Dear Stay Focussed reader!

Welcome to the digital-photography-tips.net newsletter and compliments of the season to you all.

Apologies for being out of touch for so long. I blame it on having two small children, moving house and some unexpected travelling. I realise these are weak excuses, but if it helps to know my New Year's Resolution will be to be a little more focussed!

Speaking of New Year, some of you will remember we did a 'take a photo on New Year's Day and send it in' feature.

Well, it would be nice to do it again - it gives us the chance to see what it's like in your part of the world on New Year's Day.

So, if you can, please take a photo on New Year's Day and submit it here.

It could be a photo of your local area, your house, your living room, your family, even your lunch!

Just tell us a little about where you are, and what the photo is of. I'll upload them onto a special New Year's page

Christmas Tip!

As it's Christmas there will no doubt be lots of photos being taken around the world. And very often children will be a feature.

Wonderful as they are, children unfortunately make lousy models most of the time. So how can you give yourself the best chance of taking a decent photo of them?

My number one tip is to involve them in your photography. Take a couple of photos and then show them how they look on the camera screen.

Better still, get them to take a few photos with your camera. An note of caution though; this does require a solid camera and nerves of steel! If the children you're photographing are fairly trustworthy this is worth a go.

Once they have taken a few photos of their own they are much more likely to pose for you.

Some photographers belong to the school of photography where you zoom in on kids as they naturally play. My Dad is one of those. Rarely does he get a good shot (sorry Dad!).

If you follow my ideas to involve the kids you will stand a much better chance of a good photo.

Treat yourself!

Finally, some of you will be aware that earlier in the year I came across a great little monthly online photography magazine.

If you would like to treat yourself to a photography Christmas present then this is most definitely for you.

And the best bit - if you subscribe soon you can still get December's edition which has plenty of Christmas photo tips for you to try.

So why not treat yourself and subscribe today! Offer now closed.

Help wanted!
My aim is to share digital-photography-tips.net, and this newsletter with as many people around the world as possible - helping the whole world take better photos!

If you know of someone who would be interested in receiving this newsletter, please forward this email onto them, and ask them to click here, or send them this link:

https://www.digital-photography-tips.net/Digital-photography-tips-newsletter.html

Thanks for your help, and have a very merry Christmas!

Darrell