Top 10 basic shooting tips ~

1. Be camera ready ~ How do you expect to get those once-in-a-lifetime shots without a camera! Thanks to digital cameras, and camera-phones, it's much more practical to have one on hand now-a-days.
   
2. Get close ~ As a general rule, the closer you get to the subject, the better your pictures will be. Getting close eliminates distracting, unnecessary backgrounds and shows the subject clearly.
   
3. Hold your camera steady ~ Holding the camera steady is vital for sharp, clear pictures. Even slight camera movement can blur pictures. Pressing the shutter release smoothly and gradually and using a brace as a steady-rest will reduce body movement. Use a tripod to eliminate camera movement.
   
4. Use a simple background ~ Keep the attention on your subject with simple backgrounds.
5. Place the subject off-center ~ Usually, placing the subject off-center can make the composition more dynamic and interesting to the eye.
6. Include foreground in the scene ~ Elements in the foreground add a sense of distance, depth, and dimension.
   
7. Look for lighting ~ Good lighting can make your pictures more interesting, colorful, dimensional, and flattering to the subject. Overcast days often provide the best lighting for pictures of people. The soft light of an overcast day usually flatters facial features.
   
8. Use your flash ~ The flash provides extra light when you need it, especially indoors, and it freezes action for sharp pictures. Using flash outdoors can soften shadows and brighten colors. It is important to use flash within the range it was designed to illuminate. In most cases basic flash units will give good results between 4-12 feet of the subject. See your flash manual for distance information.
   
9. Keep people busy ~ To avoid stiff, static poses, prompt your subjects to be active. Their expressions will be more relaxed and natural.
   
10. Choose the right film ~ Selecting the correct film relates to the type of film, i.e., Color or Black & White as well as the relative sensitivity of a particular film. Film speed or sensitivity determines the basis for properly setting the lens opening and shutter speed. Slower film, lower ISO rating requires more light to achieve a proper exposure than a higher ISO rated film. Slower films generally offer higher image quality while high ISO rated films allow proper exposure under darker conditions.

A guide to good night-time photography ~

Digital camera exposure considerations ~

Make sure you know the directions to your shoot locations. It' easy to get lost on dark roads. Check the weather forecast before you head out, so you can dress appropriately. If your going to be near woods, or water, bring insect repellant. Bring a powerful flashlight, and a cell phone - make batteries, including your cameras, are well charged.

Be aware of when and where the sun and moon will be rising or setting. Some of the best photography makes use of these two heavenly bodies, whether as subjects in your shots, or to enhance lighting, shadows and, overall mood.

Always bring and use a tripod. It's quite common to have exposures of an entire second or more during night-time photography. With exposures longer than 1/30 of a second, a tripod is essential in order to ensure that camera shake doesn't affect the quality of your photographs.
If your camera is equipped to use a cable release for remote operation of the shutter button, be sure to use it. On lengthy exposures, the camera shake caused by depressing the shutter button on your camera will often be seen in your pictures. If your camera isn't equipped for use with a cable release, a self-timer is a good alternative.
Unless your tripod has one built in, bring and use a bubble level. It's harder to judge levelness by eye in the dark.

Preset your camera settings. The more control you exercise over the camera settings, the greater your chances of taking some great night-time photographs.
If your camera has automatic settings only, you may face some real challenges in your attempts at photography in the dark. Whether photography is a hobby or just a casual interest, you'll be well-served if you invest in a quality camera that allows for adjusting the basic settings.

Don't bother using a flash at night, unless your shooting very close subjects. Most on-camera flashes aren't effective past five or six feet in front of the camera. So at night, it may overexpose anything that happens to be in the foreground while underexposing the primary subject of the picture.

Use a higher speed film or adjust the ISO setting higher on your digital camera to allow the use of a faster shutter speed. The higher the ISO/ASA, the shorter the exposures you can use (very important for good night-time photography). For example, if you plan to use an exposure of ISO 100 for 2 seconds at F8.0, you can alternatively use ISO 400 for a 1/2 second exposure at the same F8.0. Some digital cameras show higher than usual noise levels for long exposures. See if your digital camera features long exposure noise reduction.

Understand your camera's light metering system, or meter separately while using manual settings on your camera. Most modern consumer-class cameras, especially the higher level ones, tend to have very sophisticated metering systems. But night-time photography involves some pretty tricky lighting situations. There will be very bright and very dark areas in the same photograph.
f you understand what your light meter is making its readings from as well as the type of exposure you are likely to get, you will end up with properly exposed photos. If automatic metering doesn't produce the quality of photos that you want, take control by using manual camera settings or using exposure compensation. If your digital camera has a histogram function, use it to help determine how well your metering is working.

You may be able to save time by using manual focus. Most likely, you're going to shoot multiple exposures of the same shot (a fundamental principle of photography), so set the first shot using auto-focus, then without changing the focus, switch to manual focus. That way, if your camera has difficulty focusing in the dark, it won't repeatedly search for a focus lock.

The nice thing about photography involving monuments and buildings is - they don't move! Once the lens is focused, you don't have to refocus with every shot. But you should still check every now and then, just to make sure that you haven't bumped the lens and altered the focus.

Use the "mirror lockup" function. If your camera allows you to lock the mirror in place, do so. On some long exposures, the internal workings of the camera can actually cause enough vibration to make camera shake visible in the photo! Mirror locking reduces the chances of this source of camera shake.

Take a lot of pictures, especially when you're doing night-time photography. And try using different exposures. If you take lots of photos, your chances of ending up with a few gems are pretty high. Always remember that film is cheap (and digital cameras have a "trash can").

Try taking some pictures before it gets completely dark. Sometimes having a little color left in the sky can add an extra dimension to the photo. Some of the best photography takes place just after twilight.

Review your shots. If you're using a digital camera, you should take advantage of the instant feedback available to you to see if you're getting the results you want. And if your camera features a histogram function, be sure to check it often to make sure you aren't underexposing or overexposing parts of your images.

Special considerations for winter photography ~

Winter conditions offer unique opportunities for capturing especially beautiful backdrops and scenery. But, winter also presents it's own particular conditions and hazards to be aware of.

The bright white snow that makes scenery so beautiful to the naked eye, can actually result in many spoiled shots, due to light meter and exposure system over-compensation. The systems see the bright snow as medium gray. Light readings directly from snowy scenes would result in underexposing the scene. Compensating for this potential exposure error simply requires a wider lens opening, or longer shutter speed. Manual cameras can be set to the wider opening of between 1 and 2 f-stops. This range usually suffices. Most automatic cameras have an exposure compensation feature +/- that can be set to accomplish a similar result. Refer to your user's guide to see if your particular model has this setting, and where to find it. Look for this symbol, and set the exposure compensation lower, to counter the extremely bright light that can reflect off of the snow.

Colder temperatures can cause batteries to drain much more quickly than you might normally expect. Spare batteries will allow prolonged shooting sessions, and by keeping the spares warm, you will assure they are closer to maximum capacity when they are required. Keeping them in a pocket close to the body offers a convenient solution. In some cases it will help to rotate batteries periodically to allow them to recover in a warm place.

Condensation on the inside of your camera is another important thing to be aware of. When you return from your chilly day out, protect your camera in a protective bag before going into a warm room. Allowing the camera to warm up for an hour or so before using it in the warm building will prevent moisture from entering camera components.