Phone Photography: shooting from the hip

Both the wonder | wander | women have jobs that require a lot of pictures. Often we're lucky enough to have a professional photographer or experienced Instagrammer on site to provide pictures for our copy. Increasingly though, we're becoming used to just pulling out our standard smartphones and taking the pictures ourselves.

We look at so many selfies and unpracticed 'foodstagrams' that we might forget we're living in a great democratic age for amateur photography. It's never been easier to create a visual record.

But a casual snapshot does not make a good story. A photograph needs drama and dynamism, especially when illustrating a blog post or company tweet. We picked up some good tips from our experience and from helpful colleagues and wanted to share them here.

art therapy

Art throughout the ages captures and captivates varied creative expression and emotional communication from both its creator and its viewer.

Today more than ever we seek individual and personal avenues to express our creativity in any number of ways.

on top of the world

Because my sister thought I was turning 60 we ended up booking my birthday dinner at Asiate - Mandarin Hotel's fine dining flagship restaurant in New York City - overlooking Central Park and Columbus Circle.

At times a mistake turns out to be the very best thing!

The birds of London, part 1: wetlands

London has a thriving wildlife population for such a busy city. Many birds especially are adaptable enough to thrive even in areas thickly populated by human residents. 

Walking along the canals of East London this spring, we saw ducks, swans, moorhens and other water-loving birds enjoying themselves in the spring sunshine.

London's Canal and River Trust recently turned a stretch of the Limehouse Cut, lined with apartment blocks and industrial buildings, into a rich ecology by planting reed beds along the sides of the canal to protect nests and seasonal insect populations.

#lovewins

On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution provides same-sex couples in all 50 states the right to marry. 

Two days later hundreds of thousands of people on Sunday [June 28] packed gay pride events from Chicago to New York City, Seattle to San Francisco, Sao Paolo to Belgrade with overall attendance swollen to millions in celebration of a freshly endorsed right to marry.