You got it wrong about Amateur Photography

Yes its true you can be one too. heres where you start, if you don't have a digital camera already well thats probably a good place to start. Digital cameras have grown up very fast since they started and you can get a good SLR for under £600. I myself prefure Canon but you can go for what you want. Ok so we have you fixed up with a nice camera. now you want to know how to use it. well all cameras work basically the same but you still read the manual for your camera. you have the capture button, the button that when you hold the camera is the big button under your finger half pressing makes the camera set up the focus so its pic sharp and depending if you leave it in auto will take lots of other things into account: like exposure, white balance, and if to use the flash. I don't use the flash because it makes the photo to bright and unnatural. To turn off the flash is normally button that has a lightening bolt icon pressing on most cameras will ever just turn it of with a icon on the display with that icon with a line through it or to a menu to turn if off.

OK so now i assume you've looked through you camera manual or at least got a idea of how the camera works. Now its time to go have some fun. Now you can go out and fine things your interested in, what you are trying to do is explain the scene through a picture. Your picture is trying to tell the person about the sounds around you, smells, emotions of people or animals in the photo. A Cracking photo is a photo that a person can look as and can say it feels like i was really there. Ok so lets take an example, lets say you like flowers and its a nice summers day. You can like take a photo of that flower say with the sun casting a shadow on the ground next to it on some nice fresh grass. when a person looks at that photo they can tell its a summers day, the light glow gives off the impression that its a hot day and that the grass looks fresh so you can smell it and smell the flowers. Understand what i mean, Good. Check out my site for more http://theamateurphotographyblog.com/
Here are some things to keep in mind as your taking your pictures.

-Rule of thirds: The rule of thirds is basically the idea of segmenting the picture into a 3 by 3 grid in your viewfinder. The idea is that the subject of the picture is to go into the middle box and you have something above the subject like sky if its a person, something below like ground and space on each side of them. This is to make the picture not look crowded but over the years i have experimented with this and found that the 3 by 3 ground the box's don't have to be the same size. The subject can take up more of the picture than just the center of the picture, Just don't take up the whole picture in a portrait say with uncle David's head so it makes it look like his heads so big it blocks out the sun. All i can say is experiment with the rule of thirds and see what works and what don't, i would say that the subject's box can only take up 6/8 of the screen at max anything more is too much.

-Don't take pictures into the sun: you don't want to take pictures into the sun. you really want to take them with the sun behind you but without getting your own shadow in the shot, or you want it to your side. NEVER face your camera into the sun because this will damage the sensor, and if your not looking at a LCD screen your eye too.

-Don't get anything on your lens: getting dirt or dust on your lens will leave horrible patches on your photos. If you do get anything on your lens use a special lens cleaner to wipe it of carefully. pressing down hard or just using a normal cloth is likely to scratch your lens and you don't want that, do you. DON'T use your finger ever as the tiny molecules of sweet on your fingers will leave smudges on your lens too.

Baring these in mind you can go out there now. Go have some fun, and experiment. Oh and before i forget, check out my site for more information the site is http://theamateurphotographyblog.com/