Back in 2007 I took an Interview with Photographer Alex Wise.
You can find this interview here: http://www.photoaxe.com/alex-wise-and-waterscape-photography/
Alex had a busy month in November this year, writing a tutorial about how he obtains great photographs of waterfalls.
Considering the weather conditions in November, I believe it’s the perfect time for you to read this and then take your camera, tripod and filters and go for a shooting session.
http://www.alexwisephotography.net/blog/2011/11/16/how-to-photograph-waterfalls-tutorial/
This tutorial covers the equipment needed as well as technical aspects such as: image comparison between different shutter lengths.
Alex shows in comparative pictures how an image looks like with and without filters, and explains the importance and effect of some filters used in this type of photography.
This is a must read tutorial. It is not everyday you hear a photographer saying “Miserable weather is a great time to pick up the camera and go take some waterfall photographs.”
and for post-processing of waterfall images:
http://www.alexwisephotography.net/blog/2011/05/21/image-blending-photoshop-tutorial/
Different exposures lead to overexposure or underexposure in some areas of photographs. The solution is to combine these shots in Photoshop. Alex shows how to do this step-by-step, and then how to obtain the final image with extra color and contrast adjustments.
You might also be interested in older articles on the same topic:
http://www.alexwisephotography.net/blog/2007/11/18/shooting-waterfalls/
http://www.alexwisephotography.net/blog/2010/02/16/guide-to-daytime-long-exposures/
http://www.alexwisephotography.net/blog/2007/11/15/why-use-neutral-density-filters/

It’s a very common thing to find street performers and carnivals in every big city in Germany if you happen to be in the market place during the weekend.
This is, for photographers, a great opportunity to capture spontaneous emotions of people, take advantage of the free show and the clothing.
Please comment about the feelings that these photographs have on you. Do you feel the music? Do you hear the drums? If you do, then it means that the shot is a succesfull one: your eye went from the happy faces of the players to their instruments and back, without any other distractions from the background.

I’ve made a short video with my winter photos from a park nearby . Enjoy!

I’ve started photography years ago with a webcam. Believe it or not, at that time I didn’t have a photo camera. My uncle gave me one as a present. It was a webcam that could be used as a camera.

The quality of the photos was terrible! But it did the work. You can obtain a good photo even if you only have a webcam. I was so passionate about photography that I decided at that moment that I will never quit. I knew I wanted to learn all the secrets of taking good photos.

Years have past and as you can see I’ve launched this blog for beginners where you can learn all sorts of tips & tricks for better taking photographs.

I want to do more for you, the photography amateur, because I know how hard it is when you start.

That’s why I’ve launched an online photography course, where you can learn digital photography secrets in just 3 months.

Go check it out, see what you can learn and decide for yourself.

Every weekend I took the train with my friends and we went visiting a near town.

First week we went to Hannover. Here I was amazed about the differences between new and old architecture.  The colorful old town-hall next to a full glass building.

Here are some photos from both new and old Hannover. More photos later.

Hello dear readers.

My new Job  brought me for more than a month in Germany. Here I used every free hour to take pictures that would feed my memories later, but I also took pictures that I want you to see and enjoy the places I visited.

First of all, I spent my nights at Hotel Kronprinz in Bad Salzdetfurt (it’s a small village near Hannover, in Niedersachsen).

Here are some pictures of this friendly village.

This is how nature photography can become dynamic:

Every photographer, from amateur to professional, will take pictures of Christmas Decorations because these are beautiful, eye catching, and most of all, memorable.
From the view of the entire Christmas tree, to close-ups on simple and sophisticated decorations, it’s all sparkle and lovely. For the shots, remember to have a tripod and a remote controller.
For the first Christmas tree picture, my friend Tudor used flash (with -2 exposure) in rear mode, in low light. Picture was taken in “Program” mode.
The second Christmas tree picture has +3 exposure, no flash, and low light environment. Longer exposure time in this case: 20 sec.. Picture was taken in “Shutter Mode”.

The white balance in case of such photographs is better set to “auto” since the colors from the lights differ from the environmental light and other lights coming from nearby. After all, the multitude of colorful lights is what makes Christmas beautiful.
Now let’s see the close-ups: the most simple setting scheme is: “Program” Mode, rear flash, adjusted exposure (differs from scene to scene), tripod and remote control or 2 seconds shutter delay. For brighter scenes you can put the flash off and increase ISO.

On most of the photos, on post-processing, I added a warm filter to make the tree have a yellowish green, and to make the red color stronger.

To promote rural tourism, in Romania, many photographers go from village to village to take pictures of local habits and activities, local activities and clothes, objects, houses.
During the late summer of 2008, I choose to go in a wonderful village in the Apuseni Mountains on a specific day: the first day of the “Love Festival”, on the “Chiken Mountain Pick”.
I wanted to keep distance from people in order to capture instants of their live, not well prepared portraits. In order to do so, I used a tele-ob.: Tamron 70-300 mm.
Here I show you an old man playing a local musical instrument.

This is an instant portrait of on old lady covering her eyes from the burning sun.

Children are dancing on local music.

Since it was the “love festival”, here’s a portrait of the girl who won the contest for “perfect marriage country girl”.

Here is how the houses looked like in the old times in this area of my Country.

On the same topic, I have some older photos to illustrate the Romanian traditions.

In a Circus Show there are many factors different from any other kind of photography type. For example, the white balance does not matter too much, and you should also not worry about having too much noise: sure you will since the lighting environment is poor and the use of flash will only ruin the magic of the show.

The magic of the show is mostly based on motion and secondly on clothes. As a result, try to capture motion blur in your picture, but remember: slow shutter speed is not needed: fast motion in poor light is easy blurred at relatively fast shutter speeds. Try to capture the most expressive moments. In a show, the performers will always stop in a fixed position critical for the show, moment when they expect clapping. Be ready to shoot at this point of time.


I made these photos during the Aquatic Circus (from Italy) performance in my birth town. The main point of interest (for children more of all) were the aquatic animals. The gear I used is a Nikon D40x with Tamron 70-300mm lens. Tripod is not necessary.

The most important thing to remember when photographing a circus show is TO BE FAST. Prepare and test your gear before in such way that you will not have to change the lens or settings too often. There will be short breaks between different parts of the show, time to make some changes if needed.

Circus bring acrobats that move their body forming curves that look great in photography. Here is such a series. The difference of colors between the images is given by the lights used in the show.

Final note: remember these tips for concert photography too.