Capture the Moment!

Photography has been a passion of mine ever since I was about 12 years old. When I got my first camera, there was no such thing as digital photography. Remember film? You could only take about 36 pictures at a time, and you would have no idea how those pictures would turn out until you picked up the prints a few hours or days later.

Today, with digital cameras everywhere (even on your phone!!), you can take as many pictures as you want and view them instantly! Richard Koci Hernandez, an assistant professor of New Media at the University of California, Berkeley, estimated that there were approximately 380 billion photos taken in the year 2012.  And he predicted that there will be about 880 billion photos taken this year (2014). That’s a lot of pictures! Take a look at this page for more context on this subject.

Photography is so much more than just taking pictures. You’re taking a snapshot of that moment in time and freezing it forever.

Here are 5 tips on taking better pictures:

1) Always have your camera handy (even if it’s your phone camera). Sometimes, you only have seconds to capture the best shot ever, or even a simple memory you want to cherish forever.

My son (who was 3 at the time) told me he was going to put his drink in the back-seat cup-holder so I told him, “Ok, but make sure you keep your eye on the can so that it doesn’t spill.” I turned back to look and I caught him trying to lean forward as best as he could to put his eye on the can!

2) Snap away! You’re not limited to just 24 or 36 pictures on a roll of film anymore! The more pictures you take, the better your chances are of capturing that ONE shot that makes you go “WOW!”

3) Don’t always place your subject right-smack in the middle of the picture. Imagine a large tic-tac-toe grid across your camera viewfinder. When taking pictures, try to position your subject along any of those lines, or on any of the four intersecting points of those lines. This will make the picture look much more interesting.

4) If you have a DSLR camera, take the time to educate yourself on how to use it. Read the manual, take some classes, look up some YouTube videos on the basics on photography. Learn about ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

5) Most of us live in a fast paced world, where things are moving so quickly that we forget to stop and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us every day. Stop and smell the roses…then take a picture of it!

A note on Geotagging :

You should be aware that when using GPS enabled devices like smartphones to take pictures, there is a feature called geotagging which could store the geographical data from each picture on the picture itself. This means that you could take a picture of something random from inside your home, and someone who knows how to obtain this data could easily pinpoint your exact location at the time the photo was taken.

This feature is great for travelers who want to keep track of where in the world they have been to document their travels, but it can be a scary thing when it comes to personal pictures, pictures of kids, etc, especially since we share so much of our lives (and pictures) on social media nowadays. I prefer to have this feature turned off within my phone settings. Quite a few cameras also have this feature, so be sure to check your camera’s settings!

Happy clicking!

Char Ferrara
Account Manager