When I was young, my mother was very much into hand built pottery. She became pretty good at it and started attending more and more Arts and Crafts shows. To get into the bigger, well known shows you had to send pictures of your work in advance for the promoters to decide if your work was good enough to be in their show. Quite often there were several people (a jury of judges) that would determine the quality of your work based on the quality of your photos.

Now photography is a big part of our culture, something that everyone recognizes. Most everyone has family photos lying around their house, many people take these photos on a regular basis, preserving precious memories for years to come.

Do you like to take photos? Are you always standing by with your camera waiting for that moment that is meant to be captured on camera? You may even be taking photography classes or maybe you have already completed a photography course and you want to share your photos with others.

Just as music builds mood, colors can also help create mood. A lot has been written on what each color denotes, what emotions it evokes. Colors also have an impact on one’s health. Did you ever think that the colors in a photograph can actually make someone look at it over and over again or probably turn-off the viewer. In fact the colors in photographs can set the pace and mood of your surroundings and impact you deeply.

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a photographer that always told his subjects, “Smile big for the camera.” The problem with this fairytale is that not everyone smiles all the time. Let’s say for example you said that; to someone at a family reunion you happen to be covering, and then you find out that person just lost her spouse of 53 years. Would that still be appropriate? When you cover events; your job as the photographer is not just to cover what everybody expects, but to cover what they feel as well.

Whatever your photographic genre of choice is, there is always admiration for candid photography. Candid photography is the art of catching people unawares in a photo. It doesn’t have to mean capturing them during a slapstick moment of falling over in the snow or something like that, it just means capturing people at their most natural. There is always a place for a well composed photograph with time taken over how the subject poses and smiles for the camera. For me that can never beat the capture of people falling around laughing at a joke or marveling at a sporting event. Here are six tips to taking good candid photographs.

Have you ever shopped at a flea market? Thousands and thousands of objects, items, whatnots, tools, clothing, and auto parts. Visitors can spend hours, even days, roaming, looking and handling the items for sale.

People who visit flea markets usually arrive with a $20 bill and leave with a prized object they add to their collection, home, or garage.

Flea Markets are a good example of what on-line Internet stock photo shopping has become.
The flea markets are growing. And unlike a 65,000 square foot Wal-Mart where merchandise is segmented by signs (“Household”, “Auto”, “Toys”), flea markets are an ocean of unregulated bits and pieces.

How many times have you come back from a trip disappointed with the images you’ve taken? How many times have you though to yourself “If only I’d been there an hour early. If only I’d known that event was on today”. While it is true that hindsight makes everyone smarter, and no one can control the weather, it is possible to maximize your chances of success just by doing a little homework.

Have you already mastered the art of taking photos without ‘red-eye’ syndrome? Are there some pictures that you know you should have turned out a lot better than they did? It happens to all of us - even the expert photographers.

Here are five tips to help you move from beginner to master of digital photography, whether you’re using your cell phone or a point-and-shoot camera to snap shots.

Compose Carefully

There is a dizzying array of choices when it comes to choosing lenses for SLR cameras. From wide angle to telephoto, zoom to prime lenses, fish eye, fast lenses, wide aperture lenses, the choice seems to be impossible. It’s not really. What it comes down to is asking yourself a simple question: What do I want to shoot?

Different Lenses for Different Subjects

This is part two in a series of articles I am writing to help beginning wedding photographers. Wedding photography is a difficult and very challenging undertaking! Are you willing to dedicate 110% of your efforts to record the best possible photos?

Some will likely read this article and think “No, way! I don’t have time for that!” Others will read it and think “This is great! I’m going to invest lots of time so that I can be as prepared as possible.” This article is written for those of you in the latter category.