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Friday, March 23, 2012 at 10:13AM The 2012 Denver tour season is just around the corner for us. Our first tour of the year is officially April 3rd. We look forward to another great year showing our guests around Denver and helping you capture great photos!
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 02:09PM We are excited for the month of December and our Holiday Lights Tour! Denver has famously lit up some of it's most historic buildings with color during the holiday season for many years. Our Holiday Lights tour is a great opportunity to document this beautiful occasion through the lens. We start out at Denver's historic Union Station and from there we'll visit all of the other great locations.
It will be going out 2-3 nights a week for the entire month of December. This tour was extremely popular last year, so make sure you book your spot, so you don't miss out! Click here to book.
Here are some photos from last years tour.
Christmas, Holiday Lights, Holidays, denver, photography in News Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 12:18PM 
Summertime at the Denver City & County Building
We are proud to announce the first ever Click! Photo Tours photo contest in partnership with Visit Denver with the theme of "Summer." From pictures to your kids running through the sprinklers to flowers blooming on the mountainside, send us photos of whatever summer means to you!
First Place will receive a free driving tour valued at $119 (Scenic Denver, Scenic Rocky Mountains or Best of Colorado Springs) and will have their photo published in Visit Denver's Official Visitors Guide (if desired).
Second Place will receive a free walking tour valued at $49 (Scenic Denver, Sc...enic Rocky Mountains or Best of Colorado Springs)
Third Place will receive a Click! Photo Tour t-shirt valued at $25.
Seven Honorable Mentions and the top three will have their photos published on the Click! Photo Tours blog and Facebook page with full credit.
Submissions will be accepted from May 23rd through June 17th.
You can submit by going to the Click! Photo Tour Facebook page (www.facebook.com/clickphototours), selecting "Events", selecting "I'm Attending" and adding your images to the wall of the Click! Photo Tours Summer Photo Contest. Photos can be of any subject matter that relates to the theme of "Summer". Each entrant can submit up to five photos. All entrants must "Like" Click! Photo Tours to be considered. This can be done at the time of image submission.
Photos will not be used for any purpose beyond announcing the winners and the photos remain the copyright of the photographer. Click! Photo Tours retains the right to remove any images that it deems inappropriate or offensive.
The contest will be judged by professional photographers Paul Trantow (Altitude Arts), Michael Calanan (Calanan Photography), Ryan Erickson (Elevate Photography) and McCory James (McCory James Photography). Photos will be judged on four criteria: composition, lighting, creativity and adherence to the theme of "Summer."
Contest is sponsored by Click! Photo Tours (www.clickphototours.com) and Visit Denver (www.facebook.com/visitdenver or denver.org).
Any questions can be submitted to info@clickphototours.com.
Click! Photo Tours, Visit Denver, photography contest in News Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 01:36PM Exposure compensation is one of the easiest yet least used features of your camera. It is a great tool for everyone from beginners shooting with a point and shoot camera to professionals with a SLR.
What typical exposure compensation readout looks like on most cameras.
Exposure compensation allows you to adjust your exposure when your camera under or over exposes the photograph. When your camera reads for light, it automatically reads to make the overall exposure middle gray. This is usually very effective as there are many lights and darks in a scene to take into consideration. However if you are shooting in an instance where there is a lot of white or highlights, or a lot of black or shadows your camera is going to incorrectly expose as it attempts to make the overall image middle gray. In a scene with whites or highlights, this will leave your whites underexposed leaving the photograph too dark. In a scene with blacks or shadows, your camera will over compensate resulting in the photograph being too bright.
To start using exposure compensation you want to begin by assessing the situation... What is in your photograph? If the image is mostly dark such as a forest of evergreens, dark night sky or someone in a dark suit, you'll want to compensate your exposure by adjusting your exposure compensation meter to underexpose. This will make the dark areas properly exposed and your blacks should look rich and dark. Make sure you don't go too far, because you don't want to lose information in your shadows. Reading the histogram is the best way of assuring this doesn't happen and is something we will cover in a future tip.
In a converse situation, your photograph is mostly light, such as a snowy mountain top or fluffy white dog. Your camera will underexpose the scene to compensate for the large amount of brightness it sees. Adjust the scene by dialing your exposure compensation meter to overexpose by as little or as many stops as needed. Again, you'll want to make sure you don't totally overexpose your whites so there are details in your highlights.
Also, don't be afraid to take multiple exposures of one photo, adjusting your exposure with each shot. This is called bracketing (which is another subject we will cover in a future tip) and will help you make sure you have the correct exposure to take home with you!
An example where you would want to underexpose from what the camera's meter is telling you so you don't overexpose the bridge.
Golden Gate Bridge. Copyright 2007 McCory James Photography
Another example where you would want to underexpose from what the camera's meter is telling you so you don't overexpose the city lights.
Madrid, Spain. Copyright 2008 McCory James Photography
An example where you would want to overexpose from what the camera's meter is telling you so you don't underexpose the girl.
Accra, Ghana. Copyright 2006 McCory James Photography
Another example where you would want to overexpose from what the camera's meter is telling you so you don't underexpose the girl.
Accra, Ghana. Copyright 2006 McCory James Photography
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 05:49PM Motion blur is one of the best ways to add visual interest to a photograph. It is also one of the most challenging! In part 1 of our tip on motion blur (you can read it here) we discussed keeping the camera still and using the movement of the subject create the blur. In this tip I will explain the best way to get motion blur by moving the camera.
Using motion blur by moving the camera can serve four different purposes.
Creating motion blur by moving the camera is achieved in the same way as having a moving subject in the image, by doing a longer exposure. The difference is that you don't tend to do as long of an exposure. The best ways to create a dynamic image are by:
There are a lot of variables to take into consideration to create the amount of motion blur you want. Things to consider are:
With all the possible ingredients in a motion blur shot, the recipe changes from shot to shot dependent on what you are trying to achieve and the different variables involved. Let's go over each piece and talk about how it effects your final image
The amount of light available is key and it's influence on your exposure. No matter how much blur you are trying to achieve, you still want a proper exposure. The best thing to do is expose for your overall scene and then adjust your aperature (making the opening smaller) so that you need a longer shutter speed to get a proper exposure. This can range anywhere from 1/250th of a second to seconds depending on what you are trying to achieve. The longer the exposure the more blur you will create and the more abstract your background becomes.
The visual distance from your subject is dependent on your location in relation to the subject and the length of lens you are using. If you are using a 300mm lens to zoom in on you subject, it takes less movement to create blur. Sometimes when you are zoomed in on a person walking, you can create a good amount of blur by having your shutter speed set to 1/60th of a second. If you are shooting at a wider focal length (let's say 50mm) with the subject the same distance from the camera, it takes much more movement of your camera to create the blur.
The last element to pay attention to is the speed of your subject. A race car and a walking toddler move at much different speeds. The faster the subject is moving the shorter you want your shutter length to be. The longer you leave the shutter open, the more potential error you have in panning with your subject.
Capturing motion blur shots by moving the camera is really something that takes a lot of trial and error to get right. So get out there and shoot!
Using a flash to "freeze" your subject while creating motion blur in the background.
Panning with the subject to create a strong sense of movement.
Zooming with the lens during a longer exposure to create an abstract image.