Photographing fire performers – and the trails they make – is an art form of its own. These incredible artists can put on quite a show, and photographers love the opportunity to capture surreal images using long exposure techniques. Burning Dan by naturalturn, on Flickr Successful fire trail photography takes much skill and practice – [...]

Photographing the night sky can be a surreal experience, and star trail photography is highly rewarding if you have a bit of patience. Those 2 hour long single exposures can turn an otherwise mundane day shot into an otherworldly image. Racing Stars by Andrew Stawarz, on Flickr When photographing star trails, your goal is to [...]

Contrast is a design principle that artists and photographers have used to create compelling, interesting pictures. Contrast is achieved in a photo when two things with visible differences are presented in the same frame. Here are simple ways to create contrast in your photo and enhance its artistry. 1. Find Contrast Between Sizes of Elements [...]

So you got your new dSLR, you’ve charged the battery, and you’re ready to get on the steep learning curve to making awesome photos. Where do you start? How do you get better in a way that inspires you, week after week? If you’re like most camera owners who have picked up photography as a [...]

Fireworks displays are a sign of celebrations of important events all over the world. For brief moments in time we are fascinated and enamored with their brilliance before they fade away forever. With a handful of basic starting points, equipment, and essentials, one can capture these moments using a digital camera giving life and longevity [...]

Some people are technical learners, able to learn with a mathematical approach. Some others, including myself, don’t take to that technical approach very well. When I make an exposure, I begin with the subjective idea or the impact I want to create, and then think about the technique that will produce that impact, a moment [...]

Aperture priority mode on your DSLR is one of the things that most photographers have to use at some time or other. But one of the most confounding things about getting your first DLSR is the myriad of decisions you have to make about what that actually means and if it’s the right mode to [...]

There is a long standing convention in photography that if a building has straight sides, then that is how it should look in a photograph. Almost any textbook you pick up about photography (especially architectural photography) will mention and stress this point. Now, while making sure your verticals are vertical is a skill any photographer [...]

“It’s a wrap!” are three of the most important words for a fashion photographer. Knowing that you’ve done an excellent job and that the day has been productive, fun and creative makes it worthwhile to wake up early for 6.30 am call times and the lifting of some hundred pounds of equipment to the location. [...]

In almost any city there are a heap of great statues that get photographed thousands of times by tourists every year. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes it’s good to try to make your images stand out a little. Here are a few tips to get your statue photographs to stand out from the crowd. [...]