With my blog’s second anniversary coming up, I wanted to thank everyone that has stopped by, commented and added to the content.  It’s been a fun couple of years and has been far more educational for me than I’d ever thought it would have been.  I wanted to make a list of my more popular posts as well as some that can help some of us who may be just stumbling into the fold.  Any of us who have recently acquired a new camera and may be wanting to learn how to use it to its potential, or are looking to build up a few post processing techniques, I’ve compiled some of the more useful and popular posts below…

Read on for anything from free actions and discount codes for popular software to refreshers on basic (and even some more advanced) photographic techniques.  I’ll break it down into three categories, Photography Tutorials, Postprocessing Techniques and the most popular Gear posts.  Feel free to contact me if you’d like to network (I’m always game) or have any questions.  Tell your friends and feel free to link to any of my articles.  Much of what has come to be here has been born from contacts and networking, so I’m happy to continue to try and help cross-promote other photographers and hard working bloggers.  I’ve also compiled an ongoing list of free resources (the “free-sources” tab at the top of the page) and personal faves from around the web.

Happy new year to everyone and I’m looking forward to continuing our collective journey.

PHOTOGRAPHY TUTORIALS

*The Exposure Trifecta, learning to shoot in Manual mode – Get your camera under control and off the green box!

*Understanding your lens Aperture – One of the most useful built in tools to distinguish your photography.

*Metering and Exposure compensation – Which, when and why to use certain settings to make your images look they way they should.

*RAW vs JPEG – the pros and cons for each.

*Which lens and why!? – You want to diversify your lens arsenal, but which lens will get you what you’re looking for?

*Focal length, crop factor and field of view explained – A basic explanation on how these seemingly confusing topics act in real world use.

*Color contrast with Henri Matisse – Far and away the most popular post I’ve written.  Basic concept, but one that can help provide great results.

*Rembrandt lighting – Dramatic, effective and simple.

*Compositional theory a la Gaudi – Addressing some of the fundamentals of photographic composition and branching out past the ‘rule of thirds’ to use your images to grab attention and tell a story.

*Establishing and understanding Hyperfocal distance – An age old technique to ensure your scene is in focus.

POST PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

*HDR with Photomatix – If you haven’t stumbled upon HDR (high dynamic range) imagery yet, this will help.

*HDR 101 – Capturing dynamic range – Everything you need to know about HOW to capture a scene’s full dynamic range.

*HDR 101 – Processing dynamic range – There are a few techniques to use to extend and utilize the dynamic range captured via the techniques in the previous post.

*Floating in Photoshop – A simple technique to enable levitation in photographs! Impress your friends, gain explore status on flickr, wow your coworkers and attract unwanted attention on facebook!

*A Free Photoshop Contrast Pop Action – have a look, pictures speak louder than words, especially when you bump up the contrast.

*Using selective color in Black & White imagery – not sure what else to say, but have a look anyway.

*Presets! Unleash the power of your image editing software. – Are you using Aperture, Lightroom or Photoshop?  Here are a bunch of resources and freebies.

*It’s all about the Eyes – A handful of easy techniques to quickly enhance the eyes in any portrait.

*Adding a vintage feel – A few popular techniques to digitally age your photos.

*Free Bleach Bypass Photoshop Action – Replicating a film developing technique digitally to add an edge to your imagery.

*Fractalius for Mac! – Replicate the popular (windows only) software effect.

GEAR

*Using your lenses on different cameras via adapters – One of the most popular posts ever on my blog.  I use my GF1 and various EF mount lenses to varying effect.

*Using Legacy (old) optics on new digital cameras – Pretty much a continuation of the above post, but on a budget 🙂

*Lensbaby Tilt Transformer for NEX and Micro 4/3! – A really cool tool for users of these mirrorless systems.

There are of course, many software review posts as well as more techniques, tricks and gear related articles.  Have a look around and let me know if you have any particular things you’d like to see on the blog.  I’m always game for new challenges.  I don’t make any money from my blog, it’s merely a passion project and I enjoy sharing what I’ve gleaned and learning more as I explore.

Thanks again everyone and here’s to a happy and prosperous 2012 for all!

-Tyson