John Champion

High resolution images of it may be hard to find but fast images with the new Sigma 70-200mm APO EX DG OS HSM for both Nikon and Canon which will make you quite happy.

New lens for your Nikon

The lens uses two FLD panels which will help it give you a clear image, and it also has three SLD glass plates to help prevent abberation.

Now this lens has a large aperture which means that f2.8 will come in handy with your wildlife, wildflower, and even sports photography. While I would not recommend using this to shoot action on say a football or baseball field, it might work well for hockey, basketball, or other indoor sports.

Well I told you a couple of months ago that I would give you some additional information regarding online photo storage and there has been a little movement in the market as prices have come down a little bit and services have become easier to use and access. So let’s review my top five online digital photography storage sites.

First let’s review my criteria for selecting someplace to store your images online:

1. Provides you with tools to upload multiple images off of your PC/Camera at one time
2. Provides you with access to your images regardless of platform (PC/Phone/etc)
3. Provides you with quality service around the clock
4. Provides you the ability to have backups of your image collection
5. The service does not automatically resize your images or provides you with tools to restore their original size
6. The service gives you control over who looks at and downloads your images

With that in mind, here are my top 7 online image hosting services. These are in no particular order. I do this because I want you to go to each site and maybe look up one or two of your own and see which ones you will think can work best for your needs.

1. Adobe Photoshop.com starts you with 2GB of storage for free but that’s not this site’s strength. Oh no…this site’s strength is in its editting
   tools. These tools allow you to make basic image edits like remove red eye, crop the image, or make some basic changes. For $20/year, you
   can buy 20GB of space. And you can expect to pay $1/GB for each increase above that.
2. Flickr’s free account provides you with a monthly upload/download limit which has changed and continues to change. For $25/year you get
   unlimited photo and video storage.
3. Smugmug is service geared at semi-professional and professional photographers. For $40/$60/$150 a year you can have more control over the
   site that presents your images. All plans have unlimited storage and allow you universal access to your images. The high end plan gives you
   complete control over the page that displays your images plus the way you sell your photographs.
4. Photobucket is an Internet staple. Free accounts get 500 MB of online storage and you are allowed up to 10GB of downloadable bandwidth per
   month. There is a 1MB size limit per photo so if you use a Canon Mark V with the 77MB raw files, this is not going to be the solution for
   you. However for $25 a year, those limitations are removed and you get to post images up to 4000×3000 plus access to their technical support
   team
5. Webshots by American Greetings, is a service that comes with the ability to use your images or the predefined images of other photographers
   into your projects. What this means is that there is also a likelihood for others to have access to your images for things like calendars, coffee
   mugs, and the like. They give you a 1000 image limit and then boost that with 100 extra images for every month that you remain a member of
   their free plan. For $20/year, those restrictions are limited but this offering is among the least favorable ones for photographers looking to post
   the thousands of images they generate a year.

Now there are some prominent sites that I left out. I left them out for a reason. Either I am not a fan of their policies or I do not like the software they ask the user to use for their site. However everyone is different and I urge you to research these other sites as well.

If you have any additional questions, just ask.

You knew it would happen. You got the camera you wanted and it’s a beginner and maybe the lens(es) that come with it are not exactly what you were hoping for but believe me, they will work well while you learn.

The first thing you need to do now is find a challenge for yourself on that camera. Go out and use it and shoot images of something. Kids playing in the park, deer eating your neighbors’ flowers, maybe even hit the local sporting facilities and shoot photos of athletes doing their thing.

Just use the camera.

The next thing you should do is learn the main rules of good photography and composition that you can get from here:  http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/photography-the-rules-of-composition/

It’s important to learn how to take photographs well. It gets boring seeing the same setup on every single photo. First rule…do not center every photograph and go on and get close to where the action is. Headroom is one thing but footroom and composition is very important.

Let’s talk about another area of focus…tools. Right now the only tool you need is you. You are equipped with everything you need to take good photographs. You do not need to buy a $200 tripod nor a $10,000 lens nor a $1000 flash. Step back…buy those things only when you need them and if you’ll use them more than once.

If you’re only going to use the camera component once or twice, consider renting. What? You can rent lenses, flashes, and tripods? Yes…and you can even rent another camera.

Just do a Google search for camera rental and check out the vendors. You can also check in your community. Stores like Camera Exchange in San Antonio, rent equipment and should you decide to buy it, they apply some of your rental fees to your purchase.

Next time…I’ll update you on when you can go wildflower hunting and where you can get the best clusters. Hint: you will need to get in a car and drive. Sorry…your backyard isn’t going to cut it unless you live on a farm.