Taking Amazing Photos with the Samsung Galaxy Note

I’ve had a few recent technological changes in my life. The first involves how I work on my computer. For the past few years, I’ve used a small 11-inch Macbook Air computer while sitting at my kitchen table.

Most people couldn’t believe I used such a small screen (really, it’s not much bigger than a tablet), but after lugging around huge laptops for years before it, I was happy with my lightweight, portable setup.

Then, someone planted a seed in my brain about dual monitors. I started thinking that it would be nice to have a desk, a chair, and possibly even two screens to look at. And maybe one of those screens should be bigger than the one on my computer.

So, over the course of a few weeks, I set up an office in our spare bedroom, got some cables and started docking my little Macbook into a gigantic (to me!) 24-inch monitor.

The difference has been fantastic, but the big viewing area opened my eyes to the mediocre photos I’d been taking with my iPhone. I’m not a photographer, so the pics were ok, but I’d honestly thought they were much better than they actually were!

Then I was invited to be a Verizon Wireless Lifestyle Influencer and I said ‘YES!’ right away. As a part of the program, I received a new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone. I’ve now been using it for just over a month.

There are tons, and I mean tons of features on this new phone. It does things that I didn’t even know were possible. But, as a mom with an average, everyday routine and lifestyle, the first thing that caught my attention was the quality of the photos taken with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

I’m not a photographer at all. Being responsible for our family’s photos with a fancy camera is a role my husband happily assumes.

I prefer to take pictures and capture moments with my phone, and I was happy enough with the pics that came out of the smartphones before this one. But the pictures that I take with the Note 3? They’re amazing!

The day I received the phone I made several loves of artisan bread. After giving me a few basic photography tips (mainly, stop standing over the food!) I snapped this one:

I’m not known for making food look pretty, but I was pretty proud of that shot, especially since it came from my phone!

A few days later I took my family to the Minneapolis Boat Show. Haiden and Piper had a fabulous time building their own boats and sailing them in a shallow pool. I was thrilled with the clarity of the cute pictures I took to send to my parents!

Then my family celebrated my cousin’s birthday at my aunt and uncle’s house. Their living room is always bright with sunlight and I didn’t think I’d get a nice picture given all that bright light coming in from right behind my cousin.  I was wrong. I didn’t do any sort of adjustments to this picture, this is just how it looked:

Photo editing really isn’t my thing. I can spend an hour working on a picture in PicMonkey only to realize that the original actually looked better than what I ended up with. Really. So if I can get a picture looking like any one of those three right away without any post-processing work, I’m happy!

As a Verizon Wireless Lifestyle Influencer I’ll be sharing more about both products and services Verizon offers in the future, and I’m excited to hear your thoughts! In the meantime, learn more about the Samsung Galaxy Note 3!

Disclosure: As a Verizon #VZWBuzz Lifestyle Blogger I’m a member of a pretty cool team of influencers. This position has allowed me to receive the above-mentioned device (and others) with line of service from Verizon. No additional compensation was provided nor did I promise positive feedback. All opinions are my own.