Alt Summit Recap and Tips About Pin worthy Photos

Happy Monday, everyone! Today I am hoping to give you an Alt Summit recap as well as pass along tips I learned about taking pin worthy photos. The entire conference was a complete blast. My hat is truly off to those who worked tirelessly to plan such an amazing four days.  It was inspiring to be around such talented and creative people, and I was truly in awe.  I learned so very much and hope to implement as much as to make this blog better for my readers. I realized something while I was there. Well, many things. But first and foremost how important it is to push myself to go to events such as Alt. It really helped to shine the spotlight back onto the dreams I want to accomplish and provided me with a fresh perspective. There are so many savvy and intelligent creative minds that have so much to offer. I am truly grateful to each person who shared their expertise and ideas. I could honestly post photos for days, so instead, I decided to recap in a series of collages. If you follow me on instagram, some of these may look familiar. …………………………. the recap To start off the trip to Utah, it was nothing short of complete stress as I told my hubby to drive to the wrong airport. Oops. Minor problem. But we managed to make our flight and we were off and running to Salt Lake City. And as my sister pointed out, it was much more important for me to MacGyver some boot socks prior to leaving than check my itinerary.   The very first night we were treated to a delicious five course meal at Cucina Toscana hosted by Minted. Minted did not disappoint with their darling décor.  I was honored to be in a room full of creative and kind bloggers. I so enjoyed getting to know the girls from Gather as well as Laura from Hollywood Housewife. Kirsten from 6th Street Design School and I finally met and she is just as sweet and wonderful as she seems on her blog. I miss her already. We had a blast and enjoyed every minute of the evening. Thank you so much to Natasha and Minted for a really special night. Great way to kick of Alt Summit.     I have to admit I was nervous walking into Thursday’s events. There is just so much going on and the whole conference is a buzz with things to see, sponsors to meet, and panels to attend. The talented speakers did not disappoint and I had to work overtime to keep up with note taking.  Sitting down with the talented, intelligent and beautiful Jessica Alba with The Honest Company was a true highlight. It was sort of surreal. She was as sweet as can be and I will share all of that on the blog tomorrow. We even chatted design, so I am anxious to share the details with you. The night was capped off with a Clue themed party. The décor, fashion, and food were all so impressive.     On Friday we were treated to a wonderful lounge hosted by The Land of Nod. They have some exciting partnerships for this coming year, including spaces with Emily Henderson of HGTV {who spoke on a panel} and other very talented bloggers. The night culminated in 12 mini parties hosted by various sponsors. One of my favorite spots was the giant map of the United States where everyone was able to pin their business card. So fun to see where everyone was from and find some other Southern California bloggers. Since my husband was along to ski and enjoy, it was nice to sneak in some time with him after he returned from the slopes. Oh, and yes, that is me sitting in a giant swan in the Land of Nod lounge with my girl, Chassity, from Look Linger Love.     While in Utah, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out Park City. Ryan and I savored our time walking around the city and checking out the Sundance Film Festival. Some of our favorite spots were 501 Main {which was turned into a fun lounge for the stars during Sundance}, Zoom, and The High West Distillery. And I couldn’t help but pop into some design stores. By the time we arrived to the airport I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. Three days in heels + information overload = 100% exhaustion.   So now that I have done the photo round up of the trip, I thought it only fitting to share what I learned about photos while at Alt Summit. Keep in mind all of the above were taken with my phone, but if you want to knock it out of the ballpark for great photos here are fantastic tips:   Round Up of The Best Tips I learned About Taking Great Photos for Pinterest: The fantastic panel of bloggers included: Melissa of I Still Love You, Chelsea of Lovely Indeed, Jill of One Good Thing by Jillee, Jenny of Hank and Hunt, and Chris Gardener of Curbly. They had so many great things to say that I couldn’t take notes fast enough. Here are some great take away tips to think of when snapping photos that you hope will be Pinned. …………………………. pin only quality photos save photo at 72 dpi save photo for web try to use natural light clear, concise, cropped, colorful, and close pin every post to your blog pinterest board best time to pin is 5-7 am and 5-7 pm est beauty shot is paramount use a plain backdrop use a tripod save photo as a searchable word add text to first photos mix vertical and horizontal orientations always take your best photo instead of editing later ………………………… Melissa has a even more tips here on her blog about pinning.  And a heads up that I will be pinning my own projects to Pinterest on a regular basis. But I want to explain why. Sometimes when I pin something from my own blog it makes me feel as though I am tooting my own horn or saying, “This is pinworthy.” That is just not the case. But in actuality, we learned at Alt Summit that many people read and see blogs straight from Pinterest rather than coming here first. So I would love for those readers to have access to my project that way. Just a heads up in case you were wondering why I was suddenly pin happy! find me on facebook follow on instagram @athoughtfulplace catch me over at Pinterest ***I have put a one question survey on my sidebar. If you don’t mind, can you quickly answer which form of social media you use the most. I love my readers and am so thankful to have you. I want to be sure I am reaching out to you in the form of social media you use. Whew. Super long post!  I tried to make it concise while still giving you as many highlights as possible. I will be back tomorrow with my interview with the beautiful Jessica Alba.