Over at the Forums in the ‘How I took it’ section – DPS forum member murtasma posted this image and tells us how the effect was achieved and how it was taken:

This image was taken using Bulb mode. I was at my friends house where she had this small crystal lamp that looked like a mushroom.

I sat down still and she would open the shutter then lock it.

She would shine the laser pointer at the lamp which made it glow and cast red around me. Then she would highlight me with the laser pointer. I have several images like this.

I really like doing these types of photos because your never sure what your going to get. In the future I would like to be further from

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Continuing the series of video tutorials – this one taking a look at Aperture. A nice explanation of a basic photographic concept.

For more on Aperture check out our introduction to Aperture tutorial.

Photo by phitar

You’ve probably witnessed the ‘tour bus photo stop’ before. It goes something like this:

• the bus pulls up at the ’scenic lookout’
• 40 tourists pile out of the bus
• they proceed to rush to the fence separating them from the castle/ruin/coastline/authentic indigenous village
• they all line up in a line and proceed to snap of 10 shots each as quickly as possible
• digital cameras are passed around the group so everyone can get a shot of themselves on their own cameras standing in from of the castle/ruin/coastline/authentic indigenous village
• the tour guide blows a whistle, shouts out that time is up and gets the driver to honk his horn
• 40 tourists pile back onto the bus
• the bus roars off to the next ’scenic lookout’

I’m not knocking tours – I’ve done a few in my time and know that while it’s great to travel at your own pace that tours have some good things going for them.

However, these ‘photo stops’ do no really lend themselves to creative and unique images. I suspect most of the 40 tourists on the bus end up with pretty much identical images to one another (and 99% of tourists on every other bus that goes by).

So how can you do something a little more creative on your next tour? Here are 10 ideas that come to mind:

This week’s photoblogger of the week is Mark Lewin from Mark My Shots. One of reasons I’ve become a subscriber to Mark’s blog this past month is that he covers such a wide array of subjects – you never quite know what you’ll get and the quality of what you do is great.

In addition to this shot from Mark he’s also given us a rundown of his photography gear as well as some tips below.

Mark’s Photography Tip

Well, I’ve thought about this question for a few days, and the only really great tip i can offer is this:

Go out, don’t worry about what you know and what you don’t know…. take a bunch of photos and have fun.

Take pictures not of what you think everyone will like, but what you LOVE. If you see something that really looks cool to you, take some photos of it… not one, not two, but ALOT.

Time for another video tutorial – this one on Shutter Speed.

Learn more about shutter speed in our tutorial – introduction to shutter speed.