Gorgeous Pete Cashmore and Shiny Me
I go to a lot of events – tech, social media, just plain social sometimes – and I generally am taking pics or pictures at those events. It’s what I do. I enjoy capturing a slice of the night. Sometimes I’m working at the request of the event, sometimes it’s just for myself. People are always asking me if I’m the official photographer, I usually answer, “I’m the UNofficial photographer!”
When the event is over, at some point I sit down to edit the pics and I often end up deleting half of them. I’ve gotten better at this as time goes on, I used to just post everything! I look back at some of my early work and cringe! I have learned not to post any bad photos, although what I like and what you like may differ. I’m always happy to edit or delete upon request! A lot of times I can edit a pic by adjusting the color and cropping to make it the best it can be. If there is a group of people, and the one on the end has their eyes closed – they’re cropped out! If someone is too shiny, in most cases they are cropped out or deleted.
Today I’m going to start a series of few simple tips I’ve learned to help those in front of the camera – men and women. Just a couple of pointers to make you look your best, and not end up in my recycle bin! 
The first tip is powder. I learned this after attending Mashable’s first Summer Mash event in 2008. I had a wonderful time, took a lot of pictures, and had a lot of pictures taken of me. It was the first time I met photographer William Marc Salsbury and he took a couple of photos of me and told me I was a little shiny, which I appreciated. As it turned out, that was an understatement, I was a LOT shiny! I normally don’t have oily skin, but it was hot and crowded there and on camera, when the flash or lights hit me, shine city!
In the picture above I’m photographed with the founder of Mashable.com, Pete Cashmore, and it may not look too bad in the small size above, but click on it, and you will definitely see what I mean!
I’m not a fan of the matte look, but if you’re going anywhere, where there is any chance someone will take your photo, powder up before you leave! I do now! My favorite is a light dusting of loose powder, using a big fluffy brush! If you’re someone who does have oily skin, bring some pressed powder or blotting papers in your purse and touch up through the night. In a pinch, a trick that I learned from CBS 5′s newscaster,Sue Kwon at BizTechDay 2009, was to use toilet seat covers as blotting papers! You’ll thank me when you see the pictures after!
If you have any tips to share, I would love to hear them in the comments section below!
~Laura
