I’ve spoken a lot about just how darn important it is to learn how to shoot in manual mode if you want to get great photos, and today I want to teach you how to do that - step by step!

Yep, that’s right, for all you AUTO (or semi-auto!) lovin’ folks out there, you’re going to take the first step in taking control of your camera, by learning how to shoot in manual mode!

So, grab your camera and let’s get started!

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed when learning photography - let’s face it, there is SO much to learn, and so much information available online that you can sometimes feel like you’re drowning in information.

But the truth is, although there is definitely a lot to learn, if you can focus on just five key areas in photography, you’ll get better photos. And if you are new, they can even be done one after the other, as you want to layer on the knowledge, not take random pot shots from each area and try to fit them together (doesn’t work too well!)

So today’s blog post is what you need to focus on to become a better photographer. Do just these five things, and by the end, you’re photos will look freakin’ amazing, I’m telling you.

Although I’m a big fan of unposed “lifestyle” or documentary images, I can’t deny that i love a good portrait shot too!

So this blog post, we’ll cover the best camera settings for portraits using natural light - either indoors or outdoors.

Please note that if you work with studio lighting, or use flash, your settings are going to look different from the ones below. But since I love natural light, and I’m guessing that most people who read this blog use natural light, that’s what we’re going with :-)

With summer officially just around the corner (at least it is if you are reading this as it goes live!) I’ve got a lazy and breezy summer themed blog post for you today 😃👙☀️🍦🍹

I noticed a definite dip in how many photos I took each year just after my son started school. No longer could I just pick up my camera at any time of day - I had to try to squeeze in photos in the morning (unlikely, since I’m never organised enough to find myself with a spare 5 minutes before school starts) or having to wait until he got home, which in winter, meant it was already getting dark.

So, for me, summer is a time when I tend to take a lot more photos since we don’t have to get anywhere in a rush, and where I can take photos all day long if I feel like it.

I also read something that resonated with me (and if you have kids I’m pretty sure it will resonate with you too) that we only get 18 summers with our kids. That’s SO crazy to think of it like that, right? It makes me just want to bottle up each and every summer. Since I can’t do that, capturing them as best I can is the next best thing.

So, in honor of aiming to capture another one of our 18 summers together, I thought it would be fun to compile a summer reading list for you, all with posts that should help you get better photos of your kids this summer.

Do you ever feel like sometimes you’rre just winging it when you pick up your camera?

That you get all flustered and not quite sure what you should be doing….?

….So you end up just clicking and hoping?

Then this week’s blog post is for you!

I wanted to break down some of the things you should be thinking about when you take your photo - many of them before you even lift the camera to your eye - so that you can shoot more purposefully, and most importantly, get better photos.

So we’re going to go into FIVE questions you should ask yourself when you take your photo. There are more of course, but these are the big ones, the ones that can make or break your picture, so let’s dive into those now…

Whether you want to shoot a portrait or a landscape or a documentary-style photo, you’ll want to choose the best lens for the job!

With an array of lenses to choose from, it can be hard to know which one to pick, and which will suit your photo best. As I have far too many lenses to choose from, I thought i’d go through my thought process when picking out a lens for a particular photo. Of course, there may be other reasons why I pick a lens (versatility for going away on vacation, or weight if were going on a trek) but the two MAIN reasons are the focal length, and the aperture.

Let’s go into the four questions I ask myself (which you can totally steal, I don’t mind) for choosing the best lens for the job.

One of the things I love seeing is the change in people’s photos as they are learning photography - where you can literally see the difference in the “befores” and “afters” - and I know this is inspiring for many of you too!

So today I’ve got a case study for you that I think you are absolutely going to eat up :-)

It's from one of my amazing Auto to Awesome students, Erica, and she’s put together some amazing before and after photos for us, plus some of her favourite photos. It shows two things - how learning photography doesn’t just happen overnight, and also that with the right training, you can absolutely take amazing images with an entry level camera. (Although she has since upgraded, Erica shot most of these images with an entry level DSLR and kit lens - proof that you don’t need the most expensive gear to take great photos)

For those of you who are already in Auto to Awesome, I hope it inspires you to keep going through the program! And if you’ve been thinking about maybe enrolling in Auto to Awesome, this is one blog post you’ll definitely want to read.

Having a little trouble getting your head around Aperture and Depth of Field?

Don’t worry, it happens to us all!

But it’s SO worth taking the time to understand completely, because the aperture you choose can have a BIG impact on your images (as you’re about to see)

So what we’re going to do today is an exercise that can help you see how different apertures affect how your image LOOKS.

Ready? Let’s go!

It can be a really daunting experience to move away from the AUTO modes on your camera, but you really must if you want to get great photos!

And the first step is to move to something called Aperture Priority Mode. This will help you get more control over how your images turn out, but as it still leaves you with the “safety net” of the camera balancing the exposure, so you don’t need to worry about that just yet 😉.

We’ve a lot to get through in this blog post, so let’s get crackin’!

Have you heard the aperture when learning photography, and wondered what it is?

Or what that has to do with the term F-stop?

And just what the heck depth of field is?!

Then you’re in the perfect place! In this blog post we’re going to go over what Aperture is, what the term F-stop means, plus what depth of field is and how we can use it for creative photos!

Ready? Let’s dive in!

We’ve all felt it at one time or another - we’ve got no idea what we could even take photos of, every image we DO take seems boring and “snapshotty”, and we’re left wondering if our creativity has got up and gone.

For some, just putting down their camera works a treat, and for others, such as myself, a small but firm kick up the pants is needed.

These creativity exercises are those kick in the pants, so pick one, and get out there and start shooting!

Lifestyle photography is without doubt my favourite genre of photography - one where you can capture an everyday moment or scene beautifully, and freeze that moment in time.

On the whole, this is how I capture my family every single day, rather than waiting for milestone moments like birthdays or the one-a-year family photos (which I love too, but in a different way!)

But of course, lifestyle photography has it’s challenges too, so here’s my five top tips for getting better child and family lifestyle photos.

I get it, we can all feel sometimes like it’s harder to take photos when we are stuck in at home, rather than in the great outdoors.

But there are loads of opportunities for capturing great photos of our kids indoors as well as out.

So today, I’ve come up with 8 ideas for photographs you take of your children at home, along with a few tips and tricks for each one.

Ready? Let’s go!

Do you wish you could stop fumbling with the settings on your DSLR, and instead know EXACTLY which settings to use for wall worthy photos?

How would you like to be able to take images that are beautifully lit and perfectly in focus, and look professional and polished?

And do you wish you could develop the skills you need to beautifully preserve your family memories NOW, so that you can finally be finished the learning part and just get on with the fun part of photography - taking photos?

If the answer to those a big resounding YES, then I have the very thing for you!

This question “how long does it take to learn photography?” is one I’ve gotten in different forms several times over the last few years….usually by people who are feeling SO frustrated because they’ve spent months learning all they can, but still don’t feel like they have reached their goal.

Learning photography really can be overwhelming and frustrating, and sometimes we feel like we might not ever get there, or we’d just love to skip forward on the learning part and get the photos we want NOW.

So, just how long does it take to get good at photography, or at least good enough to take decent photographs?

Read on, and find out!