The summer months is usually a time when traveling and vacationing peak. There are dozens of places to visit and even more places to take interesting pictures. Because of the time of the year, some of the most visited places are parks. Outside attractions featuring water like Niagara Falls or on the other extreme, the Grand Canyon make for beautiful picture taking. But if you are strapped for cash, cannot go traveling for great pictures and are looking for more common attractions to photograph, let us consider things that you will probably see in your city for free.

There are more thunderstorms during the summer which can result in the most interesting pictures. After the storm is gone, if we are lucky enough to get a rainbow, the sky is filled with mixtures of all colors from the spectrum. Sounds picture perfect, right? Have you ever been outside and thought that it looked like something right from a postcard?

To take good pictures of the sun and/or moon, first make sure you have a full view of the object in the camera and try to take it from a high angle if you can. If it is too bright, the sun/moon does not have to be right in the middle. Shooting off center can make really nice silhouettes of the surrounding objects in the picture and give more attention to other things in the photograph. Be creative, a picture of it reflecting off of water or something similar would be nice.

I travel a lot. I know, much like everyone else, that traveling with a camera isn’t easy. There is a lot of logistics involved in travel space is always a concern. Small cameras take a lot of abuse, and large cameras take up a lot of space. I’ve compiled a few points in helping make traveling with cameras easier.

1. Figure out the setting you’ll be in. Traveling in India, I knew bringing cleaning equipment is crucial. Sand ruins cameras, and desert really brings that. Wet weather means more protection around digitals. Figure out the surroundings and pack protection for your camera accordingly, it’ll pay off in the end.

2. Pack your camera carefully. Some X-ray machines are very harsh on film, and you have to be aware of that. They can expose film, before you ever get to use it. Smaller cameras can be carry-on material. Buy that leather case; make sure you have something to protect it. Pack bigger ones in luggage, try to pack between socks or in it’s own protective back, unhook lenses if you can, pack them in shoes.

3. Extras, Extras, Extras. Always pack more batteries than you need, consider getting a second Lithium-Ion. Extra memory cards, or film. I had a friend get to the Taj Mahal, and not have film. There is no feeling like that in the world. Be prepared for all those situations. 4 AA batteries, and 2 rolls of film hardly take any space. Most people travel with a backpack.

4. Camera Convenience. Don’t be overkill. Remember travel. If you’re not on a photography trip, Bring only what you need. The last thing you need is a huge camera strapped to your neck, and a lens bag. Most smaller cameras will take great pictures, and will be much more handy with a wrist strap.

Where there is a will there is a way and Andreas over at Krautwald has found a way to turn his mini MagLite into a difuse, photolamp.
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Sounds like a joke, right? Well, over at Grand Illusions they’ve explained exactly how to make a print on, yes, a geranium leaf. Here’s how it works:

The chlorophyll in healthy green leaves captures light and uses its energy to join together carbon dioxide and water. The result is the organic compound we call starch. It is the basis of much of the food we eat. Starch is white, but if you drop a small amount of a solution of iodine on it, the starch turns black. So that’s it really. All you have to do is get a plant to produce lots of starch in the right place, then stain the starch with iodine. Don’t let a few details prevent you starting straight away.

The tools and ingredients to produce your own leaf print are pretty basic, so it shouldn’t be hard to make one yourself. Here’s what the resulting leaf print looks like:

As you can see, this process doesn’t produce the most clear and detailed prints, but it’s still a pretty neat photo trick.

i-am-bored links through to an interesting piece by Girl Power on just what can be done to a model through retouching. Each step is highlighted and described along with a complete before and after sequence at the end.
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Craig Tanner, Mark Johnson, and Matthew Gibson have put together a wonderful online resource they call The Radiant Vista. In addition to some great tutorials on exposure and focus tricks, they also offer daily video critiques on photos sent in by visitors to the site. In the critiques I watched, they not only explain what works well in a photo, but also show how they would improve the image in Photoshop. Very neat.

The Radiant Vista appears to be a companion site to the workshops that the photographers give in various cities across the U.S., but there’s plenty there for anyone who hasn’t attended a workshop.

There’s a wealth of digital photography related information over at Norman Koren’s website. Norman comes from a 35mm pro photography background, but since 2005 he’s gone to using digital cameras only:

I used 35mm (Canon FD) equipment until March 2005, when I purchased the Canon EOS-10D. (I now use a 20D). I’ll never go back to a chemical color darkroom because it’s too messy and difficult to get the right color balance, but I’ve been tempted by black and white.

He’s taken what he’s learned and shared it all via his website. His tutorials and tips are broken down into sections like “Making fine prints in your digital darkroom” and “Color management”.

He also has an extensive gallery of his own photographs that he’s taken over the years. I particularly like his photos from a 2004 trip to India.

Making the rounds on del.icio.us/popular is an article from Kodak on taking better pictures. While I know most of our readers are highly trained professionals (or at least very passionate about photography) we all have people in our lives that could use a couple of tips.

So share this with your parents and your camera phone wielding friends and make the world a better place…

» Visit: Kodak’s Top 10 Tips for Great Pictures

Jesse Crouch has put together a fantastic article on what he calls “small budget photography.” If you only have a limited amount of money to spend on equipment and want to get the most out of your software, Jesse is here to help you out.

He focuses the article on four primary places where you can make your money go further: Cameras, Photoshop, Lighting, and Location. While Jesse’s section on Photoshop is pretty slim, he goes into great detail on the other three. For instance, instead of paying a big wad of cash for some professional lighting equipment, Jesse bought himself a worklight. Very clever!

To see how Jesse puts into practice what he preaches, check out his gallery and examples of how his images look before he post-processes them. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of such extensive post-processing in Photoshop, but the technique definitely has its fans. Whether I like his end results or not, I think Jesse has provided an excellent article on how you can get some fantastic photographic results without having to spend a whole bunch of money.