July longweekend is just around the corner and that means lots of picture taking opportunities!  Here are a few tips to get you ready for the big weekend:

1.  Charge up your camera and video camera batteries.  If you use AA batteries, buy a spare set.  The last thing you want to do is run out of battery power!

2.  Dump all of the photos on your SD cards to your computer.  This is a great opportunity to do a back up of all your data on your computer too!  Burn back up dvds that you can store off-site somewhere and also back up to an external device

3.  Alot of video cameras store the video on the video camera’s hard drive.  This is a good time to dump all your video so you have lots of room to shoot video this weekend. 

4.  Ladies – make sure you get some photos of YOU with the kids.  Most of the mommies out there are rarely seen in the photos because they are the ones taking the photos! 

5. Updated family photos – get someone to take some photos of your family.  Tell them to take 5 or 6 shots and that way you are sure to get one where everyone is looking their best!

6.  Shoot vertically!   I read somewhere that 94% of the shots taken with a point and shoot camera are shot horizontally.  Change things up a little and get better photos by doing 2 things…get closer to your subject and try turning the camera vertically for those portraits!

7.  Print some of your photos!  Once the weekend is over, take a look at what you shot and print a few shots for around the home!  Something like 87% of photos taken with digital cameras are never printed!  This weekend is going to be filled with lots of smiles so why not fill your home with some of those great shots!

Have a great longweekend!