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“breeching 1, Frederick Sound, AK”
© Copyright Steve Simon

Water is one of our most precious natural resources. Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface and is essential for many forms of life. We use water for drinking, bathing, and playing, among other things. Lots of other creatures use water for playing, such as whales which breach out of the water, as shown in the spectacular photo above by Steve Simon of a whale breaching in Frederick Sound in Alaska. Click the photo above to see a larger version.

“Water” is the theme for the Photobird Photo Contest for August 2009. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends August 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Three” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Monday, August 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for August 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

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“The Three Armadillos”
© Copyright Steve Creek

Thank you to everyone who entered the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009! The theme for July was “Three” and a lot of great photos were entered into the contest. We had a lot of photos of children and birds, some fireworks (of course, for July!), turtles, oranges, chairs, arches, celebrities, sailboats, and an Amish caravan going to town.

Congratulations to Steve Creek, winner of the Photobird Award with the photo “The Three Armadillos“, shown above. I wrote about the photo in early July and I mentioned how it’s rare to see a photo of one armadillo because they’re just not something people take photos of, and yet Steve has a great photo of three of them together, which is even more rare. Click the photo above to see a larger version.

Congratulations to Seshadri Moitra, winner of the People’s Choice Award with the photo “the happy moment“. The photo appears to show a small family of three cows, with the mother simultaneously feeding her calf and touching another cow with her mouth. Perhaps it’s a sign of affection, and she’s managing to keep everyone in the group happy.

Steve and Seshadri will each receive the following prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Congratulations again to both winners!

“One” was the theme for May. “Two” was the theme for June. And “Three” was the theme for July. Instead of “Four” for August, let’s shift gears, hop in a boat, and head out on the water while summer is still here! “Water” is the theme for the Photobird Photo Contest for August 2009. The Photobird Photo Contest is free to enter, so be sure to get your entry in and have your family and friends vote on their favorite photos before month’s end.

For more information about the contest, please check out the details here.

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“Out for a stroll”
© Copyright Sonja Throssell

Today is the final day to submit your photo entry into the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009! The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends today, Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time. Enter the contest here.

“Three” is the theme of the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. Sonja Throssell entered a cute photo of three goslings entitled “Out for a stroll“. Not only are they out for a stroll, but it looks like they’re hunting ferociously for food. (If goslings can be ferocious, that is.)

The composition of Sonja’s photo is very well done. First, the photo is shot at ground level where the goslings are, not from up at human height. Secondly, I like that the goslings are photographed at a slight angle, so they appear staggered in the photo, so we can clearly see all three of them. Finally, I like the simplicity of the photo, which enables us to focus our attention on the goslings. There’s not much else in the photo: three goslings, grass, and green water. The last two make the goslings stand out very well in the photo. For more composition tips, read “Composition Is Key” in the Photobird Daily.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Three” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

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Get FREE photo tips by e-mail weekly with the Photobird newsletter.

See more great photos and photography articles in the Photobird Daily.

Visit Photobird.com, the easy way to share your photos.

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“Early Madness”
© Copyright Camil Seisanu

Everyone loves beautiful sunrise and sunset photos. And sure, it’s easy to go outside when the sun is coming up or going down, snap the shutter, and appreciate the photos. But if your photos don’t always look as good as you think they should, heed these 7 tips from Yanik’s Photo School. Then you too can shoot beautiful sunrise and sunset photos like Camil Seisanu’s “Early Madness” shown above.

I have listed the tips below in a prioritized order.

1. Scouting. It’s very important to plan ahead and look for the perfect places to capture the rising and setting sun. Consider the path the sun will take during the day and verify that you can shoot around any obstacles, such as buildings and trees. Keep in mind that the sun’s path varies throughout the year. For example, during the winter, the sun stays lower on the horizon. Check your local weather forecast for the daily times of sunrises and sunsets; Yahoo! Weather is a good resource for that.

2. Composition. Composition is key for great photos, especially sunrise and sunset photos. For these photos, we have a tendency to shoot in (horizontal) landscape format, but it’s also a good idea to get creative and try shooting in (vertical) portrait format, as Camil has done with his photo above. Also try using the Rule of Thirds, instead of centering the sun in the middle of your photos. Learn more about composition in the Photobird Daily article “Composition Is Key“.

3. Arrive early and stay late. Don’t pack up and leave right when the sun goes down. The color show is just about to begin! Some of the best colors will appear before the sun rises and after it sets. Stick around for a while and keep shooting because the colors will change, even slightly, every minute. Bring your tripod along as it will help you use longer shutter speeds to capture more light when the sky is darker.

4. Look behind you. Yes, while you think all the action might be where the sun is headed, when you turn around, you’ll see the radiant colors that the sun is painting on the landscape. You may see a building in a vibrant orange color or the sun coloring the clouds above. The best, most colorful light is usually when the sun is low on the horizon, or even just below the horizon.

5. Exposure. Try underexposing your shots between 1 and 2 stops to get rich, vibrant colors. Or you can try overexposing your shots which will result in pastel, less saturated colors. To do this easily, use the EV (Exposure Value) button if you have one on your camera. It’s something you need to experiment with to get the effect you are looking for.

6. Setting your white balance. You should also experiment with different white balance settings to get the look you desire. Keep in mind that as the sun moves through the sky, you may find it necessary to change your white balance setting to adjust for the color tones in the sky and landscape around you. If you have a camera with presets, you should try the “Sunset” preset. One of the first things I do when I pick up a camera is change the white balance setting to “Cloudy”, which saturates the colors in the scene and makes them more vibrant. If you shoot in RAW format, you can change the white balance setting later in software on your computer. As with most things in photography, you’ll need to experiment with the white balance setting to get your desired look.

7. Don’t look straight at the sun! No one looks directly at the sun even with sunglasses on, and we shouldn’t look directly at the sun with cameras either. You could damage your eyesight, and your camera can be damaged by direct sunlight through the lens if exposed for too long. Basically, if it would hurt your eyes by looking at it, then don’t photograph it. Most people can look at sunrises and sunsets because the sun is low on the horizon, or below the horizon, and the earth’s atmosphere diffuses the sunlight so it’s not as powerful as if it was at full strength at mid-day.

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“Home Impressions #5″
© Copyright Rafa Torcida

Most of you want to keep your photos private. You don’t want your photos exposed so that anyone on the Internet can see them. You only want your family and friends to see your photos.

Fortunately, Photobird.com, the easy way to share your photos, was built with exactly that idea. When you sign up for your Photobird.com account, your photo albums are automatically private. There’s nothing you need to do to make them private. No one knows about your photo albums until you start telling your family and friends about them.

On the other hand, a relatively small group of people want to share some of their photos with the world. People like Vicki Tinnon, David Cresine, Robert Romero, Mark Prinz, and Rafa Torcida to name a few, enjoy the exposure of sharing their photos and getting feedback. They all have submitted photos for the Photobird Photo of the Hour, which is your opportunity to share your favorite photos with the rest of the world. Rafa Torcida’s photo “Home Impressions #5” is shown above.

Fortunately, Photobird.com allows you to do it all. You can keep your photos private, or you can share your photos with the world, or you can do a mixture of both. For example, you can see my photo albums at photobird.com/ekrimen. But what you can’t see — unless I tell you about it — is that I have a hidden album with pictures of Florida in it. If you look at my photo albums, you won’t see my “Florida” photo album shown there. But if I give you the direct link, photobird.com/ekrimen/Florida, you can click on that link and see my Florida photo album. It’s a secret, hidden photo album that can only be seen if I give you the link. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have known it’s there.

Another option you have, in case you think people might be able to guess the names of your hidden albums, is to password protect one, some, or all of your photo albums. When you password protect your photo albums, you require your visitors to type in a password to view the photos in your photo album.

To make all of this even easier, for both hidden albums and password protected albums, and even for things like comments and ratings on your photos and albums, you can set up one album with password protection, for example, and all of the albums within that album will also be password protected. It’s a clever feature that makes it easy to keep some of your photos private while you share your favorite photos with the world. You can read how easy it is in our Photobird Daily article entitled “Show Off Your Photos, and Keep Some Private“.

All of these options are included at no additional cost when you sign up for your Photobird account. There are no extra fees, no gimmicks, no ads, no spam.

If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments below or send me a message directly and privately.

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“Stream at sunrise, Scarborough State Beach, Rhode Island 1995″
© Copyright William Neill

When we think of landscape photos, we usually think of great color and earthen tones, such as greens, browns, blues, and other colors that Mother Nature provides in a particular landscape. So it may come as a surprise that landscape photos also work well in black and white, but you really need to know what you’re doing to make black and white landscape photos look good.

I generally prefer color photos, but when black and white photos are done well, I really like them and I’m inspired by them. I’ve written before in the Photobird Daily about my thoughts on black and white photos:

• “Learning Photography in Black and White“
• “Color or Black and White? Which is Better?“
• “1 Week Left: Photo Contest for December (2008)” featuring the photo “Fly” by Pradip Datta.

Award-winning photographer William Neill has been living in the Yosemite National Park area since 1977 and received the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award for conservation photography in 1995. In his article “Meditations in Monochrome” on Michael Reichmann’s The Luminous Landscape website, William shares with us his perspectives and tips on shooting and processing black and white landscape digital photos.

William Neill introduces his article by bridging the gap with the majority of people who see in color. He writes: “Even though I am primarily a color landscape photographer, many of my favorite landscape images are black and white photographs.” William begins with a history of his photographic background, starting with the two semesters of black and white photography that he took in college in the 1970s. Even though he committed his career to working in color, he challenged himself to make color photographs that “display the best aspects of black and white composition in terms of graphic design, inject expressive seeing, and use the colors of nature judicially and subtly.” Ansel Adams even complimented William by saying that William’s color photographs demonstrated that he “saw” in black and white.

Here’s a couple of tips on shooting black and white photos that William Neill shares in his article:

• Graphic quality and exposure quality are most important. Consider how colors translate to grays. William writes, “Because black and white images do not depend on colors for impact, black and white compositions are often better designed, and so your ability to compose may well improve by working in black and white!”
• Use software such as Adobe Lightroom for visually testing the strength of images to be converted from color to black and white. Some images just don’t translate and finding the right images to convert takes some trial and error.

More tips on working with software to edit images for conversion to black and white can be found in William Neill’s article “Meditations in Monochrome“.

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“Squirrel”
© Copyright Mike Saunders

When photographing in public, photographers may find themselves confronted by unwitting subjects who, for whatever reason, would clearly like to stay out of the picture, thank you very much.

This article on fotohacker.com provides a good overview of your rights as a photographer and is a good resource for photographers who spend a significant amount of time snapping photos in public. The article contains informative links to detailed books and PDF documents about photographers’ rights in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The most important points to remember are:

1. You have the right to take a photograph anywhere in public, but it’s best to obtain permission in advance when photographing on private property, such as in a shopping mall.
2. Nobody has the right to confiscate your camera or ask you to delete a photograph. Once you’ve taken the picture, it’s yours.
3. You can take pictures of anyone in public. But as a matter of common courtesy, it’s important to remain polite and respectful of others by not engaging in outright harassment.

For more details regarding your rights as a photographer, review the following excellent resources, provided by the article on fotohacker.com:

USA

The Photographer’s Right PDF
The Law, In Plain English, For Photographers

Canada

Photography Laws in Canada
Photographers Rights @ Photojunkie

UK

Photographer’s Rights in the UK

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“Pick Me!”
© Copyright Terry Hammon

This is quite an impressive photo entitled “Pick Me!” that Terry Hammon entered into the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. The photo is very impressive technically even though it doesn’t have large patches of rich, iridescent colors that I usually like. First, capturing hummingbirds in flight is no easy task. You need a fast shutter speed and a few other tricks to get the quick, tiny birds very sharp. I actually like that the bird’s body is sharp while its wings are mostly a blur, showing their motion.

Next, the composition of the photo is well done. If simply capturing the hummingbird wasn’t enough, Terry has the bird positioned in a good spot in the frame, with the flowers on the left forming a nice border. Note that this is a tight close-up of the hummingbird in action, without a lot of open space in the photo.

Finally, if those characteristics weren’t enough, Terry’s photo has a short depth of field, with the foreground objects sharp and the background blurred to force our eyes to focus on the foreground objects, the bird and the flowers. Very impressive feat to get all of those challenging photographic skills into one photo!

The Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009 is still open and there’s only one week remaining so be sure to enter your photo soon!

“Three” is the theme of the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Three” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

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“I See You”
© Copyright Vicki TInnon

I like this photo shown above entitled “I See You” by Vicki Tinnon. Prince Frog may think he’s in stealth mode, but we can see you too. I like the vibrant green, the clarity and exposure level, and how the frog is positioned towards the top of the frame using the Rule of Thirds.

You can see more of Vicki Tinnon’s beautiful photos in her Photobird photo album at photobird.com/vickitinnon. Vicki Tinnon won the Photobird Award for the Photobird Photo Contest for May 2008 with her photo “Moving In“.

Photobird.com is the easy way to share your photos. You capture and share so many great photos on Photobird.com that we created the Photo of the Hour feature to give you the opportunity to share your very best with the rest of the world. You can see the Photo of the Hour on the Photobird.com home page and on the Look at Pictures page.

It’s really easy to submit your favorite photos to be featured on the Photobird Photo of the Hour: Simply view the photo from your photo album and click the “Submit for Photo of the Hour” checkbox. There is no limit to the number of photos you can submit and we always like to get new submissions.

In return for each photo we use on the Photo of the Hour or People Places and Things, you get more storage space for your photo album so you can store more photos. Details are here.

If you’d like to keep some of your photos private while you share your favorite photos with the world, you can read how easy it is to do that with Photobird photo albums in our Photobird Daily article entitled “Show Off Your Photos, and Keep Some Private“.

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Photo from Ed Krimen’s “Fort Funston” album
© Copyright Ed Krimen

The distance between the camera lens and your subject, and the angle of the shot itself, can greatly influence the shot’s resulting impact.

In this article on fotohacker.com, Jason Paterson writes that he is tired of looking at photos of subjects shot straight on at eye-level. He believes we can all learn to take more dynamic and, therefore, more visually interesting photographs by simply changing the position of the camera.

Here are some of the camera angles he suggests:

1. Lower Angles. When you shoot from beneath the subject, you give the subject a feeling of power.
2. Higher Angles. When shot from above, a subject often appears smaller or less significant.
3. Tilted or “Dutch” Angles. These photos can produce a feeling of energy or excitement, or leave the viewer with a feeling that not all is right.
4. Framed Angles. Use the environment to frame your subject, which is a technique we discussed in greater depth in this article in the Photobird Daily.

You can also consider the viewpoint of each photo:

1. Subjective. The subject appears to be looking at the camera and interacting with it as though it were a person.
2. Objective. The subject appears to be oblivious to the camera.

Be sure to read Jason’s complete article for additional thoughts on this subject.

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Amazon.com keeps a running tally of its best-selling digital cameras, updated hourly. Check out the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers page at this link to see the complete list of cameras.

The top 10 list for the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers page is below. This week’s list and the list from two weeks ago are shown. Click on any of the links to go to the Amazon.com page for that camera to read reviews and to obtain more details on each camera.

This week:

1. Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (Black) – $230
2. Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS (Dark Gray) – $183
3. Canon PowerShot SX10 IS – $359
4. Canon PowerShot SD890 IS – $197
5. Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS (Light Gray) – $179
6. Canon Rebel T1i – $810
7. Canon Rebel XSi – $638
8. Canon Rebel XS (Black) – $499
9. Canon PowerShot A2100 IS – $209
10. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20 – $244

Two weeks ago:

1. Canon Rebel XSi – $682
2. Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS (Dark Gray) – $183
3. Canon Rebel T1i – $810
4. Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (Black) – $228
5. Canon PowerShot SX10 IS – $370
6. Canon PowerShot SX110 IS (Black) – $230
7. Canon PowerShot SD890 IS – $197
8. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S – $213
9. Canon Rebel XS (Black) – $509
10. Canon PowerShot D10 – $300

The turmoil continues. I was kinda hoping that things at the top of the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers list would settle down for a bit, but they haven’t. There’s another new camera this week at the top of Amazon.com’s list. Here’s the background: For many, many months, the Canon PowerShot A590 IS compact digital camera was in first place. Then, for at least 6 weeks, the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS tiny digital camera in blue was in first place, just as it was four weeks ago. But recently, both the Canon PowerShot SD880 IS in silver and the Canon PowerShot A1000 IS in grey have also been in the number one spot. Two weeks ago, the Canon Rebel XSi DSLR was in first place. Today the Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, shown above, is in first place, up 3 spots from number 4.

As always, Canon dominates the top 10 list. This week, Canon holds the top 9 of 10 spots on the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers list. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20 in 10th place is the only camera in the top 10 list that’s not manufactured by Canon. Usually Canon holds at least 7 spots in the top 10 list and I’ve never seen them with less than 6.

Before you buy a Canon digital camera or anything else on Amazon.com, please click one of our links to Amazon.com on this page or anywhere on Photobird.com. For each product you buy after your click, we receive a small referral fee, at no additional cost to you. Your clicks and purchases allow us to continue to publish the Photobird Daily and the Photobird Learning Center. Thank you for your support!

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“Rainbow”
© Copyright Peter Horner

Rainbows can be a fickle subject to photograph. They only come out when the atmospheric conditions are just right and, even then, they usually don’t stick around for long. Capturing one with your camera and keeping it true to the awe-inspiring splendor that motivated you to get out your camera in the first place, can present a formidable challenge to any photographer.

This article by Jason Paterson of fotohacker.com greatly demystifies the process of capturing these wondrous spectral images on camera, like lightning in a bottle.

Jason recommends the following:

1. Consider your framing carefully. If your background looks bad, the resulting picture will look bad no matter how beautiful the rainbow is.
2. Use a polarizing filter. This will allow you to get the most vivid and saturated colors from both the sky and the surrounding scenery. More information about polarizing filters can be found at this link.
3. Use a tripod and a low shutter speed. When you use the polarizing filter, you’re going to lose light. The tripod will make sure the picture remains sharply in focus.

Be sure to read the complete article for additional tips.

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“Waiting for a breeze”
© Copyright Jeff Pontsler

“Waiting for a breeze” is a beautiful photo that Jeff Pontsler entered into the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. I think what really makes this photo stand out is the quality of the sunlight shining directly against the boats on the side that Jeff Pontsler is shooting from (as opposed to the other side, the shady side). My guess was that the sun was low in the horizon — thus the great color sunlight — which meant either morning or afternoon sun, and then I noticed in the description of the photo that Jeff said it was in the morning.

The framing of the sailboats is also very good, with only the three sailboats in the photo and nothing else around them. The blue sky complements the very green water exceptionally well. The cotton-ball clouds low in the horizon in the background are also a nice touch. Horizons can sometimes be tricky to get level, but if you just tilt your head to the right a bit, it’s fixed. Also, the bottoms of the sails line up with the horizon, and the sails of each boat appear to touch the sails of the boat next to it, which helps keep the photo tidy. Very well done.

I accidentally approved this photo for the contest before I noticed that it was the second photo that Jeff Pontsler had entered into this month’s contest. The contest rules state that each contestant may only enter one photo each month; therefore, this photo won’t be able to win either award, but it’s a really nice photo so I wanted to point it out. Jeff Pontsler’s other photo in this contest, “Going to town…” is also very good.

There’s only two weeks remaining before the end of the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009, so be sure to enter your photo soon!

“Three” is the theme of the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Three” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

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“Sunset surfer 7″
© Copyright David Cresine

I was in the mood for a nice sunset photo today, so I picked David Cresine’s “Sunset surfer 7“, shown above. Gorgeous colors and I really like the texture of the water on the sand and its reflection of the sunset colors. The surfer is well positioned using the Rule of Thirds.

David Cresine’s photo “Sunset surfer 7” is one of the photos chosen for the Photobird Photo of the Hour. You can see more of David Cresine’s beautiful photos by visiting his Photobird photo album at photobird.com/davidroy.

Photobird.com is the easy way to share your photos. You capture and share so many great photos on Photobird.com that we created the Photo of the Hour feature to give you the opportunity to share your very best with the rest of the world. You can see the Photo of the Hour on the Photobird.com home page and on the Look at Pictures page.

It’s really easy to submit your favorite photos to be featured on the Photobird Photo of the Hour: Simply view the photo from your photo album and click the “Submit for Photo of the Hour” checkbox. There is no limit to the number of photos you can submit and we always like to get new submissions.

In return for each photo we use on the Photo of the Hour or People Places and Things, you get more storage space for your photo album so you can store more photos. Details are here.

If you’d like to keep some of your photos private while you share your favorite photos with the world, you can read how easy it is to do that with Photobird photo albums in our Photobird Daily article entitled “Show Off Your Photos, and Keep Some Private“.

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Photo © Copyright Michael Ray

Most of us are probably too busy eating food to photograph it. However, if you’ve ever wondered what goes on at a food photography shoot, be sure to check out this interesting piece on the Food Photography blog.

Michael Ray is a professional food photographer. His final shot is shown above, worthy of inclusion in bon appétit magazine. In this article, he details the forty steps he took to get there.

It all starts with a sample image, supplied by the Art Director, in order to provide the basic “feel” for the shot. In this instance, the idea was to capture a picnic table outdoors. The first two dozen or so shots show how the background and foreground elements combine with lighting and focus to compose a shot that satisfied the client.

Just like actors on a film set, food also has stand-ins for lighting. Check out step 26: While the chicken stays warm in its trailer (er, microwave oven?), a piece of wood is used to help fine-tune the lighting. In fact, the food doesn’t join the shot until step 28. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the prima donna ear of corn say, “Can we shoot this thing already? It’s getting cold out here!” while a sycophantic production assistant slathers its backside in warm butter.

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“Andromeda Galaxy”
© Copyright Paul LeFevre

If you ever wanted to photograph the stars, summertime is a good time to start. There are more opportunities for clear skies and the weather is warmer, which is important because you’ll be spending a lot of time outdoors at night.

Astrophotographer Paul LeFevre shares some tips on how to shoot the stars in an article at PopPhoto.com. You may not want to invest in multi-scope, multi-refractor camera systems right away, but you can still photograph the stars using these tips below:

1. Do it in the dark. Cities and suburbs have a lot of light pollution which not only makes it difficult to see stars with the naked eye but also causes a loss of contrast and detail in your photos, according to Paul LeFevre. High altitude, remote locations are best.

2. Go for comfort. You’ll be at high altitudes in the cold for long periods of time while you shoot long exposures, so wear warm clothing, bring something hot to drink, a comfortable chair, and a lot of batteries or an AC adapter if there’s a power source.

3. Find those stars. Use a tracking chart or software such as SkyMap Pro to figure out patterns in the sky and then align your camera system accordingly.

4. Maintain star alignment. According to PopPhoto.com, “The earth rotates 1 degree every 4 minutes — so in a 4-hour exposure, your astral body has moved 60 degrees away from you. Buy a tracking mount, which compensates by rotating slowly the opposite direction. The Min-EQ tabletop mount with tracking motor starts at $88 (street); sturdier versions for both telescope and camera go for $600 (street). A cheap solution is a ‘barn door’ mount, which tracks manually using two hinged boards.”

Read the article at PopPhoto.com for more tips and details. A more in-depth article by Paul LeFevre entitled “How-To: Astrophotography 101” is also at PopPhoto.com. Paul LeFevre’s website is at http://lefevre.darkhorizons.org .

Follow these tips and perhaps one day you’ll be featured in the Astronomy Picture of the Day, a great website which we’ve covered many times before in the Photobird Daily.

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“The Three Armadillos”
© Copyright Steve Creek

To be honest, I haven’t seen many photos of armadillos in my lifetime. They’re just not something people take a lot of photos of, I guess, and there probably aren’t a lot of opportunities to see them. They’re also not exactly Mother Nature’s most photogenic creature.

Steve Creek might have captured one of their best sides in the photo shown above entitled “The Three Armadillos” which he entered into the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. If I’m not mistaken, the photo shows three armadillos walking away from us — not walking towards us. I do believe that those are three tails in the photo. It’s a cute, well-done photo, with great color and excellent depth of field.

“Three” is the theme of the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Three” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

~•~

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The top 10 list for the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers page is below. This week’s list and the list from two weeks ago are shown. Click on any of the links to go to the Amazon.com page for that camera to read reviews and to obtain more details on each camera.

This week:

1. Canon Rebel XSi – $682
2. Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS (Dark Gray) – $183
3. Canon Rebel T1i – $810
4. Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (Black) – $228
5. Canon PowerShot SX10 IS – $370
6. Canon PowerShot SX110 IS (Black) – $230
7. Canon PowerShot SD890 IS – $197
8. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S – $213
9. Canon Rebel XS (Black) – $509
10. Canon PowerShot D10 – $300

Two weeks ago:

1. Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS (Blue) – $180
2. Canon PowerShot SX10 IS – $360
3. Canon Rebel XSi – $688
4. Canon PowerShot A1000 IS (Grey) – $140
5. Canon Rebel T1i – $832
6. Canon PowerShot SD890 IS – $199
7. Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (Black) – $245
8. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S – $215
9. Canon PowerShot A1000 IS (Brown) – $130
10. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 (Black) – $210

There continues to be a lot of turmoil at the top of the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers list. For many months, the Canon PowerShot A590 IS compact digital camera was in first place. Then, for at least 6 weeks, the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS tiny digital camera in blue was in first place, just as it was two weeks ago. But recently, both the Canon PowerShot SD880 IS in silver and the Canon PowerShot A1000 IS in grey have also been in the number one spot. This week, the Canon Rebel XSi DSLR, shown above, is in first place as the shuffling continues.

Canon dominates the top 10 list again this week on the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers list. Canon holds 9 of the top 10 spots, with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S as the only camera in the top 10 list that’s not manufactured by Canon. Usually Canon holds at least 7 spots in the top 10 list and I’ve never seen them with less than 6.

Before you buy a Canon digital camera or anything else on Amazon.com, please click one of our links to Amazon.com on this page or anywhere on Photobird.com. For each product you buy after your click, we receive a small referral fee, at no additional cost to you. Your clicks and purchases allow us to continue to publish the Photobird Daily and the Photobird Learning Center. Thank you for your support!

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“Giving Me Advice”
© Copyright Vicki Tinnon

You may be reading a lot these days about the RAW file format and wondering, “Is it right for me?” You might also be asking yourself “What is it?” and “Why would I want to use it over JPEG?”

Well, the simple fact of the matter is that most of you will likely want to stick with the JPEG (or JPG) file format — that is, unless you do a lot of editing with photo editing software. Read on and we’ll explain. (Fortunately, we have the assistance of this savvy, little woodland creature in the photo shown above entitled “Giving Me Advice“, by Vicki Tinnon.)

JPEG is a universally-accepted and standardized file format that can be read by just about every computer operating system and software application on the market today. It’s the de-facto file format for most digital point-and-shoot cameras. The problem with JPEGs is that they are highly compressed. While this helps to make the file sizes smaller so that you can get more pictures on your memory card, the very act of compression removes some data from each of your pictures. Because of this, JPEG files do not technically have the same high quality as RAW files, which use what is called “lossless compression”.

To make matters worse — and here’s the rub — every time you resave a JPEG file, you risk recompressing it, which can make your pictures look even worse.

It’s these frustrations with JPEG’s “lossy compression” that have led most professional photographers to the RAW file format. But this relatively new format is not without its own drawbacks, which is why it is still not universally accepted and, therefore, still rarely used by amateur and hobbyist photographers today.

The main issue with RAW is that there is currently no standardization or even agreement among camera manufacturers, or even among camera models from the same manufacturer, on its technical specification. Yes, there are essentially two flavors: uncompressed and “virtually lossless”, which contains minimal compression, but Nikon uses the NEF extension, Canon uses the CR2 extension, and Olympus uses the ORF extension. Adobe Systems is marketing a RAW standard called DNG (Digital Negative), and they provide a free converter for both Windows and Macintosh users which converts camera RAW files from various camera manufacturers into DNG files. However, you still need to invest in a software program that supports this file format in order for it to be usable. Conveniently, Adobe also sells Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Lightroom, which use the DNG file format.

So, what file format do I recommend that you use? Well, if you’re doing a lot of photo editing, you may wish to investigate working with your camera’s RAW format or the DNG format. Otherwise, I’d advise you to continue to use JPEG and to wait until a clear RAW standard emerges.

If you’d like to read more about JPEG versus RAW, this article on fotohacker.com provides a good summary from the perspective of someone who uses RAW exclusively.

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“Blue Windows”
© Copyright Rafa Torcida

I know it’s important to you that you want to show off your favorite photos with the world here on Photobird.com; but on the other hand, you also have some photos that you’d like to keep private, such as family photos.

Fortunately, it’s really easy to do both on Photobird.com.

One of the best things about your Photobird photo albums is that they remain private until you tell people about them. When you sign up for a Photobird account, you are the only person who knows about it. We don’t tell anyone, and no one can find your photo album. But the whole reason why your photos are on Photobird.com is to share them with someone.

Here’s how people will find your photos on Photobird.com:

• Tell your friends and family. When you tell your friends and family about your photo album, they will know where it is and how to find it.
• Post links on websites, blogs, and forums. If you, your friends, or your family post links to your photo album or one of your photos on another website, blog, forum, or somewhere else online, other people who you may not know will be able to visit your photo album.
• Submit photos for the Photobird Photo of the Hour. If you submit some of your photos for the Photobird Photo of the Hour and your photos are selected by us, then when just one of your photos is shown on the Photobird Look at Pictures page, all of your photos displayed in your Photobird photo album will be available to anyone who visits Photobird.com. More information about submitting your photos for the Photo of the Hour is here.
• Search on Google and other search engines. If your photos are shown on the Look at Pictures page, Google and the other search engines will find them too. Then, when someone searches on your name or a word in one of your photos’ titles or descriptions, it’s quite possible that they will find your photo album on Photobird.

Some people definitely appreciate the exposure provided by the Photo of the Hour and People, Places and Things. They want as many people as possible to see their photos.

If you want to keep your photo albums private, that’s the easiest thing to do because you don’t need to do anything special to keep your photo albums private on Photobird.com.

If you want a combination of the two — show off your favorite photos, but keep some other photos private — here’s how easy it is to do both without sacrificing the privacy of your private photos:

1. Make an album called “family”, “private”, or anything you want. Just be aware that even if an album is hidden, people can still guess the name and see the album, so be creative.
2. Make the album hidden. Click the Edit Album Options button and check the “Do not display…” checkbox.
3. Put all of your private photos in this hidden album. You can even create more albums within this album and they will all be hidden.
4. If you want extra protection on this private album, you can require that people enter a password to see the album; you can set this up easily in Edit Album Options.
5. Then, create all of your public albums, the ones you want the world to see, at the main, top level of your album, just like you already have.

Here’s one example. You may have already seen my photo album located at http://photobird.com/ekrimen/ . But what you don’t see there is an album called Florida. It’s there. It’s just hidden; it’s not displayed in my album. Your hidden albums will be similar. No one will know about it unless you tell them (or they guess correctly; if you think they may be able to guess it, then put a password on it or choose a name they can’t guess). You can see my Florida album at http://photobird.com/ekrimen/florida. It even has an easy-to-remember direct link, just like your other albums that aren’t hidden.

The beauty of having your photos on Photobird is that you can easily set up which photo albums are public, which are hidden without passwords, which are hidden with passwords, and to make things even easier, you can put all of your hidden albums without passwords inside one album, and your hidden albums with passwords inside another album. Or multiple albums of each. There’s no limit. If you decide you want to add or remove a password within one of those hidden albums, that’s easy too: Just click on the album you want to change and click the Edit Album Options button to add or remove the password, regardless of where the album is located.

We’ve made this easy for you because we know it’s important to you. We like things to be really easy too!

Please let us know in the comments below or contact us directly if you have any questions about this functionality or anything on Photobird.com. We’re happy to help!

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Photo © Copyright Jim M. Goldstein

Looking at Jim Goldstein’s series of photographs of the Sutro Tower, one is immediately reminded of Claude Monet’s famous series of paintings of haystacks, which captured different types of light across different seasons and at different times of day.

Monet painted these haystacks over 100 years ago in Giverny, France, but what Monet knew then is the same thing professional photographers know today: It really is all about the light.

To underscore this point, Jim took photographs of the Sutro Tower from a chosen point throughout the day. Jim includes an animated time-lapse of the tower taken throughout the day. The Sutro Tower is a giant telecommunications tower which is prominent in San Francisco’s western skyline, and despite complaints from locals, it has become something of a city landmark, whenever it can be spotted poking through the fog that rolls over Mount Sutro on most days.

Akin to what we discussed when talking about one of Michael Reichmann’s essays, “The Art of Photography”, found in the Photobird Learning Center, Jim concludes that the best landscape photography occurs during the “Magic Hour”, that time just before and after sunrise and sunset each day when the light is warmer and less direct.

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Photo © Copyright Cat Gennaro

If you are fascinated by sharks and would like to learn more about how to photograph them, underwater photographer Cat Gennaro says that even ordinary people can photograph sharks on shark-touring expeditions. Popphoto.com has an introductory article featuring Cat Gennaro and I’ve summarized the tips below.

1. Pick a location friendly for novices. Fortunately, two of the best places to photograph sharks are close to the U.S., according to Cat Gennaro. Cold-water species such as great whites can be found at Isla de Guadalupe, which is 210 miles from San Diego. (The article at Popphoto.com incorrectly identifies the location as Guadeloupe, which is in the Caribbean.) Warm-water species such as tiger sharks and lemon sharks can be found at Tiger Beach off of Grand Bahama Island.

2. Book your trip with a professional touring company. Cat Gennaro recommends San Diego Shark Diving Expeditions at www.sdsharkdiving.com for Guadalupe and The Dream Team at www.sharkexpedition.com of West Palm Beach, Florida for excursions to Tiger Beach.

3. No flash needed near the surface. Down to 10 feet under water, there is usually enough light so a flash isn’t needed. You’ll definitely need a flash below 20 feet.

4. Use a wide-angle lens. Cat Gennaro usually shoots with a 24mm lens, autofocus, and 200 to 400 ISO. She also recommends putting your camera a bit outside the cage so that you don’t see the bars in the photo.

5. Keep both eyes open. Cat Gennaro says that if you decide to dive without a cage, don’t turn your back to the sharks. “Tiger sharks are pretty docile, but great whites are ambush predators. Put your back up against the wall or go with a safety diver” she advises. Sounds like it’s a good idea to also keep your eyes open in back of your head!

I haven’t yet photographed underwater — let alone with sharks — but I would highly recommend that if you photograph great white sharks that you choose to go inside the cage and go with a safety diver and put your back up against the wall. You don’t want an opportunity to shoot photos from inside the shark!

Good luck!

For more underwater photography tips, read the Photobird Daily article “Underwater Photography Tips“.

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“Golden Glory”
© Copyright Vicki Tinnon

I really like this stunning photo of a gorgeous, majestic golden eagle by Vicki Tinnon. It’s one of the many beautiful photos that Vicki Tinnon has submitted for the Photobird Photo of the Hour. You can see more of Vicki Tinnon’s inspiring photos in her Photobird photo album at photobird.com/vickitinnon. Vicki Tinnon won the Photobird Award for the Photobird Photo Contest for May 2008 with her photo “Moving In“.

Photobird.com is the easy way to share your photos. You capture and share so many great photos on Photobird.com that we created the Photo of the Hour feature to give you the opportunity to share your very best with the rest of the world.

It’s really easy to submit your favorite photos to be featured on the Photobird Photo of the Hour: Simply view the photo from your photo album and click the “Submit for Photo of the Hour” checkbox. There is no limit to the number of photos you can submit and we always like to get new submissions.

In return for each photo we use on the Photo of the Hour or People Places and Things, you get more storage space for your photo album so you can store more photos. Details are here.

If you’d like to keep some of your photos private while you share your favorite photos with the world, you can read how easy it is to do that with Photobird photo albums in our Photobird Daily article entitled “Show Off Your Photos, and Keep Some Private“.

~•~

See more great photos and photography articles in the Photobird Daily.

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“Just Ducky”
© Copyright John Maher

Many good things come in threes. Three’s Company. The Three Stooges. The Three Musketeers. And of course, one of photography’s most popular composition concepts, the Rule of Thirds. These three ducks are staying together in the photo shown above entitled “Just Ducky” by John Maher, winner of the Photobird Award for the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2007.

“Three” is the theme of the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Three” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

~•~

See more great photos and photography articles in the Photobird Daily.

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“Two Rainbows” © Copyright Ramon Prince

Thank you to everyone who entered the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009! The theme for June was “Two”. Thirty-two photos were entered into the contest and we had a wide range of photo subjects shown in twos. There were brothers, friends, a lot of birds, frogs, a mother and child, a couple of monks, a couple in love, a couple made for each other, and lovebirds on the beach.

Congratulations to Ramon Prince, winner of the Photobird Award with the photo “Two Rainbows” shown above. I wrote about the photo a couple of weeks ago. I like the beautiful sunlight on the rocks, the rich saturation of the colors in the photo, and of course the rarely seen and even more rarely captured double rainbow. Click the photo above to see a larger version.

Congratulations to Chanchal Ghosh, winner of the People’s Choice Award with the photo “Butterfly“. I wrote about this photo a week ago and I like the vibrant colors and the sharpness of the butterflies in the photo. I also like that the colors are very earthy: greens and browns, especially the very rich browns of the butterflies.

Ramon and Chanchal will each receive the following prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Congratulations again to both winners!

“One” was the theme for May. “Two” was the theme for June. Guess what’s the theme for July! Yes, “Three” is the theme for the Photobird Photo Contest for July 2009. The Photobird Photo Contest is free to enter, so be sure to get your entry in and have your friends vote on their favorite photos before month’s end.

For more information about the contest, please check out the details here.

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Photo © Copyright Michael Van Auken

The text and photo in this article are excerpted from The Art of People Photography by Bambi Cantrell and Skip Cohen. Copyright © 2007 by Bambi Cantrell and Skip Cohen. Reprinted by permission of Amphoto Books, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications. All rights reserved.

To read more about this book, read the article in the Photobird Daily entitled “The Art of People Photography“.

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Posing Basics

Position your subjects so that they create pyramid shapes or triangles. Put people in small clusters. Stay away from the firing-squad approach (everyone standing straight in a row). And, don’t be afraid to leave a little space between your subjects.

If any of the subjects are to be seated, the art of communication is critical; you’re not just a photographer any longer, you’ve graduated to director. You want to make sure your subjects don’t sit flat on their backside. Instead, have them turn or shift so that they sit on their bottom thigh (more on their side than on their bottom) and have them lean forward, toward you, so that the majority of their weight is behind them.

If your subjects are standing, have them turn approximately 45 degrees away from the camera, separate their feet, and push their front hip away from you while turning the front foot toward the camera.

Remember, you can always break the rules, providing you understand them up front. For example, there may be times when you’re going to set up a “group hug” and create the infamous bunch-of-grapes pose, perfect for a message that screams “We love you, Grandma!”

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The text and photo in this article are excerpted from The Art of People Photography by Bambi Cantrell and Skip Cohen. Copyright © 2007 by Bambi Cantrell and Skip Cohen. Reprinted by permission of Amphoto Books, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications. All rights reserved.

To read more about this book, read the article in the Photobird Daily entitled “The Art of People Photography“.

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Before you buy The Art of People Photography or anything else on Amazon.com, please click one of our links to Amazon.com on this page or anywhere on Photobird.com. For each product you buy after your click, we receive a small referral fee, at no additional cost to you. Your clicks and purchases allow us to continue to publish the Photobird Daily and the Photobird Learning Center. Thank you for your support!

~•~

“Lazy-Spud”
© Copyright Mike Saunders

Elizabeth West has written an excellent article on photodoto.com about how to get good pictures of your pets. Pets are often challenging subjects to photograph and these tips will help you document the unique and playful personalities of your dogs, cats, birds, goldfish, and other members of your family.

So here then are Elizabeth’s top ten tips:

1. Be patient. Pets aren’t likely to “strike a pose”.
2. Try to capture a characteristic action or activity. I suppose this would be “sleeping” if you own a cat.
3. Get on the same level. Unless your pet is a horse or giraffe, this means you’ll need to crouch or sit down.
4. Fill the frame with your pet. A good use of that telephoto lens you purchased.
5. Don’t ignore the background. Just like composing any good shot, eliminate distracting background items and avoid mergers.
6. Try for natural light. Flash will upset kitty and kitty likes to bite!
7. Use a fast shutter speed. Elizabeth recommends 250 (1/250 second), or “sports” or “action” mode if available on your camera.
8. Aim for the eyes. They say eyes are the gateway to the soul and, yes, it’s true, all dogs go to heaven.
9. Overexpose a bit. Adjust the exposure depending on the available light and the color of the animal’s fur.
10. Include people in the shots. Family members interacting with pets can bring out the best in both subjects.

Be sure to read the full article for more details. Interestingly, most of Elizabeth’s tips apply just as well to photographing people.

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“Tuzgölü”
© Copyright Laszlo Nemeth

There’s only 5 days remaining until the end of the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009 with the theme “Two”. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

I like this artistic photo shown above entitled “Tuzgölü” that was entered into the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009 by Laszlo Nemeth. This photo has a lot of good things in it. I like the horizon line at the top of the Rule of Thirds. I like the relative clarity of the foreground, where you can see the texture of the sand — or salt. The two people in the distance give a very nice perspective to the photo. I like how the sky imitates the color of the water that would be in the lake if the lake had water in it.

If I’m not mistaken, my keen Google skills and my rusty Turkish (I don’t know any) tell me that Tuzgölü is a salt lake in Turkey in or near Ankara. “Tuzgölü” may even be the literal translation for “salt lake”. Hey, according to this Wikipedia entry, it looks like I’m correct!

Laszlo Nemeth won the People’s Choice Award for the Photobird Photo Contest for February 2008 with the photo entitled “Morning at the lake“, another great photo of a lake.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Two” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

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“A Partial Eclipse Over Manila Bay”
© Copyright Fermin Naelga, Jr. and Dr. Armando Lee

One of the reasons I really like the Astronomy Picture of the Day is that I get to see stunning photos of extraordinary celestial events such as the photo shown above entitled “A Partial Eclipse Over Manila Bay” by Fermin Naelga, Jr. and Dr. Armando Lee. Click the photo above to see a larger version.

Viewing partial eclipses through photographs seems like one of the best ways to view these experiences because observing partial solar eclipses with naked eyes can result in permanent eye damage and you won’t even know your eyes are damaged until several hours later. More information on viewing solar eclipses safely is here and details on why precautions are needed is here. You can find details on how to photograph solar eclipses at MrEclipse.com.

I’ve written before about the Astronomy Picture of the Day and if you like this photo, I think you’ll also like the others listed below. Be sure to click the photos to see larger versions.

• Lenticular Clouds Above Washington
• A Lenticular Cloud Over New Zealand
• Lick Observatory Moonrise
• A Sun Pillar Over North Carolina
• L.A. Never Looked So Good
• From Moonrise to Sunset
• Planets Ahoy!
• Astronomy Picture of the Day

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“Golden Gate Bridge with cruise ship”
© Copyright Ed Krimen

Traveling to far off and distant lands is always exciting. So is traveling to nearby locales within a few hours’ drive. In both cases, it’s important to make sure you and your camera are set and ready to go. But it’s most important to make sure you are ready because your camera can’t take great photos without you. Remember, the photographer takes the great photos, not the camera.

Kodak has a good list of vacation photography tips on their website. Most of their tips are on track, and I have a few other important reminders I’ve interspersed below. I’ve also reordered the tips in more of a priority order.

1. Do your homework. Research where you’re going and learn about local events, landmarks, cultures, and traits that make your destination unique, such as this photo shown above I took of the “Golden Gate Bridge with cruise ship“. Also, learn the features of your camera and bring your camera manual with you. Even if you’ve already read it, you might want to look something up if you have a question about a feature.

2. Always carry your camera. That’s the easy one! You can’t take pictures if you don’t have your camera. Also make sure your memory cards are empty before you venture out for the day and make sure your batteries are fully charged by the morning.

3. Take lots of pictures. And only show the best ones to family and friends. Professional photographers often take thousands of photos a day and only select a handful as their favorites. Read more in the Photobird Daily article “Shoot Lots of Photos!“

4. Protect your gear. As Kodak advises, “Sand, water, snow, and heat are your camera’s worst enemies.” If your camera gets wet, check out the Photobird Daily article “Help, I Wet My Camera!“

5. Tell a story. Capture your departure, your return, and the details and emotions of your trip. Carry a small notebook to jot down quick details. I’ve written before about how it’s important to tell stories with your photos; read the Photobird Daily article “Make Your Photos Tell a Story“.

6. Capture the local flavor. Unique items make great pictures. Keep an eye out for things you and the folks back home don’t see every day.

7. Create a photo menu. Take pictures of your meals, especially the unusual foods. Similar to #5 above, you can even shoot “before” and “after” photos. Make sure you get close-ups of the food. Read “Easy Tips for Photographing Food” in the Photobird Daily. Natural light is best for your food photos. In restaurants, try to sit by the window so you can use the natural light for your photos.

8. Look for common themes. That should come naturally to you as you’ll usually visit only the places you are interested in, such as museums, gardens, and beaches.

9. Accessorize. Or not. Kodak suggests that you consider using wide-angle and telephoto lenses when necessary. If you’re an aspiring professional photographer, go ahead and use multiple lenses. But for most photo opportunities, your point-and-shoot camera should be fine. Carrying around a lot of gear may take the pleasure out of your vacation and make it seem more like work. Ken Rockwell, a professional photographer, is able to shoot gorgeous photos with point-and-shoot cameras. Read more in the Photobird Daily article “How to Shoot with a Point-and-Shoot Camera“.

10. Have fun. You’re on vacation, not a professional photo shoot. Take candid photos and try not to force your subjects to pose too much. Let them relax and pose naturally. Enjoy your vacation!

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The top 10 list for the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers page is below. This week’s list and the list from two weeks ago are shown. Click on any of the links to go to the Amazon.com page for that camera to read reviews and to obtain more details on each camera.

This week:

1. Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS (Blue) – $180
2. Canon PowerShot SX10 IS – $360
3. Canon Rebel XSi – $688
4. Canon PowerShot A1000 IS (Grey) – $140
5. Canon Rebel T1i – $832
6. Canon PowerShot SD890 IS – $199
7. Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (Black) – $245
8. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S – $215
9. Canon PowerShot A1000 IS (Brown) – $130
10. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 (Black) – $210

Two weeks ago:

1. Canon PowerShot A1000 IS (Grey) – $133
2. Canon PowerShot SD880 IS (Silver) – $288
3. Canon PowerShot SX10 IS – $370
4. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5A – $213
5. Canon PowerShot G10 – $449
6. Canon PowerShot SD890 IS – $199
7. Canon Rebel XSi – $699
8. Canon PowerShot SX110 IS – $224
9. Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (Black) – $239
10. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28K (Black) – $299

There’s a lot of shuffling going on at the top of the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers list. For many months, the Canon PowerShot A590 IS compact digital camera was in first place. Then, for at least 6 weeks, the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS tiny digital camera in blue was in first place, just as it is this week. But in the past few weeks, both the Canon PowerShot SD880 IS in silver and the Canon PowerShot A1000 IS in grey have been in the number one spots. Overall, prices for all of the cameras seem to be the same or slightly higher this week compared with two weeks ago.

Canon is still holding most of the top 10 spots on the Amazon.com Digital Camera Best Sellers list. This week, Canon holds 8 of the top 10 spots. Usually they hold at least 7. I’ve never seen them with less than 6. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 in black are the only two cameras in the top 10 list this week that are not Canon cameras.

Before you buy a Canon digital camera or anything else on Amazon.com, please click one of our links to Amazon.com on this page or anywhere on Photobird.com. For each product you buy after your click, we receive a small referral fee, at no additional cost to you. Your clicks and purchases allow us to continue to publish the Photobird Daily and the Photobird Learning Center. Thank you for your support!

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Photo © Copyright Stobist

When you sell something online, it’s important to make the item’s description both visually appealing and informative. If the item looks its best, potential buyers will dramatically increase the number of bids and the final selling price of your item. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, nothing says “Buy now!” more than a well-lit macro shot of the item you intend to sell.

The best way to get a beautifully lit photograph of your item is by creating your very own macro photo studio. Sounds highfalutin and expensive, you say. Nonsense, says I: Check out this article on the Strobist where David has constructed his very own macro photo studio for less than $10 using a recycled 12 x 12 x 12-inch box and some tissue paper.

The photo of the flower and vase shown above was shot with the simple set-up shown below. As you can see in the photo, David used an off-camera flash to light up his shot, but you can also use worklights, such as those sold at home improvement stores.

Photo © Copyright Stobist

Once your box is built, you’ll have a lot of control over the light. You can easily stop reflections, add or remove definition, and have a nice seamless top to bottom background, known in the biz as an “infinity sweep”. Be sure to read David’s article for complete details.

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“Butterfly”
© Copyright Chanchal Ghosh

There’s only 1 week remaining until the end of the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009 with the theme “Two”. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends June 30, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The photo shown above entitled “Butterfly” was entered into the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009 by Chanchal Ghosh. I like the vibrant colors and the sharpness of the photo. The colors are very earthy: greens and browns, especially the very rich browns of the butterflies. I like how the main butterfly, front and center, has a pronounced texture to its wings. It appears very tangible in this photo. The short depth of field with the blurred background really makes the butterflies stand out.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Two” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

~•~

See more great photos and photography articles in the Photobird Daily.

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“Are You Nuts”
© Copyright Vicki Tinnon

This is a cute photo shown above entitled “Are You Nuts” by Vicki Tinnon, taken on the campus at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska. Vicki Tinnon submitted the photo for the Photobird Photo of the Hour.

Is the squirrel posing, or is it admiring the camera Vicki Tinnon is holding, thinking it’s actually a really large nut?

What’s quicker than a hungry squirrel with lunch in its mouth? Vicki Tinnon’s shutter button trigger finger. Click the photo to see a larger version.

You can see more of Vicki Tinnon’s Nebraska photos in her “Nebraska Life” photo album on Photobird.com and more of her beautiful photos in her Photobird photo album at photobird.com/vickitinnon. Vicki Tinnon won the Photobird Award for the Photobird Photo Contest for May 2008 with her photo “Moving In“.

Photobird.com is the easy way to share your photos. You capture and share so many great photos on Photobird.com that we created the Photo of the Hour feature to give you the opportunity to share your very best with the rest of the world. You can see the Photo of the Hour on the Photobird.com home page and on the Look at Pictures page.

It’s really easy to submit your favorite photos to be featured on the Photobird Photo of the Hour: Simply view the photo from your photo album and click the “Submit for Photo of the Hour” checkbox. There is no limit to the number of photos you can submit and we always like to get new submissions.

In return for each photo we use on the Photo of the Hour or People Places and Things, you get more storage space for your photo album so you can store more photos. Details are here.

If you’d like to keep some of your photos private while you share your favorite photos with the world, you can read how easy it is to do that with Photobird photo albums in our Photobird Daily article entitled “Show Off Your Photos, and Keep Some Private“.

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“Auroral Explosion”
© Copyright Ben Hattenbach

Auroras make for stunning photographs. I imagine that auroras are even more incredible when viewed in person. But what’s the best way to photograph auroras? Ben Hattenbach wrote a detailed article on The Luminous Landscape website that describes how he photographed the Aurora Borealis during “nine chilly nights” in the Alaska wilderness.

He also has some good anecdotes about how his photography equipment fared in the freezing cold: “On this trip to Alaska, the nighttime temperatures in the mountains I was exploring normally ranged between -20 ^oF (-29 ^oC) and -40 ^oF (-40 ^oC), conditions that the locals dismissed as mere ‘t-shirt weather.’”

I recommend you read the entire article for all the details, but here’s a quick summary:

Where in Alaska Can One Find an Aurora? Destination: Fairbanks. Ben Hattenbach describes three different locations within about 60 miles of the city, with Clearly Summit along the Steese Highway being only 20 miles from town.

When is the Aurora Best Viewed? Late February and March when the Alaskan skies are the most clear, and between midnight and 2am when the aurorae are most intense.

What’s the Best Way to Photograph the Aurora? Ben Hattenbach explains: “Capture the aurora’s lines and structure, together with some landscape for context.” A sturdy tripod is a must. A fast wide-angle lens is optimal, on a DSLR that produces photos at high ISOs with little or no noise. His suggestions for camera settings include:

• Manually prefocus at infinity.
• Use the largest lens aperture available, preferably f2.8 or below.
• Choose the highest ISO with which your camera will provide reasonably good quality photos.
• Set your exposure time manually and keep it as short as possible.

Read Ben Hattenbach’s article for more details and more amazing aurora photos.

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Photo © Copyright Photoflex

While most of us are just happy eating food (and nervously counting calories), there are those out there who must shoot the food. And, no, we’re not talking about wild game hunters; we’re talking about the photographers who, armed with digital SLR cameras, make all those spreads look so darn appetizing in the magazines you peruse while waiting in the grocery store check-out line.

If you’ve ever wondered what goes into a food photo shoot or are interested yourself in food photography, be sure to check out “Shooting Food Shots At Home” from the Photoflex Lighting School.

Looks complicated, and obviously they’re trying to sell their expensive equipment. I must admit though: the food actually looks quite scrumptious. I like how they prepared it. Nevermind the lighting equipment. I’m going to the store right now to buy a melon baller!

Food for thought: Do you have a melon baller? How often do you use it? Do you feel that it enhances the flavor of the melon? I noticed Amazon has melon ballers for only $9!

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“Two Rainbows”
© Copyright Ramon Prince

Two weeks remain for the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009. Ramon Prince entered this stunning photo shown above entitled “Two Rainbows” from Moab, Utah. The color and saturation in the photo are amazing, as well as of course the rarely seen and even more rarely captured double rainbow.

“Two” is the theme of the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009. Enter the contest here. The contest is always free to enter and this month’s contest ends June 30, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

Photobird Photo Contest details:

• Free to enter. Enter your photo here.
• “Two” is the theme for this month’s contest.
• Your friends and family can vote for you. You can send them a reminder here.
• This month’s contest ends Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time.

The two winners for the Photobird Photo Contest for June 2009 will each receive the following cool prizes:

• Photobird account with 500MB storage space
• $50 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to buy anything on Amazon.com, such as:
  • memory card for your camera
  • photography book
  • tripod
  • adorable bunny slippers (with pose-able ears!)
  • 115-piece tool kit (with locking pliers!)
  • or use the $50 toward a new camera!

Read more details about the monthly contest here.

Every monthly Photobird Photo Contest has two winners. At the end of each month, we pick one winner for the Photobird Award, and we will tally your votes to determine the one winner for the People’s Choice Award.

See the previous contests and their photos at this link.

Go here to enter the contest. And be sure to have your family and friends vote for their favorite entries to help select the People’s Choice Award. (You can send them a quick little reminder here.)

~•~

See more great photos and photography articles in the Photobird Daily.

Sign up for the Photobird newsletter.

Visit Photobird.com, the easy way to share your photos.

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