Capital Photography Center Blog

January 1, 2019

6 Tips To Improve Your Photography In 2019

Marie Joabar

Whether you’re packing up the holiday decorations or finalizing your 2019 resolutions list, we’re all beginning fresh for 2019. What will the new year hold for you?

For your photography, this is the perfect time to sit down with your photos from 2018 and with a critical eye, determine your weakness(es) and where the opportunities for improvement lie. Here are some broad categories to help get you started.

Further down, you’ll find tips from some of our instructors, give them a look.

December 20, 2018

Celebrate Photography This Holiday Season

Marie Joabar

Celebrate the voice photography gives you now at this festive time and throughout the year. Check out these past holiday Blog articles, perhaps you'll find some fresh ideas for your holiday photos.

November 15, 2018

Camera Picture Styles and Lightroom Profiles

Marie Joabar

Whether we’re setting a Picture Style in our camera or using Lightroom’s Profiles, we can tap into these creative tools to make our images pop. Let’s look at each and discover how we might use them.  

October 26, 2018

Inspired In Italy

Marie Joabar

What an amazing week we had on our first international photography workshop exploring Tuscany! With a group of 9 workshop participants, we set off to capture exciting images and all came home with memory cards filled.

October 4, 2018

Photo Shows and Expos

Marie Joabar

We'll find 2 of the most popular photo shows and exhibits this fall and we want to share that information in the hope you’ll make it to one of them and find inspiration or learn new techniques to take your photography to the next level.

Our favorite show is NATURE VISIONS PHOTO EXPO on November 3-5.

September 12, 2018

Tips To Capture Fun At The Fairs

Marie Joabar

Most of us think of the state and county fairs as summertime events but you’ll find many held in September as well.  Loved and anticipated by many, these annual events began in the early nineteen hundreds as a way to bring people together to showcase area farming, livestock and agriculture.  Today’s fairs continue that tradition but also offer a wide assortment of entertainment as well, such as music, carnival rides, circus tents and more.

For the shutterbug, these fairs offer endless opportunities to photograph during the day or night, indoors or out, the possibilities are many.

August 23, 2018

Getting Back To The Learning - 8 Tips

Marie Joabar

It’s the back to school time of year, why not use it as an excuse to crack the books, get down to studying and get that learning going again. Learning new things or getting stronger with a skill is a great pursuit.

We hope to see you at some of our classes soon but until then, here are a few ideas to help you with your learning.

August 1, 2018

Improve Your Skills With 52Frames Weekly Photo Challenge

Beth Haubach

Improving your photography skills can come in many forms and take any number of different avenues. While I've dabbled in photography for the past 40 years it's only in recent years that I've become more "serious" about my photography. More recently I began looking for ways to challenge myself and improve my skills: enter 52Frames!

July 12, 2018

Metering Modes For Better Exposures

Marie Joabar

Choosing one Metering Mode over another helps us capture better exposures without so much trial and error. The light meter in our camera is trying to make everything middle gray but changing what area it is metering will change the exposure. 

June 21, 2018

13 Tips for Summer Vacation Photos

Marie Joabar

Summer Vacation season is here and whether you’re enjoying a Stay-cation or heading to a distant city or National Park or the nearby shores or mountains, we hope your camera’s going along with you. 

Here are 13 tips to help you capture exciting images from it as well as tips to protect your gear and memories.

May 31, 2018

The Handy Histogram (And Why We Should Use It)

Marie Joabar

One of the best ways to ensure a good exposure is to check the histogram in the playback mode. This handy tool can be found on just about every cameras usually by cycling through the ‘display’ or ‘info’ button while in the Playback mode. Some cameras even offer a ‘live’ histogram so you can measure exposure before we take the photo. 

May 8, 2018

The Color Of Light And White Balance Settings

Marie Joabar

If you’ve ever taken a photo and it had a strange color cast, the setting responsible is the White Balance. This setting in our camera helps us balance the color of the light we’re shooting under. Our eyes don’t usually see the color cast but our cameras definitely do and if we don’t set the right WB we may end up with an undesirable color cast in our image.

April 17, 2018

Ideas For Spring Inspiration

Marie Joabar

 Now that it’s finally spring, we’re all eager to get outdoors with our cameras but if we haven’t been photographing much over the winter, we may be rusty and need a little inspiration to get our creative juices flowing again.

 Here are a few ideas to kick start your photographic vision this spring.

March 29, 2018

10 Tips For Photographing Cherry Blossoms

Marie Joabar

We’re all eager to get outdoors with our cameras again and the Cherry Blossoms give us the first opportunity to capture the beauty of spring. It’s late to arrive here in the DC area, we just have to be patient, soon the Cherry Blossoms will present their spectacular display!

It’s hard to not take a good photo of these lovely flowers but we wanted to share these 10 tips so when they are in peak bloom, we’ll all be ready.

January 25, 2018

Camera Repair Considerations

Marie Joabar

Mechanical cameras of yesteryear seemed to last forever; there were few if any moving parts and camera computer components didn’t exist yet. The most common repairs were for broken film door latches or stuck shutter blades. Fast forward to today and we find the complete opposite; many moving parts and buttons, and tiny circuit boards under the hood presenting a variety of things that can fail.

Consider if you really need a camera repair, and if so, decide where to take or send it. Also, consider whether buying a new one might be a smarter option.