10 Photography Tips for Beginners

Digital photography has democratized the medium. More people are taking more photos than ever before, and they're sharing them online with friends and family in record numbers. It's easy to place the blame on the camera if your images aren't as nice as some others you see online, but by following a few guidelines you can improve the quality of your photos—without having to shell out big bucks for a new camera. Keep these 10 easy tips in mind next time you head out to capture the world around you. And if you have any tips that have helped you take better pictures, please share them in the comments section.

1. Get Basic Composition Down. The heart of a photograph is its composition—the position of different elements in a frame. The easiest rule of thumb to learn and remember is the Rule of Thirds. Basically, you'll want to break your frame into nine squares of roughly equal size. Try and align the subject of your photo along these lines and intersections and imagine the main image divided over these nine boxes. This gives you a more dramatic, visually interesting shot than one where you subject is located dead center. Many newer cameras have a rule of thirds grid overlay that you can activate when shooting.

2. Adjust Exposure Compensation. As long as you aren't shooting in full manual mode, your digital camera is making decisions that determine the exposure of a photo—in English, how light or dark the shot appears. Generally speaking, a camera looks at a scene and tries to determine the appropriate exposure based on the correct lighting of an 18-percent gray card, which is why there are special scene modes for snow—without them, the camera would try to make the white snow gray.

If a photo is too light or dark you can either delve through the dozens of scene modes that are available in modern point-and-shoot cameras, or simply dial in a bit of exposure compensation. Many cameras have a physical button for this, identified by a +/- symbol. If your photo is too dark, move the scale up above zero; if too light, move it down a bit.

3. Choose the Right Mode. Your camera is likely to have scores of shooting modes, ranging from fully automatic operation to very specific scene modes. If you're shooting fast action you can put the camera into Shutter Priority ("S") mode and increase the speed at which a photo is taken—setting it to 1/125 second or faster will help to freeze action. In lower light you can use Aperture Priority ("A") mode to make sure as much light is entering the lens as possible, or if you're shooting landscapes on a tripod you can close the lens's iris to increase depth of field, keeping everything in sharp focus from the foreground to the horizon. If you're a D-SLR shooter, you're more likely to use the A or S modes, while point-and-shoot cameras will often feature more specific modes that cater to activities like sports, low-light use, or landscape shooting.

4. Watch Your White Balance. Your camera will try and set white balance automatically based on the type of light in which's you're shooting. Different light casts different types of color—sunlight is very blue, tungsten lighting is yellow, and fluorescent is a bit green. In many cases, the camera will automatically detect what type of lighting you're under and adjust the color in photos so that they look natural. If you're shooting under mixed lighting, or if the camera is just having a hard time figuring things out, you can set the white balance manually. On most point and shoots you'll have to dive into the shooting menu to adjust this, but many D-SLRs have a dedicated White Balance button, often labeled "WB." You can correct color in iPhoto or Picasa later on, but you'll get better-looking photos if you get the white balance right in the first place.

5. Think About Lighting. Pay attention to how much light you have and where it's coming from when taking your photos. If you're shooting outdoors, be careful not to take photos of a person when the sun is at their back. If you're grabbing a photo in front of a monument or landmark and don't have the flexibility to adjust your position you can use the camera's flash to fill in shadows. You may have to manually activate the flash, as there's a good chance that the camera will think that it's unnecessary on a bright day.

6. Use Your Flash Wisely. Many a photo has been foiled by a flash firing too close to a subject. If your friends and family look like Casper the Friendly Ghost when you photograph them, chances are that you're too close when snapping your photos. If you need to activate the flash, back up a bit and zoom in to get the proper framing. If things are still to bright—or too dark—check and see if flash compensation is an option. Many cameras allow you to adjust the power of the flash, which can help to add better balance to your flash-assisted photos. Adding just a little bit of light makes it possible to fill in shadows, resulting in a more natural-looking photo.

7. Add a Flash Diffuser. If dialing down flash power isn't an option, you can also add a diffuser to help spread the light out. Smaller flashes aren't able spread light across a large surface area, giving your subjects a deer-in-the-headlights look. Point-and-shoot users can tape a bit of wax paper over the flash to soften its output. D-SLR users are best served by using an empty 35mm film canister—the milky variety used by Kodak—with a bit cut out so that it fits snugly over the flash. Photojojo has a tutorial that will walk you through the steps. If you don't have any film canisters lying around, try asking at your local drug store or department store minilab—they're bound to have dozens sitting in a drawer, and will gladly part with one. If making your own diffuser doesn't sound like your cup of tea, consider theGary Fong Puffer, a $22 accessory that will look a bit more professional when mounted on your camera.

8. Use a Tripod or Monopod. Sometimes, the best way to get your shot perfect is to take some extra time. Using a tripod will allow you to set up framing, and can come in handy—along with your camera's self-timer—for getting that shot of you and the kids in front of Mount Rushmore. You can get away with an inexpensive tripod if you're a point-and-shoot user, although spending a bit more on a brand like Manfrotto or Gitzo will result in much less frustration than with the bargain brands that you'll find at the local five and dime. D-SLR users should definitely put care into selecting a tripod, as a set of legs and a head that are sturdy enough to hold the camera are paramount.

If you're more of a run-and-gun shooter, a monopod—which is just like it sounds, a tripod with two of its legs missing—will help you stabilize your shots. Great for use at zoos and sporting events, a monopod is supplemented by your two legs in order to add stability to your camera—without the sometimes-cumbersome setup and breakdown required with a good tripod.

9. Be Selective. It's easy to take hundreds of photos in a few hours when shooting digitally. But don't just dump your memory card and upload all of the images to Facebook. You should spend some time going through your photos so you can eliminate redundant shots and discard photos that may be out of focus or poorly composed. It's better to post a few dozen great photos by themselves rather than the same good photos hiding among hundreds of not-so-good ones.

10. Don't Forget to Post-Process. Consider using a program like Picasa or iPhoto to organize your photos. Either will allow you to crop, color-correct, adjust exposure, remove red-eye, and perform other basic editing tasks. Performing some very basic editing on a photo can help improve its quality drastically. Cropping a bit can help with composition, and you can also rotate a photo so that horizon lines are straight. Getting your photos right in-camera is the larger goal, but there's no harm in a bit of retouching.

Robin Sharma my new inspiration

Just Read this its really amazing !

62 Fast Tips to Get UnStuck

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

1. Believe in your vision and gifts when no one else believes in your vision and gifts.
2. Start your day with 20 minutes of exercise.
3. Make excellence your way of being (versus a once in a while event).
4. Be on time (bonus points: be early).
5. Be a celebrator of other’s talents versus a critic.
6. Stop watching TV. (Bonus points: sell your tv and invest the cash in learning and self-education).
7. Finish what you start.
8. Remember that your diet affects your moods so eat like an athlete.
9. Spend an hour a day without stimulation (no phone+no FaceBook+no noise).
10. Release the energy vampires from your life. They are destroying your performance.
11. Write in a journal every morning. And record gratitude every night.
12. Do work that scares you (if you’re not uncomfortable often, you’re not growing very much).
13. Make the choice to let go of your past. It’s dusty history. And polluting your future.
14. Commit to being “Mozart-Level Good” at your work.
15. Smile more (and tell your face).
16. Do a collage filled with images of your ideal life. Look at it once a day for focus and inspiration.
17. Plan your week on a schedule (clarity is the DNA of mastery).
18. Stop gossiping (average people love gossip; exceptional people adore ideas).
19. Read “As You Think”.
20. Read “The Go-Getter”.
21. Don’t just parent your kids–develop them.
22. Remember that victims are frightened by change. And leaders grow inspired by it.
23. Start taking daily supplements to stay in peak health.
24. Clean out any form of “victimspeak” in your vocabulary and start running the language of leadership and possibility.
25. Do a nature walk at least once a week. It’ll renew you (you can’t inspire others if you’re depleted yourself).
26. Take on projects no one else will take on. Set goals no one else will do.
27. Do something that makes you feel uncomfortable at least once every 7 days.
28. Say “sorry” when you know you should say “sorry”.
29. Say “please” and “thank you” a lot.
30. Remember that to double your income, triple your investment in learning, coaching and self-education.
31. Dream big but start now.
32. Achieve 5 little goals each day (“The Daily 5 Concept” I shared in “The Leader Who Had No Title” that has transformed the lives of so many). In 12 months this habit will produce 1850 little goals–which will amount to a massive transformation.
33. Write handwritten thank you notes to your customers, teammates and family members.
34. Be slow to criticize and fast to praise.
35. Read Walter Isaacson’s amazing biography on Steve Jobs.
36. Give your customers 10X the value they pay for (“The 10X Value Obsession”).
37. Use the first 90 minutes of your work day only on value-creating activities (versus checking email or surfing the Net).
38. Breathe.
39. Keep your promises.
40. Remember that ordinary people talk about their goals. Leaders get them done. With speed.
41. Watch the inspirational documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”.
42. Know that a problem only becomes a problem when you choose to see it as a problem.
43. Brain tattoo the fact that all work is a chance to change the world.
44. Watch the amazing movie “The Intouchables”.
45. Remember that every person you meet has a story to tell, a lesson to teach and a dream to do.
46. Risk being rejected. All of the great ones do.
47. Spend more time in art galleries. Art inspires, stimulates creativity and pushes boundaries.
48. Read a book a week, invest in a course every month and attend a workshop every quarter.
49. Remember that you empower what you complain about.
50. Get to know yourself. The main reason we procrastinate on our goals is not because of external conditions; we procrastinate due to our internal beliefs. And the thing is they are stuck so deep that we don’t even know they exist. But once you do, everything changes.
51. Read “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”.
52. Know your values. And then have the guts to live them–no matter what the crowd thinks and how the herd lives.
53. Become the fittest person you know.
54. Become the strongest person you know.
55. Become the kindest person you know.
56. Know your “Big 5″–the 5 goals you absolutely must achieve by December 31 to make this year your best yet (I teach my entire goal-achieving process, my advanced techniques on unleashing confidence and how to go from being stuck to living a life you adore in my online program “Your Absolute Best Year Yet”).
57. Know that potential unexpressed turns to pain.
58. Build a strong family foundation while you grow your ideal career.
59. Stop being selfish.
60. Give your life to a project bigger than yourself.
61. Be thankful for your talents.
62. Stand for iconic. Go for legendary. And make history.

Using Your Tone of Voice

In speaking, we know that what we say may not be as important as how we say it. When my children were small, the tone of my voice when I called their names told them whether I was angry or happy with them. If I called them for dinner, they could tell by my tone of voice whether they should have been at the table ten minutes earlier or if they had another ten minutes to play. The tone of voice says everything. As James J. Kilpatrick wrote about speaking in a column entitled, "Thinking About 'Like and As,'" "We have one tone for a eulogy, another tone for an address to the 20th Precinct Democratic Club. Depending upon our audience, we shift keys like a pickup pianist at a homecoming party."

We tell an audience by our tone of voice whether we are in fun or are passionate about our topic. The tone of voice shows our concern for the audience and determines in the minds of the audience whether or not we are sincere. The audience may say a speaker is boring even though the content in very stimulating. It's the monotone voice that makes them think the presentation is dull.

So as speakers we must be concerned with exhibiting the appropriate tone of voice for our content and have the appropriate tone for the message we want to communicate. Here are some suggestions for making our content more impactful by the tone of voice we use.

• Pause before emphasizing an important word or concept. Doing that will make you punch out what comes next to show the audience this is important.
• Speed up your rate to show excitement. Speeding up will invariably make the tone of voice more urgent and compelling.
• See in your mind the story you are telling.This will translate into your vocal quality. That is why a person who retells a story of an event that just happened will tell it with more excitement in the voice because the picture of the event is still fresh in his/her mind. Talk to a child at the end of a school day and he/she will give a more excited and animinated summary of the day than if you ask about the day later in the evening or the next day. Train yourself to relive the story as you tell it and you will see a difference in your tone of voice.
• Define a place in your speech that might be considered a "wow" factor for the audience. When you get to that point, the audience will think, "Wow! I did not realize that!" If you can anticipate that point in the speech, you will be more likely to put punch into the tone of voice as you speak and your content will impact your audience with greater effect.
• Include vivid facial expression or bigger gestures when you get to an emotional or dramatic part of your presentation. More expressive body movement body will often be reflected in the tone of your voice.
• Include dialogue in your speech. Narrating a conversation will cause you to vary speaking rate and volume to accommodate the different characters in your story so that your tone of voice will be more expressive.

Why Should We Care About Managing Diversity?

Diversity brings vividness of thoughts, opinion and intellect. For successful stories, we shouldn't be limited to the gender based diversity but span it through the diversity of culture, genre and intelligentsia. It often invokes a variety of attitudes and emotional responses in people.Diversity matters for the broader issue of economic fairness, as companies led by women have lower gender-based pay disparities throughout their organizations. (Heck, companies run by men with daughters have lower gender-based pay disparities.)
Diversity matters for economic growth. If women were fully engaged in the US economy, GDP would be 9% larger than it is today. This is growth our economy could sorely use. (And, no, it’s not a zero sum game of new entrants taking others’ jobs; history shows that the economy can grow as a result of new entrants, in a virtuous circle.)
Diversity matters for US company performance and competitiveness. Study after study after study has shown that companies with diverse management teams outperform those with less diverse teams. And that diverse teams outperform even more “capable” teams. And they don’t outperform non-diverse teams by a little, but with ROE differentials of 30%+, with lower earnings volatility.
And diversity can even be a matter for the safety of our economy and financial markets. Which industry could use the lower volatility, more customer focus and the longer-term perspective that women have been shown to bring? The banks.
And, yet, the progress of women into senior roles has stalled in broader corporate America. And, on Wall Street, an industry that was substantially white, middle-aged and male has become whiter, middle-aged-er and maler coming out of the downturn, essentially doubling down on that bet.
In my experience, CEOs and Boards "get" the issue and the benefits of improving diversity. But on a case-by-case-by-case basis, as promotions are decided, they choose the known entity, who tends to be someone who looks and sounds a good bit like those already in leadership roles; and this seems to be particularly true when businesses are under stress.
As the above demonstrates, our current approach to diversity is yielding significantly diminishing returns. We need new ways of thinking about how to encourage greater diversity in business, employing some of the innovative thinking that is driving such great strides in solving other challenges. More (much more) to come on this topic and potential solutions 

5 Benefits Of Your To-Do List

Life is hectic!   Things to do.  Places to go.  Things to remember.  Deadlines to meet. Appointments to make.  With all of these things to think about simultaneously, you will certainly feel overwhelmed at times.But you can take ownership of the situation and manage it appropriately so that you alleviate your stress. A great way to do this is to add order to your life by creating to-do lists.  To-do lists can be used to document the tasks you have to complete in a particular, day, week, year, etc.  They can be detailed or concise; but the important thing is that your to-do list has enough information to keep you in check and on track!

Here are five ways in which to-do lists can benefit you!  

Creates order. If your life is ruled by the law of entropy, then a to-do list may very well be a need.  Think of what you have to do, create your list, clear all the items on it, and find yourself with zero tasks left!  This is systematic enough to get you from point A to B in a focused and reliable manner while increasing your productivity and efficiency.

Helps you prioritize. Yes, you have a lot do, but some are certainly more important and time-sensitive than others.  You can organize your to-do list in order of priority or you can create your to-do list and then number the items in order of importance.  Either way, your to-do list allows you that big picture perspective while allowing you to see the details.

Relieves stress. Although you may have 20 items on your to-do list, not all 20 items are of the utmost importance.  Once you identify the items of importance, you can stop focusing on the number of items you have to complete which, in itself, can be overwhelming.  It is definitely a relief to know that some items can be addressed later.

Creates accountability. Your intent is useless if you are not holding yourself accountable and taking action.  A to-do list helps with this because there is no denying what you wrote on it.  In essence, you give your task life and it exists as something to be addressed if it is on your to-do list.  No excuses.

CHECK!! It feels great to cross things off your list!  This is an undeniable truth!  Not only do you have one less item to worry about, but you feel accomplished!  And that’s a great and motivating feeling!

The Procrastination Problem

Procrastinators delay until the day after tomorrow what they know they should have done the day before yesterday.

What does procrastination look like?

We all put off working on unpleasant or tedious tasks from time to time. Washing the car, taking out garbage, cleaning windows, or making stressful phone calls are no one's idea of a fun way to spend time. But where most of us do this only occasionally, procrastinators do it most of the time, and that's where the problems start.

Procrastination is a stress factor

Procrastination is a behavior that leads to stress, because it makes plans and wishes fail at what should be the point of fulfillment: theater tickets and vacation packages sell out before procrastinators get around to calling. Planes take off, deadlines pass, jobs go to other applicants--the ones who got their resumes in on time.

Procrastination has negative effects

The Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Canada did an online survey. They received 2,700 responses to the question, "To what extent is procrastination having a negative impact on your happiness?" Almost one person in two (46%) said "quite a bit" or "very much," and around one person in five (18%) reported an "extreme negative effect."

Procrastination threatens happiness

Though procrastination is often trivialized, procrastinators suffer when their careers crash or when they otherwise fail to reach their potential. Long term and wide scale, "the big P" can become more than just a threat to personal health, happiness, and productivity of individuals: it can carry that threat into our companies and communities.

Traits of the procrastinators

How can you spot a chronic procrastinator? Procrastinators avoid revealing information about their abilities, they make poor time estimates, they tend to focus on the past and do not act on their intentions, they may also prefer service jobs. These characteristics are linked to low self-esteem, perfectionism, non-competitiveness, self-deception, self-control, self-confidence, depression and anxiety.

There are no easy answers

There are no easy "buck up" answers, though. As Joseph Ferrari, professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago says: "It's not about time management. To tell a chronic procrastinator to 'Just Do It' is like telling a clinically depressed person to cheer up." We need to look at the kind of procrastination people practice to understand the reason they do it and find the appropriate cure.

Why do people procrastinate?

Take your pick! Ferrari found that some procrastinators had particularly authoritarian fathers. He sees the p-habit as a continuing rebellion against those demands. Others lay the blame on strong parents who don't leave their children room to develop initiative. Clary Lay of York University, Toronto, creator of the General Procrastination Scale, takes a different tack and believes that procrastinators think and act in terms of "wishes and dreams" while people who do not procrastinate get on with "oughts and obligations." He says, "Procrastinators are also neurotically disorganized in their thinking, making them forgetful and less likely to plan well."

How do people procrastinate?

Procrastination research is a new field, but researchers are starting to describe different types of procrastination. Two types that are particularly common are behavioral- and decisional procrastination.

Behavioral procrastination

Behavioral procrastination is a self-sabotage strategy that allows people to shift blame and avoid action, for example: a student may do poorly in an exam and use procrastination as an excuse. "They'd rather create the impression that they lacked effort than ability," says Ferrari. "They can blame their failure on the lack of time."

Ferrari also thinks that procrastinators suffer from low esteem and self-doubt and worry about how other people judge their abilities. "Procrastinators view their self-worth as based on ability," he says. So according to their logic, "If I never finish the task, you can never judge my ability."

Prolonged procrastination and failure to perform adequately creates a cycle of self-defeating behavior, which results in a downward spiral of self-esteem. Self-inflicted degradation and shame of this kind often translates into stress and (mental) health problems at some point.

Decisional procrastination

The decisional procrastination strategy is to put off making a decision when dealing with conflicts or choices. People who practice high level decisional procrastination tend to be afraid of errors and are likely to be perfectionists. These procrastinators seek out more and more information about alternatives before attempting to make a decision, if they make one at all.

Overinformed decisional procrastinators run the danger of falling prey to a further self-sabotage strategy, called optional paralysis: they create so many choices for themselves that they feel unable to choose, for fear of choosing an option that is less than perfect.

First steps to change

Insight is the first step to change. Understanding is the second step. After that, a course of behavior modification therapy may help, especially if procrastination is causing serious problems in connection with work and relationships. Though there is no Band-Aid solution for procrastination, anything that helps procrastinators take concrete steps goes a long way to re-building a healthy level of achievement and self-esteem and helping them feel better about themselves.

Self Management - Take Responsibility For Your Life And Forge Ahead

Self management is one of the keys to achieving more in your life. Really enjoy your life and get the most out of things. With greater awareness and understanding comes self knowledge. You take control and get rewarded for the effort you put in.

Self knowledge gives you a foundation on which to proceed. Working on yourself gives you greater belief, increased self confidence and higher self esteem. From this greater motivation allows you to set goals that you feel you can achieve. By working on your talents and skills, backed up by solid and supportive values and principles, you can move confidently forward to realizing your potential. Not only can you chase your dreams but you can start fulfilling them.

Self efficacy is our belief that we can achieve our aims, our goals, our targets, our dreams. With belief in self our horizons can expand beyond our comfort zone. We can tackle new and enriching projects, take on board ideas that interest and excite us, and basically achieve much, much more. Epistemology is about knowledge and understanding, how it is acquired and how much things may be known. 

So, what do we mean by self-management? 

What are some of the benefits of self management? Things we might ask include: 

• Looking at yourself in (perhaps) a new light
• Seeing what you have achieved but wanting more
• Assessing where you are at and where you want to go
• Putting in the effort in a constructive way to improve yourself
• Finding that balance in your life that gives you a solid foundation
• Giving yourself the time and encouragement to move things forward
• Going easy on yourself if (or when) you meet hurdles or barriers
• Nurturing yourself, day to day, on your path to a better you
• Seeing that life wants to see you succeed
• Looking to the future with confidence

And what can be the benefits you experience? 
Benefits include:

• Realizing the talents you have and using them productively
• Looking at yourself in a new light - with confidence and improved self image
• Moving forward with enthusiasm and with increased motivation
• Setting yourself goals, achieving them and setting yourself further targets
• Your increased self efficacy enabling you to achieve more
• Enjoying the journey ofpersonal growth on which you have embarked
• Seeing your valuesbecome more substantial and more 'you'
• Liking the direction that you find life takes you
• Looking at yourself with pride at your efforts and achievement
• See the 'newer' you in a new light - your self worth shining through
• Your self esteem enhanced and your life an exciting adventure