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Coco's Caravan

The Best Photography Equipment for Beginners

in DIY, Home Slider on 01/23/19

I wanted to share the photography equipment I use that can help you take professional pictures at home! Why spend tons of money on a professional photographer when you can take them yourself. This is the best list to start out if you are a beginner.

If you are interested in taking pictures of your own kids I have a great blog post all about the tips and tricks when taking pictures of babies! You can read that blog post HERE.

Table of Contents

    • First Photography Equipment: Camera
    • The Second photography equipment: Lights
  • The Third Photography Equipment: Backdrop Stand
  • The Last Photography Equipment: Adobe Lightroom  CC App
  • DON’T FORGET TO PIN THIS PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT LIST TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD FOR LATER.

First Photography Equipment: Camera

The most important item to have apart of your photography equipment is your camera. This is the camera I use and I’ve always been a huge fan of canon. I like this camera because its smaller, but still gives you that professional looking image. I can easily carry this around in my purse without it being to bulky. Its also a great camera for vlogging. I used this camera when I went to Japan and Disneyland.

The autofocus system that canon has is really fast and accurate, which is definitely helpful when taking pictures of babies. The ability to use the different manual mode is what will make a big difference in your photos. They have a portrait mode on this camera that will do the focus for you to get that professional look.

This camera is also great for taking videos. If you’re interested in taking more videos of your family this is a great camera. The screen can flip forward and backward making it easier for vlogging as well.

My favorite feature is being able to send the pictures to my phone through bluetooth. I download an app on my phone and get them right away!


The Second photography equipment: Lights

When it comes to your pictures looking professional, lighting is key. I got these lights off of Amazon and they have worked great for me. It’s important to have two lights to get rid of shadows. You can easily pack these up and take them wherever you need to go. They nicely adjust in length and angle of the light. They will quickly become worth your investment.

The Third Photography Equipment: Backdrop Stand

Having a good backdrop to a photo can really help make your kids pop in a photo. This backdrop stand has helped me so much in propping up boards or hanging up a backdrop sheet. You can buy backdrop sheets, but you can easily use a white bedsheet. As long as you have the backdrop stand you can easily hang anything you want!

I used my backdrop stand to hold up this white backdrop fabric I bought off of Amazon. It helped a lot to have the stand hold up the backdrop so I could get that clean professional look. The boys just pop in this picture because of it!

I used the backdrop stand for this cake smash photo to hold up some plywood that I bought at Lowes. It worked great and they looked like they were on real wood floors. You can get more details on how I put this cake smash photo together HERE.

The Last Photography Equipment: Adobe Lightroom  CC App

I liked that this app was free and that’s what drew me to it. It’s more than $200 a year to use this program on your computer and you can use it for free on your phone. Stop using any other editing apps and just use this one! This will cover everything you need to edit photos and make them look professional.

You have probably noticed that people are now making and selling presets that they use on their accounts. This app is how you can use those presets after you buy them. You can also make your own presets and use them again for yourself. If you use the canon camera I mentioned above, you can quickly get the photos to your phone and edit them with this app.

DON’T FORGET TO PIN THIS PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT LIST TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD FOR LATER.


This post may contain affiliate links. See my 
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Comments

  1. Marie Babcock Duenas says

    June 19, 2019 at 3:36 pm

    I appreciate all your tips I love photography and when the grand twins I’m taking their first pictures and was in need of some lighting so I went to your link for that.

    Reply
    • cocoscaravan says

      June 19, 2019 at 3:38 pm

      This makes me so happy to read! I’m so glad I could help!

      Reply
  2. Emily Chique says

    November 29, 2020 at 1:35 pm

    Such a helpful post! Thank you! The lights came today, now we’re just waiting on the frame 🙂

    Reply

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welcome
Hi I’m Jenn, but my friends call me Coco. I recently lost the love of my life to cancer. I’m now a single mom of IVF miracle twin boys. I hope to help others as I share my journey as a new widow and mother of twins.

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cocoscaravan

🎉New Blog Post🎉 Toddler swim must haves for 🎉New Blog Post🎉 Toddler swim must haves for this summer! I learned from my mistake last year and started buying swim stuff now. Last year I waited until summer to buy things and everything was out of stock. Now is usually the time to buy stuff for summer! Check out my blog link in BIO!
Thanks for a the sweet birthday wishes for the boy Thanks for a the sweet birthday wishes for the boys! They had so much fun! My sister was putting them to bed last night and she asked them “what was your favorite part of the party?” Marshal said “blowing the candles on the cake” ❤️❤️

I will for sure do a blog post on the party and how I put everything together! ❤️
Happy Birthday Marshal and Everett! Turning three Happy Birthday Marshal and Everett! Turning three years old today! 

The boys are OBSESSED with anything cars. They know the names of every character on the cars movie! So I of course had to do a cars themed bday!

I’ll be posting a blog post on their birthday in the next couple of weeks! 🙌
At the time these two were born I truly never thou At the time these two were born I truly never thought I would become a widow/single mom. Even though Justin was terminal I always had hope and thought he would be here. 

I didn’t know this at the time I took this picture, but I would soon realize how much I needed them to survive. They are my little life savers! They give me so much strength! 

Can’t believe they turn three tomorrow! I’m so happy to be their mom!
“It’s a boy, just kidding it’s two” I wrot “It’s a boy, just kidding it’s two” I wrote blog post all about our reaction when we first found out we were having twins. We even recorded ourselves after finding out. The video is also on my blog! [link in BIO]

Because of in-vitro we knew we put in one embryo so it was a total shock when we saw two little babies on the ultrasound.
Sorry birthday week so it’s been a picture overl Sorry birthday week so it’s been a picture overload 😬 This is one of my favorite pictures of Justin and the boys. It was truly a miracle that Justin was able to live long enough to see the twins born. I feel so grateful that we were able to spend a couple months together as a family. 

I think those few months together as a family really helped me to be able to keep moving forward. I love that the boys will have some pictures with their dad and know that he tried so hard to be there for them even though he was in so much pain. They will look at pictures like this and know their dad loved them so damn much! ❤️ He wanted to be here so badly! He would have been such a great dad to these two boys! 💔❤️
The boys turn three years old on Saturday so I apo The boys turn three years old on Saturday so I apologize in advance for all the throwback pics I’ll be posting this week! I just can’t believe how fast it has gone and it’s fun to look back on older pics. ❤️

These were some of the last pictures I took before giving birth. Twin pregnancy was sooo hard! The last couple months I had extreme anxiety about going to bed because it was so painful. I would just cry all night and it was so hard to breath. The icing on the cake was getting preeclampsia the weekend before I gave birth. The swelling was so bad I could barely walk or sit. Sooo not fun! 

I made it to 37 weeks and 3 days! I was more than happy to be induced and get the boys out! You can read my full birth story in the link in my BIO! 

I’m sure it’s a twin pregnancy thing, but I did not enjoy being pregnant. I never look back and think “aww I miss that.” It was so hard, but soooo worth it! 

Did you enjoy pregnancy or miss it? How about my twin mamas did you have a hard time as well?
Happy Easter! 🐰🐰 Hope everyone has a wonderf Happy Easter! 🐰🐰
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

Suits are from @kindhumanco ❤️
Finally finished my blog post and my travel vlog f Finally finished my blog post and my travel vlog from our trip to Texas. See more pictures and the rest of this video on my blog! [link in BIO]

It was such a fun week! Missing the warm weather!
I saw this quote the other day and it hit me like I saw this quote the other day and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt this so deeply and really felt like I needed to share it. There have been times where I have received a message from a picture I had posted saying “you look like you’re doing so well” or “you look so happy.” Where yes there are days I’m doing well, but that doesn’t mean the pain is gone. That doesn’t mean I struggle to get out of bed some mornings. The “heaviness” is always there, I just choose to keep moving forward. ——- continue reading on my blog [link in my Instagram BIO on the homepage]
A day in the life! I made this forever ago and for A day in the life! I made this forever ago and forgot to post it! 🤦‍♀️ I’ll post things on Tik Tok and then forget to post them here! Lol Thought it turned out pretty cute! ❤️
We had so much fun visiting San Antonio last week We had so much fun visiting San Antonio last week for spring break! My sweet cousin @sumwilde came and helped me out with the boys! When I was hugging her goodbye I said “thanks for being my husband for the week!” 🤣 
It was so nice of her to help me out and I’m sure the older the boys get the easier traveling will be. 

We went with my parents and my sisters family! We did the Riverwalk, the caverns and even went to Sea World. The boys had so much fun swimming and playing with their cousins! ❤️ It was a nice break from life! 

I’ll post a blog post about our trip next week! 🙌 Make sure you are subscribed to my blog so you don’t miss it! ❤️
8 years ago 💔 He asked me to marry him and I th 8 years ago 💔 He asked me to marry him and I thought we would have a lifetime together. I wonder if his tumor had started growing when we took this picture. 💔 We just had no clue what was about to come. I’m not going to lie it can be hard to look at these pictures sometimes. We were so happy and so excited for our future. I can’t decide if I love or hate Facebook reminders.
Happy St Patrick’s Day! One of my fav pics of th Happy St Patrick’s Day! One of my fav pics of the boys! 💚💚

Check out @lia_filtermeplease for some awesome presets for your photos! Use COCO10 for 10% off
Double the fun! ☀️☀️🕶🕶 Double the fun! ☀️☀️🕶🕶
My sweet cousin @sumwilde came along to help me ou My sweet cousin @sumwilde came along to help me out with the boys! It’s so fun to hang with her and the boys absolutely adore her! 

 We are very much enjoying the warm weather! ❤️
Colorado is getting a big snowstorm this weekend s Colorado is getting a big snowstorm this weekend so we weren’t sure our flight would make it out. We woke up this morning thinking we would have tons of snow on the ground, but there was nothing. I’m pretty sure our flight was one of the last to leave the Denver airport for the weekend. It started to snow when we boarded the plane and we barely made it out of there! 

As much as I love a good snowstorm I’m ready for some sun! We are headed to Texas for the week. 🙌 The boys struggled wearing their mask on the plane and I swear I lost 5 years off my life stressing about it. 🤣 The phrase “I’m going to take your iPad away if you don’t put it back on” may or may not have come out of my mouth.. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤣 

Thank heavens our flight attendants were great and didn’t say anything. We literally just fed them snacks the whole time 🤣  So glad we made it! 🙌 The boys were beyond thrilled to be out of the house and see a plane! 

You can see more of our travel day in my stories! Check out my travel section on my blog for travel tips with kids!
I can not believe it’s been one year since we al I can not believe it’s been one year since we all went into quarantine lockdown. After a long hard winter in Minneapolis the last thing we wanted was to be stuck indoors longer. We usually survived by going to the Mall of America or a kid play place, but we couldn’t even do that anymore. It was fun for the first week or so and then we all started to go stir crazy. The kids had a lot of screen time, but hey it was all about survival! 😂 

I took this pic maybe at week three of quarantine haha 😂 What was your quarantine experience like? Did you enjoy it at first?
This was last years Easter Photoshoot. I wanted to This was last years Easter Photoshoot. I wanted to save money so I learned to do these photoshoots myself.  It’s been such a fun creative outlet and I love doing it! I posted all the details on my blog on how I put this adorable photo together! Check out the link in BIO to see more! 

I wanted to share this now to give you time to take your own photos at home before Easter. I would love to see your pics so don’t forget to tag me if you post them! 🙌
Happy International Women’s Day. I just wanted t Happy International Women’s Day. I just wanted to add my thoughts coming from a perspective of a woman raising boys.

My mother in law did such an amazing job raising Justin and I hope that I can only do the same for my boys. Justin grew up cooking and even took his moms old sewing machine to college. He had so many different hobbies no matter if it was “manly” or not. He didn’t care! I never felt like I was supposed to do the “women” responsibilities in our marriage. We were equal! He never saw himself above me or I saw myself above him. We did always joked though about how he loved to cook and I didn’t. Then I love to play video games, but he didn’t. Like our roles were reversed 🤣

He always respected me and loved me for who I was and for who I wanted to be! He was the man I hope my boys will be some day! 

As a single mom and a woman raising two little boys I feel like I have a huge  responsibility. I want them to be able to sew, cook, clean, and play sports! I never want them to view something as “women only do this” and “men only do that” I want them to grow up seeing everything equal! I feel like if they can grow up with that mindset, they will learn to respect all people! #motherofsons
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cocoscaravan

🎉New Blog Post🎉 Toddler swim must haves for 🎉New Blog Post🎉 Toddler swim must haves for this summer! I learned from my mistake last year and started buying swim stuff now. Last year I waited until summer to buy things and everything was out of stock. Now is usually the time to buy stuff for summer! Check out my blog link in BIO!
Thanks for a the sweet birthday wishes for the boy Thanks for a the sweet birthday wishes for the boys! They had so much fun! My sister was putting them to bed last night and she asked them “what was your favorite part of the party?” Marshal said “blowing the candles on the cake” ❤️❤️

I will for sure do a blog post on the party and how I put everything together! ❤️
Happy Birthday Marshal and Everett! Turning three Happy Birthday Marshal and Everett! Turning three years old today! 

The boys are OBSESSED with anything cars. They know the names of every character on the cars movie! So I of course had to do a cars themed bday!

I’ll be posting a blog post on their birthday in the next couple of weeks! 🙌
At the time these two were born I truly never thou At the time these two were born I truly never thought I would become a widow/single mom. Even though Justin was terminal I always had hope and thought he would be here. 

I didn’t know this at the time I took this picture, but I would soon realize how much I needed them to survive. They are my little life savers! They give me so much strength! 

Can’t believe they turn three tomorrow! I’m so happy to be their mom!
“It’s a boy, just kidding it’s two” I wrot “It’s a boy, just kidding it’s two” I wrote blog post all about our reaction when we first found out we were having twins. We even recorded ourselves after finding out. The video is also on my blog! [link in BIO]

Because of in-vitro we knew we put in one embryo so it was a total shock when we saw two little babies on the ultrasound.
Sorry birthday week so it’s been a picture overl Sorry birthday week so it’s been a picture overload 😬 This is one of my favorite pictures of Justin and the boys. It was truly a miracle that Justin was able to live long enough to see the twins born. I feel so grateful that we were able to spend a couple months together as a family. 

I think those few months together as a family really helped me to be able to keep moving forward. I love that the boys will have some pictures with their dad and know that he tried so hard to be there for them even though he was in so much pain. They will look at pictures like this and know their dad loved them so damn much! ❤️ He wanted to be here so badly! He would have been such a great dad to these two boys! 💔❤️
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