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Photodoto Grand Opening contest winners announced

By John Watson
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There were over 180 high-quality entries in the Grand Opening contest. Thank you to everyone who participated. It was a pleasure going through the entries even though it was incredibly difficult to narrow it down to just three who would take home the prizes. The judges were looking for technical excellence, adherence to the theme, and visual impact (the ones that really caught their eye). But these three winners stood out with unanimous appeal. So, without any further delay:

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Learning composition: simplify, simplify, simplify

By John Watson
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What’s really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer. — William Albert Allard, National Geographic

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
— Albert Einstein, Smart Guy

Like a cluttered room in a house or an overstuffed closet, a photo with too much random stuff can make it difficult for a viewer to find the subject. How many times have you taken a photograph of something only to have something else completely unrelated (and unwanted) in the frame like a car or a telephone pole? This isn’t to say that all photos should be minimalist affairs with a single subject and a plain background ala Apple Macintosh ads. But you should strive to only include elements in a photo that add something to it rather than serve as distractions. One way to do this is to simplify your compositions.

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Make a pinhole camera for Worldwide Pinhole Photography day

By John Watson
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Trying your hand at pinhole photography is easy and can be a lot of fun. Pinhole cameras pre-date autofocus and megapixels. They hearken back to a simpler time when a camera was literally just a box with film in the back. Photos made with pinhole cameras exude a fuzzy, low-fi charm that’s hard to resist. That said, it’s not for everyone, but I hope you’ll give it a try. If you’re anything like me, you’ll feel a little magic happening when you see that first photo. It’s sort of like stepping back in time. Have I convinced you? Do you have 30 minutes to spare? Read on to find out how to get started.

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Bokeh. What the hell is it?

By John Watson
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Bokeh. Have you heard this term bandied about in conversations while looking at a photo, listened while someone proclaimed that the bokeh in a photo was good or bad, but you’ve been too embarrassed to ask just what it is? It’s something every photographer should understand because it affects your image. And whether you know it or not, you’ve probably evaluated the bokeh in your own photos. Well hide your shame no longer. After reading this article, you will be able to hold your head high and raise your nose as you talk about the bokeh in your next photo.

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A simple technique for creating eye-catching silhouettes

By John Watson
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The silhouette is an old art form, said to have been named after �tienne de Silhouette, Louis XV’s finance minister. Apparently, he was so stingy that anything cheap, including portraits, were labelled “a la Silhouette.” Silhouettes became very popular in the 18th century but went out of fashion after the invention of the daguerreotype, an early form of photography. And now here we are, creating silhouettes with our digital cameras. Ain’t life grand?

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Learning composition: basic concepts and framing

By John Watson
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There are many things that go into the concept of “composition.” Composition is a defining characteristic that separates a forgettable snapshot from a photo that has a strong impact on the viewer. It’s more important than mega-pixels, more important than what equipment you use. This will be the first in an ongoing series to try and demystify this pretentious-sounding subject and show you how thinking about composition, even a little, can help you improve your photos. We’ll start with a few basic concepts and some guidelines you can follow that will help you start creating images with impact and that draw the viewer in.

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Backing up your photos: why and how

By John Watson
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I recently finished a task that turned out to be undeserving of my procrastination and left me with a welcome sense of relief. I made a backup of every digital photograph in my collection, over 15,000 images, spanning nearly 6 years from early 2000. It had been far too long since my last backup. It was easy, didn’t take a long time, and now I know that these treasured memories will be safe if something catastrophic ever happens to the hard drive they are stored on. Here’s how I did it.

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How to Capture Action Reliably and with Style

By John Watson
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If you’re anything like me, you’ll be spending holidays with family and friends, eating, laughing, and, of course, making lots and lots of photographs. At our annual holiday gatherings there are an abundance of children.

children playing on grass

And children make great subjects for photography except for one problem: they don’t sit still. A moving target is one of the most difficult things to photograph. Read on for some tips that should help make things a little easier.

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