Michael Lee asked:


Are you currently strapped for cash? Wish you had another source of income? Well, if you have a digital camera on hand, then your problems are solved! All you need to do is learn how to make money taking pictures.

Learning how to make money taking pictures is easy. You don’t have to become one of the paparazzi in order to get paid well for your photos. If you’re interested to make some extra money, read on!

1) Submit to Stock Photo Websites.

These days, a very simple way on how to make money taking pictures is by submitting your photos to stock photo websites.

Millions of people are always browsing around the Internet for photos. From students to advertisers, they are all willing to pay good money for simple images!

Shutterstock is one of those websites who currently accept stock footage. If you have time on your hands, visit their website now!

Other stock photo sites include:

Photostockplus.com

Canstockphoto.com

Fotolia.com

Bigstockphoto.com

Istockphoto.com

2) Sell Used Cars.

Not directly, anyway. Another method on how to make money taking pictures is by offering your services to used car dealers. You can take pictures of their cars and upload them to Ebay to increase the business’ reach.

A lot of people click on Ebay looking for brand new and secondhand items. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

3) Join Photography Contests.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And who knows, your photo just might be the best according to the judges!

There are many photography contests being held, both local and international. All you have to do is keep your eyes peeled for posters and announcements in newspapers, magazines and websites.

Now that you know how to make money taking pictures, it’s safe to say that you don’t have to worry about looking for another part-time job soon. After all, you’re now earning money while doing something you genuinely like. How many people can honestly say that?

Alex Don asked:


the world young women and men discover the bicycle riding sport every day, and in each event you will find some photographer or maybe two who is recording the spills and thrills.

Mountain bike and bicycle contests and races offer the unparalleled opportunity to take action photos, plus photos of individuals or large groups moving really fast over different landscapes. These opportunities offer a lot of chances where you could take individual shots (close-ups of riders concentration, striving, downcast or elated). Also, the environment is another aspect awaiting to be featured dense forests, steep mountains, sunshine, old towns, storms, rain showers, smooth and rough Some photographers just go a little further and see in the crowds of cyclists together with the landscapes an opportunity for taking abstract or semi-abstract compositions photos.

Cycling photographers could cover different sorts of cycling events, or can concentrate on one or two categories, like cross country, or road, track (for example, velodrome), downhill, BMX cycling, Mountain X. The same way, they could choose covering regional or local events or international or national events like Tourde France. Photographers can choose to use digital cameras or traditional film-based SLR cameras. Digital cameras offer the advantage you can take lots of photos on each event (never worrying about paying a lot of expensive film), after which you only keep the best shots and discard the rest.

They also allow photographers to edit shots after the event has taken place, by improving contrast and color, and crop away distracting elements, leaving only clear, strong images. These are very compelling reasons to use digital cameras when taking photos. It’s probably why this type of photography has gained wide-spread acceptance even early on.

Even using modern digital SLR cameras, the cycling photography could a little bit of a challenge because of varying and difficult lighting conditions sometime, and the speed of bike riders that are whizzing by, plus changeable weather conditions. Photos of bicyclists and bikes have been taken since nineteenth century. Subjects starting from high wheelers and “bone shakers” to tricycles and tandems, from cyclists slowly biking American and European towns and specialist subjects like circus clown bikes.

Recently, there were only a handful of photographers internationally-known that specialize in cycling photography, big names include Phil OConnor and Graham Watson. The posters, books, photo collections and postcards printed by them act as inspiration and guides for the amateur and the professional cycling photographers to help them improve photographic skills, judgment and taste.

Qing Gu asked:


Looking for the best tips that help you take perfect Christmas pictures and snap the most unforgettable holiday moment?

Holiday pictures never lose their charm or their sentimental value. Even years after you’ve taken that happy holiday picture, somehow, just looking at it can bring back the wonderful memories of sitting around and laughing over a joke or opening presents or the joy of a Christmas meal together.

So taking Christmas pictures to store up memories is so necessary to relive the emotions later.

However, the truth is, although many people have expensive cameras, they may not know how to use them correctly.

Many people think how hard could it possibly be, and they just go ahead and take the festive photos without even looking at the instructions. What they do not realize is that it can be extremely hard to take decent Christmas pictures when you do not know how to use the camera properly.

A lot of people just get the camera out, nap a picture and, when they get it back, the picture is either missing someone’s head or it hasn’t come out properly at all.

So, as well as knowing how to work the camera, it is a good idea to feel confident in how to take perfect festive photos. There are a few tips that you can use to make things easier.

What you need to do to get perfect Christmas pictures is to get the background right. Take care to avoid any extra elements that will intrude into your photos. Also make sure that the people in the picture are well-positioned so when you get the results, they will be festive photos you will want to keep and treasure.

You can use the red eye feature on some cameras that can help when the festive photos have been developed.

If this feature is not on your camera, you can ask the person to turn slightly to the left, which should stop the problem. A great tip for taking a photo when there is a group of three or more people is to take more than one picture. The reason behind this is that it is almost guaranteed that one person will have their eyes shut or be looking the wrong way. Take precautions and do not pin all of your hopes on one photo, otherwise, you may be disappointed!

So, make sure you capture that perfect Christmas moment by following some of these basic tips. However, remember that it is all about having fun so be sure to enjoy yourself at the same time!

As well as having that perfect photo for your family album or for Christmas pictures, how about entering your best photos in a contest for a prize? This could be a really big incentive to snap those perfect photos, as well as a sense of pride and joy.