Practical Photography

Photography is an expansive art form and includes many different aspects than just your normal portraiture, landscape or glamour photography many associate it with.

Professional and Amateur photographers commonly find them self’s favoring specific types of photography over others. While a professional photographer may work in photojournalism, an amateur may be particularly interested in Wild life Photography. I have but together a few of the common types of photography.

Photojournalism although enjoyed by the armatures this requires the photographer to shoot only the facts. Photojournalism pictures are often powerful images that engage the viewer with the news story. Which could include new and strange topics such as getting the first shots of a celebrities designer radiators before any one else.

Action Photography
This is a wide subject but the common type in this field is sports photography being one of the fastest and most exciting types of photography. The main aim of this is to capture the moment and movement this could be latest mobility equipment to the celebrations of a team wining a cup.

Glamour photography
Sometimes misrepresented when people think of this type of photography the aim of this is to capture the subject in suggestive poses that emphasize curves and shadows.

With so many Digital Cameras out their choosing the right one can be difficult so i thought i would list a few point to consider before you go out and buy, the first being;

Determine what you need

Consider thing such as:

• What do you need the camera for?
• What type of photography will you be doing? (portraits, landscapes, macro, sports)
• What level of experience do you have with cameras?
• What type of features are you looking for?
• What is your budget?

Megapixels are they important?

As many of you may see this feature is used mostly to sell the digital camera to you many people see companies offering high megapixels at low prices.

Most new cameras come now days with at least 5 megapixels which is efficient as the larger this goes the images become so large that they take up enormous amounts of space on memory cards and computers.

Accessible Extras

One thing to keep mind that I often find is that yes sure you may be able to find a nice cheap camera with decent features however what they don’t tell you about is the cost of the extras which can sometimes be near impossible to locate or buy and quiet often the case is something that you require including:

• Camera Case
• Memory Cards
• Battery Supply
• Lenses
• Filters
• Tripods/Monopods
• External Flashes
• Reflectors

A journey in a hot air balloon is the perfect way to get stunning photographs of places you love.

With its panoramic view and with being several thousand feet up in the air, you will have the chance to capture images of the ‘minature’ world below. You will be able to gaze at the beautiful countryside and villages as you carelessly float through the air.

Hot air balloon flights are not only a fantastic experience but the images that you can create from them can be turned into great postcards or even canvas prints that can be hung on your walls at home.

If you are more interested in capturing pictures of the balloons in action, then make sure that you attend hot air balloon festivals. Not only are they fun to watch but with them being so big, bright and beautiful they are also great to shoot too.

A lot of photographers like to capture the hot air balloon taking off. If this is you, make sure that you get to the event early so you can get in the best spot to capture the colours and shapes. For some of the best pictures, make sure that you capture balloons with funny designs and slogans. Try and capture the heating up process too which creates a mini firework display during its inflation.

Facebook is used by a lot of people these days to create social groups and invite friends and family to these special occasions. The day after, or even the same day, pictures from the event are sure to appear on Facebook, with people who were there ‘tagged’ for quick reference.

Facebook is not just popular with teenagers and young people in their twenties. Facebook has become extremely popular with mothers who can wax lyrical about their child to other mothers and comment on the joys (and otherwise) of parenting. These mothers take their digital cameras everywhere with them and every aspect of a child’s life can now be recorded and instantly uploaded, thanks to the wonders of modern technology. These parents can arrange these events online; from an invitation to a Baby Shower or Christening to a children’s Birthday party. Then later, comments are posted on each others’ ‘walls’ and this provides a great way for adults to interact with one another.

In fact, the number of adults using these social media websites is rapidly on the increase. For computer users, it’s certainly hard to avoid Facebook, which has about 175 million users who have returned to the site in the past month. Members keep in touch with friends and co-workers, get back in touch with old friends and colleagues, post photographs, link to things that interest them, and access a variety of networking tools.

Corporate gifts are your company’s way of showing how much your clients mean to you. The better the gift you give to clients to seal a deal, the more value they know you place on them. However, as we’re in the middle of recession you don’t want to end up spending large amounts of cash on corporate gifts, or blowing the company budget on days out, football tickets or holiday homes for your clients.

You don’t have to spend this much money though, as you can offer quality gifts without spending a lot of money. For example, you can create your own corporate gifts, customised to your company, by using photography.

Framed photo prints make excellent gifts that your clients will surely love. This will also offer a more personal gift that shows you have thought about your offering, rather than just thrown money at the subject and opted for the standard type of corporate business gift that many other companies would have gone for.

This will make great savings for your business, which in turn will help your company increase its profits.

Remember that even though the country is in recession, it’s still important to show your clients that you value them.

If you’re an amateur photographer, have you entered any photography competitions lately? If you’ve entered the latest contest by Sony, the Photography Awards, you’ll be excited to know that Sony has just released its shortlist for the finalists. 186 different photographers have made it to the final, hailing from 43 different countries.

Astrid Merget, the director of the final, stated:

The quality and level of photographers this year has risen greatly and we are thrilled to see many top names as well as excellent new talent on the shortlist. Every one of the shortlisted photographers should be very proud to have been recognised by such an esteemed jury.

The contest is made up of 12 different categories in 3 separate genres.

Everyone loves the iconic imagery of a Ferrari. The power, the beauty, the passion, even the price of a Ferrari tells you how special they are. Now a new photography exhibition in La Galleria in Pall Mall will showcase the most beautiful and iconic Ferrari images in the world, from photographer Peter Hall.

The exhibition marks the first public showing of Hall’s photos, who has only been photographing cars for the last three years. His collection of Ferrari photos features current cars, and historic Ferraris. The collection also includes photos of last year’s F1 car.

The Ferrari exhibition opens in March.

Milan has always been known for its fashion, beauty and classical imagery. It’s a chic place where the rich and famous love to hang out and a new exhibition in Milan celebrates all that is beautiful with photography.

The exhibition opens next week, and is sponsored by fashion guru Dolce & Gabbana. Jean Nouvel is the designer of the exhibition and it’s being curated by American Vogue.

Some eighty-nine images, showcasing beauty from the world of fashion magazines, has been put together with some luminaries from the photography world. Richard Avedon to Annie Leibovitz are among the iconic photographers being showcased in the Milan beauty exhibition.

I recently found myself in a branch of Currys Digital looking at cameras, as I do every few months, and felt the desire to buy one once again. Having not really experimented with photography since my University days, when I took photography as a side course along with film, I’ve been out of touch for a while. For example, I studied the art of developing film in the darkroom and making compositions using enlargers, not PhotoShop and a digital camera!

Anyhow, as much as the SLR cameras caught my interest, and the increasing number of long lenses looked enticing, I quickly realised that I really wanted the camera to photograph my friends on nights out, rather than to take long walks in the hillside photographing birds or other forms of wildlife. Therefore I had to discount the more expensive, professional looking cameras as you can’t take one of those to a club or bar, and indeed many places won’t let you enter as they look like professional cameras.

Instead I had to opt for a Sony Cybershot, which came in at under £200 and had a whopping 13 Mega Pixel capacity, which is more than enough to take the sort of actions shots I’m after, and will do fine for my own gallery of Facebook.

Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee have posed for a magazine in the style of Posh and Beck’s recent photoshoot.

The couple have obviously done it in jest but has recieved more attention than the original photograph. 50 year old Debbie looks fantastic but 70 year old Paul Daniels has left me cringing at the saggy pants, although I am releived he didn’t copy the most famous of David Beckhams Armani poses where he site full frontal leaving little to the imagination. For any girls who wish to be reminded of this see image… heterosexual boys look away…

I am pleased that Paul didn’t do this but really do find the image amusing and everyone is talking about it.