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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 4/30/15 Audrey Murray 4/30/15

My Ideas for Displaying & Saving Kids Artwork

Last week I finished photographing around three years worth of artwork and the resulting images are all now stored nice and neat on my hard drive. Whilst this is great as it means it is all backed up - and out of the way! - I don't really like having things just stored digitally. For me the whole point of keeping these is so that they can be enjoyed in years to come, but also in the here and now - people don't generally flip through a hard drive in quite the same way!

So, I had two goals in mind when photographing the artwork - Firstly to have it out on display, and secondly to have it saved for long term, but in an accessible way. Here's what I've done so far...

Audrey Murray 4/23/15 Audrey Murray 4/23/15

How to Photograph Children's Artwork

Every week my son will come home from school with at least two or three new works of art - and possibly a certificate or two - which up until now I've simply been tossing into a large storage basket. Even though not every single one makes it into the basket, the pile is still getting pretty big, so to stop it from becoming overwhelming, I've decided to take action on the artwork!

Audrey Murray 4/20/15 Audrey Murray 4/20/15

How to Use Negative Space in Photography

Negative space (sometimes also called White Space) is simply an area of "empty" space around the subject of your image. Space that is negative is usually either a neutral or contrasting background that draws your eye to the main subject of your photograph.

Audrey Murray 4/16/15 Audrey Murray 4/16/15

How to Use Window Light for Portraits: A Step by Step Guide

Want smooth, even skin and eyes that are full of life in your child portraits? I bet you do! This simple tutorial will guide you through the first steps of using natural window or doorway light to create beautiful portraits.

Audrey Murray 4/12/15 Audrey Murray 4/12/15

The 3 Types of Portrait Shots You Should Be Taking

Sometimes it can feel like we take the same images time and time again! That's why I always try to mix it up by making sure that I include three types of photos when taking images of a person.

Although that sounds like a little amount of options, within these basic types you will have a considerable amount of variation available on each one, depending on where you place your subject and where you shoot from, how you have them pose etc.

If you keep these three simple types of portrait shots in mind when shooting, you will help make sure you get a good range of photos from one session.

Ready? Let's go!

Audrey Murray 4/9/15 Audrey Murray 4/9/15

How to Use Kelvin for White Balance

White Balance is my nemesis, and I am sure it is many of yours too! There are a few ways you can set your white balance in camera - you can use Auto White Balance (not recommended!), use one of the presets available in your camera (like Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten etc) then tweak in processing, or set a Custom White Balance, or use Kelvin...

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A young girl with long hair lying on her stomach, resting her head on her folded arms, and smiling gently at the camera in a black and white photo.

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A young girl with short blonde hair in a pink shirt smiling and holding a small cookie outdoors.

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Fresh red strawberries being rinsed in a white colander under running water.

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!