Photo How To

As winter arrives, so do incredible photo opportunities. Photography is photography, but here are some things you should consider about shooting in wintertime.

1. Exposing Snow
Short-answer quiz: What color is snow? White, right? Well, in our mind's eye it is. In the real world, though, it can be white (in bright sun), gray or blue (in open shade), or even pink (if your...

Sun & Games Fun with the sun...and more

1. Sun Stars
Your wide-angle lens at its smallest aperture can turn the sun into a star in your photos—fitting, since the sun actually is a star. The effect occurs because the tiny aperture diffracts the incoming light rays a lot. This diffraction causes the star effect. You can include the sun as a compositional. Photo by...

Here are seven more ideas for some great shots this summer

1. Magic Moments
It's not just a summer thing, because a photographer should always be on the lookout for those intriguing sights of life being lived, but summer seems to produce more of them. Put your camera in full-auto mode, stay alert, and fire away when you come across something neat, be it people at work or...

Adding a filter or two to your camera bag is a quick and relatively inexpensive way to improve your photos

How can you tell if you need filters? Take this quick test: Do you take photographs? If the answer is yes, you very likely need some filters to get the best possible images. Here are some that can really improve many of your future photos.

Photos by Jack and Sue Drafahl

One of the most common bits of advice drummed into new photographers is "get closer to your subject!" In that context, it means that novice shooters generally shoot from too far away, so their subject is lost among all the other stuff in the...

All photos by Mike Stensvold unless otherwise stated.

It's probably true that real artists are born, not made. But there is a lot anyone can do to make his or her photographs more interesting, and the tips on these pages should help you improve yours.

Seeing is the fun part of...

If you enjoy photographing architectural details, chances are that you also love taking pictures of windows. As subjects, windows are plentiful, and they usually represent a particular style or character of the building that they inhabit. Whether it's an elaborate stained glass window of a church, or a...