image credit: Fried Toast

For beginners and pros alike a photography group can be an excellent resource.  It’s a wonderful opportunity to share ideas, ask questions, practice new techniques and significantly accelerate your learning curve.

Recently a friend of mine, Jan, approached me about wanting to get a photography group started started and though I must admit that I have never personally started a photography group before, I was obviously happy to assist!  Jan is a local amateur photographer who has attended a few of my photography classes.  She is eager to learn all she can about photography and has brilliantly discovered early on what an important factor networking is in this industry.

Getting Started:

image credit: Weizhong

Every now and again I like to look back on the archives of DPS to see what we were publishing and what you as readers were reading this time last year.

Here’s what was hot in May 2008!

1. 9 Crazy Cross Eye 3D Photography Images and How to Make Them
2. “Does my butt look big in this?” – What Clothes to Wear in Portraits
3. Digital Photography Tips for Beginners
4. 10 Cameraphone Photographs that Rock
5. Understanding Layers in Photoshop
6. Microstock for Digital Photography Students – Make Money From Your Photography
7. 15 Fun Fabulous Fisheye Photos
8. 21 Tips for Amateur Wedding Photographers
9. DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers

…

Now that we can enjoy cameras with multi, mega-pixel resolution in their CCDs there is an indulgence and pictorial improvement denied us with earlier models: that is, the role of cropping.

There one single basic skill in photography that no amount of technical cleverness can overcome or bypass: the skill and art of composition — if you ain’t shot it right, no matter of dodging and shuffling can save it. Except for the thoughtful approach of cropping.

Even if you’re dissatisfied with the your efforts after the event, it may still be possible to not only save the shot but take it to higher levels of visual acclaim.

It’s all too easy to shoot a great shot, then a few days later, have second thoughts about its framing. Flaws like too much sky, an excess of picture at the sides or bottom of the picture are all too easy to let slip through. Often, in terms of pictures, less is preferable to more!

With almost any camera sold today the opportunity to crop or select a part of the image is inherent. The examples shown here were shot on three different cameras: a Nikon, a Fujifilm FinePix and a Casio.

Weekly Assignment

It was a challenge, but this week we finished the Ghetto Lighting + Reflector assignment. A lot of people rose to the challenge and it really paid off. We were able to select some really well done shots this week! Our winner this week was mpenarandaa‘s cat shot. This shot was taken using a LED reflected off of paper. You can also see a picture of the setup here. We liked this shot because of the fantastic clarity and the way that the cat is in partial darkness which created a nice sense of drama to the picture. Our first runner up was MissHK‘s light reading. The lighting was done by putting a piece of kitchen foil …

As a follow up to our recent post on Geotagging images and review of the Jobo PhotoGPS device I thought it’d be interesting to see how many of our readers actually do it.

Feel free to expand upon your vote in comments below.