Jenny Marie Photography

Last night I was at a Twitter party and read tweet after tweet about people who had lost photos because of computer crashes, because of fires, because of hurricanes. The big question of the night was Do you back up your photos and how?

I have found the quickest and easiest way to back up photos and all importnat documents is on an external hard drive. When your computer crashes, and with all the millions of virus today it is almost a cerntainty that you will have a computer crash, your photos and documents will be safe because they are safley stored someplace other than your computer.

If a crisis arises and you need to quickly leave your home and you don't have time to unhook the computer and load it into the car. You can quickly unhook your external hard drive and go.

So don't be caught frantically trying to recover your precious photos or those important documents back them up.

Here is a link for My Book Essential External Hard Drive with lots of space for all your photos and documents

HOT DEAL! Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive only $89.99!

Photographing fireworks is not as hard as it sounds. With just a few simple tips you can take pictures just like the pros

1. Use a Tripod

            You need to secure your camera to something to avoid any movement during your shot. If you don't have one I recomended getting one before heading out.

QT-100 Compact Travel Tripod

2. Frame Your Shot

    One of the hardest parts of photographing fireworks is figuring out where to aim your camera.

           *Go early and scope out the area. You want to find a spot without any obstructions, such as trees buildings and lights

           *Think about your foreground you dont' want the tops of peoples heads or a big ugly sign in your photo.

3. Focal Length

    Make sure your camera is trained on the right part of the sky.

    This can be difficult if you are trying to zoom in for a tight shot. I like to zoom out and get a wider shot, you can always crop later to get that tighter shot.

4. Aperture

    Many people think you need a fast lens to capture the fireworks, but the opposite is true as the light that fireworks emit is quite bright. An aperture between f8 to f16 works best. I usually shoot around f11.

5. Shutter Speed

    This is probally the most important item to get correct. To capture fireworks you need a long exposure time since they are in motion. It is best to shoot in "bulb" mode. This gives you control to keep the shutter open as long as you would like.

          Using this technique you hit the shutter as the firework is about to explode and hold it open until it's finished (generally a couple of seconds)

6. ISO

    Shoot with the lowest ISO your camera will go to. ISO 100 is usually the best

7. Flash

    Turn it off, because of the distance and the effect you are going for you don't need the flash

Summer is one of my favorite times to get out and take photos. Here are a few tips I always keep in mind when I am out and about during the summer.

1. Always try and stand with the sun behind you, with your subject facing the sun. This allows the sun to work in place of your flash.

     * If you find your subject is squinting because of the sun. Have them close their eyes till you are ready to snap the photo. When you are ready count to three have them open their eyes on three as you press the shutter. Not only do you have open eyes but also you get a nice happy expression.

2. The best time of the day to take photos is first thing in the morning or early evening. The sun during the middle of the day is too bright and will cause your photos to be over-exposed

3. The most important tip of all is to just get out there and get to snapping those pictures, the more photos you take the better you will become

Have fun this summer and watch for more great summer photo tips

I have used randomed.org and have drawn a playing card, all you have to do to win the $5.00 is guess the correct card that was drawn. I have captured the screen with the time stamp so as to be fair and prove it was drawn before the contest began the date and time stamp is Timestamp: 2009-04-14 00:28:14 UTC

Here are the rules to be eligiable to win:

1. You must have a PayPal account

2. If you are not already a registered member of my site

    you must registar to to be eligiable.

3. Only one entry is allowed to be fair, since there is only

    52 possible choices. Respond here with your guess

                    (once you have registared)

This weeks photo challange is WINTER. I decided since the Ground Hog blessed us with a few more days of winter lets take advantage of it and get some cool photos of the winter in your area.

Here are two that I took sitting in my car waiting for the defroster to clear away the ice

Now lets see yours Post a link to your photo

I was taken by surprise the other day when a photographer friend of mine asked me what the little stick was on my keychain. They were referring to my USB Flash Drive.

I explained it was a small portable storage device that can be used in place of a zip disk or CD. It comes in many different sizes from 1GB to 65GB.

Once I explained that to them they ran out and got one to start transferring pictures on so they woud have them with them all the time to share whenever someone asked to see their work.

So I decided if there was one person who didn't know what a USB Flash Drive was there had to be others, So I decided I would have a contest and give one away.

One lucky winner (chosen by RANDOM.ORG) will recieve

The 4GB Travel Warrior USB Flash Drive

This give away runs until March 13th at 10pm

Recieve one entry for each item completed

1. Leave a comment on how you would use the Flash Drive

2. Join my blog - Make sure to leave a post telling me you joined

3. Follow me on Twitter http/twitter.com/JennyMariePhoto - Make sure to leave a post telling me you followed me

4. Retweet this contest @jennymariephoto is giving away a 4GB flashdrive http://tinyurl.com/avy8bf  Make sure to leave a post telling me you retweeted

Good Luck

This weeks photo challange is pets, Get out there and get on their level.

Leave a comment with a link to your favorite photo of your most loyal friend.

Please join this blog to recieve the weekly photo challange and to also recieve notice when new tips and tricks are posted

Here is my best friend, we were experiancing our first winter outside of Florida and the white stuff falling from the sky was very exciting

Here is how he deals with those real cold mornings

I look forward to seeing your favorite pet photo

All cameras are basically the same- They have a shutter that exposes light. Sure there is a difference in the technical ranges & latest technology, but a little knowledge can over come those two items.

The only difference between an average photo and an amazing photo is the photographer, not the camera.

Here are a few tips to make your photos amazing.

I. Read Your Camera’s Manual
Learn every feature and aspect of the camera you have you. You
will find your photos will go from blah to amazing when you
know how to use your camera properly

II. Take Your Camera With You Everywhere
Take photos of everything. Find something uninteresting and
find a way to make it interesting.

III. Practice In Manual Mode
Every camera has a manual mode. Take a photo in this mode
And then change the setting and take the picture again. This is
The best way to understand hot to manipulate light

IV. Make Every Photo Count
We have the ability thanks to digital cameras, to take thousands of pictures for very little money. So we snap away without even thinking about what is going on in the view finder. STOP!!! Think about your next photo, then take the time to make it amazing. By doing this you will start thinking like a photographer and your photos will improve.

V. Keep Only Your Best Photos
I take thousands of photos every time I set out to shoot, but I only show the very best ones which maybe only 10 -25 photos out of that thousand.

VI. Take Photos For You
You are your own client.