Shoot early, shoot late, shoot often

Hey guys. This month I'm going to be sooo busy. I have my (accounting) professional exams coming up in a month (just received the material) and so I really have to study hard. This means either shorter blog posts or less frequent blog posts - so I hope that ya'll forgive me :-) Sorry been watching too much American YouTube videos and I am now adopting the slang haha.

This weeks blog is titled shoot early, shoot late, shoot often. Some simple, but wise words. I borrowed this from one of the blogs that I follow - Thephotoargus. On this blog they share a cheat sheet of tips for photographers which I will also share at the end.

Shooting early and/or late in the day gives you a much more even amount of light and can really make your photos that much more dramatic. Try it! You can see a huge difference from photos that are taken when the sun is high in the sky to when its very early in the morning or when the sun is setting. The colour in the sky can often add that something special.

Compare this to when you take photos during the middle of the day, shadows are much harsher which can sometimes ruin your shot. In this case most photographers look for some shade to filter out the sun's harsh light. Or if you are clever, you can use your camera's flash to balance out the sun's light - but getting a natural result is often quite difficult. Don't be afraid to use some fill light though during the day though, it can often improve your photos if you use it sparingly. But even if you're an amateur like me, you don't have to take a technically perfect shot for it to be appealing. Don't be shy to try things even if its a bit out there. In this digital age we can afford to take those millions of photos. WOOP. WOOP. LOL. You might surprise yourself.

And again, you don't have to have the most expensive camera in the world to take the best shots. I've seen people take better shots with a point and shoot who know what they are doing than with people who have a fancy SLR but don't really know how to use it. So use what you have to its full potential!

Last Saturday I went out to Pt Chev with Doug & Dryke. The sun was just setting and so as per usual I grab out my trusty P&S and shoot away. Excitement plus! I love point and shoot cameras sometimes, sure the picture quality isn't always up there compared to my SLR, but I just love how convenient it is. I have posted a few of my favs below:

I like to use sepia now and then, I think it adds a bit of interest and I like the effect when you have the warm sunshine as well. The sepia enhances the sun's glow in my opinion. Oh and my glow hahaha whatever. LOL@ Doug's expression.

Doug working the foliage hahaha

I love deep blue skies. If you're camera has a vibrant colour setting try using this to bring out the colours. My canon also has vibrant green and blue which I'm yet to experiment with.


OOOOOO sun flare...wooooo

Silhouettes are pretty! A side note - try using a wide angle setting on your camera (if you have it) for landscapes. If you dont' have one, try cropping to postcard like dimensions. I like the dimensions of this shot below. Try 4x6 or even 3x6 to mix it up! I use iPhoto to crop my photos to how I want them to look. If you don't have photo software, have a look online or maybe have a look into picasa and see if it works for you.



And finally last tip from the header - shoot often. Practise makes perfect, and its no different with photography so I've heard! I'm still learning and still trying to "perfect my passion".


Tip for the week: This week's tip is a link of all sorts of tips. I sourced this from a blog that I follow. Take what you will from it. Author: Jason Anderson. Click here to download the sheet. There's some good stuff there even if it serves only as a reminder.