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