About

Hi there!  My name is David Neff, aka The Photo Tipster.

The goal at PhotoTipster.com is to help you have more fun with your photography while learning how to use your digital camera and various photo editing programs to make your photos look their best. 

I am excited to share my pictures with you to show you different photographic techniques and hopefully inspire you take pictures that you will be proud to share with your family and friends.

I have been teaching Digital Photography classes for over ten years now.  I have been told by my students that I am a good teacher and have a natural way of explaining things so that they make sense.  I hope to apply my simplified teaching style that I use in the classroom to this website.  Please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the site and anything I could do to make it better.  I’d love to hear from you.   I have also been involved in the photographic printing industry for almost 20 years now…wow, has it really been that long?  I consider myself a really good printer.  I am going to teach you how to make your photos looks their best when you print them or have your local photo lab print them for you.  Either way they will look great!

Here is what can you expect to learn from this website:

  • Easy tips and tricks to take better pictures with any camera.
  • Photographs from myself and other photographers that I follow to help inspire you to take more pictures.
  • The essential camera settings you need to understand in digital photography.
  • How to get your pictures loaded onto your computer and perform easy photo editing techniques to make your photos look their best.
  • The software programs I use to make my photos look great….most of them are FREE….I love those four letters 🙂
  • How you can take great pictures with a camera you have with you everywhere you go…..your phone!
  • Honest camera gear and software reviews from somebody who does not own expensive photography gear.  Want to see the camera gear I use to shoot with?  Click here to see my gear.  Please don’t laugh…I like to call myself a “Low Budget Photographer”.

 

The joy of Photography is learning to see.

How one photograph taught me so many lessons about photography.
“Morning Mist”
“Morning Mist” is one of the  reasons why I created PhotoTipster.com.  Let me explain.

Back when I was just starting out with photography in my mid teens  I had no idea what f/stops, shutter speeds and ISO were.   At the time those things were and still are very important to know,  but I was learning something far more important to becoming a good photographer….I was learning how to see. Everybody has certain talents in life that just come naturally to them.  One of my talents that I did not realize I had at the time of this picture was the ability to just see and compose images in my mind.  It just so happens that my medium to visualize what I see is the camera.  To some artists this may be paint on a canvas.

Morning Mist was a gift from above that was given to me one cold morning while camping at my friend’s cabin in Pennsylvania.  I woke up early in the morning by the chilled air coming down the mountain, I stepped out of my tent to see this lake completely covered in mist.  I immediately grabbed my new Canon T70 SLR camera that I had just bought the day before.  I was still learning how to use the camera when I took this picture.   I could see in my mind just how this picture should be composed.  So with camera in hand, I crouched down low, composed the shot and took one shot (probably in Auto Mode).

 

PhotoTipster is my way of sharing  my gift with the rest of the world.

I want to help you SHOOT, EDIT, and SHARE better pictures too.

Step 1: SHOOT

I will help you take better pictures regardless of what camera you own.

“The best camera is the one that’s with you.”

– Chase Jarvis, Professional Photographer

Step 2: EDIT

I will teach you how to use photo editing apps and programs to edit your photos and make them look their best.

“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communication, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation, and execution.”

— Ansel Adams

 

Step 3: SHARE

I will teach you how to share your photographs with your  family, friends, and the rest of the world.

“Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

– Norman MacEwan (1881-1953)

Senior Commander, Royal Air Force

 

The second reason why I created PhotoTipster.com is because of something my Mom taught me long ago when I was a teenager.  After my parents divorced when I was 13 years old, my Mom had to raise me at a time in my life when kids think they know everything.  I regret to this day many of the choices I made between the ages of 13 and 19 because I was too smart (or so I thought)  to listen to my Mom’s advice.  Unfortunately, I caused my Mom a lot of pain during this time.  For that I am sorry.   The one thing she taught me while I was still trying to figure out what I liked to do and where I wanted to go in life was this….

Believe You Can

To this day these are words that inspire me to keep pushing forward in trying to reach my goals and dreams.  For these words, Mom I am thankful and proud to be your son.

If it were not for my Mother’s guidance I would probably not have kept going with learning to become a good photographer.  My Mom shared me with wisdom that has been with me ever since and now I am sharing with you what I have learned along the way in my journey to become a better photographer.

 Photography to me is not so much about the camera and gear you use, but how you use the camera and gear that you have.  You will see that I do not own expensive equipment and these days I do most of my picture taking with my phone.

Please feel free to contact me anytime with suggestions and comments on how I can make this site better.

Let’s have some fun with Photography,

Dave aka The PhotoTipster