With Spring, comes great photo opps.  Try these tips to take great candid photos.

Candid photography is by definition taking pictures of people when they are unaware.  Part of the fun in photography is catching your subject off guard so that your pictures have more emotion.  Photographers who work for magazines, like Time Life, have been able to get candid shots of their subjects.  Taking candid shots may appear easy although there are few techniques in the photography world that will make the candid shot worth more than just a snap shot of friends and family.

First and, of course, most important is to keep the subject in view while they are not paying attention.  The next step is training your eye to catch the moment.  You have to be able to move fast, but with design.  You need to have your camera set for the picture before you are even aware you will take the photograph.  The best way to do this if you have a digital or automatic camera is to keep it on the proper setting.  Manual cameras take moments to focus and can loose the candid shot if your subject becomes aware of you.

Candid photography relies on the light; however, you may not always get to choose the angle.  The angle could be where you are standing at the time.  As a photographer of candid photography, you know the importance of choosing the best angle at the right moment that is possible.

The entire point of candid photography is to gain the unguarded moments of a person’s emotions, whether it is tears, happiness, love, or other emotions.  While it is true, you need to have light, angle, and a good camera to catch the shot it is more important to observe.  Most photographers are trained observers.  Their eyes will wander over the crowds, landscape, or other setting searching for the perfect shot.  They will always have a camera ready.  It can be extremely hard when you are taking photographs of your friends because they tend to be more involved in the conversations or activity.

The key to taking candid photographs of your friends and family is to draw them away from the fact that you carry a camera.  If they forget, they are more likely going to act natural.  Some people tend to pose in front of the camera while others will shy away turning their backs when you get ready to take a photograph.  Knowing your friends will help you find the best way to take candid shots without their knowledge.

Observing, having the camera ready, and understanding the basics of photography will yield you better results when you try for a candid shot.  Posing or turning away from the camera will take away from the shot you hoped to attain so hanging to the side or a little ahead can get you the shot you may need.  Profiles make great candid shots because the person will not realize you are taking a photograph until you have already clicked the button.  Grab your camera and go for it!

New Year’s resolutions are made every year by millions of people.  Unfortunately, many if not most of them are never completed.  If you plan to make a resolution, you may want to set a New Year goal that is not beyond your reach.

Your ultimate New Year’s resolution may be to learn a new language or organize your whole house.  However, an unreasonable goal is to assume you could do either of those in a short period of time.  Some goals are possible within a month, such as losing five pounds, but learning how to speak fluent Spanish in that amount of time absolutely is not.

Where there is no vision, the people will perish.” — Proverbs 29:18  It is important for us to plan for the future.  Sometimes setting long-range goals can be overwhelming because they’re so far out in the future that we doubt if we’ll ever meet them.  If there aren’t intermediate goals along the way to your ultimate goal, it will be too easy for you to lose focus and give up.

Instead of having just the one, long-range goal, consider having small goals that you can work on - even on a daily basis.  This will help you by allowing you to feel a sense of accomplishment when you meet one of the smaller goals, as well as letting you know you’re on the right track to reach your goal.

How do you break down one big goal into several smaller goals?  That all depends upon what your goal is.  You can choose best what you need to do each day to help keep you on track.  Don’t let your gaze go too far down the trail that you have laid out for yourself.  If you don’t stay focused on the day at hand, you might miss something wonderful along the way.

Remember that reaching a goal is much like going on a journey.  If you’re too focused on the destination, you’ll miss the beauty along the way.  You can stop along the way and smell the roses rather than speeding along the path you’re on and missing them entirely.  By setting smaller goals that you can reach, you’ll be moving toward your goal and be much more likely to actually reach it.

Don’t give up if things don’t work out exactly like you’ve planned.  Things in life happen that may keep you from reaching a small goal in the time you had hoped.  When things settle back down you can pick up where you left off.  It may take longer to reach your goal than you wanted, but that’s no reason to give up.

Give yourself a reward when you’ve reached a smaller goal, rather than waiting to complete the large goal.  Knowing you’ll have a small reward when you have met a goal may be the force you need to keep going when you feel discouraged.

When you have a goal in mind, consider the steps you can take.  Set New Year’s goals that are not beyond your reach.  Reward yourself when you’ve reached a small goal and then keep going to the next one.

Each New Year millions of Americans make resolutions to change things about their lives.  They may want to lose weight, use their time more wisely, conquer clutter in their homes, or take time to learn a new skill.  With a new year, a new you is possible if you set goals and work toward achieving them.

Some people haven’t been very good at setting goals or at attaining them.  These ideas for setting goals may be what you need to make a new and improved you become a reality.

What is it about yourself that you would like to change in the coming year?  Decide what your final goal will be, but don’t fixate on that final goal.  Instead, think about small steps that you can take that will lead you, ultimately, to that final goal.

Don’t beat yourself up if you’ve made New Year’s resolutions in the past but haven’t succeeded.  The beauty of a new year is that it’s a chance for new beginnings.  Start out thinking positive about what you want to change; don’t think back to the failures.  Try one more time to affect the change you want to see in yourself.

Even if there are several things you want to work on or change in your life, it’s a good idea to focus on only one aspect at a time.  Too many resolutions will cause you not only to fail, but to fail at all of them.  You’ve felt bad enough about failing with one resolution in the past, so don’t set yourself up for a fall in relation to all of them.

Make your own resolution because it’s something you want to do, not because someone is pressing you to change.  If you truly want to change something about yourself, you may ask your friends and family to encourage and cheer you on, but don’t make a resolution based on what they want.  The decision to change has to come from within.

Write down your goal, what it is you want to accomplish, and set a time frame to master it in.  Give yourself time if you have a good deal of weight to lose.  You didn’t gain the weight overnight; you can’t expect to lose it as quickly.  Set small, measurable, and attainable goals.

Remember that New Year’s resolutions are goals that we set for ourselves that will hopefully give us the courage to step out and change ourselves in some way.  If you have a day that you blow your resolution, it’s not the end of the world.  Pick up the next day right back where you were when you fell, then do your best to reach your individual goals and you’ll be that much closer to the final goal you set.

This is not an electronics blog, but I think that I need to take a minute to talk electronics.  With Christmas morning fastly approaching, it’s time to get everything in check.  You’ve mailed the cards and bought the presents, so you breathe a sigh of relief.  But, that’s not all that you should make sure is taken care of!  Don’t be stuck at your Christmas events without a way to capture the memories.

Having a camera and camcorder is not enough.  If your camera takes film, make sure you have plenty of it.  If it stores pictures on a memory card, make sure there is plenty of room to store more pictures.  Also, don’t get stuck with dead batteries.  Charge your batteries and take your charger with you in case you have to recharge along the way.

Taking these extra steps will ensure you have a record of those special moments and can enjoy them for years to come.

Ok, so maybe its a little early, but I am already agonizing over losing these holiday pounds that I have gained.  The worst news is, I have not yet been through Christmas and New Years.  It is such a struggle this time of year because of all the special events that you get to be a part of.  One of my most favorite events will be on Wednesday.  Instead of exchanging gifts, a couple of my friends and I treat ourselves to afternoon tea at the Duke Inn.  I can’t wait.

BUT, this still leaves me with the weight gain.  I will be looking at my alternatives in the next few entries.