A good friend of mine, popularly known as Jack Johnson has this little diddy called F-Stop Blues, which I appreciated so much more once I understood what an F-Stop was. I'm not sure if the song actually has anything to do with photography so much, but anything that man creates is ok with me, so I'll let it slide...this time...

I remember when I first started shooting, I wanted to know how I'd be able to get that type of picture where one thing was in focus and the rest of the shot would be blurry and pretty. For those of you who find yourself yearning for the same effect but don't know how to google is because you don't know what it's called - it's called Bokeh.

Bokeh is dependent on a few variables. Your F-stop (or aperture) Your shutter and your depth of field. I know, this is starting to sound complicated. It's really not (once you read all the info on it and understand the concepts like the back of your hand). I promise, once you do all that, you'll get it no problem.

I actually come across a lot of people who have DSLR's and can't help but ask me questions when they see me using mine. They got it for Christmas, or their birthday or Mother's Day and MIGHT have taken the thing out of the box. If they have, they've kept it on the little green auto setting in fear of ruining the images from their kid's birthday party.

This is where I planned on writing out a nice easy to follow tutorial with the goal of making the technically challenged at ease with some techy camera stuff. But then I made it once step easier. I found an awesome tutorial that's already written. 

BONUS it's got pictures. I'm a visual learner myself, so I always understand things better when it's got some graphic to explain the concept. In fact -  if the founding fathers drew the U.S. Constitution into an info graphic - I'd know that shiz like my last name.

Introducing: My Three Barbarians A great blog with all sorts of insight into photography and life with kids.

This post here is SUCH a great resource and explanation for those of you looking at your camera and wondering why they put so many buttons on it.

Even if you don't have an DSLR, if you have a camera with manual settings, grab it, a cup of coffee (or a beer depending on what time it is) head outside, take a seat and start playing with your settings.

Start by taking a photo at the lowest aperture your lens allows. In this case it might be f/4.5 unless you happen to have something fancy that will go lower. Take the same picture at the next step up. Keep doing this until you start to see the pattern. You will.