(from Ritz Pix Digital Photography 101, Sunday September 21)

Plan Ahead and Be Prepared
To get started, check your calendar and find the best day to devote entirely to photography. Take the day off from work, or use a weekend day when you have the whole day to yourself. Once you pick the day, start planning: where do you want to go? What are the best times to hit the locations? Maybe you see a building every morning on your way to work that looks gorgeous in the morning sun. Think of details like that when mapping out your day. Once the day is planned, be sure to pack accordingly. Bring extra batteries, lenses, and other accessories, but don’t overload yourself as you will probably be doing a lot of walking around. Also, be sure to bring water and other snacks so you don’t have to sacrifice the perfect shot for your demanding hunger!

Use the Entire Day
When the day arrives, be diligent and get out of bed before the sun comes up. Ideally, you should be at your first location before dawn breaks so you can take advantage of that perfect early morning light. As you get closer to noon, you can avoid the harsh midday light by photographing in open shade and taking close ups. Then, as the sun starts to set, use the golden sunset light. Remember: this is a photo day, not a photo hour, so use the entire day!

Be Patient and Shoot Liberally
Many photographers have to sacrifice their perfect shot because they are on a time constraint and have to get to the next location or job. Thankfully, this is not the case for you on your photo day. Be patient and wait for the perfect shot. If you think the sun will hit a tree perfectly in 30 minutes, wait it out. This day is all about photography, so don’t cut any corners when it comes to shooting. Also, shoot liberally – the more, the merrier.

Follow Through
When the day is over and you are back home, it is time to start organizing and editing your photos. Have fun with this and don’t think of it as a chore. You can turn an ordinary picture into a stunning photograph with just a little editing work. Enhance the color contrast, convert to black and white or sepia, crop, or manipulate the photos any way you please. Remember, this is all about you and your photography, so don’t be afraid to edit a lot, and create several versions of the same photo. Once you are finished editing, display your work proudly: print and frame your photos, order some enlargements, and make a photo book. Your hard work will pay off, and you will have fun along the way!

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My favorite thing about the first two images is the depth of field. As you can see, I focused on the water droplets and not the cars and the Waffle House restaurant in the background, which gave me an amazing photograph of blurry lights behind crisp water droplets.

Oh, isn’t photography fun?

To quote their tourist website:

Welcome to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, steeped in culture and history. Set in the beautiful rural Warwickshire countryside, on the banks of the river Avon, it is one of the most important tourist destinations in the UK. With easy road, rail and airport access, it is the perfect place for a vacation or short break.

And here’s the images to go along with the words.

I hope you enjoyed that capsule of time. Until the next one!