Source: Personal experience, I take lots of pictures.
By Karen from Arnold, MO
If you have a camera, you can save lots of money by taking your own portraits. Here's one of my son when he turned 6 months. We didn't have the money to get professional photos taken, so I did my own session!
Make fine art from the most mundane objects! Here I photographed a common cheese grater, on a counter top in my kitchen. I can see this on a gallery wall.
Don't let photo ops go by unnoticed. One of my son's friends came by to show us his new car. He had just got back from Iraq the day before.
Why spend alot of $ at the photo studio when you can take pictures like this with your own camera! This is my 13 month old daughter Maggie Mildred. She loved sitting amongst all the wonderful flowers in this park. She really is the happiest baby I know!
Remember those photos many years ago where the subject was so far away you could barely tell who it was? Get your shot ready in your camera screen, then take a couple steps closer to your subject, making sure you still have the subject totally within the screen.
When going out to take photos, don't take the camera case with you. This is like putting up a "Steal me" sign. I use one of the soft padded containers people use as lunch boxes.
When you are on vacation, taking pictures of family/friends or just scenery you want to save, remove the memory card from your camera when going through the airport security check points and put it in your purse.
Camera memory cards can be misplaced easily or stolen. To insure return of a memory card, a person can make a computer business card with pertinent information regarding their name, address, phone number, email address, etc.
Usually I am ranting against the use of flash with digital pictures, and that flash should only be used for pictures of mother-in-law and police mugshots, with very few exceptions.
When taking pictures, watch the foreground. If you can place trees, branches or some other object in the front of the picture, it "frames" the photo. Also taking pictures before/after a storm gives you cloud formations, lightning effects, and taking pictures at the level of a kid (get on the floor!) is better than from up high.
Protect your camera from the rain, sand, and elements (at the beach, etc.) by putting it in a plastic bag such as a Ziploc bag.
Flash Over Exposed One Third. This photo was shot on program with the flash over-exposed by one third. This highlights the flowers.
Diffuse the flash on your camera with a coffee filter to soften the brightness. You can also try putting coffee filters over lights or lamps to lessen the harshness when taking indoor photos.