digital photography

Now here is a cute project for anyone with small children or is looking to make a great gift for one. It’s called a color photo book. Basically you take pictures centered around one color. Then print those photos out and label them. Place them in a small photo album and voila! You have a color book that helps young kids learn their colors.

You could take the same concept for the alphabet and numbers. A letter project would be fun to do especially if it featured letters from local business signs.

This would also be a good way to practice taking photos of still life and setting up pictures. Most of my pictures are done ‘on the fly’ with little thought given to the background. This would be a wonderful lesson in setting up the whole picture instead of just the subject.

Kids love to look at pictures, and a learning book filled with photos would reinforce colors, numbers, and letters. Plus it has a personal touch that shows you care and took time to make something special just for them.

The magazine aisle always calls out to me whenever I pass. Like a siren calls out to sailors, I can’t resist the urge to see what magazines are there that might be of interest.

Usually I find way more than I need to buy. First I look for craft magazines, then game magazines. I then take a gander at the photograph magazines. I have picked up Popular Photography before because it looked like a magazine for beginners. There are a lot reviews in it as well that can help the newbie sort out what is what when it comes to cameras and accessories.

Shutterfly is another photography magazine I have thumbed through. I haven’t bought one yet as it seemed the subjects covered were more advanced for me. Or at least they seemed to be more advanced.

Photography magazines to me are a good way to find out useful hints and about the latest products. I am an Internet junkie but also admit that sometimes it can be hard to find quick and concise information on certain topics.

There are even magazines on solely digital photography. It’s really easy for me to get lost down the magazine aisle. There are just too many that beckon for me to buy them. Still a photo magazine that was part technique/part workbook(challenge) would be nice. Maybe that will be my quest next time I’m at the store. Does anyone have suggestions of a good photography magazine?

I have to admit that I was a tad bit nervous to get close to this little guy. It made me realize that a macro lens does have a place in the universe. It was interesting to shoot so close something that on auto focus didn’t even register.

It’s good to practice those ‘old school’ photography ways like manual focus every once in a while. It definitely helps you get the picture that you want especially for small subjects. Now to order that macro lens as there is such a thing as too close for comfort.

At my job I have to resize photos everyday to use on the web. I use a Mac and couldn’t figure out to how to resize photos with the Mac software, so I’ve been using another Mac computer that has Adobe PhotoShop. Needless to say that has been inconvenient and time consuming to have to leave my computer and work on another one. I had tried downloading a couple of free photo editing tools for the Mac but could never find how to resize them.

Finally I have found my answer. To resize photos on a Mac, go to iPhoto. Click on the picture you want to resize then click on share and export. Then fill in the size information and click save. Then choose where to save the pictures. It might be a few steps but it is really easy. It just took me a year to find the feature.

This trims a lot of time off my work since I can do a batch of photos at once. Just click more than one and then export. It’s finally great to know how to do something that seemed like a function that should exist in photo editing software.

Thank goodness it is Friday! It’s been a long week, so I’m glad to see the weekend. But who isn’t glad to see the weekend, right?

I would very much like to enter a photography competition someday soon. Digital Photography School recently listed five great photography competitions that might be worth checking out.

Do you sell on eBay or Etsy? Well then you might find these tips on how to take better Etsy photographs useful. Etsy is like eBay but with homemade crafts. Good pictures can really help to generate interest in a product, so taking good photos can mean more sales and more money. Who wouldn’t want that?

Are you a Lostie? Well then you might enjoy Dispatches from the Internet. It’s Jorge Garcia’s (Hurley) blog. He loves to take and share photos. One of his recent posts, he shares some pictures of a trip to Ireland and the Drombeg Stone Circle. One picture taken by a passerby is a good lesson in taking photos at famous places. I’m sure Jorge has a plenty of photos of his girlfriend and himself but really would have liked to have some of the background in the picture. He’s hilarious and his blog is a good read.

I miss so many great photos because I forget to take my camera with me. Sometimes it’s hard to remember the digital camera when gathering up everything else I need to take with me.

With my point and shoot, I usually just toss it in my purse and it shows as there are numerous scratches and other signs of wear on it. I obviously learned my lesson and my DSLR only comes with me if it’s in a camera bag. They do make plastic protective sleeves(think Wiimote glove) for point and shoot digital cameras. This will be a must have if I ever start carrying my point and shoot camera. Also I have only one memory card, which is a bad thing especially when I forget to put it in the camera. Imagine the disappointment to have something photo-worthy but not able to take a picture of it.

So my advice for taking your camera everywhere with you is simple. Check your battery, pack an extra memory card, and protect your camera.

While looking through some digital photos, I found a set of pictures I had taken last November at the Ren Fest. Sadly most looked like the one above. I had used my point and shoot camera so I really couldn’t do anything about light settings. But seeing these pictures makes me realize that I really should pick up a lens filter before this year’s festival.

Sure you can correct some lighting problems but when you are talking about hundreds of photos, then it becomes not a question of if you can but when you can since that will take a long time. It’s one of the cheaper accessories you can buy for a digital camera. I will definitely put it on the shopping list as I am tired of having washed out photos especially of events that only come once a year.

There are a lot of projects that begin with a cardboard box. There is at least one that is related to photography, and that’s making a lightbox.

The basic idea is to take a cardboard box and remove the cardboard sides. Then replace it with white poster board. At one time I have found instructions but now can’t seem to find them anywhere.

I take a lot of photos of products since I enjoy doing product reviews. It will be nice to be able to take nice looking photos straight from the camera instead of having to edit them.

The cardboard lightbox might not last that long especially with an active three-year-old around but if it works well then we might try one of the more sturdier designs for do it yourself lightboxes. Well, that is if I can find those instructions again.

When my niece had her little boy, she had her aunt - my sister-in-law, take a picture of the baby every day for the first year of his life. I was reminded of this while reading about photo essay tips at Digital Photography School. While I’m not as dedicated as to taking a picture every day, I do like the idea of tackling a photo essay.

Having a broadcasting background, I’m familiar with the concept as our camera people would sometimes get the opportunity to tell a story with just video. It can be challenging and a lot of fun. A photo essay is the same thing. Tell a story but with pictures. I’ll need to do some planning but it’ll be a good exercise.

Also, I want to take some portrait photos of my little girl for Christmas. It’s a little early but I would like to get this done as soon as possible. My portrait taking skills are weak as I would much rather photograph nature than people. But the subject will be extremely cute, so I’m sure I can muddle through it.

So there are a few things on my photo to do list. Now if the weather will only cooperate I might can get this done sooner than later.