Family Photography How To

Maybe it's cold outside . . . but it's a great time to take pictures!

Winter brings with it some great photo opportunities. In many areas winter means snowy landscapes and snow sports; in others, it's just a somewhat cooler and slightly wetter time of year. Here are some winter-oriented photo tips that should help you add some nice shots to your portfolio, and have some fun doing it.

Helpful hints for better people-pictures

1. Use the Best Focal Length
The best lens for portraits is more often than not a short telephoto—85-135mm for a 35mm camera. Why? Because short teles produce a good head size at a shooting distance that produces pleasant perspective. If you use a wide-angle lens, you have to move very close to your subject to get a good head...

It's nearly mid-September, so you know what that means. It means the Halloween paraphernalia has been on display at the supermarket for nearly a month already, and the kiddos are happily (?) back in the classroom, using interactive smartphone apps to track the days until Spring Break.

But more important, it means that we'll soon be enjoying Mother Nature's fall festival of fabulous foliage. Here is the prediction map you've been waiting for, courtesy of the wonderful folks at smokymountains.com.

Whether your strategy to beat this summer's heat involves the beach, the municipal pool or the backyard sprinkler, you can capture the fun with a waterproof, all-weather camera. Bonus— they're not just for summer. They also stand up to spring showers, wintry blizzards and the grubby hands of children.

It’s November, and that means retail stores and malls are shifting into end-of-year holiday decoration mode. Soon the red-suited elf will be shaking his bell outside the train station. Is it rushing the season? You be the judge. One thing we know for sure: it’s not too early to pick up a few new ways to give your holiday photos that extra sparkle.

Photographing flowers is a lot like cooking breakfast. Anyone can crack an egg, but can anybody eat the omelet without gagging? Here are seven brief but important tips every budding flower photographer should know.

Here are seven more ideas for some great shots this summer

1. Magic Moments
It's not just a summer thing, because a photographer should always be on the lookout for those intriguing sights of life being lived, but summer seems to produce more of them. Put your camera in full-auto mode, stay alert, and fire away when you come across something neat, be it people at work or...