Back to the Basics

Digital photography and the technology surrounding it have become welcome members of our modern, no-nonsense, drive-thru-venti-on-the-go society, but a couple of simple tricks can make your photos valued additions to your family’s favorite past-time.

Time is money - and visa versa. If you can plan far enough ahead, choose your equipment wisely. While I’m a fan of low-cost tools, there are some true values you might not want to overlook when considering a higher-end digital camera. One of the most valuable features of high-end camera equipment (that the average user can take advantage of from day one) is the faster photo capturing technology. We’re all familiar with the perfect shot, lost only to the blur of your subject moving from the frame too quickly at the last second. Well, higher-end cameras address this with a quicker response time and ultimately result in clear, crisp shots. Well worth the investment... if your budget can take the hit.

Flash Gordon - or not so much so. For the rest of us (the mere non-professional, household archivers), the perfect shot can still be captured with some creative habit forming. If you know that your camera is going to delay the shot, try buffering your warning a bit. As simple as this sounds, friends and family alike have pulled this trick on me a few times, resulting in a perfect, albeit surprisingly sneaky, shot. Try it this way: begin the countdown for the subjects of the picture with “3”...snap the photo, then say, “2, 1...” (adjusting for your camera’s time as needed). For those of you with painfully slow digital cameras, you can drop up to 2 seconds of wait time and gain significant clarity if you use the flash. Sometimes, it’s the simple things.

It’s in the shot - and you’re in it, too. So you’re quick like a ninja at snapping great shots, but are you stealthy like one, too? To get the best photos, become aware of your surroundings. Before you hold your camera up, take notice of the couple about to walk behind your subject. Simple, right? But what if they signal you that they’ll politely wait for you to take your shot? The pressure’s on now, and it may show in your photo. Next time, position yourself so that there’s an obvious route around you. Stay clear of doorways where others might rightfully ask you to move.

It’s clutter’s last stand. If your computer hard drive looks like your childhood closet, then now would be the time for a little cleanup. Try not to organize your photos by the date they were taken. Instead, organize them by events, such as weddings, vacations, seasonal gatherings, etc. This will make your life much, much easier when it comes time to share these memories. This also makes backing up your photos a lot easier. What? You haven’t backed up your photos yet? It’s time to get to it! Take an afternoon and save all of those photos you received through email to the newly-themed folders you’ve created. Working with emailed pictures can be a pain you don’t want to deal with, but so can losing them all-together! And although you may not be saved from a hard-drive crash, you’ll be better off, as retrieving photos from a crashed drive is often more reliable than repairing and restoring a damaged email account to retrieve them.

Nice picture - can I see it? All of these tips are well and good, but an unused photo is about as valuable as an untaken photo. Find fun ways to share your photos, and get to it. The faster you capture and share a moment, the faster you’re ready to capture and share the next one. Before you know it, your family will be huddled around the digital version of your photo album... just like when you were a kid.

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