A snapping I will go, but it's all about the composition baby!

Earlier this year I decided to take up photography. Let me be clear... Before I made this life changing decision I knew very little about taking pictures, all's I was concerned about was weather or not the photo was blurry. I'm still very much in the early stages of learning about photography but I thought I would share some of what I learn as I go, maybe you may find something useful for when you are taking your snaps and I will have some 'study notes'.  

Unfortunately i'm not exactly cash rich at present so I can't run out and buy myself a nice SLR camera and start shooting. However i'm not going to be letting that stop me. Fan's of my personal blog will have read that I recently got my hands on the Iphone 4 which, as part of its many excellent features, has a very nice 5mp camera. The added benefit of using a low end camera such as this or a 'point and shoot' (none SLR camera's or pocket cameras) is that I can focus on one of the most important elements of photography... Composition.  

Composition, the best way I can explain it, is how you line up and frame your shot. In photography there are many rules which can help guide you, but it is important always remember that these are NOT set in stone and when taking some photo's these rules will not apply. The 1st rule I learnt is arguably the most important and has had a dramatic impact on how good my photo's look. The rule is called the rule of thirds. Put simply it explains that as you are getting ready to take your photo and you are looking through the view finder or screen imagine it is split up into a grid of 9 squares. Then you use this to frame your shot. Rather than me attempt to explain this further and probably confuse you more I would suggest you google it, there are a crazy amount of articles on this and the rule of thirds is such a big topic you could talk for hours about it and when and when not to use it. By using the rule of thirds you photo's composition will look 10 times better without the need to run out and buy any expensive camera's or equipment, cool ay? I'm still very green in the world of photography but if there's one thing i've learnt it's that no matter how good your equipment is if you can't compose the shot your photo will look like you handed over your camera to a 5 year old to take the picture.

So there you have it, my 1st lesson in photography. As I go I'll share good sources of info that i've learnt from. To kick you off i'd like to direct you to where I started, it was a podcast on the pixelcorps.tv network called This week in photography. I started from the very 1st episode, each focuses on a different topic, I leant a lot from listening these and i'm only through about 20 shows.

As i'm mainly using an iphone to take photo's i'll also be using a number of iphone apps to aid my photography so keep an eye out on this blog for my reviews on thoughts and I'd love to hear if you are finding any of this usefully or if you have any hits or tips please comment bellow...

Happy Snapping

G

O2 - How to deal with Stock Shortage the right away

O2 have put this statment on their site

iPhone 4 will only be available for existing O2 customers at launch 

iPhone stock will be extremely limited in the UK at launch and not everybody who wants one will be able to get one straight away. We want to make sure that our existing customers get priority so until at least the end of July, only existing O2 customers will be able to get an iPhone 4 from us. 

Whether you're an existing O2 mobile customer looking to upgrade, or one of our broadband customers looking to move your mobile to O2, our iPhone stock is reserved exclusively for you.

I have to say i'm very impressed with how O2 are handling their limited supply of the highly coveted iphone 4's. I fully expected that it would be a 1st come 1st serve basis with the emphasis on getting new customers but no! The focus is to reward loyalty by giving existing customers priority even if you are just a broadband customer bravo O2.

Read the full statement here

1st Iphone 4 camper has started his wait.

Just read a post on Engadget about some crazy dude already set up camp outside an Apple store to be 1st in line for the iphone 4 which isn't released until 24th June! This is the video of the guy's temporary pad.

Now thats dedication!

Iphone 4 - UK Apple store now taking pre-orders

It's Tuesday the 15th and as promised Iphone 4 is appearing on Apple online stores. The UK store has just updated.

So the options for now are 16GB at £499 and 32GB at £599. Disappointingly only black is available at present, customers are limited to just two so no getting greedy! Not seeing anything yet from any of the Mobile companies such as O2, Orange or Vodafone.

So if your waiting for a pre-orders to open now is the time, go, order your shinny new iphone 4 and rejoice!

G

Will you be pre-ordering from Apple directly so you can be free from a contract or will you be getting a subsidized version and possible get in bed with the devil? Leave you comments at the bottom