How to Take Great Photos for Social Media

The photographer stepped away, but an awesome moment is going down at the event you’ve spent months planning? Have no fear- the smartphone is here!

Learning some basic photography skills will improve your chance of capturing these stellar moments.

Rule of Thirds

Use the grid option on your smartphone. You want the main subject of your photo to be centered at the intersections of the rule of thirds grid- not smack in the center of the photo!

Boring photo that doesn’t draw the eye to anything in particular.

Rule of thirds in action.

Beware of Backlight

The human eye is drawn to light- so you want the light in a photo to be in front of the subject, not lighting the subject from behind.

No!

Yes!

Backgrounds

What's physically behind the photo can make or break an otherwise perfectly lit, rule-of-thirds abiding photos.

Avoid “polehead”, "treehead" or anything else sticking out from behind your subject.

Come in closer and change your angle to naturally crop out polehead.

Remember to keep a keen eye on the background. That means stay away from garbage.

Move around until you find the best angle for a non-distracting background.

This is a hot mess. Discard.

Say No to Blur

And while it might be common knowledge, it's worth mentioning that not posting a bad photo is better than posting a blurry photo. To be safe, take a variety of photos and choose the best option before you post.

Using these simple tips, you can improve your social media photo taking skills without investing in more photographers and special equipment.

Practice makes perfect, so take many pictures and study what worked and what needs some adjustment. 

Special thanks to the Kicking Cow human and doggy team for participating in this blog.

Food Lion's Boots and Badges Chili Cook Off

On November 20, Kicking Cow enjoyed bringing the Food Lion Boots & Badges Chili Cook Off to life. Local police and fire departments competed in a Food Lion chili cook-off, and all proceeds of the event went to the family of a fallen police officer from the Shelby, NC police force.

Our clients at Food Lion live by their commitment to their customers and community. When they saw a need near their headquarters in Charlotte, NC, they jumped into action, partnering with Kicking Cow to create a whole event to benefit local community members.

At Kicking Cow, we know that giving is the most fun we’ll ever have. Through our client relationship with Food Lion, we enjoyed watching the North Carolina community come together and joyfully give to a well deserving neighbor.

Food Lion provided gift cards to the participating police and fire departments to buy the necessary ingredients for their chili recipes from local Food Lion store. The Gastonia Police Department was named winner of the cook-off and took home a traveling trophy and a $300 Food Lion gift card. The Gastonia Fire Department didn’t leave empty handed- Food Lion presented the losing team with $200 as well to thank them for their continued service to the community.

The chili cook-off was a beautiful show of solidarity and community love from all who attended. Local media came out to cover Food Lion’s community day of giving (and eating!) Officer Brackeen’s widow took home $739.33 from community donations and a $500 Food Lion gift card.

The community participated in the event by tasting chili samples and voting for their favorite recipe. Alongside their chili samples, attendees also enjoyed fresh produce and water from the Food Lion Food Truck & Fruit Stands.

There was no shortage of entertainment at the cook-off! Outside of the edible delights, attendees took home plenty of smile-filled photos from a branded photo booth, competed in customer-in-training cart races, and played corn hole to win premium Food Lion items.

The Cow Gives Big to Celebrate the Season

You never have more fun than when you're giving. That's why we jumped into the holiday spirit by celebrating #GivingTuesday in a big way this year. The Herd came together at a local Target and "competed" in a company-wide challenge, buying over $4,500 worth of holiday gifts and essentials. The best part was donating it all to Guardian Angel Settlement Association (GASA).

Mike, President and Founder of Kicking Cow Promotions, sponsored all this giving as a way to support GASA. He’s been a board member for the local non-profit for almost four years.

At Target, all KCP employees (aka “The Herd”) were split into groups, assigned categories to shop for, and given a thick envelope with $500 inside.

The groups spilt up, conquered their giving goals, and came together with over $4,500 in products to donate to needy members of our St. Louis community.

Mike hit up the slow cooker aisle, wiping Target’s entire inventory of crockpots. Other teams went straight for warm winter clothes for all ages, household essentials, and of course, toys to brighten Christmas for many youngsters in our area. 

There were many laughs as the teams checked out their overflowing carts. We all competed to see how close we got to our goal of exactly $500 per team. In the end, The Herd donated more than originally expected, all in the spirit of giving and living big!

We had a great time together, loading up the car with all the treats we were ready to donate, and then Mike and Sam took our bounty to GASA’s headquarters.

We've never had more fun in a checkout line before!

Loading up the goods!

Nice shirt, Carol!

 

Meanwhile, the rest of us continued the celebrations (and competitions!) with an evening of bowling. Kudos go to Carol for showing up in her best bowling outfit!

After a fun day of laughter and giving, it’s our sincere hope at Kicking Cow that all of our donations and gifts are enjoyed by the many people in need in our local community.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from a very happy Kicking Cow Herd!