Happy New Year 2011

The 2010 is almost gone! It is time to remember and say "thank you" for all good things that happened to us in the old year and welcome the new year with happiness and joy! I wish you all a great 2011. Let the rabbit bring you lots of pleasant surprises, smiles, health, peace, prosperity, success, and of course love. Thank you for following my blog and I hope to continue traveling with you through photography in the New Year 201 1!

Happy New Year 2011!

From Your PhotoEnthusiast

Source:zastavki.com



I wish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas is time for joy and merrymaking!

Please receive my heartfelt wishes of peace, love and happiness this Christmas. Spread Christmas cheer together with your family and friends.

With sparkling Christmas wishes,

Your PhotoEnthusiast

Tip 5: Holiday Portraits

Tip 5: Portraits. If you’re shooting inside, try using the bounce-flash technique mentioned earlier. Adding just a little pop of flash will bring life to your portrait. You achieve better separation from the background when you use flash and colors come to life. If you’re shooting outside, try using an inexpensive reflector to add some snap to your portrait. Try placing your subjects in front of a shaded area. Reflect the light from the sunny area back at your subjects. This way, the shaded background will be darker than your subjects, creating nice separation.
Mix up your poses. After shooting the mandatory classic group shot (guys in back, ladies in front, smile!), try some new poses to make the shot more interesting. How about photographing three generations of hands on a rail? Or maybe use a step ladder to get above your subjects and have them lie in a circle below you. You have willing subjects—your family—so be creative!

Source: Digital Photo Magazine

Go Canes!

Tip 4: Dial up your ISO

Dial up your ISO for indoor shots. Today’s cameras offer improved technology that even a few years ago would seem impossible to accomplish. One area that has seen incredible improvement is the high-ISO performance of digital cameras. Today, we can easily shoot at ISO speeds of 800, 1600 and even 3200 with minimal noise in the final image. Use this to your advantage next time you’re shooting indoors and don’t have a flash. Dial up your ISO and shoot away. I recently photographed an ice skater in an indoor rink for a magazine story. The light was low, so I set my ISO at 3200 and produced handheld tack-sharp images.

One subject for which I like to use high ISO is photographing candles and candlelit scenes. A flash would ruin the mood of these shots, but by using a high ISO I can capture church scenes and candlelit faces using only the available light.


Source: Digital Photo Magazine

Tip 3: Shoot holiday lights at twilight

3. Shoot holiday lights at twilight. One of the best things about winter is that many people adorn their houses and trees with holiday lights, which are great subject matter to photograph during the season.

My favorite time to shoot is at twilight. The perfect time is when your exposure renders the lights bright against a deep-purple sky. Wait too long, and the sky goes dark; shoot too early, and the lights don’t show well. Don’t limit yourself to shooting houses with lights—create your own scene to shoot. I like to add holiday lights to glowing tents, skis, snowshoes or anything else that will be interesting. If you don’t have an extension cord to reach your string of lights, try using a portable generator to give you power.

Another fun activity photographing holiday lights is using long exposures and zooming during the exposure. Also try rotating your camera during the exposure. You can produce an endless kaleidoscope of colors and motion blurs.

Source: Digital Photo Magazine

 

 

Tip 2: Use bounce flash indoors

2. Use bounce flash indoors. Remember the last time you went to a party, broke out your camera and started shooting candid shots of friends and family, confident that you were creating some fantastic images? But when you browsed the images on the computer, you had overexposed faces, black backgrounds and red-eye reflections in grandma’s eyes that reminded you of a horror movie. Next time, try using bounce flash to eliminate these problems.

Bounce flash works by aiming your TTL flash head toward the ceiling or other reflective surface and bouncing the light back onto your subject. Many rooms and buildings have white ceilings, perfect for bounce flash. Just remember, your flash will pick up the color of the surface it’s bouncing off of.
 
TTL speedlight flashes still read bounced flash output via TTL, so your exposures should be about right. But the quality and direction of light from bounced flash will create softer light and eliminate red-eye reflections. Bouncing flash off ceilings also brightens up big rooms, reducing dark backgrounds. Next time you’re at a party, try a test bounce-flash shot and see what you get; you might be surprised.


Source: Digital Photo Magazine
 

Tip 1: Make the Snow White

The holiday season is quickly approaching. It is time to start buying presents, selecting the holiday menu and also start charging your photo cameras. I would like to share with you a few tips on how to enhance your photos this holiday season. I found them very useful and hope you use them to create memorable images. Courtesy of Digital Photo Magazine - your #1 guide for better digital photography.

Here goes the first tip for all those who are lucky to have some snow out there:)

Tip #1. Make the snow white

The easiest way to make snow white is to check your histogram after you take the shot. The histogram represents the amount of specific tonalities in a scene, with the right side representing the bright tones and the left side showing dark tones. When reviewing your histogram, make sure it’s pushed to the right side so the snow is white. Do this in manual mode by opening up (choosing a wider aperture) or slowing your shutter speed, both of which let in more light in the exposure. In program, shutter and aperture modes, add light by going +1 stop or more with the exposure compensation button. Your histogram should push right up against the right side to make the snow white.



Winter scenery




Christmas Decorations 2010

This is how we decorated for Christmas this year! Enjoy and get ideas:)

Thanks "Michael's" for having everything for a perfect holiday season!

Lightened up tree

More light

Go Canes!

Snowflakes remind me of cold Russian weather

Love donuts, even on the Christmas tree

Nacimiento de Jesus

My creation: some ashberries and  pine cones all covered by snow

It's beginning to feel like...

With such cold days here in Miami, the only thing I can think of is Christmas, decorations, trees, and presents. These two pictures are old but give you an idea of how Russians decorate trees for the holiday season. They are truly gorgeous every year!

P.S. The picture of my beautiful Christmas tree to come soon!

Town of Sergiev Posad. Main plaza tree.

Moscow's most beautiful tree at the GUM (fency department store).

Find Anna

Click here to see one of my photos featured on ePhotoAwards.com.

Did you find me? No? I'm the one with the flower...

Welcome back, Winter!

Winter is one of my favorite seasons, partly because of the holidays coming with it. When I lived in Russia, I always looked forward to the winter season because I could play snowballs and ice-skate. Now that I am in Miami, I am still a winter fan, although without snow and the cold it doesn't feel the same. Today in Moscow it's 15 degrees F below zero and in Miami it's 71 degrees F. What a difference, huh!

I took this picture from my apartment in Russia, couple of years ago. It was a really cold morning, but absolutely beautiful! Trees stood still all covered by white frost. I hope this picture brings some freshness and winter sensation into your housholds as it did into mine when  I saw this picture this morning. 

 Happy Winter!

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