I was shooting a Babe Ruth League baseball game a few of weeks ago and a parent friend of mine came up to me with her brand new DSLR camera. She had been using an entry level DSLR for a couple of years and she thought it was time to invest in a newer more up-to-date body. I asked her how she liked her new camera and she told me that most of her photos weren’t much better than what she was getting with her old camera and that she was a little disappointed.

Over the years she had purchased several photos from me and she thought because she bought this new camera that her photos would look more like mine. I noticed that the camera was sporting a kit lens (a lower cost lens sometimes sold with new cameras). I asked her about the lens and she said she bought it because it was cheaper and allowed her to also purchase another zoom lens with longer reach. The money she spent on these two inferior lenses would have been better applied to the cost of one good lens.

To greatly increase the quality of photos, invest in good glass and not camera bodies.

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I just read a nice article on how to express motion in your photos. It deals with the different ways to freeze motion, or to use the panning method to show the motion. If there are any readers out there just learning about action photography, this is a good place to start. Later, I will be writing about shutter speed and how that will determine how action is recorded in your photos.

The article: Expressions Of Motion In Photography

(PS, the image used here is from The Swing Jumping Pool. If you are looking for a fun Saturday activity, get out your camera and take some swing jumping photos.)