Short and Sweet

1. During long exposures, try zooming your lens to create streaks of light and color. You need at least 1/3 second exposure for enough time to twist the zoom ring. Start moving the ring before you trip the shutter. This guarantees the zoom movement will occur throughout the entire exposure.

2. When photographing near salt water, take extreme precautions to prevent even one drop of water from touching your camera and lens. Salt water kills electronics instantly. Use an Aquatech housing, wrap your camera in plastic, use a Ziplock bag -- anything to protect your expensive gear.

3. The Pieta by Michelangelo is now protected by glass, but as you can see, photographing through clean glass isn’t a problem. Just be cognizant of reflections in the glass from lights in the room that may be behind you. Sometimes they can’t be avoided, and you need Photoshop to eliminate the unwanted hotspots.

4. Photographing a subject like a black leopard kitten where it’s composed in the center of the frame makes exposure challenging. With any of the exposure modes, the results will typically be too light. Therefore, use the LCD screen to judge the exposure (not the histogram) and then tweak it using exposure compensation. §