Tip 1 – Use All Your Available Space

Don’t be afraid to use all the space in your photo. If you want to take a picture of something, it’s ok for it to take up the whole shot with no or very little background showing. Keep distractions out of your shot

Tip 2 – Study Forms

This is a vital aspect to photography. Understanding forms in your photos. Don’t see an object, she its shape and its form and find the best angle to photograph it from. Form is all around us and I highly suggest you read as many books on it as possible.

Tip 3 – Motion In Your Photos

Never have motion in your photos if you are photographing a still object. If there is something moving while you are trying to photograph a stationery object, your photo won’t turn out anywhere near as well. Also never put a horizon line in the center of your frame.

Tip 4 – Learn To Use Contrasts Between Colors

Some of the best photos have shades of white, gray and black. You can take great shots with just one color on your subject, but the contrasts between colors in a shot is what makes you a great photographer.

Tip 5 – Get Closer To Your Subject

This is one of the biggest mistakes most photographers make, not getting close enough to their subject. Get up and personal and close the distance gap. You can always reshape and resize a good shot but you can’t continue to blowup a distant object.

Tip 6 – Shutter Lag

Shooting action shots with digital camera’s can be tricky due to shutter lags. What this means is, when you press the button to take the photo, it can take up to a second for the shutter to take a photo, by that time what you were photographing would have moved or changed somehow. This means you have to compensate for shutter lag by predicting what your subject is going to do and taking the photo just before it takes the action you want. More expensive digital cameras don’t have this problem.

Tip 7 – Pan

If you are taking an action shot and your shutter speed is slow, pan with the object. Follow through with the subject, from start to finish and one of those shots will be a winner. You have more chance of getting a good shot if you take more then one photo.

Tip 8 – Continuous Shots

To pan like I suggested above you will need a camera that does continuous shots and doesn’t need to stop and process after every shot.

Tip 9 – How To Take Fantastic Night Time Shots

Night time shots can be spectacular, almost magical…. if done right! If not they can look horrible. Really horrible. Without adequate lighting, even good camera’s can turn out crappy photos if the photographer doesn’t know what he or she is doing.

Tip 10 – Study Your Manual

If your digital camera has a special night time mode, read the manual and follow their instructions on how to use it properly.

I need to get some photo editing software, so I can play around with different things. I can only do so much with what I have right now. I am hoping that when I am ready to purchase it, I will find a great sale!

I also need another memory card, just so I can have a back up one. I can take quite a few pictures on the one I have, but its always good to have a back up. I have had my camera for a few years now and I have yet to print off any pictures I have taken. I am afraid to. Every so often I go back and look at all the photos I have taken, and wonder what I was thinking. Some get deleted, the rest just stay on the computer and then get saved to a CD.

If I had the money I would love to open up a little bakery/cafe. Baking has been a passion of mine for such a long time! I loved working in the bakery years ago. All those yummy smells! Being able to create some fun desserts and different kinds of breads was so much fun!

One day my dream will come true!

You can check out some of her work, here.

I will be taking some classes next week pertaining to my camera. I am exited and nervous all at the same time. The first class will be an overall teaching of the manual settings and an overview of the other classes (composition, color and design). We will have an assignment to apply the manual settings into a photo shoot that you’ll do over the week before the next class.

The second week we will bring in our work for critiquing. We have to have a description of how the photo was taken, which lens we used and which manual settings were used. We can either bring in our laptops or have the images printed on paper or photo paper, as this will be very helpful for critique. All of us will have to have 2-4 images for critique. The third class will be a study of composition, color and design and assignment given. The fourth class will be a critique of 2-4 images for critique.

I know that I want a wide angle lens, but have no clue as to which kind I want. This will be one of the questions I will be asking the photo teacher over the next four weeks.

I have seen these photo frames, that have been altered with either paper or fabric, and either have them as a way to display a picture or use it as a backdrop for a wall calendar.  I have an old clipboard that I want to use for a wall calendar.  I am going to have my hubby take the clip part off, and then somehow add some bolts that I can take off to add a new years calendar year after year.  I am hoping I can find a cute little chef that will match my kitchen decor to add to this.  I just need to get my creative juices working again.