Photos of flowers are a great way for new shooters to learn about photography. They are beautiful to look at, they stay in one place without complaint and there is a sense of accomplishment when you get a print worthy of hanging on your wall. Last week I shared five flower photography points to be aware of . You may read this and think the information is more common sense than useable tips but you would be surprised how easy it is to forget them. So rather than hash over the basics I thought I'd share a very simple, easy to make and easy to transport backdrop for your flower photos.

The thing with 'Murphy's Law' is that it is bound to mess with your plans. When I originally scheduled this workshop on using your camera's built-in light meter I was hoping for some of the worst lighting nature could give us. What better way to learn to adjust our techniques to extreme lighting conditions than to actually be in those conditions... Well, it seemed that Mother Nature was not going to cooperate with our plans. What was supposed to be a nice weekend quickly changed into a nasty, wet and chilly day. While it was not pleasant to work in what really ruined it for me as the instructor was that we ended up having some of the most beautiful light any portrait photographer could ever hope for. Wouldn't you know it!

  We all understand that the process of taking a photo captures a moment in time and freezes it forever. Yet life around us is constantly moving. So how do we express that motion and fluidity in a static two dimensional image? The answer lies in implying motion through the creative use of motion blur. While there are several techniques for capturing or creating motion blur, one of the most commonly used techniques is panning. While panning in itself is a simple technique, it does require practice in order to get that perfect shot. Here are a few tips and tricks to get you started in showing motion in your images through the use of panning.

Spring is here and with it come the opportunities to photograph the countless flowers all around us. Whether they are in our own garden, a public park or growing wild on the side of the road, we as photographers tend to be drawn to them. If not for their beauty then for nothing other than they are willing subjects for us, content to look up at us and smile for the camera. In preparation for this Spring's meet ups I have prepared a few broad points to get you thinking about how to approach your next flower session. I will be posting a few more articles on the subject in the next week or so.

I hosted a workshop for a small group yesterday on the subject of using Adobe's Lightroom 3. Because of the small size we were able to not only go over a lot of material but to also formulate the workshop to the needs of the attending members. At many points I could see the frustration in peoples eyes as they tried comprehending the material being presented and Betty, one of our members, had this to say. "There is a lot to learn. You will be taking these classes several times." She is so right.

One part of the exposure triangle , as we discussed, is aperture . Aperture controls our depth of field but not all depth of fields are the same. The amount of depth of field is influenced by many things including the type of lens, it's focal length, the focal plane and so much more than we can get into in this post. So to keep things simple to understand we will discuss depth of field in how it relates to focal distance and its relative focal plane.

Depth of field. It's a commonly used term tossed around by all photographers more often than can be counted. Because it is so much a part of our vocabulary we assume we know what it is and how to achieve it. That is until you are pressed to explain it or, worse still, when you are trying to achieve it and you're wracking your brain because you just can't seem to get it. Yes, on the surface we do understand what depth of field is. We are even happy when we achieve that blurred effect we were so longing for. The trick is to be consistent with it and understand why we have that consistency. Here is a little exercise to help you understand how depth of field works and how to achieve more consistent results.