I am out in Miami this week for a trade show but I am going to be out and about getting some great shots and writing up some articles about taking outdoor shots around the beach area. Just wanted to let you know we haven't fallen off the face of the earth and I will try to post some great shots from the area this week. Read More

One of the most useful and yet least understood tools in your digital arsenal is your camera's histogram. Learning how to properly use and understand your camera's histogram is the easiest way to vastly improve the amount of properly exposed photographs you take. In the past you had to use a light meter and then set your camera settings for the light reading. Modern digital cameras, including most point and shoot cameras, have an internal light meter and can display a graph ... Read More

If you haven't visited the L7Foto Flickr Group, we post regular assignments to help people have inspiration for taking different types of pictures.  This new assignment is for you to go out and take a picture where you live that shows something unique or special about your city and shows what winter in your city is like. Showing a tree covered in snow may be a pretty picture but it may not represent anything about where you live. In my entry, I am ... Read More

So you drove across town for a impromptu photo shoot and when you arrive you realize you forgot something as basic as your camera batteries or your tripod. For larger photo shoots, you should use something like our photographers checklists we have used before. Some people have asked for something simpler for those quicker spur-of-the-moment shoots. We have put together a page that you can print out, cut it into multiple pieces, laminate it, and have some quick-use checklists handy. If you laminate ... Read More

Here is another in our Mythbusting series. Today we answer the question "is using your camera in cold weather bad for your camera?" This origin of this myth is from anecdotal evidence of people having camera failures and other strange things being attributed to being used in the cold. Is this real, imagined, or a coincidence? Let's take a look inside this myth and find out what's really going on. Read More

In the first of our Mythbusting series we are going to look at a common myth that you should always use the lowest ISO number possible to get the best results This is based on the knowledge that the higher the ISO number you use, the more noise (digital artifacts) will be created in your image While this is certainly true, what we are going to examine in this article is wether or not you should always shoot in the lowest ISO ... Read More

With so many lens choices to choose from, how can you possible know what kind of lens to get and if it will do what you want? In this article we will walk you through the different features of standard lenses so that you can learn how to pick out the right lens for the type of shooting you do. Read More

While today's cameras do a pretty good job when in fully automatic mode, in order to make the most of your camera you should learn how to use your camera on the manual setting. To go full manual you will need to have an understanding of shutter speed, aperture settings, and ISO speed. In this article we will get you going and get you shooting like a pro. Read More

When done well, a photograph that has good control over the depth of field can add dramatically to the impact of the picture. When we are talking about depth of field, what we are referring to is a shot were the main subject of the picture is in sharp focus but other elements in the picture are blurred or out of focus. Two key terms to learn here are focal plane which is the area of the image that we want to ... Read More

This weekend I am shooting a small wedding in Anaheim in conjunction with Esquire Photography, and with 5 days to go before the shoot I thought it would be good to go through all the preparation that goes into a shoot like this. A wedding is very different than any other shoot as there are no re-takes, no reschedules, and you can't make any mistakes or miss any of the important shots. So how do you prepare for a wedding shoot? Simply ... Read More