I’ve just introduced the Photography 101 Category to my blog. This category will be aimed at the beginning photographer or the photographer who wants to gain more insight into the field of photography.

This first article in the category addresses whether you need a UV protection filter or not on your camera lens.

This weeks Photography Book Review: Speedlights & Speedlites – Creative Flash Photography at Lightspeed.

We’ve moved our photo templates to Digital Sparkle. Come check us out. www.digitalsparkle.com!

Happy New Year to you! I hope that you had a safe and Happy New Year and that you set some good, achievable resolutions for 2012.

This is the first post of 2012 discussing special effect lighting with flash units. I briefly discuss special effect lighting and demonstrate how I used multiple flash units and gels to create a special effect photo for a client.

There are quite a few thousand photography books that will teach you how to light your subject and that discuss the basics of lighting, however, there is one book that I highly recommend and have personally purchased and given to my students; the book is the Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers by Christopher Grey [...]

Sometimes we need a good laugh. Here are 50 images I collected from the net that where photographed at the right moment. Enjoy!

Getting creative background lighting does not require expensive lighting tools. Read my latest blog on lighting a corporate portrait using two flash units, some Cinefoil, and colored gels.

It never fails, you’re out on a photo shoot, maybe photographing a wedding or a portrait session, and all of a sudden your camera stops working. Or worse yet, you drop your only camera. What do you do? I want to illustrate the need to always carry a back-up camera in your camera bag when [...]

Just knowing how to point the camera and take a “creative” photo is not enough to out compete the competition. I’ve put together 7 essential skills every aspiring photographer must possess in order to get to the “next level” of their photography business.

Using flash outdoors can be tricky, especially if you want to acheive a shallow depth of field by opening your aperture all the way. Learn what High-Speed Flash Sync is and how to use it to acheive a nice balance between fill-flash and shallow depth of field.

Ah ha! The camera has always been the culprit in capturing the spontaneous. Take a look at what I captured while driving around my city!

Getting back to the basics. This new posting is all about using a single Speedlight to capture a location portrait during the day, outdoors, and using your flash for fill-flash. I also explain a little about using a reflective bounce to further fill in the shadow areas of your subject.

Don’t forget to take my quick poll. I’m looking to get my readers/followers input on the type of content they want to see more of on the site. The poll is on the left side of the website, toward the middle.

Thank you!

Alyn Stafford

Here’s a post by guest contributing photographer, Stephen Cook on 12 tips about photography to live by.

Yes, I know the title says it’s a portrait of a magic man, but I couldn’t find a real magician, so I had to use my faithful assistant (portrait image below, right). But doesn’t he look like a magician? No really, he’s wearing black like a magician and that serious, menacing look on his face. [...]