How I take photos with my feet – the ultimate guide to hands-free blog photography

Hair Romance x Olympus collaboration

Come and take a peek behind the scenes and see how I take photos with my feet for Hair Romance.

Yes, you heard right. My feet.

How else could I shoot tutorials when I have both hands in my hair?

Behind the blog

I’m always curious about how things happen behind the scenes. To me it can be more fascinating than the show out front.

When I cover things like Fashion Week or Australia’s biggest hair festival Hair Expo, I always prefer to hang out backstage. I love seeing how all the shows work and the gritty, unglamorous side of fashion. And when you come behind the scenes of Hair Romance, you’ll realise it’s not that glamorous here either.

If you’re a regular, I hope you enjoy a stickybeak behind the scenes as much as me. If you’re a blogger, I hope this will be helpful for you as well.

Who takes my photos?

I’m often asked who takes my photos for Hair Romance and the answer since the beginning has been me. Just me and my tripod.

Jim sometimes plays the role of ‘Instagram Husband’ but for sake of our relationship, I try not to push it.

A while back I shared my set-up and how to shoot a hair tutorial but I’ve upgraded my home studio since then.

Hands-free blog photography – Video

Take a peek inside my office to see how I shoot my photos with my feet and how this has changed over the years!

My blog studio set-up

I work from home and transform my office into a mini-studio with a few easy hacks:

• Instead of a traditional backdrop, I use a retractable screen from Officeworks.
• My desk chair becomes my portable laptop stand so I can control the camera through the capture software.
• Instead of a remote control, I use a foot pedal from Olympus to trigger the camera through my computer!

What camera do I use?

I recently made the big switch from shooting with a DSLR to a mirrorless camera. I haven’t looked back.

I use the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. I love this camera for so many reasons. You don’t want to hear me go on, so let’s just break it down:

• It’s more compact, more functional and more design centric than my DSLR.
• It fits into my handbag when I need to shoot on the go or when I’m doing any travel photography.
• The camera is wifi enabled and used with the Olympus Share App, you can remote control your camera and share photos instantly on the go.

Best of all, it’s upgraded my photography game from shooting with a timer to shooting with my feet.

Yes, we’re still talking about my feet.

How I take photos with my feet

I need both hands in my hair to shoot my tutorials so the only other way to control the camera is with my feet.

I tried using timers but there were endless problems – my photos were often out of focus, I was limited to the number of shots the timer could take at one time and it slowed down the whole shoot. Plus my arms got so tired!

One day I got chatting with the Olympus team here in Sydney about how Jim was trying to DIY a foot pedal for me. We asked if they had a solution and set them a bit of a challenge.

It wasn’t long until we heard back from Olympus; they’d brought out a whole new product – the RS-31H Foot Pedal. It’s a complete game-changer for how I work and I absolutely love it.

The foot pedal is normally used in offices for transcription work, but this new model allows you to set up shortcut keys that also work in other programs. It’s a very smart piece of equipment.

It’s the perfect solution for me, but it would also be perfect for other beauty bloggers who need to shoot with both hands, but also for craft bloggers or food bloggers. When you’re a team of one, anything that frees up your hands is a lifesaver.

What’s in my studio

So in summary here’s the list of all the gear I use to shoot:

• Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mk II
• Camera Lens: M.Zuiko 12-40m f2.8 or M.Zuiko 25mm f1.8
• Tripod: Manfrotto 190XPOROB with a 496RC2 head
• Computer: Apple MacBook Air 13”
• Capture Software: Olympus Capture
• Foot Pedal: Olympus RS-31H Foot Switch

Now you know the secret to how I take my photos with my feet, you’ll probably look at my photos a little differently.

I‘m really excited to reveal more from behind the blog. Let me know if you’ve got any questions and what you’d like to learn from behind the scenes!

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