Photography Tips &Tricks You know the importance of a good photo, but now is the time to up your photography game. You won’t need a fancy camera—your camera phone will do the trick. Here are five tips to help you ace modern photography:
- Take photos in natural light, by a window if possible.
- Remove distracting background objects and try different angles.
- Crop instead of using the zoom feature to avoid grainy photos.
- Use colorful trays and food combinations.
- Practice, practice, practice!
But don’t limit yourself to just photos! In the world of social media, video is king of the road. If you have a smartphone or a tablet, you have a video camera—it doesn’t have to be fancy. Video ideas include contest winners, special events or even a “cafeteria tour” so that viewers can see what a clean, friendly and fun place the cafeteria is.
Want to broadcast live? Consider using Facebook and stream a special event during NSBW. Interview students, staff and/or administrators on-air about the importance of school breakfast. Alert the public ahead of time so they know when to tune in. Make sure you have the help you need to coordinate it and pull it off, e.g., a second person to help you on the day of and a communications expert from your district to weigh in.
Get Social The right tools are an essential component for any racing “pit crew,” and timing can make or break a race. The same is true for social media! Think about what social media tools you want to use—parents like Twitter and Facebook, while students prefer Snapchat and Instagram. Before you post, think about what might have viral potential.
Social media is the place to promote your school’s celebration ahead of time. Share school breakfast updates throughout the week and follow-up in the weeks after #NSBW19 about increased participation, contest winners and special guests. Personalize the message for students and parents to communicate what makes your school breakfast program special! Check out the official toolkit for lots of sample posts and tweets you can modify to make your own.
When it comes to sharing on social media, great photos are one of the most important elements. Eye-catching images are essential! Filters provided by platforms like Snapchat or Instagram may lend themselves perfectly to the theme.
- Use photos of faces (students, your nutrition team, school staff, parents, etc.) whenever possible. Facebook posts featuring human faces perform better than those without.
- Share photos of school breakfast/menu items, parties, prizes, special events, students and special guests.
- Use the collected photos and stories from your staff members to create photo albums or stories on Facebook and Instagram.
Wheeling Word Play Want to apply words associated with racing and driving to your menu items for the week? Here are 15 to get you started—Short Track Biscuits, anyone?
Banking—The slope of a racetrack at a curve or a corner, which allows race cars to maintain speed through the turns. Low banking, however, requires slowing down.
Downforce—A combination of aerodynamic and centrifugal forces. The more downforce at play, the more grip a car has to the road. But, more downforce also means more drag, which can rob a racecar of speed.
Drafting—When two or more cars run nose-to-tail, the lead car displaces the air in front of it. This creates a vacuum between its rear end and the nose of the following car, actually pulling the second car along with it.
Drag—When a car passes through air at high speeds, it experiences resistance—or drag.
Groove—This is the best route along the track.
Loose—When rear tires of the car have trouble sticking in the corners, the car begins to fishtail as the backend swings outward during turns. Some of this effect can be desirable on certain tracks.
Happy Hour—This is the final hour of practice time for the drivers before a race.
Marbles—Rubber can build up on the groove of the track, and drivers who find themselves “in the marbles” tend to lose control of their cars.
Slingshot—This is a maneuver in which a car following the leader in a draft suddenly steers around it, breaking the vacuum and providing an extra burst of speed that allows the second car to take the lead.
Splitter—Front splitters are essential as they help to balance the front and rear distribution of downforce. They appear as flat extensions on the very bottom of the front bumper.
Spoiler—Similar to a splitter, the spoiler helps balance out and remove any unfavorable air movement.
Short Pit—This is the strategy of pitting far before running out of fuel, getting fresh tires to make up time on the leaders and, theoretically, taking the lead once those lead cars need to pit.
Short Track—This is a race track just one mile in length.
Superspeedway—A racetrack that is at least two miles in length. There are only seven superspeedways in the United States, the most famous residing in Indianapolis.
Tight –This results from the front wheels losing grip before the rear wheels when going through a turn.
RPM—The number of revolutions a tire makes per minute—literally Revolutions Per Minute.