Free Glide

Birds have been one of the greatest subject for photographers for centuries now because they have an inspiring beauty and mystify us with their gift of flight and diversity. When it comes to photographing birds and their behavior, catching it on film will add a tremendous visual impact and feeling to any picture. There are different locations where birds gather, but really the best place you may what to start is your backyard. The thing about birds is that they are busy little bodies and a bird feeder in the backyard is a great place to get a picture when they are feeding or even the bird in the air getting ready to pounce one of the birds that is currently feeding.

When you venture out of your backyard to look for birds to photograph your vehicle may just become your newest piece of equipment. Birds see our cars less of a threat then a person carrying a long lens underneath their arm. A vehicle makes for a great blind and along with this patience is a virtue. When you find a location such as a prime feeding ground, park a bit of a ways from it and stop your engine to cut down on noise that may scare them.

Standard,wide-angle and short zoom lenses can be used for photographing birds, but for serious bird photography, a quality 500 mm or 600 mm telephoto lens is ideal.

Please keep in mind to avoid any situation that can put stress on the birds and their surroundings. If you notice a bird that is starting to show any kind of stress, this means that there is a nest or chicks near by. Any further picture taking should be disengaged and you should leave the immediate area. As a photographer of birds or any wildlife, it is a good thing to remember not to put ourselves or the birds around us in any kind of danger.

Albreht Moy has fine art reproductions on his site.

Children are naturally photogenic. Ive worked in studios and children are so easy to photograph. What I hear from parents is that they dont think that their kids are that easy to photograph. Thats only because they dont know some basic tips.

1. Young children especially infants take beautiful photos while they are asleep. Keep the light natural avoid flash if at all possible. Keep the image tight on the child and crop out distractions. For infants when theyre awake youre better off having another person in image, it gives the child someone to interact with and you can crop the shot to keep the other person out of the image or you can keep the adult and child in the photo.

2. Toddlers look best when they dont know that youre taking their photo. Candid shots are the way to go for this age group. Keep your camera handy and when they start doing something cute snap the photo quick. Remember your child doesnt have to be looking directly into the camera to take a great photo. Dont ever say to the toddler, Oh how cute, now look here. It wont happen.

3. Children ages 4 plus are really good at sitting for photos. But if youre going to dress them up make sure that they are comfortable and dont put them in some outfit they hate, it will show in the image. Crop tight on your subject, keep the light natural, and if youre using a toy to get their attention make sure that it makes them laugh and doesnt scare them. (I learned that lesson the hard way.)

4. Older children are really good at dressing up for photos. The hardest thing will be getting a natural smile from them. Say, cheese is a sure fire way to get a fake smile. Most of us learned young to smile automatically at that cue. Here you have to get silly. One time I was working with a young boy and his older sister. She was a natural smiler and loved being dressed up. He was not happy and kept pulling at his tie. His mother straightened it for the tenth time. I posed them and addressed the young boy I said, Now on the count of three I want you to say, I hate this tie! His sister smiled surprised at what I said, and he grinned. I took the photo. He then screamed, I hate this tie! Again both smiled wide and I took a second photo. The images turned out beautiful.

I hope these tips help you to take better photos of your child. With a little practice and a few tips youll see better family photos immediately.

If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography Forum at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php and post your question there.

About The Author

Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal

Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

Camera digital technology: do you have to understand it to utilize it? Probably not, especially if you’re using a consumer digital camera - a point-and-shoot - and you just want to get that holiday trip recorded for posterity…

On the other hand, it is quite useful to have a good grip on camera digital technology to get the best out of that little technological marvel!

For starters, it makes sense to know that the number of pictures you can take on your camera depends on the file format you select, and on your camera’s storage capacity.

Camera digital technology generally works with two main formats, the JPG and the RAW file. The latter is for storing as much as possible original data per picture, to be adjusted later on a PC. The RAW format is of particular interest to professionals. RAW pictures often need nearly 10 times as much storage space as JPG files, so a casual photographer will generally choose to use JPG.

However, your camera might give you the option of selecting high quality JPG’s or standard quality JPG’s - the latter using less space, and mostly giving quite satisfactory results.

The camera will store the picture files on a card. A 256MB card can sometimes store more than 80 images of standard JPG size. If you’re willing to spend more, new camera digital technology allows you to buy cards with 10 times more storage capacity.

Another aspect of camera digital technology which is useful to know about, is the way the images are captured. In stead of the film of well, film cameras, digital cameras have a silicon sensor with light-sensitive photosites (pixels) which capture the light information.

These sensors are often less precise than film when it comes to rendering detail in shadows and highlights. Camera digital technology therefore dictates that you should be careful not to “blow” your highlights. If they are not captured in the first place, you can’t make any adjustments afterwards in your software processing.

To ensure you capture as much shadow and highlight detail as possible, and in a balanced way, camera digital technology offers you the use of a histogram. This handy tool is a little graph which indicates how the levels of brightness are distributed in an image. Many cameras show a histogram in real time, while you compose your image, giving you the opportunity to make exposure adjustments.

While digital camera lenses are essentially “old technology”, it is useful to know that you can get excellent quality pictures from fairly inexpensive consumer cameras. This has once again to do with the sensor used in camera digital technology.

As the sensor in these point-and-shoots have a much smaller surface area than the 35mm film of a film camera, the former can get a much sharper and detailed image than a film camera with the same lens, due to the smaller focal area.

Camera digital technology has the major advantage of offering you stacks of opportunity to experiment with taking first-rate pictures, because you don’t have to be concerned with the expenses relating to camera film.

So go out there and put the new camera digital technology to use!

Rika Susan of Article-Alert.com researches, writes, and publishes full-time on the Web. Copyright of this article: 2006 Rika Susan. This article may be reprinted if the resource box and hyperlinks are left intact.