With the northern spring not far away for many, here are five tips for shooting better pictures in spring and summer.

A profusion of spring daffodils

1. It’s a truism that subjects should face the sun when shooting out of doors. Not so. Why blind your subjects and have them squinting at the camera, faces distorted almost beyond recognition?

Instead, try to position them so that the sun is not directly in their eyes. Also, use a lens hood to reduce flare.

2. Try to get the light evenly balanced. This can be done by shooting people under a tree, where the light is soft, warm and dappled.

3. Keep the ISO rating low and the aperture large. This allows you to open up the aperture to make subjects stand out against the background.

4. Ever thought of using flash in sunlight? If the subject is half in and half out of bright light, digital cameras find it difficult to handle the wide range of lighting, unless you’re using RAW files which are not processed by the camera.

Flash will solve the problem, albeit at a high battery drain. An alternative is to use a reflector.

5. Use different parts of the day to create specific effects. Early morning gives a cooler light, while late afternoon introduces a more hazy, warmer effect. Experiment on the same view at different times to compare these effects.

Well, here’s mine. It’s a Panasonic Lumix DFC FZ8 DSLR with a Leica 12X zoom lens.

I’ve been road testing this little beauty — it’s surprisingly small — around our town and will report back when the weather improves and I’ve had a chance to test it in full sunlight.

Until then I can say it’s by far the best digital camera I’ve bought and performs wonderfully well. Even the hundreds of functions are easy to access and control — not always the case with digital cameras in general.

Well recommended.

I wish all our readers a very happy New Year.

When I took this picture with my digital camera back in the spring, I was uncomfortably aware that a few people were annoyed with me for recording the pleasant lunchtime scene.

I assumed — apparently wrongly — that they were with someone they didn’t want their spouses to know about. It seems I may have been wrong.

It’s being reported in the British press that a couple taking shots of their baby girl in the park were ordered by a “park warden” to stop taking photographs.

“Stunned, the couple pointed out that they were 11-month-old Rebecca’s parents and that no one else was using the playground at the time. The warden informed them it was ‘illegal’ to take pictures of children there.”

Aren’t we in danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater?

The Canon EOS 30D

To mark the 20th anniversary of Canon’s bestselling EOS series of cameras, the company is mounting a massive discount giveaway over the range until the end of the year.

In detail : “to celebrate 20 years of its legendary EOS system, Canon is giving back a total of £1283 ($2656) on a selection of EOS digital SLR cameras, lenses and accessories”. This cashback offer is valid from 1 October to 31 December 2007.

There are many participants in this offer. Try here.