How To Photograph Flowers (Part 1/2)

How To Photograph Flowers (Part 1/2)

We’re proud to present a two part series of HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH FLOWERS photo tips. Many of the pictures were taken by people just like you.  They love photography and they love flowers and they were willing to get their knees dirty. That’s pretty much all it...
Photographing the Springtime Milestones

Photographing the Springtime Milestones

Any milestone or family event deserves special photographic consideration. The end of a school year is as good a time as any to point out some basics to preserve those memories. I realize that in the Southern Hemisphere you’re in the middle of the school year. (I only...
How To Photograph Flowers (Part 2/2)

How To Photograph Flowers (Part 2/2)

Our photographic celebration of life itself continues with Part Two of How to Photograph Flowers.  If you missed Part One, you can find it here. Again, I’ve used many of the photographs you folks posted on our Facebook page as examples – thank you for your talents and...
Finding Beautiful Light

Finding Beautiful Light

Beautiful, soft portrait lighting is all around us if you know how to look for it. Scout your house and neighborhood for a place that has this gorgeous light and you’ll be ready to shoot spontaneous headshots that have a classic, professional look. By that I mean a...
Photographing Water

Photographing Water

Beautiful light makes just about everything look good, but when you mix it with some water it’s almost hard to miss. Hopefully, you’ll find yourself bathed in both of them sometime soon. If you and your camera both get a little bit wet, don’t worry, it’s going to be...
A Day at the Beach

A Day at the Beach

The beach is one of those places where every single photographic possibility has been done several hundred billion times by several hundred billion amateur photographers and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We can all learn from each other’s mistakes and successes...
Photographing Grandparents

Photographing Grandparents

Any visit with grandparents is an opportunity to add to the family photographic record— especially if they don’t live nearby. It’s not always easy or convenient to gather multiple generations in one spot—you can meet resistance at both ends of the age spectrum—but as...
Family Group Shots: What to Wear

Family Group Shots: What to Wear

Family portraits are pictures of people and faces and not pictures of clothes—this is not a fashion shoot. If the clothes dominate the picture then I think it’s going in the wrong direction. I think clothes in the official family picture need to be simple, elegant and...
A Simple Headshot

A Simple Headshot

Whenever I address the intricacies of the simple headshot, I start with this graphic.  I used my wireless lighting kit—that’s one little portable flash, an umbrella and a light stand. Today I’d just like you to consider many of the things that go into a simple black...
Telling Stories with Details

Telling Stories with Details

Learning to recognize the details that tell stories when you are out there in the real world is an acquired skill. It’s actually one of the great benefits of being a photographer. It changes the way you see everything. We are surrounded with symbols and objects that...
What Women Want for Mother’s Day

What Women Want for Mother’s Day

My wife and I disagree about exactly what women want. Fortunately for you, my male companion, I KNOW what they want and that could be very helpful information for you this Mother’s Day. They simply want pictures of themselves with their children. I aim to help you...
Using Someone Else’s Camera

Using Someone Else’s Camera

I would love it if all of the dads and husbands out there who are married to the family photographer could read this article. If you don’t own a camera and you feel klutzy when you occasionally want to document mom with the kids— or your photographer wife all by...
Consider the Horizon

Consider the Horizon

If you casually let the horizon line in a photograph land where it may, you’ve put yourself at the mercy of one of the boldest graphic elements that will ever appear in your pictures. And it appears so often in photographs, you need to be in charge of it and use it to...
Noise Reduction

Noise Reduction

I’ve mentioned digital noise a few times in the Photo Tips and every time I do I receive several questions—not the least of which is What is Digital Noise? It feels like a loose end hanging out there, so I’ll address it today. These hot summer days seem like a good...
Telephoto Lenses: What Do They Do?

Telephoto Lenses: What Do They Do?

Anything that floats in The Alexander Kelsh Navy has smokestacks and they’re all made of nails. That’s what I love most about his boats and that’s why I used a telephoto lens to put the background out-of-focus; I wanted the nails to pop. Both of these pictures were...

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