5 Fundamental Tips 4 Taking Geat Pics

An avid digital photographer, I've read dozens of books and articles about how to take great photos and noticed five fundamental tips repeated in every one of them. When I keep these factors in mind, I get pretty good results.
1. Keep your camera set to automatic. Experienced photographers are going to scoff at me for this tip, but tough. I've lost too many great photo ops because I paused too long to fumble with controls. Unless you're a pro photographer or artist in training, you will get great photos using your camera's automatic setting or preset scenes. The only controls I use routinely are scene selection and EV, which enables me to brighten or darken a scene. Not worrying about controls frees me to focus on the artistic merits of the subject before me.
2. Carefully compose your photo. I use the time pro photographers spend adjusting manual settings to focus on making sure my photo will take maximum advantage of the subject and setting to capture its true artistic essence. This means framing or moving around the subject to take maximum advantage of its environment. For example, the rainbow photo above could have been framed to include just the rainbow and gray background. Yawn. Or I could have zoomed out to include utility poles and wires. Yikes! Framing it with the palm trees gives it contrast, texture and context -- the elements of an interesting photo.
3. Whenever possible, use natural lighting. Go to a sports stadium at night, and you'll see cameras flashing like fireworks throughout the game. To me, this is proof that too many of us amateurs are flash addicts. Unless you own a camera with a laser for a flash, the distance limit of your flash will be about eight to ten feet. Using it for distances greater than that is a waste. For most shoots -- outdoors and indoors -- natural lighting will properly illuminate your subject and yield better photos with more texture. There is one exception, however, that I always keep in mind. When shooting portraiture in bright sunshine when your subject has its back to the sun or is under a tree that casts shadows, a flash will help illuminate their faces and prevent ugly shadowing.
4. Use a tripod. Shaky hands blur photos. For most of us pressing the trigger button alone will move the camera slightly. A lot of pro photographers recommend that we weld our cameras to a tripod. I'm not quite that hardcore, but whenever I have the luxury of time, I use my tripod. This is especially important when shooting extreme close-up or distant objects with maximum zoom. In these cases, your camera's field of vision is so small that any little shake will result in big blurring. The tripod is also critical in low light situations when the shutter will have to remain open longer to collect adequate light.
5. Take lots of photos. This is the BIG KAHUNA of tips that pro photographers don't like to discuss. Despite all their years of training and technical ability, they routinely take tons of photos to get just the right shot. When I think of my favorite photographers, my mind can only recall about five photos they took. Was it because they only took five photos in their careers? Probably not. It's because of the thousands and thousands of photos they took, five were worthy of artistic immortality. To get the best shot, shoot your subject or scene from many angles. You're bound to find just the right factors that produce a photo that expresses your impression of a subject or scene. And to me that's what the art of photography is all about.

Fast 'n Easy Guitar Lessons (R 4 Dummies)

Few experiences tick me off more than being scammed. And I let it happen over-and-over again when I was searching for an effective instructional course for beginning guitarists.

Unable to afford a guitar teacher, but burning to play my favorite hits, I set out on a quest for the best self-guided course. Store shelves and the Web are loaded with guitar lesson programs that promise quick and easy results, and, naively and with hope that a miracle would occur and I would actually be able to play with little effort, I tried several of them.

I started my quest with a boxed program that promised quick results but delivered a lot of confusing computer menus and sheet music with chords and strumming slash marks, but no real description of how to read actual music, properly form chords and change them while keeping the beat. Frustrated, I tossed it. Next was an online course that promised quick results, only to throw a roadblock on the first page of the first lesson by introducing the A chord. Might be me, but squeezing three fingers on three adjacent strings on the same fret isn't the easiest maneuver. I canceled my subscription (the company didn't make it easy) and moved on. I burned through several other boxed and online courses and was on the verge of giving up when I discovered Learn & Master Guitar.

Learn & Master Guitar is the ONLY real deal I've ever seen. The kit -- which comes with a detailed instruction book, ten well-produced lesson DVDs, and five jam-along CDs -- is like having a real instructor who lets you work at your own pace. The program's success is due to the good natured, informative instruction provided by accomplished guitarist Steve Krenz.

Krenz begins, well, at the very beginning. He explains the parts of the guitar, how to properly hold and tune the instrument and how to read tablature and chord block notation. The first lesson also introduces relatively easy -- nothing's really effortless on guitar -- C and G7 chords. The second lesson teaches basic music reading skills with single note exercises on the first string. To make it fun, Krenz shows you how to play your first song: Ode to Joy -- admittedly not "Stairway to Heaven" but a great place to take your first step toward the "Stairway."

These lessons set the tone of the entire course. Krenz methodically introduces all the notes on all six strings in the first position and dozens of chords. In a matter of months, I was able to play the songs in the first several chapters as well as simple sheet music I bought on the side. That's the coolest part of this course. Krenz doesn't just teach you how to play tab, he gives you the firm foundation necessary to be able to pick up any sheet music and make it sing.

No program on its own can teach everything you need to know on guitar. After you get the basic skills down, Krenz gives you a taste of different styles from fingerpicking to Blues to Jazz. He also spends time on music theory -- the fundamentals you'll need to grow as a musician and play with others -- and exercises to develop and refine your strumming and soloing abilities and move beyond the first position on the fretboard.

I don't know about you, but I often need more than one approach to learn a skill. To supplement Learn & Master Guitar, I bought Jamie Andreas's excellent book The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar. She doesn't teach a single song in the book, but focuses on the mental perspective and physical skills you'll need to advance as a musician. In necessarily painstaking detail she reinforces the importance of: 1) Practicing with total awareness of your mind and body and how they are relating to the guitar; 2) Sitting and holding the guitar; 3) Being aware of tension and releasing it before can harm your body; and 4) Moving with precision before sounding each note or chord. I use all of these fundamentals every time I pick up my guitar.

I am especially grateful to Andreas for reminding me in The Principles and another of her excellent books The Guitar Principles Chords & Rhythm that teaching your body to strike a note or chord incorrectly means your body will do it incorrectly every time. Slow the movement down into its components and teach your fingers the right way to interact with the guitar and you will develop the skills necessary to play well with consistency and progress as a guitarist.

Believe it or not, I also used ukulele playing to overcome a problem I was having moving from chord to chord while keeping the beat and singing. Ukulele master Ralph Shaw has a number of instructional DVDs. I bought The Complete Ukulele Course for Kids and Essential Strums for the Ukulele and in a matter of weeks was able to play and sing (I didn't say well) while keeping the beat. Admittedly ukulele is a lot easier to play than guitar and the chord shapes aren't the same, but I was able to apply the skills I learned on uke to the guitar with amazing ease.

I've been on my guitar quest for a couple of years and I've truly enjoyed it every step of the way. I credit that to the excellent instructors named in this posting who insist from the start that we all learn skills correctly before moving on. The best way to tell whether an instructional program is legitimate is to read the promotional materials. If they mention the word "easy," don't buy the lie.

NOTE: Beginner guitarists can benefit from having a good quality instrument set up well. If you go too cheap on the guitar, it won't stay in tune, which leads to frustration. Also make sure the guitar you buy is set up correctly. If the action -- the distance between the strings and the neck -- is too high, take it to a guitar store and have a tech set it up properly. Otherwise you will constantly fight to fret notes and potentially damage your fingers and hand. The Seagull S6 is an excellent beginner guitar that shouldn't break your bank.

See you Thursday, November 26th, for Five Fundamental Photo Tips...

Run -- For Your Life!

There's been a lot of news lately about three runners who died in the Detroit Marathon and a few who died in other endurance races. The reasons for the deaths are still being sorted out, but I hope you aren't one of the people using these less than 1-in-100,000 tragedies (a true statistic of deaths in marathons) as an excuse not to exercise.

On the day that the runners died, I guarantee you thousands of more people died because of smoking, eating the wrong foods, and inactivity. The truth beyond a doubt is you had a better chance of dying or heading for an early death if you reclined before your HD TV, smoking a butt, and devouring a bucket of chicken wings and fries than you would have if you exercised instead.

A Stanford University study released last year tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years and found that they had 1) Fewer disabilities, 2) Longer spans of active life, and 3) Were half as likely as aging non runners to die early deaths.

The statistics don't even begin to describe the benefits of running. I've been running five miles a day three days a week for years. I look forward to running because it clears my mind, invigorates my body, and promotes endorphins and other natural "happy chemicals." After a good run, I feel much younger than my almost-50 years.

The fortunate thing about running as an exercise is you don't have to run a marathon to benefit -- most of us don't run that far -- and there's no right way to do it. You should certainly see your doctor before initiating any exercise program, but after that it's up to you how to structure your workouts.

Five miles is about right for me right now. But I also like to mix in interval training, where I alternate between running hard and walking briskly. This has been proven to increase heart health as much if not more than continuous running.

If you're just beginning, you might want to try walking and mixing in a little trotting time and building up to where you can run more and more. The point is to design an exercise program that you enjoy and will participate in long enough to benefit your overall health. Thirty minutes on the road is better than nothing. I keep that in mind on days where I'm pressed for time.

Motivation is a huge challenge for many runners. Besides the intrinsic benefits and natural high of running, I find that certain gear makes running more enjoyable, which means I'll keep doing it. I don't believe running or any exercise should be a battle of wills against your mind or body. If you really hate it you won't do it for long.

The following gear found under the FITNESS tab on RuggedReviews.com might help you stay in the game:

*Sweat Gutr Headband: The Sweat Gutr is exactly what it sounds like. It's a thin headband with a gutter lip that catches sweat off your forehead before it can sting your eyes and channels it off the side of your head. The simple device keeps me from wiping my brow every minute so I can enjoy running in the zone. (It doesn't catch the sweat off your eyebrows, so you'll still need to bring a bandana to occasionally swipe your brow occasionally.)

*Native Eyewear Dash Sunglasses: These rugged but lightweight and sleek sunglasses have interchangable lenses that allow you to pick the perfect lens for the environment you're running in. I use the brown polarized lenses for sunny days. The orange and yellow lenses are excellent for dawn and dusk. They bring out vivid detail and seem to brighten the world around me. The clear lenses are good for night running when I don't want to get dust and dirt in my eyes. The company is always changing the mix of interchangable lenses, but whatever they're selling now it's worth it.

*Arriva Cordless iPod Shuffle (2nd Generation only) Headphones: The Arriva Headphones are ingenious. Take your iPod Shuffle and install it in the headphones, put it on with the iPod Shuffle at the back of your head, and plug in the earbuds. Viola! You have tunes without having to fight off a cord that wants to tangle your arms and neck. Some purists say you shouldn't run with tunes, but if I have a choice between tunes or hearing a truck rumble by I'll take the music. For safety, just be certain not to block out all outside sound. You don't want to get hit by that rumbling truck.

*Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver with Heart Rate Monitor: Looking for a coach and training buddy who won't miss a running appointment? The Garmin Forerunner 305 is it. The watch can be customized to show any set of data you want, including time, distance, heart rate, and pace. It records all the data so you can chart your progress on your home computer. Running in Florida heat, I'm very interested in my heart rate, when it gets higher than healthy, I back off. The watch even has a setting where you can run against a virtual opponent keeping your own best time on a set route. If it sounds fun, it is. Just don't get so lost in the data forest that you forget to enjoy the trees you're breezing past.

*Salomon Techamphibian Water Shoes: When it comes to running shoes, everyone's opinion is right on the mark. We all have different feet that need different shoes to be comfortable. Running in Florida heat, I prefer the simple perfection that is Salomon Techamphibian Water Shoes. The uppers are heavy on mesh, so my feet can breathe. But that doesn't mean they don't hold my feet secure. Strips of synthetic material, strong easy-pull laces and an adjustment strap at the heel hold my feet in place. They don't have any Space Age shock absorbers or springs, but I don't plan on running on the moon, so they get the job done.

Final Tips: 1) Start out slow and work your way up -- the destination is overall fitness; 2) Buy good running shoes and replace them when the treads show signs of wear; 3) Wear synthetic materials that, unlike cotton, evaporate moisture; 4) Wear light clothes in hot weather and layers that can be peeled off in cold weather; 5) Don't run if you're sick or injured; 6) Don't run with a head cold, you could send it deep into your chest; 6) You can run with normal aches in well-worked muscles but stop if you feel pulling or cramping or cracking in your ankles, knees or hips -- continuing to run with these symptoms could knock you out for weeks; 7) Run on an even surface to keep your ankles, knees and hips aligned; 8) For overall fitness, run and resistance (weight) train on alternating days; 9) If weight loss is your goal, be sure to eat a healthy diet; 10) Don't listen to the purists who think there's only one way to run; Do whatever it takes to make running fun and enjoyable for you and you will keep going.

Having the right gear doesn't make the runner, but it just might motivate the runner to get off the couch if it helps them enjoy the sport more. When people ask me how I can run three times a week for so many years, I tell them I have a choice: I can listen to tunes at home on the couch or while running outdoors. Running for your life, like everything else you do, will be as enjoyable and productive as you make it.

See you Thursday, November 19th, for Fast & Easy Guitar Lessons Are For Dummies...