Beyond the Aperture: An Inside Look at Photography

When going away on vacation, you want to take the best shots of landscapes, family, friends, and events.

This post will give you a few tips on how to do that without getting your guests annoyed with you. There is nothing worse than your own personal papparazzi. Hearing every five seconds "Hold on, I want to take a picture. Smile!" can be quite aggrivating, resulting in a fake smiles and horrible photographs.

Photographers have known for quite a while that the most pure photographs of family and friends are candid, which is the reason many photographers have assistants that specifically take those candid photographs. These photographs really show the personality of those you are photographing and there is nothing better than catching your husband, wife, parents, friends, siblings, etc. in mid-laugh.

Yes, you can pose your family a couple of times on your vacation, but make sure not to take only those photographs. The ones you end up putting in your scrapbooks will be those moments you capture of unsuspecting subjects.

This Post's Best Shot: This post, I have chosen to feature my photograph of a silversword bush at Haleakala National Park in Hawaii. While there are many different ways I have taken this photograph, this was one of the more unusual angles I used. When taking pictures, you always want to be trying different angles because it could make a huge difference. Taking this photograph, I wasn't standing above it or taking it from far away. I was only three feet or so from the silversword bush, lying on the ground in order to get the mountains in the background. Instead of the dry, dirt ground in the background of the bush, the mountains give the entire photograph more appeal. Next time you see something interesting, get above it or below it to create the most interesting photograph you can.