Shazeen Samad

Photography is a lot of fun for people of all ages! Most people will be happy with a basic camera that takes decent photos they can share with friends and family. That’s perfectly fine, but for a large number of us there is a constant desire to learn more and improve our skills!

As you probably know, the best way to improve your skills is to GET OUT AND SHOOT. The more you shoot the more your learn. Sometimes it’s easier said then done. You cant always carry your camera gear with you and sometimes you’re just plain stuck in a rut! For times like these it never hurts to have a few great resources that can provide a little inspiration, a few great tricks, loads of articles on photographic techniques and styles and a few product reviews to help when it comes time to upgrade.

A few excellent resources after the jump …

One of my favorite sites possesses all of these qualities, The Digital Photography School (DPS). DPS has been around for a couple of years now and has everything from product reviews to weekly challenges and outstanding articles covering all areas of photography. When I first discovered this gem over two years ago I started reading from the absolute beginning. The information is so good that I have practically read every single article on this site and I just can’t get enough! It gets even better, on top of all this they a great active community of  photographers participating in their forums and creating another excellent source of information.  This site is outstanding and I’m sure they will have something for you!

Another favorite of mine is the The Digital Photography Connection (TDPC). TDPC has all kinds of excellent video tutorials, my favorite being the Photoshop for Digital Photographers series. I’m a very visual person so I’ve found TDPC to be an outstanding resource for learning many of Photoshop the tools and discovering little tricks along the way. If your not a Photoshop user give the Lightroom and general Photography tutorials a try.

While these are only two of my favorites, Smashing Magazine created a list of “50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Photography Skills“! It’s divided into multiple categories with each entry having a brief description of what is offered on the site. Everything from inspiration, equipment, beginners help, technique, blogs and toys can be found here so I’m sure you’ll find a few to keep you busy, don’t forget to bookmark them for later, Enjoy!

link: Digital Photography School
link: The Digital Photography Connection
link: “50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Photography Skills“

Lifehacker has article with an accompanying video from creditcards.com about securely destroying a credit card with 15 cuts of your scissors. The video shows you exactly where to make each cut so you’ll effectively destroy all information. A hammer and strong magnet are also recommend.

link: “securely destroying a credit card”
video: “Cut up your credit card the right way”
Lifehacker website: “Lifehacker.com“

Most email providers like Comcast, Gmail and Hotmail have protections in place that can automatically detect and alert you to scams they discover. With the constantly changing tactics of scammers however, a few emails are bound to slip through the cracks.

I suggest you take a few moments and familiarizer yourself with some of the most common scams. The next time one slips through the cracks you’ll have a better chance of recognizing it and protecting yourself!

The folks over at MakeUseOf.com have an excellent article on the “Top 5 Current Email Scams“.
Notice the red warning bar in a few of the screen shots. For those of you have have never seen it this is an example of how email providers are alerting their customers.

Some amazing photographs of a 50ft humpback whale and a close encounter with a diver. These photos can really give you an idea of how big the humpback whale is compared to a human being.

Humpback whales were once hunted to near extinction until 1966 when the International Whaling Commission introduced a ban on commercial whaling. Now they are frequently sought after by whale-watchers across the globe.

The service is free and it’s quite simple. Select the make and model and right off the bat your presented with a list of styles (i.e. 4dr sedan, 2dr coupe) and the sticker price for each. Click on the model that matches what you have in mind and you’ll see a list of options followed by the invoice and sticker prices. Selecting the desired options you receive the real benefit, a full TrueCar Price Report.

Here’s a sample of whats included for a 2009 Ford Fusion with the options I selected:

As noted in the top right, this report is based on 919 vehicles purchased. The average price paid is $27,790 with the actual dealer cost being $26,412. And noted at the bottom, For Fusion prices have been trending downward by 0.46% since October 26th.

Heading to the dealer with information like this in had makes the negotation process a whole lot simpler and leaves you more relaxed.

link: TrueCar
TrueCar’s Blog: ”The Truth” – more information and stories about the auto market.
similar service: Edmunds “True Marked Value“

At first some questions may seem like common sense but keep reading and you’ll find a few others that aren’t. For instance, I never would have thought to ask “What do you drive?”, but it make perfect sense.

Asking what she drives will help understand whether you and the advisor share core values that will enable you to work together successfully over the years to come.

What about “Are you married?” or “Have you ever been fired?”. Asking person questions may not seem appropriate but remember, you are allowing them to see a lot of your personal information so it only makes sense to know a little about them as well.

link: “8 Questions to Ask BEFORE Hiring a Financial Advisor“

The experts are saying it is supposedly immune to Anti-Virus software so you should be extra careful opening emails in the next week or two. If you don’t know who the email is from don’t open it. Even if you do know the sender you should be extra careful and not open any attachments unless you were expecting it. Be leery of all emails, the virus could send emails to you from people you know if they are infected. The virus is sitting on workstations across the world and scheduled to check in every now and then for instructions. April 1st is one of these days.

Hopefully the virus vendors and/or Microsoft will have a patch for Conficker-C, fix or a tool to clean it soon.

You’ll probably hear more about it on the news so keep your eyes open.

Humans have a natural love for animals which is evident by the crowds at zoos and the large number of house pets. Photographing pets and zoo animals can be a lot of fun but have you ever tried photographing wild animals?

Wild animals can be very difficult to photograph and in many cases require large and expensive equipment. Not everyone can afford the equipment required for wild animal photography but we can all enjoy the photos taken by others!

The guys over at Smashing Magazine have come up with a list of “35 Beautiful Examples of Animal Photography“. These aren’t all necessarily wild animals but there great to look at and can provide inspiration when your running out of ideas. Notice how the ‘rule of thirds‘ was used in almost all of these photos.

I’ve chosen three of my favorites and posted them below:

“Suspicious” by Cyrus Khamak

Monkey by unknown

“Mandarin duck” by Marieke IJsendoorn-Kuijpers

The more megapixels a digital camera has the better pictures it will take, right? WRONG! This is probably the biggest misconception in digital photography. The quality of an image is dependent on multiple things: the cameras sensor size and quality, the internal processor, the quality of glass within the lens, the amount of light available in the scene and most importantly, the photographer!

The most important component to capturing a great image is ALWAYS the photographer. A photographer who knows their camera well can take a photo with a 3MP camera that will outshine a similar photo taken from a 10MP camera and an inexperienced photographer. A person who knows photography well can generally pick up any camera and pull off great shots. For those that don’t know a lot about photography don’t worry, get to know your camera you’ll be happy – take lots of photos!

The number of megapixels (MP) does not affect the quality of the image in the sense that the more pixels you have the better quality photo you get, it really only affects the size of the image you can print while still maintaining the highest quality. Almost all cameras on the market today have at least 5 to 6 megapixels which is more than enough for most people. I’ve printed excellent 8×10 photos from a 3MP Kodak camera purchased back in 2000 (see above image). If your not looking to make poster size prints then you’ll be more than satisfied with a 5 or 6 megapixel camera.

Even large prints don’t necessarily need lots of megapixels. Unless the giant photo will be viewed at close range the details will not be noticeable so don’t waste your money.

For those that do require large prints with extremely sharp details consider a professional or ‘prosumer” DLSR. Both will have image sensors larger than most point-and-shoot cameras and are therefore better suited for the high megapixels. Lots of megapixels on a small sensor means smaller pixels, smaller pixels means less light, less light can mean lower quality.

Purchase a camera that fits your shooting style and requirements. Don’t let the megapixel count sway you from the camera you like in your price range. Odds are, if you purchase a camera from the major manufactures (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, etc) you’ll be happy.

Shop in a retail store to get a hands-on feel (comfort goes a long way in my opinion), price compare online to find the best price. When talking to a salesperson remember their job is to sell you A camera, not necessarily the RIGHT camera, do your own research to verify.

The Amazon bestsellers list can be a good indicator of which cameras have a good price-to-quality and price-to-feature ratio.

Further Reading:

• “The Megapixel Myth” – by Ken Rockwell
• “Breaking the Myth of Megapixels” – NYTimes David Pogue
• While writing and preparing this article Gizmodo wrote an excellent article with a detailed explanation of how the number of megapixels and image sensor size can effect image quality: “Why More Megapixels Isn’t Always More Better“.

Definitions: Pixel, Megapixel, DSLR, Point-and-Shoot, Prosumer