Welcome to the blog!

Scroll down for the latest and greatest, filter by category, check out the most popular tutorials, or search for what you want to learn below!

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 10/26/15 Audrey Murray 10/26/15

Everything You Need to Know About Camera Lenses

It doesn't matter where you are in your photography journey - just starting out or a seasoned old timer - lenses will always be important to you, since they are pretty essential tools in digital photography! So I figured it would be a good idea to put together a post that brings together all the posts I've written about lenses over the last year or so, so everything you need to know is all in one place for easy reference.

Whether you ready to buy your first lens or just looking to add to your lens collection, there should be something for you here!

Audrey Murray 10/20/15 Audrey Murray 10/20/15

Comparing White Balance Methods

At the end of yesterday's post on the 6 different ways to set white balance, I promised some comparisons between a few of the different methods outlined there, so here they are! I'll be comparing Auto White Balance, the Preset settings on the camera, Kelvin, Gray Card , and the ExpoDisc .

Audrey Murray 10/19/15 Audrey Murray 10/19/15

6 Ways to Set White Balance

Getting white balance right in camera is an extra step when shooting, but it’s so worth it to get rid of all of those wonky color casts that make your photos look awful! Whilst you can always change your white balance later in processing, it’s much easier to get it right in camera, and will save you a ton of time in editing, promise.

Here are six different ways to set your white balance when taking your photos.

Audrey Murray 10/16/15 Audrey Murray 10/16/15

Lifestyle Photography: 8 Tips for Capturing your Own Children

If you have children that love getting their photo taken, then I totally envy you! As my son has grown up and developed his own (strong willed) personality, he has also grown more resistant to getting his picture taken. Of course that is fine – I mean, who wants to have a lens in their face everyday? – but as a mother who wants to document our family life, it can be downright tricky at times! However, I have my ways of making sure I can still take lifestyle shots, either by ensuring his co-opration, or by being sneaky :)

So, if you are one of those who have children who either cower or complain when the camera comes out, here are my tips for getting lifestyle images of your children, whilst ensuring that they are still comfortable with it.

Audrey Murray 10/14/15 Audrey Murray 10/14/15

Shooting with Photo Books in Mind

I been making a photo book a year for a couple of years now, and over that time I have (unwittingly!) developed a shooting style that helps me more easily develop page spreads that look good together in my family photo books. I still end up with a few pages of random photos, but for the most part, the pages look more like they were "meant" to be together, and I can put the thing whole together more quickly.

This is what I aim for when shooting day-to-day stuff that I know will make it into my photo books, but I think the following tips would apply if you are a lifestyle photographer and want to be able to sell photo books too.

Audrey Murray 10/13/15 Audrey Murray 10/13/15

6 Tips for Better Indoor Photos

As winter draws in, I do find myself shooting indoors more often, which presents it's own set of challenges - working in smaller locations, and dealing with less light are the two that spring first to mind! I used to shy away from shooting indoors, but as much of our normal, everyday lives take place indoors, it was important to me to get more comfortable with shooting there!

Here are my tips for improving your indoor photos:

BLOG CATEGORIES

Choose your topic!

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.

Check Out These Reader Favourites

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

4 Tips to Make Your Images Look More Professional

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

How to Choose Your Settings in Manual Mode

Featured

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!