Q. Is there anything you wish you knew when you started photographing?

A.

Sriram Guruswamy (Style – Potrait)

I never had the luxury of a mentor or of a formal training. My Photography style is totally self-taught and it took years to get evolved. I realized late that photography is not just about capturing something that is already beautiful.
There is a bigger dimension to it as being an honest perspective into those real moments of truth depicted in an aesthetic way.

Fabien Bravin (Style – Macro)

He he… On my side, there is nothing that comes to my mind right now. But, I think my wife wish she knew, when I began photography, that macro was a kind of drug and that you can become quickly addicted to.

Richard Gastwirt (Style – Stage Show)

If I didn’t learn by trial and error, the lessons probably wouldn’t have stuck. So I’m not sure that if there’s anything I wish I knew. But it took me a while to realize that the histogram was more important than my exposure needle and that cameras aren’t very intelligent and their metering isn’t suited to concert photography.

James Brandon (Style – HDR)

In the beginning, I wish I had surrounded myself with other photographers. I’m currently a part of a local photography group through meetup.com and it is awesome. I think a new and aspiring photographer should surround themselves with other photographers to learn from them and grow.

Mukul Soman (Style – Street)

I wish I knew how to anticipate a moment and wait for it, before taking that photograph at the right time.

Phalgun P (Style – Wedding)

Yes! There is one thing which I came across very late. It is the podcast series of the photographer Brooks Jenson called Lenswork. Each of them is just three minutes long and it leaves you thinking at the end. I wish I’d started listening to his podcasts before.

Enjo Mathew (Style – Visual Art)

I am painfully self taught, so yes, there are a lot of things I now know, that I wish I knew back then. I have never gone for any formal photography classes nor have I gone to anyone to formally train me. I just had the will and a lot of patience to discover things around me on my own.

Nidhin G Poothully (Style – Wildlife)

I usually travel to the jungles in Karnataka as they are nearer since I stay in Bangalore. In my earlier days, I used to get excited a lot while seeing a bird or a mammal. I have tried to capture them in my camera as soon as possible. I used to chase them away as they see the sudden flurry of my activities. Now I know that I need more patience to get the click without causing the least disturbance to the subject.

In all wildlife encounters, there are a thousand possibilities to take a bad photo and there are only one or two opportunities to take a good photo. A nature photographer learns to be ready for that perfect moment. This needs years of patience and practice.

Jyothy Karat (Style – Photo Documentary)

Ayyo! I can’t think of anything specific at the moment.

When you are starting out and learning the photography basics in the Academy, you will be flooded with the works of other master photographers. They are the references that will inspire you.

The study on the history of a painting or an object of art can also have a profound influence on your photography style.
That’s something I could have started earlier. Nowadays I am reading a lot on these subjects.

Recently a friend of mine asked me to help his friend buy a DSLR. To be frank, it left me scratching my head as I was at a loss as to what to tell him. Then I realized that the posts that have been published in antzFxWay are indeed a great place to start, if read in the right order. Once I sent him the mail, I figured it could help more people. So here is the post from where you can start your research.

	A Beginners Guide to Buying a DSLR (from a Beginner) I wanted to make a transition from P&S to DSLR. So I asked Google, my all-knowing ever-faithful friend, “What should I do?”. The keeper-of-all-knowledge promptly dumped thousands of camera reviews in front of me to choose from. “Oh my!” - I pinched myself.
	Photography – Reliable DSLR and Lens Review Sites Trust is a little hard to come by – especially in online sector. I spent the last two weeks in search for a “good’ DSLR. (Read More)
	Half A dozen Stupid things people will do after buying their first DSLR It is astonishing to see that newbies buying their first DSLR (including me)have hit on a sequence of spending behaviours that is not exactly helping them. (Read More)
	Realizations of a DSLR newbie It’s been almost 10 months since I bought my first DSLR.Given below are a few realizations I had in the last few days. (Read More)
	A dozen sites for Photography Inspiration – Part 1 and Part 2 A collection of sites that will help to run your imagination run wild. Enjoy.

It is astonishing to see that newbies buying their first DSLR (including me), even after spending so much time on their research, have hit on a sequence of spending behaviours that is not exactly helping them in the long run. Here is a rundown of half a dozen of such things they we regret on later.

1. Extra battery

The battery pack that comes with the camera is an excellent unit that lasts for a reasonable amount of shots. I have used my fully charged battery on Nikon D90 for approximately 600 shots on a span of a week. Although it would make sense to buy extra battery if you are into professional business, as a newbie you will seldom find yourself actually needing any unless you trek for weeks on end in the jungles.

2. Extra card

A 2GB card can hold approximately 250 RAW pics. (Calculation based on Nikon D90) That would generally be sufficient for a couple of day’s casual shoot. Rather than buy extra card, buy a card with higher capacity like 8GB or so, so that you don’t have to juggle cards regularly.

3. Lens Filter

“Don’t you want to protect your lens with a filter, sir?” The innocent salesman will ask you.

Although there are no scientific proof as to the effectiveness of using a lens filter as a protective shield in front your lens, common sense decrees that it would do more harm if it is not of a higher quality glass. Because you run the risk of scratching the lens from the filter’s broken pieces. I have been using my 18-250mm for the last 6 months without a filter and everything is okay till now.

4. Cheap tripod

There is an excellent article bythom which details how people will be spending their money on tripods. And I think it is quite true. I invested in a cheap tripod thinking I will upgrade once I know the quirks of using it. But every time I use it to capture a delicate moment, I end up cursing it because of its poor build. Lesson I learned? Invest in a good support system because you will never know when a once-a-life-time opportunity presents itself and your tripod mucks it up.

5. Extra lens

Although Kit lens that comes with the body is good piece of glass, it is almost impossible to hold back and not buy more lens than you need. For a newbie, I believe it will take some time to identify his style and interest. So it is better to hold on to your kit lens or a single zoom lens until there is more clarity. I own a zoon lens (Tamron 18-250mm) and now I am contemplating the buy of a 50mm because I am very much interested in profiling people.

6. After spending a fortune on gear, we leave the camera in the safety of our home!

Everyone does this! Your DLSR is not a delicate instrument that is to be left safely at home, but rather accompany you everywhere. I have already regretted leaving my camera at home a million times because that would be the time I will be presented with something quite extra-ordinary.

This site should have been named “Photography for dummies”. The tutorials are structured in such a way that even the toughest technology is a breeze to understand.

2. Digital Photography School

DPS ( as it is affectionately called ) is a great site for learning digital photography tips. Whats nice about them is that they have got pros writing articles which are excellent guides for a newbie.

3. 1x.com

The idea of 1x.com is to create a collection of the most beautiful photos in the world. And they are pretty serious about it.

4. Stuck In Customs

A daily dose of HDR photography done by Trey Ratcliff. Excellent site for HDR inspiration.

5. HDRPhotog.com

HDRPhotog.com is A High Dynamic Range Photography Collaborative Blog where HDR Photographers contribute their new photographs to share with the world.

6. The Big Picture

An excellent site for drawing inspiration from the best in the business of photo journalism.

7. DIY Photography

DIYPhotography.net (or DIYP in short) is a place dedicated to photography lovers. It teaches you how to take great pictures, and do so without breaking your bank account. Discussions on photography technique, share a ton of tips, and explore creative and cheap alternatives to expensive studio gear happen in the site.

8. Ben Neumann Photography

This is a blog of  Ben Neumann, a nature photographer. He captures the breathtaking views of California.

9. Advanced Photography

Advanced Photography is a website with photography tips for beginners and pros. Professional photographers may find that some of the articles written here are a little basic while others may find certain articles somewhat advanced. However this site is a blend of tips for starters, intermediate photographers and the professionals alike.

10. Chromasia

An excellent site to understand fine art and commercial photography.

11. Unified Photography

A photo blog launched by Ken Snyder to share and collaborate with all who have a mutual excitement for creative digital photography.

12. The Sartorialist

“The Sartorialist” is a fashion blog by Scott Schuman in New York. The blog showcases pictures of people who had dressed in some way that caught his eye.

1. Popularity Contest

Popularity Contest keeps a count of your post, category and archive views, comments, trackbacks, etc. and uses them to determine which of your posts are most popular. There are numerical values assigned to each type of view and feedback; these are used to create a ‘popularity score’ for each post. Very useful when you want to offer your visitors the best of your posts.

Download

2. Page Links To

This plugin allows you to make a WordPress page or post link to a URL of your choosing, instead of its WordPress page or post URL. It also will redirect people who go to the old (or “normal”) URL to the new one you’ve chosen (301 Moved Permanently redirects are standard, but you can choose a 302 Moved Temporarily redirect if you wish).

Download

3. Subscribe To Comments Reloaded

Subscribe to Comments is a robust plugin that enables commenters to sign up for e-mail notification of subsequent entries. The plugin includes a full-featured subscription manager that your commenters can use to unsubscribe to certain posts, block all notifications, or even change their notification e-mail address.

Download

4. Facebook Comments for WordPress

This plugin integrates the Facebook commenting system right into your website. If a reader is logged into Facebook while viewing any comment-enabled page or post, they’ll be able to leave a comment using their Facebook profile. Non-Facebook users can post anonymously with a valid email address.

Even though its a great plugin, we noticed a few issues while using it. The number of comments is not getting displayed properly in the home page. Also the comment section sometimes fails to render properly because of Facebook bug.

Download

5. Share and follow

Add Share Icons, Follow Links, Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet and other buttons on your site in the way you want. Designed for average users to use, ideal for developers who want to save time, this plugin gives links to the most prominent Social Networking sites for sharing and following, presented in many different formats

Download

6. SexyBookmarks

Though the name may be a little “edgy” for some, SexyBookmarks has proven time and time again to be an extremely useful and successful tool in getting your readers to actually submit your articles to numerous social bookmarking sites.

Download

GMail is my favorite mail client (online and offline) because of its clean, sleek, fast interface. Over the time, I have started to enjoy some of its little-appreciated features. This post tries to give proper credit to the oft-overlooked goodies that are buried among the many touted.

Keyboard Shortcuts

This feature allows to easily navigate through the web interface. By default, Keyboard Shortcuts are disabled in a GMail account. You can enable it from Settings -> General -> Keyboard Shortcuts on . Once the setting is saved, you can press “?” to see all the listed key accelerators.

Browser Connection

Since privacy concerns are taken seriously, it is better to turn on HTTPS option from Settings -> General -> Always use https

Undo Send

Oops, hit “Send” too soon? This stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button. A 10s delay would be enough for many but with option for more delay, if you prefer to. Enable this feature from GMail Labs [Settings -> Labs -> Undo Send]. To set delays, check General tab in Settings page.

Canned Responses

One of the GMail labs features that is described as the email for the truly lazy. It allows me to put stylized footer for my antzFx mails like shown below. Press enable to use this option in the compose menu.

Don’t Forget Bob

Once you pick some email recipients, Gmail suggests more people you might want to include based on the groups of people you email most often.

Got the wrong Bob?

Doh, have you ever addressed an email too quickly, and included Bob (your boss) instead of Bob (your friend) by accident? If you’re emailing more than two people at once, Gmail will check if you meant to include Bob Smith rather than Bob Jones based on the groups of people you email most often.

Inserting Images

Allows you to insert images into a message body. You can upload and insert image files in your computer, or insert images by URLs. This lab will not work if you have offline enabled.

Message Sneak Peek

Peek into a conversation without opening it by right-clicking on a message in your inbox. Very handy when you just want to check something.

Nested Labels

Manage your email by sorting it into a hierarchy of labels. Add slashes (/) to label names to express inheritance. For example, if you want a Home label with two child labels named Kids and Shopping, create the three following labels: Home, Home/Kids and Home/Shopping.

Just for the kicks!

Pictures in chat

See your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them.

Trust is a little hard to come by – especially in online sector. I spent the last two weeks in search for a “good’ DSLR. With a little (read: a lot of) help from one of our guest authors, I finally managed to buy one. During that search, I chanced upon a couple of sites that are trustworthy. This post is meant to recognise their hard work and dedication.

dpreview.com – Digital Camera Reviews and Views

Digital Photography Review™ is an independent resource dedicated to the provision of news, reviews and information about Digital Photography and Digital Imaging devices. The authority and credibility of this site has been built on over years of quantitative, consistent and totally transparent testing, with all results available for inspection, and unmoderated feedback through the user forums.

I love the site for its ethics. From the site – “Our writers are expected to uphold absolute ethical neutrality. We always strive to maintain the perspective of a potential purchaser.”

What more can you ask for?

PhotoZone.de – Lens Reviewers

PhotZone offers in-depth reviews of DSLR lenses in the most techish way possible. Being an amateur I rely mostly on the “Verdict” section in their reviews.

Speedlights.net - Camera Flash Reviews

I stumbled across this site when I was searching for a flash to buy for my Nikon D90. I loved it from the start.

Now your turn

Got any review site that you couldn’t live without? Share them below as comments.

But sometimes the crowd is so huge that we need someone else to point them out. This post tries to accomplish just that. With tons of Google Chrome plugins available for our use, choosing the “few” useful ones could be time-consuming. Presented below are a dozen plugins that I found useful (with a little help from some of my friends).

1. Google Mail Checker Plus

The number of unread messages in your Gmail and Google Apps inbox are shown by this plugin. Options for Preview mail, read, delete, archive and mark as spam are available. Plus the really useful Desktop Notifications.

2. Google Reader Notifier (by Google)

This plugin displays the number of unread items in your Google Reader account. Clicking can show a preview popup or open your Reader account.

3. AdBlock

AdBlock for Chrome! blocks all advertisements on web pages.  Your browser is automatically updated with additions to the filter: just click Install, then visit your favorite website and see the ads disappear! I found this plugin performing better that AdSweep

3.1 Browser Button for AdBlock

If you have already installed AdBlock and want a browser action button, install this plugin. Browser Button for AdBlock adds a button next to your Wrench menu which lets AdBlock users block ads and whitelist domains without using keyboard shortcuts.

4. Chromed Bird

Chromed Bird is a Twitter extension that allows you to follow your timelines and interact with your Twitter account.

5. Pharaohs Time Tracker

Ever wanted to track your daily tasks and errands? This extension is for you. Pharaohs Time Tracker helps track your simple tasks and compile a list of activities that you could use for billing purposes, for instance.

6. Google Dictionary

With this extension, you can double-click any word to view its definition in a small pop-up bubble and view the complete definition of any word or phrase using the address bar dictionary.

7. Google Quick Scroll

Google Quick Scroll is a browser extension that helps you find what you are searching for faster. It lets you jump directly to the relevant bits of a Google search result. After you click on a Google search result, Quick Scroll may appear on the bottom-right corner of the page, showing one or more bits of text from the page that are relevant to your query. Clicking on the text will take you to that part of the page.

8. RemindMe

RemindMe allows you to setup reminders while browsing and sync them between computers.

9. Things To Do

This extension has a few subtle features, which can help you manage your to do list very efficiently.

10. Secure Sites

Offer to automatically redirect to the secure version of the websites you visit if it exists

11. Rapportive

Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox.You can immediately see what people look like, where they’re based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving notes.Imagine relationship management built into your email.

Highly experimental. It didn’t work that great for me when I tried it for this article. But I am mentioning it here since it is something I want to use when it works the way it is supposed to.

12. Shareaholic

Share any web page with your friends right from the page you are on!  Post to your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Evernote, and more from one extension.

13. Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

To provide website visitors with more choice about how their data is collected by Google Analytics, Google have developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics. When you can opt-out, why let Google to collect the data?

Update 04th September 2010

14. Ultimate Chrome Flag

This extension shows a country or region flag indicating the location of the website you’re visiting. And the following information will be shown in the popup: Country, Domain name and IP address, Geo information, Google PageRank, Alexa Rank and WOT (Web of Trust) information.

Very Useful.

I’m Feeling Lucky!
It was a hot day. We had a good supply of limejuice to quench the thirst. Five minutes of internet search, a sip of limejuice, five minutes of search, a sip of… An hour went by. I don’t know whether it was the heat or the juice, we keyed in the words ‘lime’ and ‘survey’ in the search and viola! We landed on LimeSurvey.org which is more than enough for us. Now we know, limejuice is good for producing brain waves!

On a serious note, we found Lime Survey through the Fantastico De Luxe tool provided by our hosting service provider, Arvixe. Lime Survey is a server based online survey tool. To install and use this tool, your PC should have a server (E.g. Apache), PHP and mySQL configured. Refer this page for detailed instructions.

Want to sample?

Before going to technical aspects, we invite you to visit a mock-up survey created using LimeSurvey tool to get the feel of things. If you find it interesting, let’s talk business. Otherwise, no harm done!

Installation
Lime Survey installation is very simple and easy.
-    Download the engine from LimeSurvey.org link.
-    “How to Install” file: [limesurvey-directory]/docs/manual.htm
-    Create a database (example: mySurvey) using your database access tool like phpMyAdmin.
-    Run the installer from [limesurvey-directory]/admin/install/index.php
-    Click Click and Click. You are done.
Points to note
-    Default Database Name: limesurvey
-    Default Username: admin
-    Default Password: password
-    Login Page : [limesurvey-directory]/admin/admin.php

First Impression
Simplicity and elegance start right from the welcome page.

Click on the image for a bigger picture.

Let’s start a survey. I try the first button. No; it is Home button. I try the second. Not good either. I continue like this till I reach the rightmost end.  The ‘New Survey’ button is kept at the rightmost corner while buttons for advanced uses are placed on the left side of the taskbar. LimeSurvey must have some reason for this placement. Unfortunately, I started at the wrong end.

Creating A Survey
Clicking New Survey button loads the following page that has tabbed pages for easy distribution of information. If you are grouping the survey questionnaire, this info is to be put in ‘Presentation & Navigation -> Format’

Click on the image for a bigger picture.

Templates
More than a dozen templates come with LimeSurvey. Among them, the most elegant is Mint Idea which is accessible from ‘Presentation & Navigation -> Template.’ We used this template for our survey.
A handful of templates are available at LimeSurvey.org.

Question Formats
I am bowled over by the range of question formats in lime survey – 27 different varieties in total! Want to sample a few? 5 point choice, Array (10 point choice), Array (5 point choice), Array (Flexible Labels) dual scale, Array (Increase, Same, Decrease)… to think that this is only the tip of the ice berg! Whatever you want to ask has already been figured out by LimeSurvey. Brilliant! This is the main feature that distinguishes LimeSurvey from other free online survey websites.

Publish Your Survey
Publishing the survey is just a click away. After you finished creating your questionnaire, activate the survey by selecting the leftmost ‘Activate The Survey button.’

Click on the image for a bigger picture.

Our Experience
antzFx.com ran a survey on ‘Online Ads: Who clicks them?’ from 01-Nov-2008 to 20-Nov-2008. This is the mock-up survey you probably visited from the link given at the starting of this article. A number of formats are available to store the results like .CSV, .RTF and .XLS. After closing the survey, we used MS Excel (.XLS format) to analyse the data and draw the graphs. You can read the survey results here.

More Information
I can write page after page explaining the features of LimeSurvey. A pretty long list is put together at the feature page of LimeSurvey.org. It has everything I can think as a user. Still they are adding multitude of features everyday. Explore and have fun!

Software: LimeSurvey Ver.1.72
Design date: 29-Oct-2008

1. Extra battery

The battery pack that comes with the camera is an excellent unit that lasts for a reasonable amount of shots. I have used my fully charged battery on Nikon D90 for approximately 600shots on a span of a week. Although it would make sense to buy extra battery if you are into professional business, as a newbie you will seldom find yourself actually needing any extras.

2. Extra card

A 2GB card can hold approximately 250 RAW pics. (based on Nikon D90) That would generally be sufficient for a day’s casual shoot. Rather than buy extra card, buy a card with higher capacity like 8GB or so such that you don’t have to juggle cards regularly.

3. Filter

Although there are no scientific proof as to the effectiveness of using a lens filter as a protective shield in front your lens, common sense decrees that it would do more harm if not of a higher quality glass. Because you run the risk of scratching the lens from the filter’s broken pieces.
I have been using my 18-250mm for the last 6 months without a filter and everything is okay till now.

4. Cheap tripod

There is an article bythom which aptly describes how people will be spending their money on tripods. And I think it is quite true. I invested in a cheap tripod thinking I will upgrade once I know the quirks of using it. But every time I use it to capture a delicate moment, I end up cursing it because of its poor build. Invest in a good support system because you will never know when once-a-life-time opportunity presents itself and your tripod mucks it up.

5. Extra lens

Although Kit lens that comes with the body is good piece of glass, it is almost impossible to hold back and not buy more lens than you need. For a newbie, I believe it will take some time to identify his style and interest. So it is better to hold on until there is more clarity. I own a zoon lens (Tamron 18-250mm) and I am contemplating the buy of a 50mm because I am very much interested in profiling.

6. After spending a fortune on gear, we safely leave the camera at home!

Everyone does this! Your DLSR is not a delicate instrument that is to be left safely at home, but rather accompany you everywhere. Because you never know when you need. I have already regretted leaving my camera at home because that would be the time I will be presented with something quite extra-ordinary.