An Instagram Adoramapix Gallery Wall

Hi, all!  I’m Monica Shulman and I am a photographer in New York City.  I also write Ciao, Chessa! — a lifestyle blog focusing on art, photography and travel. Thank you Adorama for inviting me to share on your blog!

I’m a bit obsessed with creating gallery walls and I’ve decided that I need more walls in my home.  The wall above the dresser in my daughter’s room was a sad, empty space that taunted me for months.  I thought about leaving it blank but one rainy afternoon, while we were lying on the floor reading some of her favorite books, my girl stopped me and staring at her existing gallery wall she started calling out everything and everyone she saw in the photos.  Soon this became one of her favorite activities.  She walks around our apartment (especially in the kitchen), points at photos and talks about them and the people in them and I tell her the story of the day the photo was taken.  I started thinking about the kind of pictures that I wanted to put up on that little wall and soon the stories started to unfold.  I use Instagram (A LOT) to capture the moments of my life and with a toddler running around sometimes the iPhone camera is the only practical way to take pictures because I simply don’t have the time or the hands to use my dslr.  And so the idea for my newest gallery wall started to form.  I had never printed my Instagram photos before but I knew, after years of working with Adoramapix, that the quality would be amazing and would not disappoint.

I used my own gallery wall tutorial as a guide:

(1) get all the necessarily materials (I LOVE painter’s tape)
(2) choose the frames and photos
(3) frame your wall using painter’s tape
(4) choose a layout, and finally
(5) hang the frames

Choose your prints. I love the quality of the 10×10 prints from Adorama.

Make a grid of your gallery wall using painter’s tape.

The  best part of creating this wall was choosing the images and once I decided that I was going to print pictures from my Instagram feed the fun really began.  I love mobile photography  because it has allowed me to take photography in general less seriously all the time.  For the first time ever, as a photographer at least, I have finally learned to relinquish a bit of control (just a little) and in doing so I’m actually having more fun and have gotten better at capturing quiet, spontaneous moments and the images that I chose for this wall illustrate that.  All of the photos are taken from behind or above when my daughter didn’t know that I was there, when she was in her own world, doing something wonderful and fun – jumping in puddles, running fearlessly toward the waves, sleeping peacefully in her beloved crib.  I’m always, always there with her, watching her, letting her run and encouraging her to be adventurous and live playfully, even when (perhaps especially when) she doesn’t know I’m right behind her.

I’d highly recommend printing some of your favorite phone photos.  If you think about it, these are the times when you feel the least self-conscious about your photo-taking skills because after all, it’s just a phone.  The majority of my favorites happen to be Instagram pics but the idea behind mobile phone photos is the same…they are real, seemingly inconsequential but actually quite meaningful moments.  I used Adoramapix  and the prints look great in the 10×10 and 5×5 size.

I’m curious to know what you think.  Do you have any tips for creating gallery walls or favorite apps for your iPhone or android?  Share them in the comments!

See my original gallery wall tutorial here and see more walls in my home here.

You can find me on Twitter or connect on Facebook and Pinterest.  Thanks for reading!

So here we go, week one , we’re doing a craft with the kids for the holidays. So you’ve given the grandparents every picture you can find of your kids and you’re stumped for the holidays. Why not turn their pieces of art work.. into well, art work? ha. I’ll explain.

About one month ago, when Adoramapix ran their special on 8×8 -14 page photo books , I decided to scan all of my daughter’s art work and put them into this photo book.  I enjoy looking back through the school year to see her drawings, pastels, paintings and more. It got me thinking,  since they are already scanned, why not order some square prints of them and turn them into coasters for the grandparents.

So here you’ll see the photo book I made. I then ordered some images as 4×4 size. I chose four of my favorite images for the coasters, but for this demonstration, I’ll just show you the one. I then went to Home Depot and picked up a small pack of tumbled tiles. Now the 4×4 images were just a little too big for the tile, so instead of cutting them down, I decided to rip the edges to give it more of a rough look to it to match the rough tile.

For this art project, we also had to buy Mod Podge and a foam brush.

The beauty of this project is that my 11-year-old was able to do this mostly by herself  with very little help from me. So next we glued the image down to the tile. Then we put several coats of  Mod Podge on top. It’s important to let each coat dry thoroughly before applying the next one.

Now although it looks great once it’s dried. It’s still not complete. Remember, someone is going to put a drink on this so there will be moisture. So we finished this up with a final spray of matt sealer. This step should be done by an adult.. look at all those warning signs!  I did this part, outside on top of parchment paper. Apply several coats again and make sure each coat is dry before applying the next. Now it is sealed.

We made three more coasters of my daughter’s art work and we are now ready for the holidays with a truly unique, home-made gift with the help of Adoramapix. Thank you Adoramapix!

Materials:

(4) 4×4 tiles

(4) 4×4 prints from ADORAMAPIX

(1) foam brush

(1) bottle of Mod Podge

(1) can of finishing spray/sealer

What’s amazing about this exhibit is that it pieces together work from photographers around the world and blends them into one big image that spans 163 feet that run through the gallery. Here are some shots of the installation.

Adoramapix was honored to help fill this frame with 5×7 images from photographers all around the world.

Here are some of the many beautiful 5×7′s that will fill this frame.

The event is tonight at 6pm at 25 CPW Gallery, New York, New York.  You can also view some more of the work and read the latest on their BLOG. Or you can see more of the exhibit information that was featured HERE on CNN’s blog. Of course, you could always follow them on TWITTER as well. Good Luck to Kendrick and the team tonight!

First we asked her, How did you do it? She answered, “Easy answer, I love photography! So having a project365 based on photography was the easy part. I actually never got stuck this year. I looked forward to posting. My blog was not based on any one theme, so it made it easier. I didn’t do any set ups. I just did what I’ve always done and that was take photos.”

We then asked, Did you ever hit a wall with creativity? Her answer, “Did I ever get stuck? Nope, not at all because I found out that even though it began as a place to show my photography…. It was so much more than that – it was about my voice. I found a way to relate whatever photo I chose to an event, to a feeling, to a desire, to a dream and I shared it with whomever decided to read. So NO, I never got stuck.”

Pixel’s project started to get noticed when she started a blog. She then set up links to her @Dpixel account and that’s when she really started to get noticed. I asked her, How did it progress? He replied, “What I didn’t realise, was people were beginning to notice and to read what I wrote. Living in New York city, we take for granted our city and not realise how intriguing it is to the “outside world”. I also wrote about parenting and it surprised me by the inbox messages I received thank yous and asking for advice. I wrote about my everyday life – our amazing dinners, the wines we tried, the trips we took, being at the lake house. I photographed my cat. I tried different lenses and different perspective. It became a personal journal, but it was a relatable one.”

Any regrets Pixel? She answered, “Yes, that I didn’t organize my photos in such a way that I could have made a photo album at the end of the year. I would have to go through each post.” (I think Adoramapix can help with THIS!)

Any advice? She replied, ” Many people get stuck because they begin a Project365 and it becomes more of a chore. It may help that you DON’T stick to a theme, or that you must ONLY post your BEST photo. Quite a few of my photography friends fell into this. I remember saying to them to “own your photo”. Just remember, that Project365 are not only about photos, there’s many different things you can do. Think about end before beginning and guess what??? It’s OKAY to change themes or ideas in the middle of it all.. It is afterall YOUR PROJECT365, so own it. So that’s my story.. The world got to know Pixel through my 365.”

Thank you Pixel your work and dedication to the project are inspiring.

We want to  help you during the holidays including :

1. How to photograph children.You can easily go from this:

To This:

Just simply follow us @Adoramapix and @Studio32 and use the hashtag #jinglepix to follow the conversastion.

2. So you want to build better albums? We can help!  How about this?

Just follow s @Adoramapix and @photobacks and use the hashtag #jinglepix to follow the conversastion.

Or how about being able to photograph people at night? You can do something like this!

Just follow us @Adoramapix and @frphoto and use the hashtag #jinglepix to follow the conversation.

We have lots of great prizes including a special prize for the person who tweets us a picture of their ugly holiday sweater!

Follow us @Adoramapix, @studio32, @photobacks, @frphoto and use the hastag #jinglepix on Thursday, December 15, 9pm  EST. See you there!