Angela Lansbury.

Stansted - long stay, short stay and meet and greet parking

Selfie with the Queen at a shop selling all things British at the airport. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
Where should you park at S t a n s t e d? What else can you organise?

Answer
If you are taking the budget airline Ryanair to Europe and you live in central or north London or north of London towards Cambridge, rather than going south to Gatwick airport or west to Heathrow a good alternative is S t a n s t e d airport. You can book everything on line in advance, not just the airline but also the car parking, the hotel at your destination airport in Europe and your restaurants.

Let's start with the airport. Our experience is that the so called short stay air port was not more convenient. The long stay airport has a shuttle bus which brings you to the door. But the short stay airport can leave you with a car at the end of the huge parking area and having to wheel your suitcases up the ramp.

The third alternative is to use some of the money you saved on the airfare on the valet parking option. You have to leave your car keys with them. Then it's into the airport.

Once inside there's another convent option. You can buy duty free drinks to take with you to your destination. But if you have any wine in mind that you plan to bring back on the return flight, instead of carting it around Europe, you can pay for it and collect it on your return through the airport.

This does require you to allow time to collect it. Also you need to be an organised person who can keep track of your ticket to collect your goods which you have already paid for.

Another option to consider is what you will eat or drink on your budget airline. Also whether you want to pay extra to have assigned seating.

View from the window seat. Clouds and the mountains, fields and buildings below. Photo by angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Suitcases on sale on arrival at Bucharest airport, Romania. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Story
I used to fuss about where I sat. In the early days of flying  I liked to sit in a window seat to take photos. Later I preferred an aisle seat so I could get up and to the toilet. I found the aisle less claustrophobic and instead of looking at the ground so far below I could look down the aisle at the nonchalant crew.

I hated sitting in the centre seat. Then I was forced to seat in a centre seat and found it doubled my option of having a conversation with somebody returning home to my holiday destination. So my holiday started aboard the plane with tips from a local person.

On my recent trip on a Ryanair flight I tried their home croissant containing the ham and cheese and found it very good. I had had coffee already at a Starbucks at the airport.

The other thing to prepare for is that you may have to remove your shoes at security. Moved your computer from its case. If you are planning to take your computer aboard, keep it accessible. Our  plane has space for about 90 pieces of baggage in the overhead lockers. If you want to have a locker, be prepared to stand in the queue (americans say line up).

Otherwise you may be told to leave your wheel on bag to go in the hold. So if you need your computer to work on or don't want ti damaged, you will have to remove your laptop fast at the entrance to the plane.

This is not such a hardship. Less to carry up the steep steps into the plane, less to look after on the plane. You get a ticket attached to your boarding pass to reclaim it at the other end.

You can buy wheeled luggage at S t a n s t e d on departure and on arrival at Bucharest, capital or Romania, but at what I considered was a hefty price. Vern the price of shortbread biscuits was £5 for two small tubes, compared with £1 at a shop such as Poundland. But the tubes will probably stop the biscuits from shaking and breaking, if you want a gift. If it's for your own munching, buy in advance.

 If you do want souvenirs of the UK, plenty of options. You can even take a photo of yourself with a life size model of HM Queen Elizabeth II at the airport. Such fun for everyone.
So there you have it, budget airline, affordable price, everything organised.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to my posts.

I-Rings Protecting Your Mobile Phone Are Great For Selfies

Problems
I saw an i-ring on the back of a girl's phone. I asked what it was for. She said it kept your phone upright on a desk so you could photograph yourself in a selfie or video yourself giving a speech. How much do they cost? She told me, under ten dollars (Singapore dollars) - mostly less than five dollars.

Stories
Buying Bargains
I was in Toa Payoh in the centre of Singapore, walked up and down the market stalls across the covered path from the shops, and found a seller who had one for five dollars. I walked away to see if I could find anything cheaper and shops were offering them for ten dollars which I knew from their other prices was high and for locals used to bargaining, unlike tourists, would be double to final agreed price. I eventually paid
three dollars forty cents and was pleased with my bargain.

However, I later saw them sold for two dollars in the rummage trays in a ground floor shop in Bukit Panjang at Bukit Panjang Plaza. (This used to be the main or only shopping mall. Now Hillion has opened across the road.

Where do you stick the i-ring? Does it matter? If you are using it to hold the phone by your finger, whatever feels comfortable.

If you are using it to keep your phone upright or rather diagonally on a desk top, you may want to experiment.

I went on the web looking for answers. Instead I found another brand's excellent site which led me on a detour.

One Hand Operation Of Phones
The brand is Flytrap and they are American. From their website I learned that there are many more uses for holding a mobile phone in one hand.

I used to place my phone on my lap when I got into a car and needed my left hand to shut the door. When I got out, the phone would fall onto the ground.

The website also solved a mystery about the costs and tracking of sending goods overseas. I used to buy a lot of goods on ebay. Some arrived overnight. Others disappeared for a month. The website explained all that. The dearer 'shippers' - noways mostly flying deliverers, offer tracking, which not only relieves stress, it give you comeback if an item goes missing.

Meanwhile I am looking at my two dollar ring. Where do I stick it?

Tips
All you need to know on:
https://shop.flygrip.com/collections/flygrip-gravity

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Statues outside Buona Vista MRT, Singapore - and how to photograph yourself with statues

Problem
How do you take an original photo of statues when travelling? How do you photograph yourself?

Answers
I always take three sets of photos. One is from a distance. Another is a close up of one part of the group. A third shows me in the picture.

I tried to take a selfie with the statues by using the reverse camera symbol on my mobile phone screen. Unfortunately that shows only your face in close up.

To get a picture of the whole scene, yourself head to toe, and the same for the statue, you would need a selfie stick or help from a friend or bystander. (Someone you could trust not to run off with your phone!)

I take a photo of a nearby place name so I have a record of where the photo was taken. Here I have photographed the sign saying Buona Vista. I even have the MRT (train sign) and the bus stop number in case I want to go back or direct anybody who might be going there by bus.

Photographic Competitions - some suggestions, or Instagram

Google photographic competitions to see what you can enter and what inspires you.
What do you need to do?
Take photos in the categories listed.
Make sure your photo is sharp.
Do not take any pictures which might infringe somebody else's copyright.

First look through your existing photos to see what you have in the listed categories.
If you have a good subject, but bad lighting, go back and take more photos in better light. If your photo is not sharp, go back and take another photo with a tripod.

If previous winning competitions included human interest, or objects to illustrate size, add these to your composition.
1 Dress in your best clothes. Take a selfie. Or use time lapse.
2 Take your dog or a family member's dog. For example, a photo of a tree might be enhanced, or size exaggerated, with a dog or bird.
3 Set up time lapse in your garden and take multiple shots hoping a bird or cat or spider will come into view.

Many competitions have closing dates far ahead. You have time to take many different photos or many photos of the same scene with different lighting, people, or added objects.

Emotions
Add the joy of a prizewinner. The sadness of a funeral. Loneliness. Crowds. One person out of step.

Contrasts
Large and small. Old and young. Light and dark.

https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/2017/open

Instagram
If you don't feel your photos are ready for competitions, you might like to use Instagram. A new friend told me she does not use Facebook which is full of distracting text. She used Instagram just to put up photos.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Travelling with a smartphone - selfie with your children

New things to do with a smartphone. On London's underground railway (the 'tube') I watched a father keep his small son entranced, and close with a hug, taking two-person selfies. What a great idea. You can do this on any form of transport. Or any place with two adjacent seats. Stop your children racing off around a plane, a train, a restaurant, a theatre.

Take the photo. Take several. Show the child al the photos you have taken. Let them choose which ones to keep and which ones to delete. Take another.


Keep them busy. Keep them happy. Stop them jumping up and down in a moving vehicle. Prevent them annoying other passengers. Or getting lost.

Photos From Your Smartphone on the move

Great tips for using your iPhone (and other smartphones) to take photos when travelling.

First, for any handphone user, they show you how to make a little tripod out of card if you've left yours at home. Great for taking photos of yourself or holding the camera still in poor light. If you get the angle right, you can take a video of your speech when visiting a club, or at your home club, or rehearsing your speech at home.

Where do you find a piece of card when travelling at a hotel? The backing of a shop-bought shirt or even a pair of tights in stiff packaging. The carton of cereal on the hotel breakfast buffet.

Next, for iPhone users, how to use the panorama feature. I've never known what it was for. I must check it out.

Last good trick, solved the problem of your arm in the way of a selfie, using the button on the earphones to operate the camera in your phone.


http://www.lipstiq.com/others/7-photography-tricks-you-didnt-know-your-smartphone-can-do/