Your Photo Tips

Digital Photography Tips, Techniques, and Tutorials

Weekend Perusing: 100 PrintsYesterday

In the Photoblogosphere

Ed has a great post on the insights of buying new gear or buying new knowledge.  That’s always been one of the focuses of this particular blog even when we occasionally delve into equipment information.

With the holidays fast approaching we have been looking into options for our oldest child’s first camera.  She’s only turning three in a few weeks but it’s never too early to start?  Photojojo has an article on Luring Your Child into the World of Photography.  Ours doesn’t need luring so much as she needs her own camera (she keeps trying to steel mine!).

Photocritic has a series started on the History of Photography and so far so good.  Hmmm… two things I love; history and photography.  Can’t really go wrong there.

In Art Photography

So everyone knows that New York is the “hotspot” for photography right?  Well, there are others who may take exception to those claims.  If you live on the West Coast you’ll enjoy We can shoot too a blog on West Coast happenings in photography.

Looking into landing your first exhibition?  Here’s some

DSLR or Compact Camera? Pros and ConsNovember 20

I get lot’s of emails from the readers of Your Photo Tips and I welcome every single one of them. I try my best to answer every email I get and it really helps to keep me enlightened by what you guys are wondering about the world of photography.

Recently I received three different emails all asking the same question:

Do I really need to get a DSLR to get better photos?

The short answer is no, and yes, or rather, it depends (not very short I know but that’s how it is).

There are many different ways to measure what exactly “better photos” mean. Most teaching photographers would easily argue that the most important component to becoming a better photographer is learning how to utilize your eye not your camera.

I would agree with that sentiment very much, up to a point.

untitled

The truth is that as a beginning photographer it is absolutely more important to learn how to compose, light, and expose an image with whatever camera you can get your hands on. In fact, there are many wonderful professional art photographers who are making a great living utilizing plastic lens toy cameras like

RTFMNovember 17

There are many components to becoming a good photographer, not the least of which is equipment. What’s that you say? I always preach about the process not the products? Yes, you’re right, I do think that the process is what makes a good photographer, but stick with me on this one for a bit.

More of pink:

In thinking about your equipment, whether it’s a compact point and shoot camera or a high end DSLR, it’s important to know every little thing about your camera. This helps out in times when you’re trying something new or trying something you haven’t done in a long time. Searching through the menus can cause you to miss out on the timeliness of your shot.

There’s an acronym that goes; RTFM!

For those that don’t know it’s, Read The Freaking Manual (feel free to substitute the word Freaking to, well… you get the idea).

This can be especially important when you first get your camera or equally as good if you never read it. I am a little geeky and will peruse mine about once a month or so. Yeah, I’m that guy!

This can also be very good when you’re looking into buying a n

Weekend Perusing: Painting the Town REDNovember 15

Quick Photo Tip

Do not be confused by the term “shutter speed”. Shutter speed isn’t about speed really. It’s about duration of time. Or more specifically, the duration of time that the shutter is open, allowing the light from the subject to come through the lens aperture and be recorded by the sensor or film.

In Photoblogosphere News

Mostly Lisa has a great little post on shooting textures outdoors.

Have you been following Brian’s article series on backing up your photos? You should. It’s oh so very important.

There’s a new photomagazine online that is worth a gander. Have a go.

When will they learn? Lala.com is a site that seems to very concerned with the rights of musicians (good) but not at all concerned about the rights of photographers (bad). One of these days I’m gonna take my images offline. Okay, that really won’t happen, but sheesh.

Need some reasons to start a blog or build a website? Here’s 11 of them.

Quoting A Photographer’s LifeNovember 12

A little while back I asked our Flickr group to share some of their favorite photography quotes because I believe that there is much to be learned from the thought leaders in our industry.

Crammond

While I expected to see some great quotes, I was blown away by the first response. Leave it to the_wolf_brigade to come through like a champ. Here’s the quote he shared:

You’ve got to struggle against the pollution of intelligence in order to become an animal with very sharp instincts - a sort of intuitive medium - so that to photograph becomes a magical act, and slowly other more suggestive images begin to appear behind the visible image, for which the photographer cannot be held responsible

- Robert Doisneau, A Photographer’s Life by Peter Hamilton.

I want you to think about it. Repeat it to yourself and find the meaning in photography and art as you progress and become a better photographer (whatever that means to you).

How do the photographers of the past inspire you? How do the thought leaders in