Family images are inherently special - with each passing year they become more important, more poignant, and more valuable. To create outstanding family portraits, there are a number of steps that should be considered. I sum it up in taking photos with CLASS - Composition, Lighting, Attire, Symbolism, Spacing.

Composition. In every family combination, the most important feature is that the people are the most prominent aspect of the image. There are so many possibilities of placing people in the image, give thought to the background as much as the foreground (see symbolism to learn more on the importance of the background), but overall it's the family members whose image should dominate.

Lighting. When photographing people, always use a fill flash. If you have a point-and-shoot camera with a built-in flash, there should be a setting with a lightning bolt on it - read your instruction manual to find out how to use it. Even in otherwise bright sun, use your flash. The people should be slightly brighter than the background. Your point-and-shoot will balance the exposure for you, so the images will look great, and faces will be bright.

Attire. This is assuming you have control over attire, as-in, you are coordinating everyone specifically for a family portrait. Solid colors are best, keep away from boldness in stripes or patterns. Everyone should dress in similar styles -it's best if the father isn't in a vested suit and the son is in ripped jeans (although I can think of some great contrasts like this that DO make great images). Dark clothes tend to slim the body while white or brighter clothing tends to enlarge things. Also, have the family members consider their necklines. In general, rounder faces look best with more neck showing, while pointier faces look better in turtlenecks or less necklines.

Symbolism. Capture images that are in places that are important and meaningful. . There are so many ways to put a family together, a traditional pose of the immediate family in front of the house, on the staircase, next to the fireplace; or non-traditional poses that include capturing the family doing something that they love to do - riding on a sailboat, playing golf, playing cards. If you are photographing indoors, be very conscious of what is on the walls, where in the room you place everyone, and what lines from the room are intersecting within your image. Odd angles can be very distracting.

Spacing. The viewer's eye interprets intimacy from how close subjects are together. Make sure that everyone is either equally spaced apart or equally brought together. The best images of intimacy are when there is no space between each member of the family - from the shoulders to the waist.

Make sure that with any pose you create, you take multiple images of each pose. People blink, especially if they think a flash is going to be fired in their eyes (it's a natural reaction). If you have some good blinkers, have everyone close their eyes and tell them to open them on the count of three. By having the eyes closed beforehand, it will virtually eliminate any blinks for a few seconds.

What is really most important if you are photographing a large group, especially with small children, is that you go with the flow. Tell the parents to look at the camera, not their children. Let the children be children. Try to get their attention by being funny or being silly, but not demanding or authoritative. And if they do something silly, sell, it will just give the parents one more thing to laugh about when their daughter/son is older  

Travel photography: Taking pictures on your travels

An important consideration is the weight of your camera and equipment.  Remember you have to carry it.  If you’re using a point and shoot camera, your choices have already been made.  If you have an SLR system, you have to think about what kind of pictures you want when deciding what lenses to bring and what filters to bring.  Regular disposable cameras can be useful, too, if you want to go on a relaxing tour without carrying all your gear.

Focus on what’s new and different from home.  Do stores look different?  Are the trees different?  The flowers?  The landscape?  If you plan to go snorkeling or scuba diving, do not forget an underwater camera – you can get disposable underwater cameras for very little money these days.  If you plan to do a lot of underwater photography, investing in a high quality camera may be worth it, but many people will only go through a single roll of film on one trip, and the disposable camera is a better value.

Remember to take pictures of your traveling partners, whether they are friends or family.  And remember to get in some pictures yourself.  If you’re in a relatively safe place, you can hand your camera to a friendly local or group of tourists for a picture of the whole group of you.  A tripod offers another option to include yourself in many of your pictures.  Pictures with people will be more memorable that just pictures of landscape and tourist attractions.

If you want to take pictures of locals, be sure to ask their permission first.  And depending on the culture, be prepared to offer a tip.  Striking up a conversation before asking for a picture will often give you a chance for more candid and comfortable poses, since your new friend will be more comfortable with you.  You can offer pens or candy to local children.

A final tip: take lots of pictures your first day.  Everything on that first day is new, and your eyes are open.  The second or third day in a new city, you stop seeing everything new.  What was once foreign becomes expected, and you no longer think it is unusual enough to warrant a photograph.  But these “everyday” images of the new city are the images that you really should take.  These are the images that will remind you most of your trip.  So take these pictures of the new and unique before they become everyday and you no longer think them worth photographing.

Female Photography
One of the most famous photographs of all times is the face of an Afghan girl on the cover of National Geographic magazine’s 1985 issue. Her name is Sharbat Gula and the photograph of her direct gaze into the camera, intrigued many people for years; Steve McCurry took this photograph. Female Photography can be well divided into various forms like fashion model photography, nude photography, celebrity photography, and self-portraits. Nude photography has got be that one form of photography that has shaped and influenced the perspective of people worldwide.

Photography is an art, which can fill your heart with the joy of having achieved the extraordinary. The most important criteria for becoming a good photographer is to have passion for taking pictures. You should have the ability to feel the intensity in the eyes of a woman, to understand the female form, its delicate nuances, and understand and appreciate the many of moods of woman. Additionally, a dexterous hand at being able to experiment with light and shadows will bring out the depths and tones in your pictures.

There are three very important aspects of photographing women:
 
Setting the surrounding or the scene: How the photographs really come out depends a lot on the immediate surrounding. The subject’s expressions can also vary with the surrounding. If you are trying to take a photograph in the middle of a bustling street then your subject may also feel the crowd around her and this can easily affect her expressions. On the other hand, a photograph on a secluded waterfront might bring out the best expressions. Creativity plays an important role; the more creative you are regarding the settings, the better the photograph will be.
 
Lighting Conditions: Lighting conditions are important for getting the best out of a photograph. Too much or too less light can expose the photograph and destroy its effect. The best option is to have a soft bulb light, which works better than a flash. Always remember, to place the light source either on the subjects left side or the right side. This will bring out the details in the face. You can always experiment with the position of the light and even bounce it off the ceiling but never place it in the front, as it will lead to reflection in the photograph. You can also use a soft side light for creating shadows and use a filler flash to light up the face of the model.
 
Getting it right: Getting the ‘perfect’ shot during female photography shoot, is a challenging task. Try to use a long lens and take the picture moving away from the subject. You can also use a tripod to get a steady shot. Most of the top-notch female photographers use a small aperture and a long shutter speed. Last but not the least; you need to take as many shots as possible with different expressions so that you can get the perfect shot.
 
Women are enigmatic and mysterious. Female photography is an ode to this most beautiful creation of God!

Eliot Porter

Eliot Porter was born in 1901 to a wealthy family in Chicago, Illinois. He was fortunate to have parents that nurtured an interested in natural history and the sciences. Porter was given his first camera in 1911, and Eliot Porter immediately took to capturing birds on the family estate in Winnetka, and then at the family holiday home on Great Spruce Head Island, in the Bay of Penobscot, Maine. He enrolled at Harvard, graduating with a degree in chemical engineering followed by one in medicine. Even though his took up a post as a biochemical researcher, he could never quite let go of his passion for photography. His brother the famous artist Fairfield Porter introduced him to acclaimed photographers, Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz. In turn Ansel introduced Eliot Porter to the Sierra Club, of which he became a member and staunch supporter.

The prevailing artistic medium was black and white photography, but Eliot Porter opposed this by producing almost all his work entirely in color, using the dye transfer method to produce superb and high quality pictures. In 1938, Stieglitz invited him to exhibit his photographs at An American Place, his well known New York Art Gallery. This launched his as a prominent photographic artist who rivalled his contemporaries of the time. He left his medical career to pursue photography as a full time, choosing to focus on the colorful and diverse natural world. It took him many places, particularly to woodland areas thus turning him into an established artist-photographer.

The Sierra Club enhanced his reputation when the published what was to become a popular book entitled “In Wildness is the Preservation of the World”. It gave him much needed boost. His work was combined with Henry David Thoreau’s writings and took set new standards in publishing by revolutionizing and promoting the commercial viability of photographic books. This success urged Eliot Porter to pursue photographic excellence and continue to produce a variety of similar books highlighting the diversity to found in ecologically noteworthy significant places that was to be found throughout the world. He shifted his focus to included environmental stress, to be found in the Galapagos, East African and the Antartic and then the closer to home in Mexico, and Baja California. He moved on to include cultural topics completing a study of classical Greek and Egyptian.

During his life time his published 25 books, with a few more that had been in the pipeline at the time of his death. Eliot Porter was survived by his second wife and five children, after he had settled in Tesuque, in New Mexico. His career has spanned more than 50 years, having exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Art Museum, the Art Museum of the University of New Mexico and the Amon Carter Museum in Texas. Eliot Porter bequeathed his entire collection to the Amon Carter Museum along with some personal effects. He truly made his mark in the world of wild life photography and creating a superb foundation for color natural photography.