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Photography Starter Guide and Checklist booklet surrounded by photography tips, sample images, and learning worksheets

Want to learn photography but have no clue where to begin and what to learn next??!

Steal my Photography Learning Blueprint and get the clarity, checklist and step by step game plan to help you get photos you love - quickly!

YES! GIMME THAT FREE GUIDE!

Audrey Murray 6/24/15 Audrey Murray 6/24/15

10 Tips for a Portrait Close Up

I love a simple classic portrait shot from time to time - having your subjects face as the centre of attention allows to really concentrate on their features and expressions, and can feel much more intimate than other portrait types.

And since it's been a while since I've done one, here's a classic "10 tips" post on them for you!

Audrey Murray 6/23/15 Audrey Murray 6/23/15

How Your Camera's Light Meter Works

When you are shooting in Manual Mode (or any other mode for that matter) you are probably using your camera's in-built light meter to "read" the light available in the scene and tell you when you have reached the correct exposure. When the little bar on your meter is at 0, that is your camera telling you that your image will be correctly exposed....in theory at least. However, sometimes, our camera's light meter can get it wrong. Here's why, and how to deal with it:

Audrey Murray 6/19/15 Audrey Murray 6/19/15

How To Get Perfect Exposure Using Spot Metering and the Zone System

Having problems getting your exposure spot on? Then I have got the tutorial for you! We are going take a look at how we can combine the awesomeness of spot metering, with the simplicity of something called the Zone System. This system was developed by a very famous black and white film photographer called Ansel Adams, who devised it as a way of determining the perfect exposure in camera for any given scene. Although this was created for black and white film users, we can steal it for use in color and digital photography too!

Enough history: Let's get crackin' with the tutorial!

Audrey Murray 6/10/15 Audrey Murray 6/10/15

Fake a Black Background: Introducing the Inverse Square Law

This is guest post from a couple of years ago that i've moved over from the old blog - so if you are are a long-time follower you may have read this before but it was such a good tutorial I had to share it again! If you have ever wondered how you can get a black background without a backdrop (or just need reminding!), then this is the post for you. Over to my good friend and wonderful photographer, Jan, to share how this is done....

First of all, thank you Audrey for having me back. Don’t you all just love Audrey’s blog? I think she can explain things more precisely than anyone else out there. She’s amazing!

Audrey Murray 5/21/15 Audrey Murray 5/21/15

10 Ways to Improve your Photography This Weekend

No matter where we are in our photography journey, I'm willing to bet that there are always to improve what we do or how we do it. Although everyone reading this will be at different stages along the road, and even on different paths, I hope that reading this post gives you some ideas of the areas you can work on this weekend regardless of where you are or what you do...

Audrey Murray 5/19/15 Audrey Murray 5/19/15

Photography Composition: Using the Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is one of the most basic principles of composition in photography, and one you will use all the time going forward! Here's how to do it:

What you need to do is imagine that your photograph is divided into nine equal sections by two horizontal and two vertical lines (as shown below) Apparently, when we look at something, our eyes are naturally drawn to the points where these lines intersect. Placing a point of interest on one of these intersections, or placing elements along one of the lines, gives the photo more balance and is more appealing to the viewer.

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How to Choose Your Settings in Manual Mode

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10 Things You Wish You Knew About Shooting In Manual Mode

It's been quite a few years now since I made the switch from Aperture Priority Mode to shooting in Manual Mode, and it was one of the BEST things I ever did to improve my photography skills.

It was like a whole new world opened up to me, and I started TRULY understanding exposure, and in turn, getting the images that I wanted.

Of course, there was a lot to learn, and there are some things I wish I had known before I started!

So, here are 10 things about shooting in Manual Mode that you might just wish you knew…

4 Reasons You Should Be Editing Your Photos (and how to do it)

If there is one thing that comes up again and again when we talk about photography, it's EDITING - the steps you take AFTER you have pressed the shutter and uploaded your images. It's a whole other world of things to learn and master and as such it can be quite overwhelming for new photographers.

Because it's yet another thing you need to add to your "to learn" list, it can be tempting not to bother doing it, or slap a action / preset on and call it a day. However, editing your images is an important part of the photography process and one that I believe you should at least start to learn as soon as possible.

In this post I'm going to share exactly WHY you should edit your images, what programs you can use, and the order in which you should learn everything in.

Ooooh, that sounds like a lot to get through! Best get started then :)

11 Things All New Photographers Should Know

I’ve made more mistakes that I can count over my 11 years in photography, and I definitely took longer to get where I wanted to be because of them!

I’m going to hazard a guess that actually, you’re a lot like me back then - you want to get great photos, and you want them NOW.

101 Things to Photograph (with examples & exercises!)

Today, I’m sharing 101 things to photograph when you feel you’ve got absolutely nothing in front of you you can take a picture of!

This post was inspired by one of my Auto to Awesome students, who wrote to me saying she didn’t feel she had anything “good” around her to take photos of.

And she’s most definitely not alone - we’ve ALL had that feeling like there is absolutely nothing around us to photograph (or that we’ve just photographed it all already) so we need to get ourselves off to an exciting location, or visit a new place just in order to find something.

The truth is, there is always something to photograph, both at home, or in your local area. It doesn’t matter where you live, what your house is like, or whether you live in a built up location like a city or near a park; there WILL be countless things worth taking a photo of….you just have to open your eyes to them!

Example Photos With Camera Settings (& Why I chose them!)

Have you ever looked at photos from other photographers and wished that they would share their camera settings as well?

I know that I certainly did!

Which is why today I'm going to share with you some example, photos, along with the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings that I use, but most importantly, why I chose them.

8 Child Photography Poses For Stunning Kid Photography!

Want some child photography poses that are quick, easy and downright cute? Then I have 8 pose ideas for you, along with example photos for each one, that are tried and tested and will give you great photos of kids.

You can use these poses on your OWN kids, or if you’re business, you can use these for ideas during a paid kids photoshoot too.

You can also vary these standard poses greatly, so you’ll never run out of ideas again!

As usual, we have two ways to enjoy this - either watch the video below, or scroll down to read the blog post and see all the child photography poses in action!