I recently discovered a way to make some extra cash AND share my travel photos with others. This has nothing to do with selling on eBay or dealing with cranky customers.

I got an e-mail telling me about websites that will display your photos on line and sell them for you. Once a photo has been downloaded, you get a commission for it! Being on line, it operates 24/7 without any further action on your part.

I don’t know about you but I am kinda touchy about my photos. When I shoot a good one, I take it personally when someone tries to imply that it really isn’t worth much. It’s almost like a slap in the face. That’s why I don’t like to deal with people directly when I want to sell any of my work.

These “microstock” sites are made to order for people like me. I upload my photos. They display the ones they consider to be the best and most saleable and pay me when people buy them. Their prices are fixed and I don’t have to deal with buyers trying to talk me down in price.

But, let’s be up front and honest here. These sites will not waste their time and hard disk space on photos that simply aren’t good enough to attract anyone’s attention. They will NOT accept “snapshots.”

I’ve been going through my photo archives to find photos that I think are good enough to upload to one or more of the sites for sale. Going through tons of old photos has surely brought back some sweet memories for me.

I’m pretty excited about this and anxious to see how it works out for me. In the near future, I’ll post links to some of their sites so you can try them out for yourself.

We know that building walls go straight up and down. They are parallel to each other and at a right angle to the ground. But, when we take pictures of them, the walls in the pictures don’t look that way.

Well, there is an explanation. In this article, I’ll do my best to break the technical reasons down into something even I can understand. After that, I’ll tell you what you can do to correct it.

One of the problems is that you can’t see the “crooked” walls in your camera’s viewfinder. It doesn’t show up the same way as it will in the picture.

Here’s what happens. In the back of your camera, there is a flat surface where the light coming in through the lens is focused. In a film camera, the film is held flat right there. In a digital camera, that flat surface holds thousands of tiny sensors that capture the colors and shades of light.

If this flat surface is parallel to the walls on the building, there won’t be any problem. The light is hitting the flat surface straight on.

However, if you tilt the camera upward to get the whole building in the picture, those two surfaces are no longer parallel. The light is hitting that flat surface at an angle. One side of the flat surface is closer to the building than the other.

If you were to print a photo from that shot and lay a grid over it, the straight lines on the grid will show clearly that the walls on the building are distorted in the photo.

The sides of the wall will get closer to each other as you move up the photo. It will look like the building is leaning away from you. The more the camera is tilted upward, the worse this distortion will be.

You can get a similar effect if you’re standing near one end of a long building. If you take a picture of the front of that building from that position, the other end will look very small and far away in the photo. Again, the issue is the same; the camera isn’t parallel to the face of the building. In this case, the “tilt” of the camera isn’t up and down, it’s left and right.

So, how do you correct that? The first thing is to be aware that this problem exists. Be aware that, if you want to take a picture of a tall building, tilting the camera upward will cause the building to be distorted in the photo.

One thing you can do is get farther away from the building so that the camera is tilted the least amount possible. It does make it more difficult to isolate that building from all the stuff around it but, at least, the building won’t be as distorted.

Another possibility is to go to another building nearby and go up to a level that’s about half as high as the building you want to get into a photo. At that point, the camera won’t be tilted. The light will hit that flat plate in the camera straight on and eliminate the distortion.

I realize that it may not be possible to find such a position in a nearby building. However, if it is possible, it will solve the problem.

Another solution is to use a telephoto lens to focus in on interesting parts of the building. Even at an angle, the distortion will be much less noticeable.

Not only that, you’ll most likely have much more interesting pictures than a shot of the whole building would be.

Isn’t that what we want, after all?

For many years, I’ve been blessed with the ability to “see” a photo whether or not I have my camera in my hand. My children, including that daughter, used to get impatient with me when I saw a photo possibility and took the time to make it happen. Now, I’m seeing her exhibit that same ability. Cool!

Please understand that we’re not talking ordinary snapshots here. We’re talking about getting those great shots that have people “oohing” and “ahing” when they see the resulting photos. (For the record, most of my shots aren’t perfect, either!)

The truth is that there is no one perfect photo! If you gave 10 people identical cameras and told them to take a picture of the same object, you would wind up with 10 very different photos. Some would be better than others; some would be pretty “blah.” Some of the people would take one picture and hand the camera back. Others would take several in an attempt to ensure they got one good one.

How do you look around you and visualize a good photo? The real difference is in the framing. Sometimes I can visualize a rectangular box around the object and see what would be in the picture and what would not.

Sometimes I have to resort to an old photographer’s trick that anyone can do. I hold my hands out in front of me with the palms facing toward each other. I then place the tips of the forefingers together and the tips of the thumbs together to form a box like the viewfinder on the camera. I then look through that “box” at the object. I can move my hands closer or farther away to simulate a wide-angle or telephoto view.

Sometimes, when I do that, I find that the view isn’t as exciting as I had thought it might be. Other times, I run and get the camera.

The main point is to get an idea of how a picture might look before you ever bring your camera up to your eye. Let’s face it, you’d look pretty silly walking around with a camera viewfinder in front of your face all the time!

First, imagine that viewfinder rectangle superimposed on things, places and people around you. If need be, use your hands to create that view for you. Then, once you think you have a good photo possibility, bring the camera up.

If your camera’s lens is adjustable for distance, look at the wide-angle, normal and telephoto settings to see which would be best. If the lens isn’t adjustable like that, move forward or back to get the same effect. Sometimes, you don’t have much choice where you need to stand to get the picture. Just do the best with what you have.

Another factor is: how much do you want in any one photo? A lot of people take one picture and try to get everything and everyone into it. The resulting photo is not too exciting.

Remember, you don’t have to have full-length photos to know who the people are. Most of the really good ones show people from the waist up or head and shoulders. This, too, is a matter of “framing.”

Take more than one picture and focus in on different aspects of the overall scene. You’ll find those photos to be more exciting than the one that has it all.

Even if you don’t think you have an “eye” for a good picture, you can develop it. Using the techniques mentioned above, you can sharpen your ability to see and get great photos that won’t put people to sleep. Just think back to the times when you’ve been asked, “Wanna see some pictures from my vacation?”

Imagine bringing home travel photos that your friends WILL want to see!

I’m sure you’ve seen the snapshots Aunt Gertie brought back from her vacation with her husband and their children. They’re all pretty much alike. There’s the famous building, mountain or statue in the background. Standing in front of it is the smiling family.

The purpose of the snapshot is to provide proof that they’ve been there and done that! The hope is that everyone is smiling and has their eyes open. Only one shot was taken because we can’t be wasting film, you know. Many of these people still follow that habit - with their digital cameras!

After making sure she got the famous landmark in the photo, Aunt Gertie concentrated on getting everyone together and smiling. That was all she needed for a proof photo. Click!

Only later does anyone notice the small tree right behind Uncle Charlie. It looks like it’s growing up out of his head. In addition to that, the family was standing right in front an important part of the landmark. Worse yet, Gertie’s darling little boy has his tongue stuck out and his eyes crossed!

You, too, want to record your visit to that site. You, too, want everyone smiling in the photos. But, you also want your photos to be artistically good. To achieve that, you may need to change the way you set up the shot. You may need to adopt a method of eliminating the distractions seen in many snapshots.

I refer to this method as dual focus. Instead of focusing only on the smiling family members, you focus also on their surroundings which can sometimes detract from the photo, itself.

For the first few times, it will help if you put the camera on a tripod because these steps will take a little more time. After you do them a few times, they’ll become automatic.

One thing to remember is that you don’t need to restrict yourself to only one photo per object. My newspaper editors always wanted me to take lots of pictures. That way, they had a better chance of finding one that was worthy of publication.

First, you get the landmark or other object in the photo frame the way you want it to be. Then, get the people into position. At this point, you don’t pay any attention to how they look. Make sure they’re not blocking an important part of the landmark. Look around them, left, right, above, below.

Check to see if anyone is standing right in front of a pole that, in the photo, will look like it’s sprouting out of the top of that person’s head. Look for a tree branch that looks like it’s going straight through - in one ear and out the other. When you’re shooting quickly, it’s extremely easy to overlook such things. That’s why I recommend taking your time when setting up a photo.

Once you have eliminated any possible distractions, you can focus your attention on the people, themselves. Look at them carefully through the viewfinder. How does their hair look? How are they standing? Where are their hands? Look at them through the viewfinder as if you were looking at the printed photo, itself. Remember, also, that you don’t necessarily have to include their entire bodies. It’s the smiling faces we notice, not the feet!

Once you’ve satisfied yourself that everything is OK, take the photo. In fact, take several! The last thing you want is to have only one photo - a photo that shows someone with his or her eyes crossed.

If you’ll put a little extra time and effort into setting up your photo shots like this, you’ll bring home travel photos that will be the envy of everyone who sees them.

You might even want to frame a few of them. Now, wouldn’t that be sweet?

But, with continued development of digital cameras, that advantage has shifted. One of the major points was the cost of the cameras. About five years ago, I paid about $600 for a used Olympus on eBay. Today, I can buy a much updated version - new! - for only $350.

Only a few years ago, film held the high ground when it came to the sharpness of the end product, the printed photos. Photos made from film were sharper and clearer. At the time, most of the digital cameras were offering only 1-2 million pixels per square inch (1-2 mega pixels). Any digital camera offering better resolution was very expensive.

Now, a digital camera offering 5-7 megapixel resolution is common-place and at a much lower price. It’s at the 7-9 megapixel range that the digital camera can produce photos equally as sharp or sharper than those produced from film. Little by little, film has lost its edge.

We’re all familiar with the costs of buying a roll of film and, then, having it developed. If you had some shots that were too bright or too dark, you paid for those, too. The worst part was if you took a picture of some people and one or two of them had their eyes closed, you didn’t know it until later when you got the pictures back.

With a digital camera, you can avoid many of those situations. You are able to check the photo immediately on the preview screen and, if need be, take it again. Also, if you don’t want a photo you’ve taken, you can delete it right there on the camera.

In my opinion, one of the most wonderful things about digital photography is that you can download the photos to your computer. They can then be sent by e-mail to whomever you want them to go. Or, you can pull them into PhotoShop or any other photo program and change the size or shape for special printing. There are also photo printers that are designed to take the photos directly from the camera and print them on the spot.

Now, you can buy very inexpensive digital cameras for about the same price as the least expensive of the film cameras. After the purchase, your biggest expense will probably be the batteries needed to operate them. The photos will be, essentially, free! No film and no processing needed!

I see a day in the near future when you’ll have difficulty buying film for your old, outdated film camera. Fewer and fewer people will even know what film processing is, let alone know how to do it.

Another nail in the coffin of photographic film is the addition of cameras to cell phones. My daughter was involved in a car accident. Within minutes, she sent photos from her cell phone to mine showing the damage done to the two vehicles. I was able to transfer them to my computer where we could see them more clearly. That would have been impossible without the magic of digital photography.

I have loved film photography for more than 40 years. However, I am loving digital photography even more because of the flexibility it gives me.

Different people bring home different kinds of photos. Some just take snapshots to prove that they had been there, and done that. I call these “record” photos.

Other people go out of their way to take photographs that capture the beauty and the wonder of the places they visit. I call these the “beauty” photos.

Those two categories are, actually, the extremes of travel photography. They reflect the talents, skills and desires of the people behind the cameras. They are neither right nor wrong and I won’t treat them that way.

One category of photographer I won’t be addressing in this blog is the person who uses his or her camera professionally. This blog is about the kind of photography done by people whose work has nothing to do with a camera.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that professional photographers aren’t welcome! In fact, I would love to hear some of the hints and tips they can offer the rest of us. I cannot tell you how much I have learned over the years from people willing to take the time to explain something to me. So, you “pro’s” are welcome to jump into the discussion and educate the rest of us!

I suspect that the majority of the readers of this blog will be those who have a keen interest in taking photos that make their friends say, “Wow!” If that is you, you are always looking for the “perfect” shot - the one that you will want to frame and put over your desk.

There are little ways you can change the shot to improve the final photo. Sometimes, it only takes some small thing to do it.

That’s the kind of stuff we’ll be looking for in this blog. If I can provide you with one piece of information that makes you a better photographer than you are today, I will have succeeded.

I’m looking forward to all the things we will all be learning from this blog. And, I’m looking forward to meeting you, first on line and, later, somewhere down the road.