For my first photo tip blog post I will give you the best, the ultimate, the most extreme… the one tip to help you take better pictures! Over the years I have had several people ask me what is the one tip to have better photos. I have never really had an answer to that because the term “better photos” is pretty broad. A lot of people these days are buying DSLR cameras to take better photos of their kids and/or vacations, so I’m going to focus (punny) on that. The one tip I would give to a beginning photographer is (drum roll) keep shooting. Wah wah wah. I know that is the most boring piece of advice ever! However, practice is the most important thing, so there. Kids are hard to take pictures of because they can do the kessel run in less than 12 parsecs [see here www.starwars.com if you don’t know what that is ] Kids are fast, and their genuine cute little moments happen really quick. You need to have a really good handle of your camera to be ready to take those candid shots when they happen. Vacation photos are always fun, but if you are spending the entire vacation trying to figure out the setting of your camera you won’t enjoy your photos or vacation. So, my advice is take your camera on walks, take it to the park, take it to the zoo, to the pool, and everywhere else you go. When I first started taking photography seriously I had a messenger bag for my camera and lenses. I carried it everywhere I went. You need to get a lot of practice before you are comfortable with your camera in various lighting situations. Good luck and keep shooting!

I recently posted this photo to my Facebook page.That amazing little smile happened for a split second but because I have invested a considerable amount of time to perfecting my craft I was able to get the shot.