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When you go to an amusement park with a digital photography camera then you are probably planning on taking around a hundred photos of your family and friends. Now, I recently looked at the photos my friend took when he went to Disneyland and I was shocked how bad they looked. Sure, he just took them for the memories, however, bad photos are not very nice to keep compared to quality composed shots. This article will provide some simple tips for taking photos when at an amusement park.

First off, you are probably going to end up using the automatic mode when at an amusement park. The reasons are mostly because people don’t like waiting to take pictures and waiting for you to set the shutter, aperture, focus, etc can be very annoying.

Of all the settings, you really want to make sure you have manual focus. Automatic focus messes up too much and can ruin a lot of your photos.

You can manually set the shutter speed to very fast settings when you want to capture a motion shot of, for example, someone on a ride. Or you could blur the motion and create a really cool effect with a slow shutter speed.

Compositionally, if you are taking people shots at amusement parks you should try to follow these simple rules.

1. The Rule of Thirds

Try avoiding to place people dead center. Place them to the left, right, etc.

2. Depth

Rather than place people in front of a background, try placing them at an angle to the background. This will make the background look like it has more depth. This is especially useful when taking shots of people standing in front of an attraction or monument.

3. Simplicity

As much as you may want to capture everything in one shot, it will look much nicer if you take a few shots isolating on one particular subject in each shot. Amusement parks are very cluttered with different attention grabbing items. Try focusing on one.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

When it comes to taking pictures of animals, you are really going to want to get the best possible pictures you can get. This article will try and give you simple tips for taking great photos of animals.

There are two different types of animals you can photograph: your pets and the captive, and the wild animals.

When taking photos of pets or animals in cages you really don’t have as much to worry about except compositional techniques. The animals won’t be moving like crazy and should be easier to handle. If its your own pet you could feed them some food and they’ll stay still for sure.

Photographing wild animals is a bit trickier. These animals are in the wild and run from people. You’re going to have to sneak towards them and capture a shot of them quick. If you’re photographing fast animals like birds you have to be extra quick as they could fly off in seconds.

When taking animal shots you should try to keep the background simple. Try to avoid overly complex backgrounds that distract the viewer. Also, be sure that you get as close as you can. Far away shots of animals can work, but they are harder to pull off than close up shots.

To get great close up shots you should really think of getting a telephoto lens. There are some telephoto lenses built so you do not need a tripod. This is great as hauling a tripod around when taking shots of wild animals can be difficult.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

What does it mean to compose? To create, to arrange, to order, to write…when you take a photo you are composing a shot. Of course, some compositions are better than others. In general, the great compositions of photos all have similar things in common. These similarities have been turned into compositional techniques and I will be sharing them with you right now.

One of the easiest compositional techniques to implement is to keep the photo simple.

A simple photo does a number of things. It makes the viewer understand the photo better. They don’t have to worry about what to look at. They are instantly drawn into the main subject and don’t have to worry about what they should be looking at.

Simple shots can be taken by isolating your subject. Instead of taking twenty donkeys in a picture, take twenty pictures of each donkey separately. You can also get closer to the subject and this will reduce complexity and clutter.

Another compositional technique you can use is patterns. Patterns are everywhere and photographing them can make for great shots. You could take pictures of the patterns of seats at a movie theatre, the pattern of golfer holes, etc.

One thing many photographers do is take pictures at eye level. Try experimenting and moving around. Get up a tree, bend down and shoot from below. Try different perspectives. This can greatly change the impact of the photo and the way the viewer looks at the subject of interest.

Try these simple tips out and notice the difference they will make in the coming days.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online