Me and my friend were browsing on some old pictures of ourselves. From childhood to adulthood, how our physical lives have changed over the years have been recorded and made us view life in a different perspective. I wouldn’t take anything for these old photographs of the family and friends, especially those of my son that have chronicled his footprints along the way.

Even though a few of these photographs are humiliating to him such as the well-known bearskin rug, washing in the tub, sitting on the potty trainer while sucking on the pacifier and reading the comics. It is those memories of impulsive acts caught on camera and laid out in prints. Aside from our personal lives, it also includes the global population and our historical beginnings. Photos are resemblances of the years that have passed, years leading to now, and maybe of the forthcoming.

All of us in the family has a camera. We have had cameras around the house ever since I can remember, and have saved photographs as far back as my great grandparents. I was particularly camera shy (still am), and apparently it was a challenge to everyone to try to get a photograph of me when I was older and could hide. Nevertheless, they exist and now I am glad they took them. In the 1960′s, every person in secondary school had his own Polaroid.

The basic principles and optics have been around since the 4th and 5th centuries and were described by Chinese and Greek philosophers. Actually, the word ‘photography’ comes from the Greek words, ‘photos’ (light) and ‘graphein’ (to draw) as a method of recording images of light or related radiation on sensitive material. Photography has evolved through hundreds of years, unfolding its mystery of transferring an image onto something tangible. The history is long and complicated, changing with each inventor and additional knowledge.

One of its offspring, was a medium using a thin sheet of iron that Hamilton Smith produced in 1876. Numerous of these tintype plates still subsists nowadays, as celebrated memoirs of our past in particular. After that, was George Eastman. He designed a film in 1889 that is flexible, durable and could be spooled (bet you had no idea film is ancient). It transformed the process of taking images and documentations forever. In 1935, Kodachrome tagged along and in the 1940′s, the business for color film began.

Now onward to the present, photography and cameras has been transformed by technology into any form you can imagine. Camcorders, cell phones with cameras, cameras for our internet – a few so tiny they fit in the palm of your hand – these are now available. Even though I have a few of these, I still fancy a camera without the additional gadgets.

My camera is with me anywhere I go. There have been times when I have missed precious moments like an unusual sunset on the water, something funny or a photo of friends gathering together for laughter and fun. My camera is my baby, handled with special care. I have a covering where I keep my camera when it is not being used, and an extra bag where I keep my batteries which I charge all the time, all the lenses, flashes and extra film. Thus, everywhere I go now, I am ready to capture that once-in-a-lifetime moment on camera. How about you?

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Dogs and cats are the perfect subjects for your camera. Of all photographers’ subjects, animals rank second to children as the most rewarding things to shoot. Pets are not that difficult to make a subject out of. To make this job even easier and a hundred-percent guaranteed, there are a handful of techniques you could use. Using the basic techniques on a camera with changeable shutter speed and stops will definitely make this job a lot simpler and easier.

Your pet’s cute face and expressions will make your shot a photo and not just a snapshot, so be sure to do it in full detail. Get closer to your dog’s face and then take the shot. This is not a problem with big pets. Even when working with a fixed focus camera, which helps to make things easier, you still have to get close. In order to find the closest and best point to put your subject in focus, try checking your camera manual.

On the other hand, for smaller pets, you will need to add a close-up lens. When shooting inside, you need to pay attention to lighting. If you are considering using flash, remove it or move it to the side to eliminate the red eye effect. This occurs when the flash is too close to the lens of the camera and is reflected back into the lens from the eye itself.

The detail on the background can be removed by using a telephoto lens. With this, you can stay at some distance from your pet and yet be able to take a large picture. Now, let’s talk about the other important aspects of photography.

Know that most animals act like people. For you to be able to take a perfect pet photo, be sure that you are fully aware of this character-similarity and animal’s personality. Impulsive like children, animals are hard to handle.

Waiting is your only option, if you were to capture that perfect pose in picture. The animal will most likely just pose a single second, so be ready with your camera. You need great patience to take a perfect picture; in addition, you will need a plan and some cleverness. Ask a friend if he or she could help out.

Tell this person to get the attention of the pet while you shoot, by using toys or rattles. The helper also can come in handy to chase down those wandering pets that stray away from the set. Use a longer cable release when working alone. Doing so, you can just hit the button to take the shot, while also chasing the pets; but be sure to be careful not to trip. To make your animal stay inside the set, you could use a prop.

Thanks for reading our article about paintings and you can read more at pet portrait art. Further advice on paintings is found at oil painting replicas.

1. P is not for professional. So you pick up your camera, switch the mode dial to P, or if you are really getting fancy perhaps even shutter speed or aperture priority. But how do you go shooting in manual mode? Are you on top of all the decisions you are faced with? Leaving your camera on manual for a while may feel awkward at first but after a short period you will gain a much better understanding of aperture, shutter speed and ISO and how the three correlate to determine exposure. After you are comfortable shooting in manual there will be situations in which you still shoot aperture or shutter priority however you will be better informed to select the right mode for the situation and to evaluate the decisions you are putting into your cameras hands.

2. The higher the ISO the noisier your images. Your digital camera produces some unfortunate artifacts called “Noise”. Now we should understand ISO and how it correlates to exposure, if you don’t get googling and learn it! ISO however is not a free ticket to increased low light performance, as with everything it comes with a price. That price is noise. The higher your ISO the more noise your photos will contain, Make a point of being aware of your ISO and use the lowest speed you can for any given situation. In doing so you will ensure your files are cleaner, less grainy and generally more pleasing. Now there are other factors to consider such as shutter speed and aperture but we’ll get to that next.

3. Learn about shutter speeds and the affects they can have on your photographs. If you are shooting without a tripod or flash the basic concept to follow for sharp images is to use a shutter speed no slower that 1/focal length. If this sounds too technical don’t worry, it’s easy. Lets say we a shooting with a 90mm lens. Use a shutter speed of 1/90th sec or faster. If using a 300mm lens use a shutter speed of 1/300th sec or faster. Of course you could use a slower shutter speed for creative effects such as motion blur, alternatively use a tripod and shoot at any speed you like.

4. Make the most of depth of field. If you don’t already understand aperture and it’s effect on depth of field do some research and learn it. Used creatively and with purpose DOF can transform average photos into great photos. Try shooting some portraits with a shallow DOF in order to render the focus on the subject and remove the distraction of messy backgrounds. An easy way to remember it is that the smaller the f stop (e.g. f 1.8) the smaller the DOF, the larger the f stop (e.g. f16) the larger the DOF.

5. Fill (flash) me up, baby. We all know that look of outdoor portraits in midday sun, a typical amateur look that leaves eyes dark and lifeless. When shooting in full sunlight it is common to try move people into the shade, this option however is not always suitable. It is now we welcome Mr fill flash. A fill flash is no different to your standard on camera or hot shoe flash, the difference is in how we use it. Rather than having the flash set to fully expose the subjects we let it fire light that is approx 1 stop weaker than the ambient light, as such it works to lighten the shadows and reduce the overall contrast of the subject so that we have an image that contains detail in both the highlights and shadows. Using this technique will allow you to capture pleasing portraits in full midday sun without having your subjects eyes render as black holes.

It is worth taking the time to get your head around a few simple concepts, in doing so your photography and your ability to produce good images under a variety of conditions will increase beyond what you thought possible.

For some more great articles check these out – Sydney wedding photography, the perfect desitination and photographing your first wedding

Photography is fast becoming a worldwide favorite hobby. It is great since it gives people the chance to shoot a scene and keep it as a souvenir for years. There are so many reasons why people decide to give photography a try but then the most common one would be just pure fascination. People love the freedom that they have in photography to snap photos of their everyday lives and special occasions and have those memories forever. If you are new to photography then this is the right place for you. This page will give you some ideas on how to better your photography.

First, make sure that you take time to grab hold of the camera and take photos. Practice, always and eventually, will make you better at anything. What you can do is to schedule some time to take photos everyday even if it is just for an image or two. Make it a habit so that you can really practice and be at ease with you just handling the camera and experimenting with angles and composition.

Second, make sure that you read the manual and take time to read photography books as well. Like they say, reading manual will let you take the experience of having an SLR camera to a much higher level. Be sure that you set time to read a chapter or two from a photography book so that you can glean few tricks and tips on how to shoot various scenes. People love the freedom that photography brings and you just need to your own exploration and be daring in experimenting.

Number three, you can join photography workshops. You will do great when you learn from professionals. You will get to see them at work and pick up the tricks of the trade from the experts themselves. Yes, you do have to invest money on workshops but then you will certainly benefit from it. This will really be helpful for you if you want to go professional in the long run.

The article just detailed some of the things that you can do to up the level of your photography skills. You just have to be interested and have the initiative to learn and you will pick it up in no time at all. It is a simple and learnable skill that anyone can acquire. Since photography is not a cheap hobby make it a point to assess if you really want to invest in an SLR camera.

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Today, we enjoy the availability and convenience of digital cameras, which are present practically everywhere and integrated in almost every modern electronic device. For this reason, a lot of people have easily been able to take up, and enjoy photography, and almost everyone can be a photographer. But it took over two hundred years of modern development, using concepts dating back thousands of years, before it reached this point.

Long before the dawn of chemical photography, our ancient ancestors have already begun experimenting on the fundamentals and concepts that will make photography possible. Ancient philosopher Mo Ti, and almost at the same time, Greek mathematicians Euclid and Aristotle, have toyed with what is called a pinhole camera, from as far back as the 5th and 4th centuries BC. But it wasn’t just the ancient Greeks and Chinese that experimented, because during this time, Byzantine mathematicians have also been using their form of a camera obscura for multiple experiments.

Those examples, however, only played around with the principles behind the craft, but true photography wouldn’t really exist until 1826, when the very first actual and permanent photograph was made. The first photo was made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce, when he used a polished pewter plate, and bitumen of Judea, a material that hardens when exposed to light. When the bitumen hardened on the plate, the negative image left behind could then be coated with ink, and pressed on paper to produce a print.

This heralded the development of many other processes over the years, like in 1840, Fox Talbot made the next big step, when he invented the calotype process that used paper sheets coated with silver chloride. This paper would create an intermediate negative image, which in turn could then be used to create positive prints. This kind of paper, and the process used in creating prints, was one of the precursors to the modern chemical film, and modern film development.

But it wasn’t just film and camera technologies that were being advanced during that time, because even the methods of taking photos were taking huge strides. In 1849, a Russian photographer named Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, a man who created a bellows camera design that improved the way photographers would focus, began using artificial light in studios, to take photos of subjects. It was a far cry from the old ways of using simple or natural light, and have earned him numerous awards during his time, in addition to beginning the trend of studio photography.

The history of photography is filled with milestones that allowed us to enjoy modern cameras, lenses, and more. And with digital photography slowly taking over, photography as an industry and art is ready to take even more strides in the future. With these strides, perhaps even more people will be able to enjoy photography, both as an art, and as a profession.

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