Flash photography can be a lot of fun, but one of the issues you will have very quickly is that directly hitting a subject with flash lighting can lead to some very harsh contrast and shadows which is often unwanted. If you want to get away from that then there are a heap of ways [...]

Unwanted lens flare can be the bane of an outdoor photographer’s life. Yet on a sunny or glary day, it can be very difficult to eliminate and can ruin otherwise great photos. And while lens flare can also be a pretty cool effect, lets take a look at a few of the ways that a [...]

Where you choose to shoot depends entirely on the style you want to use, the time of the year and what you want to achieve artistically. But starting inside is usually a great way to get everyone, particularly children, accustomed to your camera. If you start your shoot in a field, for instance, you may [...]

Camera shake is the cause of many blurry photos and a frustration to new photographers.  The photo can be perfectly framed, in focus, but still not sharp.  At the core, the result of this is a shutter speed that’s too slow.  But when is a shutter speed too slow and how can you help avoid [...]

One of the fundamental tools that a photographer has at his/her disposal is the ability to record time. This isn’t just the moment in time, or the ‘decisive moment’, as Cartier-Bresson called it, but the duration of the time interval as well. It’s a matter of when and how long. We can not only get the [...]

This is a guest post with photographs from talented New Zealand wedding photographer, Perry Trotter. Check out his great photography iPad app. This is one of several images shot at a fall wedding in Eastland, a beautiful region in the North Island of New Zealand. The bride, groom and I were flown to this location [...]

In a complex world of action and vision it’s often difficult to separate the trees from the forest. In the early days of photography there was a tendency for photographers to emulate the painters or to use the photograph to assist the artist with his composition. The photograph was a means of recording the complexity [...]

I remember my first digital camera as if it was yesterday, a Nikon Coolpix 775, 2.1 glorious megapixels that was going to forever change my life.  At the time in fall of 2001, this camera cost well over $300, nearly what I paid for my used Canon EOS A2 film camera a year earlier!  It [...]

We all have a photographic style whether we realize it or not, amateurs and professionals alike. Many photographers, however, never give much thought to this with the result often being images that are “normal” or lacking expression. If we want to improve our photography we need to: First, understand we each have a unique style. [...]

There are numerous things to think about and often challenges to overcome when working on a photo documentary. Here are eight useful tips that I believe will make the process easier and help you create more compelling and powerful stories. 1. Shoot What You Like. The best photos will always come from a subject that [...]