How To Take Better Environmental Portraits - 17 Tips and Practical Exercises is a guide to, well ... taking better environmental portraits.

A good environmental portrait is a photograph of a person that connects them with their natural surroundings. The photo will provide more of a story about the person than a formal portrait would.

A portrait of a person in their natural environment adds depth to both them and the location. Environmental portraits are often used in newspaper and magazine stories. Either in print or online. They are also often used in corporate reports, business and educational websites, and many other purposes.

DSLR and mirrorless cameras are more complicated than ever. How to set up a new camera so you get the best photography experience is an important first step. But many people stumble and end up crawling along and hindering their progress. In this guide, I teach how to set up the essential controls on your new camera.

This 16 page e-zine is a guide to using your new camera. Learning to take photos with a camera is different than using a phone. Sure, you can leave your camera on auto everything and it will be easy. But what's the point when you can use your phone? This is a practical guide to making the transition from phone to camera. You'll learn to get the most from your camera in 7 practical steps.

This 25 page step-by-step guide is a companion to the article I have on my website. What makes a good photograph? This is a common question that is not so easy to answer in a practical way. In this e-zine, I expand my thoughts I share in the article on my website. I also provide seven practical exercises that will help you make better photographs, no matter what camera you use or what you take photos of.

Here's the link for the article on my website:

www.kevinlj.com/essential-qualities-of-a-good-photograph/

Photomontages have been part of my entire photography experience. I learned of the work of British artist David Hockney shortly after I purchased my first camera. His method of joining many photographs into one single artwork fascinated me. The whole time and space restriction of photography seemed no longer relevant.

Photomontages I create are cubist in nature. A single photograph is restricted to being taken from one location, otherwise blurring will occur. Each photo is also limited by time. Exposures happen often with a very short duration.

With photomontages both these restraints are removed. I am free to move around with my camera while making a photomontage. I can view my subject from many points of view. So, as I construct a montage, I am not limited by a single perspective. This is challenging to manage as I must take care the image I create is cohesive.

I take the photos over a period of time, so I can manipulate time in each artwork. Sometimes it doesn't take long at all. Other montages take much longer to photograph. At times I may return to the location to take photos more than once. Whenever there is movement within my composition this can be captured and included. A single person, vehicle, animal, etc. moving within a montage can appear many times in the finished artwork.

Over the years I have continued to experiment with photomontages. As digital photography became a reality it also meant for me that I could include video in my montages. I make them move. To see some of my montages that incorporate video, please take a look at them on my Youtube channel. (www.youtube.com/kiwimobro)

There's also a video where I explain more about how I create my photomontages and another showing me putting one together.

Practical teaching and stories related to the author's life experience teach you how to overcome your hesitancy in photographing people.

Shy photographers know how uncomfortable it is being photographed. Naturally, we should be more sensitive, more empathetic, and therefore more capable of creating portraits with depth and feeling.