A Southern Accent

It's been a while since I've done a photography post, but I had some fun with the camera this weekend and wanted to share more tips for using your SLR! A good friend of mine asked me to take some pictures of her and her little girl this weekend. We decided on Duke Gardens as our destination because that is one of the best places to take pictures around Durham. So, one thing I've been doing some reading on lately is natural light photography. Seems that most good photographers don't use that built-in flash that comes with the camera. Some are even snobs about it. And that's how they get those wonderful, light-filled shots you see on photography sites. It really is all about timing - the right time of day (not noon), the right angle of the shot,  using front lighting (light behind you) to enhance your subject from the front seems to be the best way to start playing with light. You also want to get the white balance correct - here's a good post on this from...

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, my neighbor has taught me a lot about photography, which is currently his side-business. I recently helped him create a site to show his awesome work , in return for a guest post on my blog to share more of his photography wisdom. Hope you enjoy! Image Scott Snider Photograhy Wendy was kind enough to let me “guest post” on her blog about photography. I use digital gear for portrait and event photography. With digital SLR’s like the Canon Rebel dropping steadily in price, more people have access to amazing imaging machines with more features you could ever use. Even digital point-and-shoots boast more bells and whistles than high-end film cameras of old. Trouble is, as complex and powerful as these cameras have become, many people don’t know simple rules for taking better pictures. So, here are some ideas to quickly improve your photographs, regardless of what camera you use: 1) Taking digital pictures is free! Take a lot of pictures. You...

I got a great response from the last Canon tips blog entry and thank you to everyone that commented! (I love getting comments, they make me smile!) I have several photographers working on some future guest posts for this series, so look for those soon, but today I'm going to talk a little about editing. Most, if not all, of the photos you see from professional photographers have been manipulated by what are called Photoshop Actions. These are mostly custom, sometimes purchased actions that make photos look pretty much however you want them to look. You can sharpen images, adjust colors, convert to black and white, add or adjust shading, take off 10 lbs, smooth baby skin...the options are endless. You've probably heard about Photoshop, and LightRoom and tons of different photo editing software packages, and some can get pretty pricey. I am lucky enough to have copies of several packages on my computer, but when I'm quick editing, I use the Microsoft Picture Editor, which...

I got a great response from post about posting Rebel tips, so let's jump right into it! This post is going to be about the basics, at least, the basics I tried to focus on when I first got my Rebel. I'm going to walk you through them, show you some examples from my photos and ask you to go out and do it and come back with your results! Then we'll all vote on our favorites! I talked to several different people about the basics when I got my Rebel, so I can't remember who told me what, but these are the key things I learned fist: 1. If you shake the camera when taking a picture, it's going to be blurry. This may sound like an easy one, but even the action of pushing the button on the camera makes it move, so you really need to be conscious of that. If you want clear, clean pictures, you gotta stabilize that camera as much as you can. If you have shaky hands, you're gonna have fuzzy pics. So, stabilize it on a table, on a little tripod, put your elbows on something...

If you're like me, you love to capture life moments in pictures, and after seeing how great others pics were turning out with the new SLR cameras, you wanted one too. They are what the professionals use - and now we can all get great pictures too, right? Well, photography, as I've learned over the past year with my Rebel, is definitely a learned art. It's trial and error, good subjects, great backdrops, ever better angles and a little editing as well. Although I'd love to take a class in digital photography, I just haven't been able to devote the time, so I've managed to teach myself some tricks through online research, tips from fellow photographers and some of the great magazines that are out there dedicated to SLR photography. At the request of several other new Rebel owners, who shall remain nameless until they decide to come forward, I volunteered to put together some of the things I've learned over the past year, with follow-up photo contests for each ...

The single, one and only thing I requested for Christmas this year was money to buy a nice camera. I'm sick of taking blurry pictures of a toddler and a puppy. A couple of people have asked what kind of camera I got, so here's the scoop... My cousin by marriage is a professional photographer and my neighbor is an amateur, but very good photographer, and they both recommended the Canon Rebel. I was leaning towards the Nikon D, which is probably a great camera too, but they both suggested I pick the Rebel. My neighbor gave me a great site to buy the camera. Their prices are great and shipping is free: B&H Photo . He suggested I go with either the 10.1 megapixel Rebel, or the 12.2 megapixel model. I went for the 10.1 model because it's $484 vs. $589 and the only main difference is how large you can blow up the pics to print out. He also suggested I get the camera bag, the memory card, the rechargeable battery and the UV protector filter. I also want to purchase a...