When it comes to photography, it’s safe to say we all have some interest in the ability to preserve moments for later viewing. It’s like magic, we can capture a moment and freeze it. However, many of us have more than this passing interest in photography, and we may not always know how to develop this interest into skill. Whether it’s for artistic expression or for financial agency, photography is a great skill to develop, but where do you start? Here are a few tips to get you started.

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It’s always interesting to learn how a professional uses new gadgets, so this video with a professional photographer using the new iPhone 7 Plus for street photography is worth watching. Obviously the telephoto lense is a the hot new feature with the iPhone and he explains those advantages, while also addressing some of the limitations as well. Watch this and you’ll take better photos . . .

Since the launch of the iPhone, it seems Apple has been the only company we hear about using the cheap little accelerometers and gyroscopes, despite the popularity of those little gizmos in just about every modern cell phone and some other burgeoning technologies. Microsoft, for one, wants in on the game, so the company is making a splash with some very cool photo stabilization tech.

Microsoft developed an image stabilization rig that uses accelerometers and gyroscopes to detect the little movements you make when taking a picture that turn it into a blurry mess. Software then corrects the image to look as it should have before the shake. From the initial before and after posted on the research website, I’d say this looks pretty good, and the tech is small enough that it could easily be built into most cameras.

Take a look at the full range of images on the research site. Don’t stare at it too hard, though – those overlays will make you sick.

I swear a story like this comes out every eight to twelve months just to trick unsuspecting (though I’m starting to suspect a few things) people like myself into spending money on garbage in the hopes that it will be worth millions of dollars someday.

Today’s tale: a man saw a box of glass negatives at a yard sale ten years ago and, though he wanted it, was unwilling to pay the $70. He haggled down to $45. It turns out those negatives were some of Ansel Adams’ early work, and the collection (what was once a box is now known as a collection) is worth around $200 million dollars.

So, how many people will be running out to yard sales this weekend?

Around 1:30 today I got a knock on the door from our friendly UPS man, delivering my newest toy – the Canon Rebel T1i. Yes, the T2i is out, but I got an awesome deal on this thing and since both my girlfriend and I are fairly new to the digital photography scene so this camera should be plenty to get us going.

Shopping for a new camera online can be a harrowing experience. There’s actually too much information available, too many opinions to read. I spent hours and hours digging through forum posts and reviews. Hours reading every conflicting opinion about brand, lens-type, and model. And honestly, none of it was all that helpful.

The thing that was helpful was getting my hands on a bunch of different models and seeing which felt best, which I was able to adjust quickly and comfortably, and out of all that, what fit my budget. I landed on the T1i and I’m sure I’ll be happy.