Sony Photo Contest

Sony just launched a photo contest. As one of the official FIFA Partners of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, Sony invites photographers around the world to send their best soccer images. The theme of this photo contest is Soccer!. And the choice of subject and location is up to the photographers. The best part is the prizes, Sony will pick 2 Grand prize winners who will each have a chance of winning the highly sought after tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ finals. What's more, Grand Prize winners will also walk away with a Sony DSLR camera package.

Grab you camera now.. ! For more info click this link http://soccergraphy.sony-asia.com/

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Beautiful Lake Toba

Have you ever been to Indonesia? Usually if you ask someone about Indonesia, his quick answer is Bali. Yes I agree Bali is a beautiful island with many tourism sites. But Bali is just a little part of Indonesia. There are many other tourism sites besides Bali in Indonesia, one of them is Lake Toba, which is located in the province of North Sumatra.
Lake Toba is a volcanic lake and it has 100 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide, and 505 meters (1,666 ft) at its deepest point and considered as the largest lake in the southeast Asia. It has a very astonishing location as it is surrounded by tall mountains and with the large island of Samosir in the middle. I was very fortunate that I had an opportunity to see, enjoy the lake and capturing beautiful scenery there. Here are some of them.








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What camera I should buy?

If someone asked me what camera I should buy, I will not answer it right away. That is a very common question from someone who is about to purchase his first camera. Well, usually I will ask him back to know what of his motivation and what he is going to do with his camera. Then I will ask him his budget. I need to know if his budget will cover what he is going to do with his camera.
There are many ways of what you can use with your camera. Just for taking family pictures, remembering great holidays, capturing your daily activity, hobby or learning photography in more serious way. If you will use your camera for taking your family holidays, for sure I will not suggest you to buy a new DSLR from Canon. Instead, I will suggest a compact digital camera which handy and easy to use.
How about the budget? They are variety of camera available in the market now with variety of prices. Your budget then will lead you to what camera you are going to buy. Today I can say you may have a good camera with less than USD 500 if you only need it for taking pictures of your children. But if you are about to be serious with photography, I have to say that you will need more.
Well, basically if you asked me what camera I should buy, it’s really up to what do you do with the camera and how much budget you allocate for it. In digital photography world currently, I can say that quality comes with the price.




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Digital Photography – Tips for Beginner

If you just started to have experience with digital camera, you might found that that digital cameraa don't necessarily user friendly. But you don’t need to be worry. Here are some tips that can help you in taking pictures with a digital camera.
Enhance the color tones of your picture
There are times when you think that your shots have a cold or clammy aura. This is because digital cameras have default settings for white balance at auto. This is ok for most shots but if you want to increase the reds and the yellows of your shots, adjust the auto setting to cloudy. This makes your pictures appear warmer as well as richer. Or If you have a software like Photoshop you may adjust your pictures using adjustment menu.

Macro Mode
Activating the close up mode on your camera, usually called the macro mode, will make your shots have sharper details. This is very easy to use in digital cameras unlike in the conventional ones. To use your camera's macro mode, look for the icon that depicts the macro mode or "close up". Normally, the icon is that of a flower. Go as close to the object as your camera will allow. It is important to remember that you have a rather shallow field depth, thus it is important to focus on the subject's part that you consider to be the most significant.
Invest on file storage
Having a memory card that is capable of storing a large amount of picture files is important. This gives you the freedom to take more pictures. The higher the resolution of your camera which normally ranges from 2 mega pixels to up to 6 or more mega pixels, the higher the memory size of your card should be. With an ample sized memory card, you don't have to pass the opportunity to take a shot. No more worries of having a full memory card whenever that perfect shot appears.
Always use high resolution
Your digital camera has many resolution settings. Always take pictures using the highest possible setting. Although higher resolution means more memory used up, it isn't a problem if you have already acquired a good sized memory card. You will never know when the best shot you'll ever take in your whole life may pop up, why take it in poor resolution?
These tips will help you with your new digital camera. Never hesitate to take as many pictures as you can! Remember you have enough memory, why worry?
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Basics of Photography

Are you starting to learn photography? If you are relatively new to photography, below are some basics knowledge you have to know and will help you learn about photography.
The camera
You should understand that whatever camera you use, it won't necessarily affect the final image. There are certain factors that will affect your final product regardless of camera brand. They are:
- the quality of the expected final image.
- will the image be magnified before being viewed?
- will the subject carry the whole focus of the shot?
- the time alloted to take the picture
It is also important to keep in mind that cameras work at varying speeds. This will prove to be crucial depending on the subject that you will be shooting. When taking a picture of your son or daughter while they are playing, you may opt to use an automatic camera to avoid all the fuss of making adjustments with regards to aperture, focus, lighting, etc. But if you are going to take a picture of a mountain view, then you have all the time to use a manual camera.

Lighting conditions
Taking portraits under the sun may present some problems. Because of the sunlight's hardness, dark shadows will may appear in the shot. To solve this problem, you can move the subject to a position under the shade to be able to use skylight instead of sunlight. Skylight is less concentrated than sunlight. Another thing that can be done is for you to take the picture during the last few minutes during sunrise or sunset. Sunlight is mouch more mellow during these times. If you have the equipment such as diffusers as well as reflectors, they will do a good job to make the shot more vibrant. The use of artificial lighting or a flash is also ideal if you know the proper way and time to use them. Avoid using the flash during sunrise and sunset since the resulting picture will look rather clammy or cold.
Exposure
There are no such things as correct exposure. It is really up to you and your artistic preferences how your picture will turn out. The environment contains many tones which can't be fully represented using film. Some of the details might get lost depending on the picture as well as the film used.
These are some of the things that you should remember while taking pictures. As you take more and more pictures, your skills will become sharper and you will be able to use more of your creativity.
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