The art of photography is just that - an art. Everyone sees the world through their own eyes and one of the great, beautiful things about photos is the ability to see a scene, a place, a person, the world through those eyes. It's not for naught when we here at Kodak say a picture is worth a thousand words. So it came to me one day a few months ago that it would be fun to share with you how I see things when clicking the shutter. I know many people buy a camera and never take it off Auto mode and I would like to give you some basic ideas of how to take better advantage of its capabilities. These tips and techniques are in no way right or wrong and they're certainly not a professional recommendation. They are simply some of the things I do to capture Kodak Moments with my camera.

 
One of my favorite photos, taken in Jardi Botanic in Barcelona

I can describe something you will see often in my photos with just one word - Macro. For those who don't know, Macro photography in the most basic sense means nothing more than close-up. You may have wondered what that button (commonly represented by a flower symbol) was on your camera before and been afraid to push it. Don't be!



Example of a Macro Mode button on the right

How do I take my Macro photos? Well, I often look for subjects that are unique or seem to stand out from their surroundings. Maybe there's this one flower that just stands out, there's something on the beach that catches my eye, or a tiny insect, bird, or butterfly I want to capture in fine detail. There's no specific rules or "how to" I operate by; instead I just get up close and personal with the subject when I see something special. You'll see what I mean in some of the photos below.

 
Hummingbird Hawk-Moth captured in Burgos, Spain

 
Notice the fine detail you can see in this moss

You can really see the grains of sand and fine feathers

 
Taken low to the sand with the sun ahead of me to highlight the seafoam

 
Macro + Flash help to really make the flower pop out here

Macro is a rather common mode on nearly all digital cameras and something you should try out. Even our EasyShare C513, currently the most affordable Kodak digital camera on the market, has the ability to take Macro shots in "Close Up" mode. So turn on your camera, switch to Macro mode, play around a bit, go through some trial and error, and do whatever you want to do with it! It might be located in a sub-menu instead of having its own button, so look around if you don't see it right away. You'll be surprised at some of the wonderful things you can capture and how vivid they will look on a print or on your computer screen.

Shutter speed might not be a manual control on as many cameras as Macro mode, but when available it can be a fun way to capture movement or objects lit up at night. Definitely be sure to use a tripod or have the camera on a solid, steady surface when using a longer shutter speed. On that same token, it's a great idea to use the camera's self-timer function to be sure you don't bump it when you press the shutter. Get the camera lined up just how you want it, click the shutter, and let the self-timer count down for a few seconds while you step away to help prevent blurry photos.

 
The blue of the sky just past sunset and vivid color of the trees is enhanced by the long exposure

 
The extended shutter captures the motion of this fire truck as it drives past on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago

One last thing I must mention, even if it's not totally related, is geotagging. Andy Blose wrote about it just about a year ago over on 1000 Nerds and you can head on over to his article for some additional details. In essence, geotagging is tagging your photos with location data so they can be pinpointed on a map. This data can be recorded by a GPS receiver or you can take the easy route and just click on a map (like you would while zooming around Google Maps) to "stick" the photo to the map location. Over on my Flickr account, I have tagged all my photos and you can look at my map to see photos taken from around the world. I think it's a great tool to help organize and track your own photo exploits and also to find other photos from all over the world.

I'm certainly no expert but I hope that I gave you some ideas about things to play around with in your photo-taking, if nothing else. Keep your eyes peeled for part two, where I'll go over some other areas like perspective and framing. But for now, go out there and play with your camera. I think you'll love some of the neat things you can do with it!

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