Did you know that June 15th is National Nature Photography Day? Today is the day to not only hug a tree….today is the day to photograph it!
The North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), which established National Nature Photography Day in 2006, encourages everyone to do some of these things on June 15:

• Get your camera out and visit a park – even if it’s just 10 minutes at lunch time
• Learn about and photograph a species of plant or animal that is native to your region.
• Teach a child …

With the summer fast approaching (and kids home from school!) and also the birth of Manic Mother’s newest little baby coming up pretty soon, we have decided to take a break from Bloggography for a while. But we didn’t want to leave you high and dry, so Manic Mother and I are sharing some of our favorite photography resources with you.
Great Photography-related Websites:
Digital Photography School
Flickr (check out the groups – there are great discussions and advice in them)
Pioneer Woman Photography
Coffee Shop
I Heart Faces
I Love Photography
Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics
Great Photography …

Last week, I received a question from a friend and fellow blogger who was wondering why her daughter was not in focus in some of her photos (but the stroller was!). I am asked this diagnostic question quite a bit, and the majority of the time the solution is the same.
Focus on your subject!
I know–sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it? Of course you’re going to TRY to focus on your subject! So why do so many photos turn out like this?

Nice, focused fence, horrible blurry kid. Doesn’t do me …

Manic Mother and I get asked quite frequently what lenses we use, or what are the best lenses to buy, so we thought we would do a post on what we have learned so far about DSLR lenses. And believe me, we’ve spent lots of time drooling over researching the best DSLR lenses!

This post was written by Manic Mother, and customized by me to fit within the Canon family of lenses (since that is what I use). Visit Manic Mother’s blog for tips on recommended Nikon lenses.
I know when I …

What is the Rule of Thirds?
The Rule of Thirds is a basic composition guideline in photography. It plays on the natural tendency for our eyes to be drawn towards certain parts of an image.

Imagine a tic tac toe board. Now imagine that tic tac toe board sitting on top of your picture. The four lines of a tic tac toe game break the image up into nine equal parts. The four points where the lines intersect are the strongest focal points.

How and when do I use the Rule of Thirds?
The …

For this week’s Bloggography photography tutorial, we are going to explore exposure compensation. This post was written by my co-host, Manic Mother.

What is exposure compensation?
Exposure compensation is a feature that dSLR cameras (and some point and shoots) have that allows you to manually adjust the exposure levels of your picture.
When your camera takes a picture, the light meter inside of your camera reads the available light and automatically adjusts the exposure for you. However, the light meter does not always read the available light correctly. The ability to adjust your …

Spring is a great time to fly kites. I found a simple and fun kite pattern that is perfect for kids (today kids 2 to 9 used these kites!). They decorated their papers first before following these instructions to “assemble” their kites:

Step 1: Gather materials (one piece of paper, a ruler, a pencil, some yarn or string, a stapler, and a hole punch)
Step 2: Fold paper in half
Step 3: Along the folded side of your paper, measure and mark off at 2 1/2 inches (point A) and at 3 …

Visit my co-host, Manic Mother!
We have spent the last month discussing and experimenting with ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed, the three elements often referred to as the three points of the Exposure Triangle.

It is at the intersection of these three elements that a picture’s exposure is decided.
Most importantly (and the most important thing to take away from today’s tutorial) is that adjusting one of these elements will impact each of the others. This means that you can never really isolate just one of the elements alone but always need to …

This tutorial was written by my co-host, Beth from Manic Mother.

What is aperture?
Aperture is the hole inside of your lens that lets light in. Different lenses have different apertures. A lens of f/1.4 will have a large hole where as a lens of f/4.5 will have a smaller hole.
Aperture is measured in something called “f stops”. Lets say you have a lens that has a maximum aperture of f/1.8. When you set the aperture to f/1.8, the hole in your lens will be at its largest, and will allow the …

It’s time for another addition of Bloggography! Today we’ll concentrate on shutter speed.

Visit my co-host, Manic Mother!

What is shutter speed?
Shutter speed is the amount of time that the camera’s shutter (or the opening that lets light into the camera’s sensors) stays open. The shutter speed is measured in seconds (or fractions of seconds). A shutter speed of ½ of a second is considered a very slow (or long) shutter speed, while 1/1000 is considered a very fast (or short) shutter speed. In other words, a short shutter speed has a …