This week’s photoblogger of the week is Jóhann Guðbjargarson from the stunning photo blog – gudbjargarson.

Jóhann lives in Iceland and his photography reflects his travels around his country and the world. He’s been generous enough to share two beautiful images with us, to tell us a little about his digital camera kit and to share 3 digital photography tips.

Jóhanns digital camera kit:

• Camera: Canon EOS 5D
• Canon lenses: Canon 35mm f1.4L, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, 100mm f/2.8 Macro, 17-40mm f/4L
• Other gear: Apple 17″ MacBook Pro
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
• Adobe Photoshop CS2
• Epson P-2000 Multimedia Storage Drive
• Epson Stylus R2400 Photo Printer

Jóhanns Photography Tips:

Tip nr. 1:
Experiment with the creative settings on your camera, like the exposure modes (Tv, Av, M). I use Av 95% of the time and pay close attention to shutter speed. If the shutter speed is too little to handle the lighting and Aperture I use ISO to allow more shutter speed. Handle this settings along with ISO and aperture is vital to understand the camera and to gain full creative control over your photography.

Have you ever become a little obsessed with one aspect of your photography?

I have.

The last time it happened was in the weeks after buying a new fast lens – a f/1.4 50mm lens. Having something so fast resulted in me virtually setting the aperture at it’s largest setting (f/1.4) and shooting everything at that setting!

The problem was that all my shots became very similar to one another. Lots of shots with very very small depth of field.

It’s happened to me before in different ways.

• Format – I went through a ‘patch’ a year or two ago when I realized that all my shots were taken in a horizontal (landscape) framing and that I rarely went into vertical (portrait) mode.
• Shutter Speed – Another time (years ago) I had a stage of shooting everything at slow shutter speeds (I thought the blur was artistic…. go figure!)
• Focal Length – I also went through a patch after buying a 24-105mm lens of always shooting tightly framed shots (at 105mm).

Photographic obsessions can take many shapes and forms (I’m sure we could come up with a good long list of how we all do it). They often follow the purchase of a new piece of gear or the learning of a new technique and to some extent they are natural.

In fact they can actually be helpful at times as they help you to learn how to use that new lens or perfect that new technique that you’ve been trying. However they can also have their ‘costs’ and leave you with a collection of images that have a certain level of ’sameness’ about them.

Here’s something to do to assess your photographic obsessions:

Open up your photo organizing tool (whether it’s a program on your computer, an online storage tool etc) and scroll through the last couple of months of images.

What do you notice?

The Latest Assignment over in our Forums is a beauty. It’s called Fill The Frame and it’s all about getting nice tight crops and framings in your shots. There are already some great shots – so head over and share some of your own!

Image by TollerScream

Here in Australia we love to hit the beach.

We’re one big island and most of our population is scattered along the coast line so the beach is a natural place for us to go both on day trips and longer holidays.

Beaches present digital camera owners with a number of wonderful opportunities as they are places of natural beauty, color and interesting light. However they also present a variety of challenges including camera damage, privacy issues and making large open spaces interesting.

While it’s not really beach going weather at present here in my part of the world I know that many readers of this site are getting close to Summer and beach photography will be high on the agenda of many (I’m so jealous).

Here are 10 tips for when you head to the beach with your digital camera next:

Image by Sara Heinrichs

1. Look for focal points

A friend of mine once told me that they don’t bother taking their camera to the beach because all beach shots look the same. i thought that that was a pretty sad thing to say because when I go to the beach I see it as a place brimming with photographic opportunities if you have the ability to look beyond the cliche shots. For example while many people take shots looking out to sea I find it interesting to go to the water’s edge and then turn completely around and see what’s in your frame from that angle. One common problem with landscape beach photographs is that while they might capture a beautiful scene they actually have no point of interest and can as a result be rather empty and boring. When taking a shot look for a point of interest or focal point that will give those looking at your photo a place for their eye to rest. Perhaps it’s a pattern in the sand, a set of footprints, the crashing of waves over a rock, a life saver’s tower etc. Also look for the little things that tell the story of going to the beach like shoes at the waters edge, sand castles, sunglasses, sunscreen lotion etc. Sometimes these can make wonderful little feature shots to break up your vacation album.

2. Timing is important

The start and end of days can present the best opportunities for shooting at the beach. For starters there will be less people there at that time of day but also you’ll find that with the sun shining on an angle that you often get more interesting effects of shadows and colors – particularly in the evening when the light becomes quite warm and golden.

This week’s photoblogger of the week is Puja Parakh.

Puja lives in Seattle Washington where she works teaching low income and homeless women and their families about computer basics to help empower and build job skills. Puja has been kind enough to share a couple of her images with us as well as giving us a description of her digital photography kit. Lastly below she shares a tip for DPS readers. PS: you can see more of Puja’s work at her flickr account.

Puja’s Digital Camera Kit

I just recently upgraded to the Canon EOS 30D, but have been using the Canon Digital Rebel XT for the past year or so. I found that it was great with my smaller hands and easy/lightweight to carry as I walk to work everyday through Downtown Seattle. My walk around lens is the Sigma 10-20mm which is a great affordable wide-angle. Other lenses include the “nifty-fifty” (which everyone should own) and a Tamron 28mm-75mm based on its great reviews.

Beyond that, I really love to experiment with film and often times purchase cameras at thrift stores. The best find has been an Ultronic Panoramic 35mm point and shoot. Others cameras include the Lomo LCA, Holga and various Polaroid cameras. My favorite accessory is the Polaroid P-500 printer, purchased on ebay for $10. It prints .jpg pictures directly off of the CF card onto Polaroid 500 film. So fun!!!