For most of us, the holidays

mean tons of food, family, presents, outdoor Christmas displays and leftovers.

You can also guarantee that

someone will pick up a camera to record part of the event for posterity.

Or for the family scrapbook. Maybe even for some friendly family blackmail.

Yes, I'm guilty of all

of the above.

Having taken newspaper pictures

for the past 10 years, I've learned a lot by trial and error. Oftentimes

more error than anything else.

So I figured I'd share

a few tips to help those of you who are as photo-obsessed as I am.

Whether you have a newfangled

digital camera, a 20-year-old hand-me-down Pentax or a single-use disposable

camera, you can take great pictures. Believing in yourself is always rule

number 1.

On to the tips:

1. Be prepared.

You can't say enough about

this. Have plenty of fresh batteries and film or memory cards on hand.

Load your camera with new batteries and film.

If you use rechargeable batteries,

freshen them up the night before also.

Nothing kills a good photo

opportunity like a camera that won't work.

2. Don't skimp on the

film. You'll regret it.

Taking multiple photos of a

given subject is most important when photographing children. They move

around a lot quicker than us adults, and capturing the right moment with

kids can be difficult.

Nothing beats the classic shots,

like the child ripping into his present, mom and dad helping pull the

gift out of the packaging, and the child proceeding to toss him/herself

head-first into the box.

Such action sequences are possible

only when you shoot a few (or more) shots of the same scene.

For example, my 2-year-old

didn't want to sit on Santa's lap this year. Fortunately, Santa

was giving out presents and Tyler was talked into getting a present out

of Santa's basket.

Employing the old military

shock-and-awe ploy, the good wife swoops Tyler up and places him in Santa's

lap.

The first photo shows the "Huh?"

look on Tyler's face. In the second shot, he starts to realize he's

been hoodwinked. And on the third photo, well, he's letting us have

it.

Priceless moments.

Again, having fresh batteries

is VERY important for sequence action pictures. Otherwise it's going

to take your camera's flash 60 seconds or more to charge up and fire

again.

missed several good photo opportunities.

3. In some cases, it's

good to ditch the flash.

Pull up the shades and pull

back the curtains. Good old-fashioned sunlight beaming through the windows

makes for much better lighting in some circumstances. Even bright overcast

skies can help you tremendously.

Canceling the flash on the

camera takes a little guts for snap-shooters like my wife who use PhD

(Push here, Dummy) cameras. But the rewards can be greater than the risk.

Obviously, don't go by

window light alone if it's dark outside.

And if you're ever in

doubt, use the flash.

4. Exercise your trigger finger.

To take advantage of the quick

grab-shots, particularly of the kiddies, keep the shutter button pressed

down halfway while composing the picture. In most cases, this jump-starts

the camera's auto-focus system.

This particularly helps with

digital cameras which have one or two-second delays after you press the

shutter button.

In fact, if you can set your

camera to "continuous AF" by all means do so. This means your

camera constantly re-focuses as the subject moves to insure focus is crisp.

Typically, only higher-end film and digital cameras have this feature,

however.

On all other cameras, you may

have to press and re-press the button halfway down if your subject moves

significantly. This is because your camera's auto-focus "locks"

on the subject when you press the button halfway and when the subject

moves the camera doesn't change it's AF until you tell it to

Consult your camera manual

for pointers on your camera's AF system. Don't just take my

word for it.

Which brings me to the next

important tip:

5. Break out your camera manual

for a quick refresher.

This is particularly true if

you haven't used your camera for a while or you're pulling an

older one out of mothballs. Manuals are especially helpful for troubleshooting

such tasks as film loading and interpreting what in the heck that blinking

yellow light in the viewfinder means.

On some cameras that light

means focus is off; on others it means the flash is charging.

You won't know unless

you dive into your manual for a few minutes.

6. If you're using a disposable

camera, you've only got two things to worry about.

First, stay several feel back

from your subject. All the ones I've used require you to be at least

4 to 6 feet away from the subject.

Check your disposable camera

to see its requirements. Most likely, the minimum range is listed on the

camera itself. Otherwise, it's on the packaging.

Second, watch your fingers.

These cameras are pretty tiny and it's easy to cover up the lens

or flash while you're shooting. Either error is fatal to the picture

you just took, so make sure you've got your fingers out of the way.

One more thing. Make sure you

don't obsess about your photos to the point where you miss enjoying

the moment.

Happy shooting everybody and

Merry Christmas.

**

Some of my mother's friends

were upset at the letter writer last week who said I must have the intellectual

capacity of a goldfish.

When someone resorts to name-calling,

it's usually because their logic is flawed and they're digging

for the last bullets in the bag, which are often blanks.

It's really no big deal.

Criticism comes with the territory. Especially when you write something

critical of a Republican president in an overwhelmingly Republican county,

which is what I did with my column on the President's secretive trip

to Iraq for Thanksgiving.

The full exchange of ideas

is what many newspapers strive for, regardless of how kooky those ideas

are. Of course the cat would've been out of the bag had the press

charter plane been used.

You could get around that by

having a special military cargo jet haul the journalists in.

Still, the far better solution

was to invite NONE of the media. Military journalists could've taped

it and taken still photos for distribution to all media outlets at the

same time.

Best of all, it would have

heightened security by keeping any media workers from letting the secret

slip.