If you are still clinging to the safety of Auto mode but long to try something more creative, here is a quick tutorial for you. I've found that by asking two to three questions, you can choose the correct shooting mode and create great images.
I also wrote a blog post explaining the decision tree. You can read it here.
Photo Tips 
Believe it or not, giving away your images for free can be the pathway to selling more photos and making more money -- when you use a licensing structure called Creative Commons.
Creative Commons allows photographers to share their work by pre-authorizing the types of uses you will allow. Here's how it works.
You make your work available in a pool of images used by individuals, bloggers, and companies. Some may just use the images for screen savers. Most will use the photos for blogs and marketing products.
For each published use, the user gives you credit and links back to your site. If enough people use your work, you could drive significant traffic and exposure your way. With enough raving fans, you have the seeds of a thriving business.
Trey Ratcliff's Stuck in Customs travel blog is probably the most celebrated example of this approach. Trey says when he decided to go with the Creative Commons strategy, traffic surged to 150,000 photo views per day, making it the most trafficked photography blog. His business has also grown to 10 people, and he reports that they are profitable. Trey credits all this success to his decision to give away his work for noncommercial applications, and use licensing deals for commercial uses to make money.
How can it work for you? Creative Commons uses four elements to construct a license:
These four elements can be combined to create six licensing alternatives. It might seem like that can easily get confusing, but Creative Commons has a cool Help Me Choose function on their website that walks you through the key questions and produces the right option. It even gives you the HTML to embed into your site.
As a creative, you should know that your work is protected the moment you create it. You don't need to do anything for it to be covered by copyright. If you want to be able to collect damages, you will need to register each creation with the U.S. Copyright office. Registering costs only $35, but you will have the confidence that you can be compensated for any unauthorized use.
How will you know if someone uses your photo? You can include a request that the user send you a link for your records, but nothing will require them to comply. You will be relying on their willingness to take the extra step.
The best way to make sure you find your images is purchasing a service that tracks the images for you. They will embed a digital signature into your file. These services then scour the internet to find any uses of the photo. When you get a hit, you can check to see that the work is being used as you outlined.
You will have to decide if it is worth the time and expense to go looking for use or misuse of your images. Trey Ratcliff's approach is not to worry about piracy and let karma sort out the good and bad.
Worked out pretty well for him. Freebies and pirates helped him create a great life as a photographer. Do you think it can work for you? How might you use Creative Commons?
By the way, if you are interested in copyright issues, check out my interview with IP attorney Phil Marcus.
Photo Tips 
10 steps for taking beautiful pictures at the DC Cherry Blossom Festival
This week kicks off the 2013 National Cherry Blossom Festival, where millions of Washingtonians and tourists will flock down to the Tidal Basin to witness -- and photograph -- Japan’s gift to the United States.
While the blossoms are beautiful to behold, they can be tricky to photograph. You might leave frustrated because the scene the camera captured looks nothing like the beauty you just saw. Avoid this experience by keeping these 10 tips in mind.
1. Focus and simplify.
The first rule of composition is even more important at the Cherry Blossom Festival. Expect crowds of people and clusters of flowers. Your biggest enemy will be distraction -- in the frame. One is the magic number. Find one clear subject and work to eliminate everything else that does not lead your eye to it or help tell a story about it.
2. Try ESAD for creative composition.
Composition is key, so create something memorable by remembering ESAD:
3. Create a shotlist.
You don’t want to get home and find you have a card full of the same kind of photo. If you only shoot the wide shot or close up of the Cherry Blossom, you are missing a world of opportunities. Check out this shot list for ideas.
4. Light, light, light.
Realtors live by the location, location, location mantra. Photographers should feel the same way about light. Get there during the golden hours for best results. Use front light on the flowers for best color. Try back light on petals to show depth.
5. Watch out for winds.
It is almost always windy -- right when you are ready to take your shot. Flowers on thicker trunks might not sway as much as those at the end of thin branches. Use a clip or have someone steady the branch while you shoot your close up. Fast shutter speeds might be necessary to help stop the action of swaying flowers. In many cases, you might need to use a higher ISO to create faster shutter speeds.
6. Take a reflector.
A large reflector can do double duty. It can help shade or reflect light, and it can help shield some of the winds. This can be a very handy tool.
7. Try manual focus.
Your auto focus might have a hard time locking in on a petal that is swaying back and forth or one that lacks contrast. Use manual focus to make sure your focal point is always sharp. (If blurry photos continue to be a problem, read this post.)
8. Fill the frame with texture.
The flowers are beautiful, but the weathered trunks have their own character. Fill the frame with texture to show the contrast from the petals.
9. Take a background or prop.
Just because you are outdoors doesn’t mean you can’t create a studio effect. Take a background to place behind the petals and simplify the image. The Tulip garden behind the Tidal Basin Welcome Center is a good location to try this technique.
10. Look up.
Use the sky as a background to outline the flowers and create contrast.
Here’s a bonus tip.
Go back. We can expect two to three weeks of blossoms and four weeks of the overall festival. You don’t have to get all your ideal shots in one setting. Plan to return at different times.
You don’t have to go it alone.
You can shoot with a pro and get expert advice on creating your ideal shot. Join my PhotoTour DC Cherry Blossom Photo Tours around the Tidal Basin throughout the festival.
Let me take you to great locations, help you create great photos, and teach you to master your camera.
Cherry Blossoms, Photo Tips 
Why is my picture blurry? I'll tell you at the end of the post.
Sometimes the light is perfect, the moment is right, but when you get home you find out that your photo is blurry. Arrgh!
Why are my pictures blurry?
Well... it depends. There are two primary reasons your photo might be blurry -- your camera isn't focused properly or you are experiencing camera shake. Within each of these situations, there are several considerations.
Your camera isn't focused properly
No matter what a camera manufacturer tells you, your camera doesn't know what you have chosen as your subject. The camera can make an educated guess based on common scenarios or fancy algorithms, but only you really know.
If you understand that premise, it makes sense that there are times when your camera might choose to focus on the wrong element, leaving your true subject out of focus. Here are some questions to help you diagnose that situation.
Are you using the multi-point auto focus selection? In that option, the camera determines what it should use as a focal point. It chooses what looks most prominent in the frame and focuses there. If you decide your focal point is not one of the more obvious elements in the frame, your camera will focus on the wrong thing, and your subject will look blurry.
Are you using the manual selection of your auto focus point? Manual selection lets you tell the camera which focal point to use. Then you can make sure it is in the right place.
What if you forget your focal point is in the lower left of your frame, while your new subject is in the upper right? Same problem. You will have the wrong thing in focus. Check to see which focal point is activated.
Is your camera is set on continuous focus? This is a problem if your subject isn't moving. Continuous focus (AFS-C on Nikon or AI Servo on Canon) is designed to be used when you are photographing a moving subject.
If someone is riding a bicycle toward you, continuous focus will allow the camera to continue focusing on your subject as it approaches you. Your camera tracks your subject and then predicts where it will be when you finish depressing the shutter.
While this is great for a subject in motion, it can lead to problems on a stationary object. As you compose the frame, the camera will continue focusing wherever the focal point is at the moment. That makes it easy for you to inadvertently focus on the wrong subject.
Is your camera or lens in manual focus? This is easier to overlook than you might think. You might put the camera in manual focus by accident. Then, no matter what you do, you won't get the camera to autofocus. Voila. Blurry pictures.
You have camera shake
When you depress your shutter, you move your camera. If the shutter speed is too slow, that movement shows up in your picture as camera shake. It looks like a blurry picture. To avoid camera shake, always use a shutter speed that equals your focal length or faster. For instance, if you are zooming to 50 mm, you should shoot at 1/50th second or faster. If your shutter speed is any slower, you should use a tripod.
Some lenses have built-in stabilizers that correct camera shake. Nikon lenses call it Vibration Reduction (VR) and Canon lenses call it Image Stabilizer (IS). Turn this feature on to have the lens correct your camera shake.
You can then cut the minimum shutter speed number in half. For instance, if you are zoomed to 50 mm and should normally shoot at 1/50th a second, you can slow your shutter to 1/25th a second with the stabilizer turned on. Some manufacturers claim as much as four stops. It's best to experiment and see how much you can slow down your shutter speed before you begin seeing camera shake.
Canon lenses use the Image Stabilizer feature to prevent camera shake. Nikon lenses call this feature Vibration Reduction. Flickr photo by Amy Dianna.
Other issues to consider
What if you set up your autofocus properly, and your shutter speed is fast enough, and the lens still won't focus? Try these considerations.
You might be too close. Try backing away from your subject if you are very close. If you are too near the subject, it might prevent the camera from focusing accurately.
Your subject might not have enough contrast. Your image needs to have some detail that provides contrast. If you try to photograph a solid sheet of white, the camera can't compare adjacent pixels to determine focus. Use a point of contrast to allow the camera to focus.
You might have an extremely shallow depth of field. You can create shallow depth of field with a low aperture number, a long focal length or a short distance to your subject. Use all three or even one in extreme, and you can have a tiny part of the image area in focus. It can be so shallow you get the impression the entire photo is blurry.
Finally, you might have a bad lens. This is a final option because 99/100 times, the real issue will be user generated. That's right, it will be your fault. Before you blame the lens, put the camera on a tripod, select a fast shutter speed, use a large f-stop (long depth of field), in lots of light, with a very clear subject.
If you do all those things and the image is still blurry, you might have an equipment issue.
In most cases, a blurry picture will be your fault -- either a setting or in execution. Go back to the top of this list and start your diagnoses all over again.
Somewhere in that process you should find the answer to your question why your pictures are blurry.
Note: In the example photo, I shot at 105 mm, f/3.5, 1/30th second. My photo is blurry because of camera shake.
Photo Tips If you visit the Lunar Module exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum, you might notice the Apollo space suits look white. Try to take a photo however, and your camera could render the moon landing scene any variation of yellow to blue. What on earth?!
You just experienced the frustrations of white balance.
In any given scene, your digital camera sensor is trying to replicate the range of colors it sees. Because different light sources emit different temperatures, your camera could have a hard time capturing colors accurately.
If we understand how this process works, our job as photographers is then to match the color temperature of the light falling on our subject with the white balance settings in our cameras.
Does that sound complicated? It really isn't.
If you are looking at the lunar landing scene and yellow lights are used as spotlights, you know your photo could have a yellow cast. Your eyes will still see the space suits as white, but your camera might be fooled by the "warm" light. There are a couple ways to fix this problem.
Lunar Module 2 using Auto White Balance. Click to see this scene in other presets.Use the white balance presets
Many camera manufacturers try to simplify the color correction process by creating white balance presets of common lighting conditions.
For instance, digital cameras will have options like Sunny, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, or Florescent. Match the setting to your lighting condition, and it can help fine tune your results.
If I notice the lunar exhibit uses only yellow lights, I could select the Tungsten preset and get a more accurate color representation.
Use a custom white balance setting
Presets aren't always accurate, however. Even worse, I might notice that multiple light sources illuminate my subject. The lunar scene is also covered in florescent light as well as natural light streaming in from the windows. Now the camera doesn't know what to do.
That's why most cameras will also include a custom white balance setting.
The term white balance gets its name because once we tell our digital camera what should be white, it can can balance out all the other colors and represent them accurately.
To calculate custom white balance, use a white card or some other white object. Fill the frame with the white from the card and take a reference shot. You are telling your camera, 'this is what white should look like in this lighting condition.' Your camera does the rest, and all your photos in that light should now display your colors accurately.
By the way, you can also use an 18 percent gray card to calculate white balance. Neutral gray will reflect all colors equally.
What about Raw?
Savvy shooters know that when you shoot in Raw format, your camera will capture everything it sees and ignore your white balance correction.
In that case, you will use the same process to correct colors in software like Adobe Lightroom or Apple's Aperture.
Click image to listen to my interview with John Baker, Expoimaging vice president and general counsel.Expodisc to the rescue.
Carrying a white card can be a bit cumbersome, so some smart people at Expoimaging created a product called expodisc. This is one of my favorite white balance correction tools.
The expodisc fits snugly over the lens like a filter. Point your camera at your light source and take a custom white balance reference shot. No fiddling with white cards, and you get perfect color.
It's not rocket science
With just a few steps, I can take a scene like the moon landing and get accurate color. Try it the next time your camera isn't capturing color accurately.
Photo Tips, Tutorials 
