Buying yourself a new lens - particularly if this is your first purchase away from the kit lens - can be an overwhelming experience!  It's an important decision for you to make too, since your lens choice plays a critical role in making sure you images look the way you want them to! Unfortunately, there is no one single lens that will suit everybody, all of the time, so which lens is best definitely comes down to personal choice. 

With that in mind, I've come up with 8 questions that you can ask yourself before you buy a lens to determine which is the best lens choice for  YOU, and help you narrow down all the options that are out there. 

Last year I created a photo book of all my Project 365 photos from 2015, and I cannot tell you how much I LOVE it!  After looking through it at the end of last year, it really renewed my motivation to continue with the project for another year.  So, for 2016, I'm doing pretty much the same thing again, but I thought I'd share again in case any one else would like to do something similar with their 365 photos. 

Get started on your photography journey with these top photography tips for beginners! 

If you are brand new to digital photography, I know it can seem a little overwhelming with everything you need to learn. So here are 8 beginner photography tips which will get you started on the right path, and help you on your way to taking beautiful pictures in no time. Each tip has links to further reading too, so you might also want to pin / bookmark this one for future reference!

Photography can be a very expensive hobby - the gear alone can run pretty steep, and once you add on things like editing software and so on, there sometimes isn't a lot left over to use on learning how to use the darn things!  However, at all ages and stages of your photography journey, you will want to keep learning!  The good news is, there are lots of ways to learn photography that don't cost the earth, or even better, are free!  Here's six of them: 

When shooting with a DSLR, you have two choices of file formats in which to take your image - RAW or JPEG.   Most amateurs shoot in JPEG.  If you do, and are happy with the results you are getting, then of course by all means you can continue to do so! However, if you worry about not getting your settings right, or you want to improve the final look of your images, then I strongly suggest giving shooting in RAW a chance.  Although it’s not a magic pill for getting good images, shooting in RAW can help enormously as it gives you another chance to get it right!  You get much more leeway once you come to edit the photo in RAW, you will be able to bring up under exposed photos without introducing wonky color casts and grey skin, or bring back highlights and detail in images that you have over-exposed.  

I have to say, I find self portraits quite hard going! I'm much more comfortable being on the other side of the camera, for sure. There’s nothing really more complicated about self photography than ”normal” photography, the biggest problem is the logistics of getting yourself behind the camera, and making sure that you are in focus (and not feeling silly having a camera trained on you!) and actually pressing the shutter!

Here's a step by step guide to taking your own self portraits. 

White Balance can be a source of huge frustration in photography!   I've written quite a few posts on white balance previously, showcasing some different ways to set it and so on, but I felt it might be useful if these were all together in one place, so you could learn all about white balance from start to finish in one single post. Let's start with a quick recap on white balance actually is. 

A portfolio is simply a collection of images that you bring together to show a body of work.  You can create a portfolio for several reasons, for example, to show to prospective clients your style on your photography business website, or to apply for work, or just to accepted into a body of professionals. If you are a hobbyist, don't for one second think that you can't have a portfolio! It's a great way of seeing patterns in your work both good and bad. It can show you what you need to work on, or whether you have a style that you didn't even know you had! In short, a portfolio is for any photographer, at any level. 

Here's what to do to create a portfolio: 

I love shooting with back light (where the light is behind your subject) as I think it helps create a much more dramatic picture. However, there can be some issues to getting this right, especially with exposure and focus, but by these following tips, along with practice, you will be shooting into the light in no time! 

Here's my step-by-step guide to using back lighting in your images. 

Without a doubt, macro photography has been an unexpected joy for me with photography - it allows you to see the world in a whole new way, and appreciate the beauty that can be found everywhere if you get close enough!  Although it is certainly fun, macro  also brings a whole new set of challenges to the table too.  

If you are just starting out into the world of macro, here are 10 tips to get you going...

I truly want to help you grow in your photography journey, so you are ready and able to capture the moments that mean the most to you.  I've written a LOT of posts over the last year that hopefully have helped you to do just that: some of them informative, and some that were intended to simply inspire you to pick up your camera and document your days. Today I thought I'd share 15 of my favourites from 2015. 

Thank you to every single person who has shared or pinned a blog post, tweeted, or simply told a friend about Live Snap Love.  As you already know, blogs can only exist if people read them, so spreading the word about the site makes me truly grateful.  Thank you again x 

Did you get a brand spanking new DSLR this year? Yay for you! 

It can be quite disconcerting to pick up your camera for this first time and realise you don't know how to work it except on AUTO! As tempting as it is, you don't want to stay in AUTO too long, as in order to get the best out of your DSLR - and get those images you dream of - you need to take a little bit of control.  Here a few tips and tricks that will get you started off on the right foot. 

I know we all like to capture the holiday season, and Christmas Day in particular!  So, today, I've put together some  tips for you especially for photographing Christmas day, to help you be prepared and get the shots you want. 

Please bear in mind that it's not about getting perfect shots, or making sure you capture every little thing, it's more about ensuring that you get the one or two shots that are important to you, and some that help you tell a story or simply freeze moments from the day.  So once you have taken a few, put the camera down for a while and join in the day too - or at least go and get the dinner on :)

So, here's 10 Christmas Photography Tips for anyone wishing to capture their festivities at this time of year.

When you first start out in photography, you quickly realise just how MUCH there is to learn.  (And once you learn one thing,  you realise you need to learn something else!)  There is so much information available on the internet, books to read,  workshops to take and so on, that it can be difficult to know what to learn first, or just where is the best place to start. 

Although of course everyone is unique, and may learn things in a different order,  I've compiled a rough guide to a learning path that will get you from absolute beginner to shooting pro in no time :) 

One of the things I love about Christmas is the beautiful lights on display - either on your tree, or lighting up your home. Here's some tips, tricks and ideas for photographing your Christmas lights this holiday season