The early photos on this site were taken with a Canon Powershot. The more recent and better quality photos were taken on a Canon EOS 400D (below).
This is a superb digital SLR that I have found easy to use. I will be adding to this page shortly and giving some photography tips. Although I do not claim to be an expert photographer have had a number of photographs published in books and on one occasion in a photography magazine. Like most things it boils down to available time.
1. AVOIDING HAND SHAKE AND BLURRED IMAGES
Use a tripod. Most if not all photos are going to be taken close to the subject. You will need the stabilty provided by a tripod to avoid hand shake. A good alternative is a cushion. It is also useful to use the camera's delayed shutter release or even a remote release - again this avoids hand shake and helps to produce sharp photos.
2. LIGHTING
Avoid using the camera's flash. This can lead to a wide range of exposure within an image i.e. brighter areas and strong shadows. Flash can also lead to too much yellow in an image and unatural colours.
Try instead to use natural light - either from a nearby window - or even if possible take the subject into the garden! Some of my photos have been taken with a mix of natural light and the room lights - this can provide a warmth to the photo - almost looks as if the sun is shining on an otherwise cloudy day - as shown below.
3. DEPTH OF FIELD
This is the area within a photo that is sharp i.e. from the foreground to a point in the background. To maximise this you will need to take a photo with a small aperture.
| Sometimes you may want to deliberatley blur the background so that attention is concentrated on something in the foreground. To achieve this effect, focus on the subject and then set a larger aperture so that you have a smaller depth of field. The larger the aperture the more the background will be blurred. |  |
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