Capital Photography Center Blog

January 26, 2021

7 Habits for an Effective Photographer

Emily Carter Mitchell

Recently I was reminded about a superb life-guiding tool I had training in when I worked in the corporate world; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a well-rounded approach to life and to creating a work-life balance that sets priorities on those things that are important and recognizing the things that are not.

Most of us are quite busy and struggle to fit photography into our daily lives so developing some solid habits that contribute to your growth as a digital artist will be beneficial. We all have choices on how our time is spent and the more that we use that time pro-actively versus re-actively helps us become more productive. So how does this transfer to guiding you in becoming a more effective photographer?

Once you begin setting photography as part of your routine, hopefully daily if not weekly, it will become more second nature for you. 

January 5, 2021

Kickstart a Personal Photography Project this Year!

Lori Lankford

Start the new year with a personal photography project! Projects offer you a way to experiment, dive deep into a skill, and expand as an artist and, they are not dependent on time, space, location, camera, or skill level. Let's dive into the guidelines for projects, ideas to get you started, and explore projects for inspiration.

December 17, 2020

Our Favorite Photo Accessories

Admin

With the Holiday shopping season in full swing, we thought we’d share a list of the favorite photography accessories of our instructors and staff. You might find a few to add to your Santa list or perhaps get some gift ideas for your shutterbug friends.  Holiday shopping or not, we hope you'll find some handy accessories for yourself from our favorites listed here. 

November 4, 2020

Become A Weather Chaser

Emily Carter Mitchell

As the days become shorter and winter looms ahead it can be challenging to find inspiration. However, changing weather can bring a boon of unexpected photographic opportunities.

October 13, 2020

Brightness and Visual Weight

Roy Sewall

We can observe that viewers' visceral reactions to photographs are driven by the subject, light, composition, and color (or black-and-white tones). I believe that all four of these "attractors" have to be in good condition to make a great photograph; we've observed that if any of them are lacking viewers will be less pleased with the photograph. However, even if they are all in good condition, there are over 60 "detractors" that can ruin a photo. Awareness of these issues is very helpful for creating successful photographs

September 23, 2020

Are You Ready For Autumn?

Marie Joabar

Gone are the hazy, humid days of summertime and it’s so much easier to enjoy photography now as we’re not bothered by pesky bugs, and stifling heat. Instead, we find crisp mornings, cool breezes and the promise of a beautiful color palette to photograph.

Here are a few ideas for photographing fall. And check out the fall themed class list below to inspire you further.

September 2, 2020

10 Minutes A Day

Lori Lankford

No matter where you are as a photographer spending just 10 minutes a day with your camera can help you grow, improve your skills, and add some great images to your portfolio. 

August 13, 2020

Phone Photography Pointers

Marie Joabar

Many of us have DSLR or Mirrorless cameras yet we all turn to our phone camera at times simply because it’s always with us and let’s face it, it’s just quicker and easier to share right away from our phone.  

Having a collection of go-to Apps will help take your phone photography to the next level, the Apps are your tools and you’ll use the one that will give you the look you’re after.  The choices are endless but here are a few of our favorite capture and editing apps.

July 22, 2020

Shutdown Silver Linings

Marie Joabar

Curious about what we were doing with our time during the shutdown? Read on and discover how many of our instructors and staff kept themselves busy and motivated with their photography these past few months. Learn what they found as a Silver Lining in all of this. 

June 25, 2020

10 Tips For Landscape Photography

Marie Joabar

The key to an engaging landscape image is to photograph visually interesting scenes, convey a sense of depth, have foreground interest and use strong compositional elements. Review these 10 tips for stronger Landscape shots.

May 16, 2020

Editing Your People Pics

Catherine Simmons

Whether you are taking casual family & friends’ photos or capturing professional style headshots and portraits, having the skills to edit them will make your images stand “head and shoulders” above the rest, pun intended. 

April 25, 2020

5 Social Media Tips For Photographers

Claire Edkins

Social media is one of the most powerful tools a photographer can use to get their work out there to new clients, editors, or just art lovers. Social media like Instagram and Facebook have become proven business tools in this new market and are crucial to a photographer’s success. However, social media can be intimidating. We all want to get our work out there and reach new people, but with the millions of photos out there it can feel easy to get lost in the algorithms. But fear not! Your work deserves to be seen and these tips and tricks are here to help! 

March 4, 2020

Spring Things To Photograph

Marie Joabar

Winter is behind us now and we’re so excited to see the signs of spring! It’s time to get in the outdoor shooting mode again and enjoy capturing our favorite things at our favorite places.

Whether you prefer to photograph flowers, or friends and family framed against a lovely spring backdrop, or capture street scenes at one of the area’s spring festivals we hope you’ll find a few choice places to visit in the list below to help get your spring groove on.

Grab your camera and let’s get the season started!

February 12, 2020

Which Version Of Lightroom Should You Choose?

Marie Joabar

Although it’s been almost 3 years since Adobe introduced a second Lightroom version (Oct 2017) there remains a lot of confusion about which version does what and which one you should use. Here’s hoping this article clarifies some of that.

January 23, 2020

Camera Sensor Cleaning Options

Marie Joabar

​If you have a digital interchangeable lens camera, chances are at some point you’ll come across sensor dust. You’ll first notice it as little spots in the same place on all of your pictures. More an inconvenience than anything else, if not removed from the sensor, you’ll spend time removing it from your photos when editing.

Consider the options for sensor cleaning, either by doing it yourself or by having it done professionally.