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To become a better photographer, you need to take lots of photographs! As Henri Cartier Bresson said, “Your first ten thousand photographs are your worst.” As with any skill, the more you practice, the more you improve. In photography, that means to go out with your camera and make images! Yes, concepts and techniques are…

Digital cameras give us the flexibility to create a multitude of effects, right in-camera. One of those effects is to change the color temperature of your image by changing the Kelvin Color Temperature Scale. The Kelvin color temperature scale is used to describe the way various light temperatures appear visually. The scale goes from 1,000K…

  An abstract is a work of art that depict natural objects in simplified, distorted, or exaggerated ways. It is a form of expression that does not imitate reality, but uses shapes, colors, and gestures to create meaning and emotion. Whether we realize it or not, we see the world abstractly and only “name” the…

Even the best photographers work on improving their skills continuously to refine their craft. Skills are like muscles — you need to flex them regularly, or they become weak due to underuse. Although you think you’re already comfortable using a camera, it’s always beneficial to learn new tricks and techniques to build your skillset. So…

50mm, F/8, ISO 200, 1/13 second Ready to learn a new photographic technique? Try creating custom bokeh effects! Bokeh is a word with Japanese origins, defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.” The word comes from the Japanese word boke, which means “haze” or “blur.” (The “h” was introduced to help…

Neon signs add color to a night image and are a great way to broaden your night time photography skills by creating abstract images. Some of the most famous locations for neon signs are along the strip in Las Vegas and many of the motels and restaurants along Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona and Albuquerque and…

As we begin to spend more time indoors during the winter months, here are a few photography books for your reading list: Interaction of Color by Josef Albers In 1963, Albers published Interaction of Color, which is a record of an experiential way of studying and teaching color. He asserted that color “is almost never…

  ‘Tis the season for photographing holiday decorations – they’re everywhere you look! Here are some general tips for photographing them: Use a tripod and a remote release. Use a low ISO. Use Aperture Priority so that you can control the depth of field (the amount of the photo in focus from foreground to background)…

Night photography allows the photographer the ability to create a wide range of creative light effects in his/her images by adjusting the three components of the Exposure Triangle – F-stop, shutter speed and ISO. There are many combinations of these three settings which will produce an accurately exposed image, but depending on the settings that…

  Visual Design aims to improve a design’s aesthetic appeal and usability. Some Visual Design elements used in photography are line, shape, color, value (the lightness or darkness of a color) and texture. Line is one of the most effective ways to draw your viewer’s eye into an image. Line is also one of the easiest of…

Manual Mode seems intimidating to amateur photographers and is often passed over in favor of Auto-Mode, but if you’re looking to take full control of your camera and get perfectly exposed, high-quality images, you need to learn how to make images in Manual Mode! Manual Mode lets YOU set the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO (known as the exposure triangle)…

  This photograph by AP photographer Muhammed Sajjad, published in the Washington Post shows displaced people transporting their belongings from their home as they fled a flooded area near Peshawar Pakistan, where the death toll has passed 1,000 since flash-flooding began in mid-June.  We want to show it to you because it is a beautifully…