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When you look up at the clouds in the vastness that is the sky, you may see a couple of different things. You may observe fast-moving clouds or clouds that appear to have faces in them. Many people have also observed this wondrous and almost ethereal quality of clouds, which is what paved the way for cloudscape photography to slowly but surely expand its reach as a genre.

Essentially, it is the photography of either clouds or the sky, no matter what time of day, color or sizes and shapes.

Not a dizzyingly popular photography genre by any means, cloudscape photography is more of a niche that’s an acquired taste… but what an acquired taste it can be if you know what you’re doing and have a passion for capturing the sky on film! This is such a photography niche that only a couple of photographers stand out in history as making famous contributions to the genre.

Although it may look fairly easy, not everyone can take great portrait shots. Portrait photography involves more than just finding the right subject or model. Great portraits are the result of patience and good people skills. You need to make your subject feel comfortable and relaxed. You need to establish a personal relationship with him or her.

Of course, coming up with great portrait shots also mean following the right techniques and putting your skills to good use. If you do not know how or where to start, here are some tips and tricks that might help you find answers.

Like many markets in photography, the market for real estate photography has declined over the years. Most of the shots in the regional Multiple Listing Services (MLS) are photos taken by real estate agents with a point and shoot camera or their smartphone camera.

For listings of average homes those photos are adequate, but for homes in the luxury and truly upscale markets, cell phone photos just aren’t going to cut it.

People paying high six and seven figures for homes don’t want to see photos taken with a point and shoot camera and an on-board flash. They expect better and that means hiring a professional. Jobs in real estate photography are still out there, it’s just that now they’re bigger jobs involving more expensive properties.

For background on this article I turned to Aaron Rosen at Pixel-Mesh out in sunny California and Antonio Cuellar an architectural photographer who travels extensively for clients to photograph some of the most beautiful hotels and restaurants in the world from his offices in New York and Miami.

Figosa is a fairly new Italian company that makes some cool leather vintage-style camera straps. They cater to the photography enthusiasts and mirrorless camera owners.

The owners of Figosa, Laura & Andrea, were nice enough to send us one of their leather camera straps for review, free of charge (thank you).

Figosa lets you choose between 4 different leather colors – honey, cognac, brown and black – and your choice of gold or silver hardware. We went with the brown leather and gold hardware. You can also choose between 3 sizes: 110cm (~43′), 120cm (~47′) and 130cm (~51′). Since I’m quite tall I went for the 130cm version and mounted the strap to a Sony Nex 6.

Whether you are a hobbyist or a professional photographer, joining a photography club is one of the best ways to improve your skills. The club can also be a good venue for meeting people who share the same interest as yours. You will not only form new friendships, you’ll also have fun while learning new things about a craft that you love.

There are two basic types of photography clubs that you can choose from. The first one is the non-competitive club, which is primarily focused on providing different opportunities for members to show their work while also opening doors for improvement. On the other hand, a competitive photography club is one where the members want to regular compete and get rewards for their efforts.

This type of club schedules competitions throughout the year and invites distinguished guests to sit as judges and critics. Some competitive photography clubs, however, prefer to have fellow members as judges for their events.

It is important to note, nonetheless, that some non-competitive photography clubs sometimes set up competitions among their members as a part of their year-round schedule of activities.