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The Benefit of a Point and Shoot Camera

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When you first got an SLR camera, you might’ve buried your point and shoot (P&S) camera in a drawer somewhere. But, the point and shoot camera can actually be a very valuable tool in developing your photography skills.

Since they’re so small and lightweight, you can bring them just about anywhere. And, you don’t have to spend a bunch of time setting up your shot.

With an SLR, you might spend up to thirty minutes setting up a tripod, and changing a bunch of settings on your camera. But, the point and shoot is always ready to go–it’s why they’re called “point and shoot” 😉 [Read more…] about The Benefit of a Point and Shoot Camera

8 Tips For Photographing Silhouettes

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the simplest ways to capture the dramatic colors of a sunrise or sunset is to photograph a silhouette.

Although they’re simple looking images, here are a few tips for photographing them:

#1 – Use a telephoto lens

With silhouettes, you’ll usually want an out of focus background to help draw attention to your silhouetted subject. A telephoto lens will help you here by reducing depth of field. They’re not always required though (the image above was taken with a 50mm lens). [Read more…] about 8 Tips For Photographing Silhouettes

What To Photograph On An Overcast Day

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Photo by Steven Burke (used under the CC-Attr-NC-ND license)
Photo by Steven Burke (used under the CC-Attr-NC-ND license)
In Southern California, we have this thing called “June Gloom” where pretty much every day in the month of June is overcast or cloudy. Some people call it our punishment for having bright sunny days for the rest of the year.

But, I look forward to the overcast skies because although they produce some gloomy feelings, they also create some very unique lighting conditions that bring out some of the best colors found in nature. [Read more…] about What To Photograph On An Overcast Day

3 Tools To Help Prepare You For the Annular Eclipse This Weekend

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This Sunday, May 20th, there will be an annular solar eclipse, visible from parts of Asia and the western United States. I wrote a detailed post about the eclipse last month, which includes some great links to maps, but I forgot to list some tools to help you scout out a location to photograph this rare event. So, if you’re a procrastinator like me and still haven’t planned out your shot, here are some helpful tools:

#1 – Photographer’s Ephemeris

Photographer's EphemerisThe Photographer’s Ephemeris is an essential tool for any landscape photographer, because it helps show you where the Sun and moon will rise or set, and overlays that on top of a Google map. If you’d like to try and photograph the eclipse as part of a landscape, then this software can help show you where the Sun and moon will be in relation to a particular landscape feature (such as a mountain or lake). There’s a free desktop version, and an inexpensive iPhone/iPad/Android version as well. [Read more…] about 3 Tools To Help Prepare You For the Annular Eclipse This Weekend

How GPS Can Help Your Photography

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GPS DeviceI just recently started hiking with a handheld GPS device to log my hikes and so I could have elevation data wherever I go. But, I’ve also started using it as a tool for photography. Here are a few ways it’s helped me:

#1 – Keep track of good spots for landscape images

This probably happens to you a lot: you’ll be hiking on a trail and come to this amazing vista or perfect rock formation and you realize it would make a great landscape image if the weather or lighting conditions were just a tad bit different. Maybe you just want some of that nice sunset light shining on a mountain peak, or maybe you want a nice puffy cloud to hover over a particular rock.

Well, a GPS device can help you keep track of these spots, simply by adding waypoints. Then, once you get home later, you can write some notes about that particular spot (e.g. “come back in April when there’s more flowers in bloom” or “come back at sunset in winter, when the sun will be at the right angle to shine on this mountain peak”). [Read more…] about How GPS Can Help Your Photography

How To Organize Your Photo Ideas

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Last week, I talked about the different phases of developing creativity. I mentioned that in the final phase, you start visualizing images that are not a part of your collection yet.

But, once you start getting all these great ideas for images, how do you keep track of them all? Well, here are a few things that have worked for me: [Read more…] about How To Organize Your Photo Ideas