How To Photograph Fireworks

Is your city putting on a massive display of fireworks this weekend? Or maybe just your neighbor Chip? Wherever the show is, here’s a few tips to capture those loud sparklies in all their glory.

2 Easy Ways to Help You Position Your Subject

When you think of placing a subject in your camera frame, what goes through your mind? Or do you just point and click, hoping you get a nice shot?

This article will discuss two basic guidelines to get you thinking about where you are placing your subject. More can certainly be said, but I want to keep it short and sweet. Then encourage you to practice seeing and applying these ideas. Once you start to understand some basic guidelines, you will start seeing the impact subject placement has on your final image.

Moody Blue

Want to add dramatic mood to your shots? This is a fun project I learned from “Workshop at the Ranch” by famous photographer Dave Black. Using this formula creates a dramatic blue background, while the subject is bathed in warm light.

Horizon Positioning

Image by photomek

When photographing landscapes, it’s important to consider where you place the horizon in your shot. A common mistake is to place the horizon in the middle, cutting your image into two equal halves. There are times where that looks good, but for the most part, placing the horizon off center will usually look best. Also watch that you keep your horizon level.

Recommended Photography Books

Every week in photography forums I read posts where people are asking for recommendations on photography books. There are many books out there to choose from, which one should you get? These books are the ones that have helped me most. I learned about them after reading post after post where they were being recommended to others.

The recommended books in this list lead to Amazon.as affiliate links. For more information read the disclaimer here. Basically, I use affiliate links to help fund this site so it can grow. If you end up buying a book from the link the price is the same low Amazon price, and this site gets a small referral amount from Amazon.

Which Should I Get First?
Before you grab the most interesting sounding book first, I'm actually going to recommend you read them in a certain order. Some of the information in the books, are better understood with some previous knowledge of photography. I'm also going to suggest you don't rush through them all. You can get overwhelmed and feel frustrated, maybe even feel like you’re just not getting it. So take your time and practice what you are learning. I recognize that just because this order worked for me, doesn't mean it will work best for you. This order is a suggestion to help you to learn basic concepts for creating good exposures, then moving on to setting up the shot creatively.

How to Take Night Cityscape Pictures

There’s something special about a contrasty night scene that really pleases my eye, or maybe it’s all the sparkling lights!

Taking great shots at night can be a little tricky. Photos sometimes turn out blurry, lack critical detail, or are improperly exposed.

Learning a few tricks will help you capture some great shots. This article will teach you a few of them. There are many approaches to nighttime photography, so once you read this, I encourage you to get out and practice. Don't give up after your first time out, keep trying and pay close attention to your camera settings and composition. While reviewing your images try and identify what might make the image even better.

Photo above by Aleksandar Djordjevic License

4 for Four

A tradition I started last year is to bring home flowers for my daughter on her birthday. One flower for each year. This year she’s four, so I stopped at our local flower shop and found four flowers of her favorite color. Can you guess? Pink and purple! Depending on the light they look pinkish purple, score! I’m not very experienced with taking flower shots, so I thought I would use this opportunity to try a couple things I read in Scott Kelby’s “The Digital Photography Book”. (I tried it last year too).