If you want to learn to capture those brilliant beauties you can read How to Photograph Amazing Fireworks written last year.

Need more?

Here are some other great articles on photographing fireworks and capturing your Fourth of July!

Shooting Fireworks at Beyond Megapixels

How to Photograph Fireworks at About.com

100 Amazing Fireworks Photos at PopPhoto

Bonus!

Some fantastic fireworks photos from our readers. Enjoy and have a great weekend! I’m relaxing at a cabin, floating a river, and drinking some beer. Wish you were here.

Blue Flowers Just After Sunset by *Jo_Joe*

Within The Frame

This month’s Photography Book Club selection, as voted by you guys, is Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision (Voices That Matter).

Get your copy at Amazon today by clicking the link above. This one should be pretty good.

Don’t forget to vote for next month’s selection in the right sidebar poll. Remember that you can help to choose which photography books are reviewed on this website!

Understanding Close-Up Photography

A special thanks to the fine folks at Amphoto Books and Watson-Guptill Publications for providing this month’s Photography Book Club Selection Understanding Close-up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with or without a Macro Lens

Bryan Peterson challenges and inspires us to see close-up photography in new ways when we view it through his eyes. You’ve seen the dewdrops, but what about the dewdrops on a bird’s wing or raindrops on a car windshield? You’ve seen the bumblebees on vibrant flowers, but what about the fluid edge of just one petal or the colorful rusting metal at industrial sites? Even when Peterson does capture the more traditional subjects, it’s done in non traditional ways–and often with minimal specialized equipment! Most important, he moves beyond the commonplace to inspire new ways of getting close, using your lenses, and discovering unconventional subjects.

About the Author

Bryan Peterson is a professional photographer, an internationally known instructor, and the best-selling author of Understanding Exposure, Understanding Shutter Speed, Learning to See Creatively, Understanding Digital Photography, and Beyond Portraiture. In addition, he is the founder of the online photography school The Perfect Picture School of Photography. He lives in Chicago.

Breakdown

• Introduction
• Close-Up VS. Macro Photography
• Equipment
• Depth of Field & Aperture
• Close-Up Tips
• Up Close Indoors
• Appendices

Introduction

One of the longest introductions I’ve read in an instructional photography book this intro pays homage to the true love of close-up photography held by the author. Peterson always comes across as a genuine photographer who still shows passion for his work even after so many years in the industry. A true professional and teacher that inspires through great examples of wonderful photos and words, you get the sense that this type of photography is what really gets him going.

Close-Up VS. Macro Photography

You can actually look at this chapter as “Introduction part 2″ if you’d like. Peterson immediately dives into defining macro photography and why close-up photography encompasses macro but isn’t always macro photography. This is one of many areas where this photography book differs from most macro photography books and why macro isn’t in the name of the title.

Equipment

Macro, or close-Up photography, is probably one of the most specialized equipment filled genres of photography that there is. So of course an entire, and rather long, chapter is essential. Where Peterson excels is his creative use of many different and “not so specialized” equipment helps him produce wonderful close-up photography with equipment that many purists would scoff at. Everything from macro lenses and extension tubes to reflectors and ring flashes is covered including the use of wide angle lenses in close-up photography.

Depth of Field & Aperture

Close-up photography, especially the macro realm, requires a modified look at how depth of field and aperture relate to the subject and the camera. Exposure is discussed as well along with some creative use of lighting situations.

Close-Up Tips

Our author has long been renowned as a creative explorer in his profession and this chapter really encompasses that creativity. Discussions on how framing and texture can really add drama to your close-up pictures make this chapter complete.

Up Close Indoors

Most photographers think of close-up or macro photography as an outdoor sport. We tend to think of flowers, bees, and other nature inspired excursions. Bryan teaches us that creative control of indoor photography can really help push you to your creative edge.

Appendices

The appendices are actually an important read. Our author discusses the importance of the VR and IS in lenses and also goes into the mechanics and science of macro photography. This is the only part of the book that gets really technical but it’s important when one is discussing macro photography for the purposes of scientific study.

Conclusion

I have to admit that I’ve never really been a fan of “macro photography”. That was before I read this book and spent the last couple of days playing with “close-up photography”. The stark difference was the creative approach that Peterson takes with his writing and the wonderful examples throughout the book. In truth, I’ve done plenty of close-up photography in the past; wedding details, urban details, etc. In fact, some of my favorite wedding images have always been the close-up details, like flower arrangements, rings, and other jewelry. I think they really help to tell a more complete wedding story.

Now, as I work on fine art photography, I can see that the same attention to detail may help me to complete some of the stories I’ve been trying to tell.

I think the lessons and thoughts in this book could help many photographers look at “macro” or “close-up” photography in a different way as well. I like that it isn’t all about flowers and bugs and that there are many different ways to look at and capture close up photography.

This book isn’t a technical look into macro photography so if you’re aim is in the science realm then this book probably isn’t for you.

Understanding Close-Up Photography: Creative Close Encounters With or Without a Macro Lens can be purchased at Amphoto Books or at Amazon.

I really enjoyed this one in both black and white and in color but ultimately went with black and white.  The moodiness really seemed to resonate with me and I appreciated that these tanks had probably been here for many, many years.  Black and white can really add a timelessness and increased drama to images.

This image, while it isn’t one of my favorites, does a great job of showing the dreaminess and selective focus that the Lensbaby can produce.  The lines are okay and the composition is kinda meh, but there’s enough going on in the image to see where the focal point is and how the plane kinda bends in.

So anyone else have a Lensbaby and some images to share with the community?  Use the comments below to share!

Dedicated to Digital

Another great way to improve your skills is to read photography blogs.
These blogs will provide useful insight and lots of tricks to help
improve your photography skills. Following are seven of the best blogs
dedicated to digital photography.

Digital Photography
School – This site is great for beginners and advanced
photographers alike. You’ll find tutorials, blogs and galleries. You
can also sign up to receive an email newsletter. You’ll learn about
techniques and equipment from other photographers, and from the
professionals who blog on the site. This is probably the most highly
ranked and read blog on digital photography.

Photopreneur – This is a
great blog and news site for photographers. You’ll get industry news
along with photography tips and tricks. They cater to the professional
photographer and the amateur trying to make the most of his digital
camera.

Photodoto – A great site for
anyone with a digital camera – amateur and professional alike. You can
share your photos and learn how to take better ones. You’ll also get
plenty of news from the photography world. You’ll find some very good
equipment reviews on this site, as well.

Complete
Digital Photography – Lots of great blogs, tutorials and equipment
reviews. There are also great tips for specific photography situations
- like how to photograph the Grand Canyon! This is a great site,
whether you’ve just purchased your first digital camera, or you’ve
been shooting digitally for years.

Digital Photography
Blogs – A site dedicated to blogs and articles about digital
photography. This site literally has something new every day. You’re
sure to enjoy reading all the great articles. Subscribe to their RSS
feed so that you don’t miss any of their posts.

Motivation -
Photographer Howard Grill’s blog, designed to inspire and motivate
other photographers. Grill is a self taught photographer and he has
great experience to share. His photographs have been featured in
several museums.

Photonovice – This is a
great blog that includes photos from famous photographers and amateurs
alike. You’ll find plenty of inspiration along with practical tips and
tricks on this site. This is a particularly good blog for helping you
pick out the best new equipment. I also like this blog for helping to
find other niche blogs.

As you can see, there are many blogs and sites dedicated to digital
photography. Most of them have RSS feeds, so you can see the most
recent posts as they happen. The seven I’ve listed here are great
general sites, and many can help point you to more targeted sites,
like Strobist, for photography lighting tips. With so many choices in
information and blogs, there’s no excuse for not improving your skills
and techniques in digital photography.

Mary Ward is a freelance author and writes about design job topics,
such as how to choose a web
design school, artist career tips, and more.

Pferde -7 by Glatze mit Kamera with more beautiful work here

High noon is not your friend.

Children's Beach

As photographers we utilize light to capture our images, but sometimes it just wants to work against us. During the high noon peak hours the sun is right overhead and blaring down with full force. While we’re trying to work on our tans and avoid sunburn we’re also squinting at the sun or hiding behind sunglasses. This can really put a hamper on portraits so try placing people in shade or waiting for some well timed clouds to give you some solace. While this isn’t always ideal, it’s certainly something to keep in mind. Another option is to do an overall scenic capture and not worry about raccoon eyes in people portraiture at all.

Details matter.

Winter, a lingering...

Sometimes vacation is best remembered through nostalgic visual ques similar to the way certain smells bring back childhood memories. Try taking pictures of seashells or sand castles and they’ll make great backgrounds for all of you scrapbookers.

Compensate your exposure.

HONEYMOON

If you’re lucky enough to be at one of those pristine beaches where the sand is almost pure white you’re probably going to need to use the Exposure Compensation on your camera to adjust. Otherwise you’ll end up with blown out sand. Remember to check your histogram and turn on your “blinkies”.

Watch your horizon.

Floreat Beach Sunset

The rule of thirds can really make an image stand out when you’re photographing the water. Put the horizon on the top third if the sky is clear and the bottom third if there are interesting clouds in the sky. Also, if you have a hard time keeping the horizon level you can always use the focus points in your camera view finder as a guide or fix it later in image editing software.

Patience is a virtue.

Somer in Paradise...

If you can manage to keep your freinds and family out on the beach until sunset you’ll utilize that wonderful golden hour light to create beatiful and dynamic images. The golden hue will also help to create a warm and flattering tone for the people in your pictures unless they’re already red as a lobster from sunburn. Only aloe and photoshop can save them now.

Have fun.

Flying Bros

You’re on vacation after all.

Photographs:

Children’s Beach by Brain Auer of Epic Edits

“Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour.” – John Boswell by pretty life photography of When you give a girl a camera…

HONEYMOON by DAN MORRIS PHOTOGRAPHY

Floreat Beach Sunset by jeffiebrown of Cut Snakes Corner

Somer in Paradise. Along the walkway to the sea, she stopped for a moment to remember the past. Just for a moment… then the moment was gone. by Wizwow of Don Giannatti

Flying Bros by funkyfork

What is the Lensbaby Composer?

To say that the Lensbaby Composer isn’t like any other camera lens I’ve used before is a bit of an understatement. It’s the kind of product that can really put a photographer’s creativity into overdrive.

The composer is a ball and socket designed lens that allows a photographer to deliver smooth selective focus. Similar (to an extent) to a tilt shift lens but much less expensive. Photographers tilt the lens to the desired position and use the manual focus ring to ensure that the focal point is in the plane of focus.

A new feature to the composer is the Lensbaby Optic Swap System. The Optic Swap System allows a photographer to literally change the glass inside the lens casing allowing for even more creative options. The Lensbaby Composer comes with the Double Glass Optic and the Optic Kit comes with Single Glass Optic, Plastic Optic, and a Pinhole/Zone Plate Optic. The optics can be purchased as a kit or indivudually. With the whole kit it’s like having 5 lenses in one. Crazy.

My initial thoughts.

So I popped the Lensbaby Composer on my Canon DSLR with the Double Glass Optic installed and did what any other dad in the world would do. I chased after my kiddos (ages 3 and 1) around the house. Remember that you’re dealing with a manual lens here so no aid from the camera in focusing. Can be kinda tough and my first few images weren’t really any good. Truth be told, it was probably bad timing. Just after a nap and they had fruit for their afternoon snack (that means natural sugars were pumping through their tiny little bodies). That’s okay, I like a challenge and I like putting equipment through it’s paces.

As a father of little ones of course they’re used to the camera, but that’s not my focus on photography (not artistically anyway). They just happened to be around right after the lens was dropped off. I did manage to get a few that I did like, but this was later in the day after they were a little more calm.

It really wasn’t until I went out to some old oil field graveyards (remember that I live in West Texas) and worked on my fine art photography that I was able to really appreciate how this lens adds to my arsenal. The dreaminess of the Plastic Optic juxtaposed with the rusted decay of the oil tanks and gave me exactly what I was hoping for.

Then a few trips to some gardens for some pretty pictures of flowers (wife’s request) and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

I’m still experimenting with the lens, but I can say that I do love the Lensbaby Composer.

It works for me for a number of reasons.

1. It makes you slow down and think. You really have to sort of envision what the composition is going to be. What is going to be in focus and how much blur do you want to use?
2. The Optic Swap Kit with the Composer means I have five lenses to work with. That’s five more options when I’m out in the field and thinking of how I want my final image to look.
3. It’s fun. Sometimes you just gotta go out and have some fun and this thing is fun. You can get some dramatic and dreamy photographs with this lens which plays really well with a variety of shooting styles.
4. It’s different. If you’re a photographer that struggles in being creative I highly suggest the Composer. You can go to Paris and take the same postcard image that every other tourist in the world has done, OR you can use a Lensbaby and bring home something different. I like different. It’s not boring.
5. There’s an element of surprise to the Lensbaby Composer that kinda reminds me of film. With digital photography we can see what we’re doing and if you have an extensive knowledge of your gear and your style you pretty much know what you’re gonna get. That’s not really the case with the Lensbaby Composer all of the time. With the Plastic Optic (my favorite right now) it’s like shooting with a toy camera again and I love it. When I open the images in my image editor at full screen I see so many little nuances and beautiful diffractions that just sort of make me giddy.

My concluding thoughts.

I’m enjoying experimenting with this lens kit and having fun again as a photographer. While this obviously won’t replace my traditional lenses, I feel strongly that the Lensbaby Composer is a lens I will turn to very often to make creative photographs. Along the way, I’ll share my results and thoughts with you because I feel that this lens takes a little extra getting used to, but well worth the effort.

You can find more information on the Lensbaby Composer as well as some fantastic examples of the photographs you can create by visiting the Lensbaby website. It’s worth looking further into.

Fire and Ice

This abstract of a red and white tulip in full bloom titled Fire and Ice by Glenda Kapsalis is available at DiscoveredArtists for $200 as a 16X24 on Somerset Velvet Matte Finish Paper. Lovely.

New Website?

Not sure how new PhotoBlips is but it was just recently brought to my attention. Looks like a great place to stay up to date on current photography happenings around the web. Liking their mission statement. Especially “By tracking thousands of blogs in distinct verticals, we surface unique, unheard stories from the big guys to the scrappy creative bloggers in the trenches.” Go check them out, and if you see any entries from YourPhotoTips.com vote them up! You know…’cause you should.

Photographer Spotlight

Laurel Housden has some recent work that will appear in Giggle’s Magazine. Congrats.

Did you see those really awesome images of Bruce Willis that were causing a stir? Calikartel has them up. They’re by Steven Klein. Bravo.

Feature Shoot has a great Q&A with Angus Rowe MacPherson of Toronto. Winner of the Supercreative09 and supertalented to boot.

In the Photoblogosphere

Over at Seattle Daily Photo there’s a great little story and some wonderful images about a little old lady named Edith and her cute little house. I love community.

Rebecca Horne shares some stardust with her readers. Lovely images and very cool back story. I always knew NASA was actually doing something. Hmmph…naysayers!

Very interesting story at The Bigger Picture on advertising and photography used on the covers of news magazines. I think magazines and newspapers are just plain over. O V E R…D E A D…yes it’s sad…but we’ll progress.

I love how Michael Palmer does a great shot then shows you what he did.

In Post-Production

X= takes you through a step by step BW plus special effects conversion in Lightroom.

Photo Contest

You can win a free online web gallery. Details at Photocompete.com.

In Your Photo Tips News

This is the LAST month to get entries in for our giveaway. That’s right, you could win a camera, but you only have a couple weeks left to enter. So what are you waiting for?
Also, we’re reading Understanding Close-up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with or without a Macro Lens for this month’s Photography Book Club selection. Get your copy today.

If you have a website or blog related to your photography did you sign up for our photographer promotion newsletter?

Now, let’s enjoy some photography!

If you’d like to see your work featured here on the YourPhotoTips.com website all you have to do is join our flickr group!