October 14th 2014: Making moments

There has been a massive transformation in the world of photography in the past five years. Mobile devices have become equipped with pretty amazing little cameras and the fact they're always with you means people are starting to document their lives more. That has led to a massive upskilling in the photography department for everyone. Most people with a camera now have an eye for composition, angles and the way light falls on an object. Others, like Kiwi musician Che-Fu, use that knowledge to seize a moment.

At the Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival the weekend before last Che-Fu and The Kratez were entertaining festival goers when Che paused between songs, turned around on stage and snapped a quick selfie with himself and the large crowd. The talented singer even bracketed a few shots just to make sure he got it right. It's pretty cool when an artist of his calibre can use photography to capture a moment like that.

Here are my top five tips to help you kickstart your photography journey this summer:

1) Take a camera with you everywhere and shoot lots.

2) Find a way to get the camera into places you don't normally take one: the surf, underwater, out on a bike ride, to a party ... the more places the better and find those fresh angles.

3) Pick a theme and shoot a series of images for it ... it will give your photography some purpose.

4) Join a sharing network like Instagram and share your images and get inspired by others.

5) Learn the basic rules of photography and then break them.

It doesn't matter if you're on a phone camera, or a high-end Canon DSLR – as long as you're shooting you're on that first step of the photography curve. Like surfing, you'll be on that curve for life.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Go surfing, here are the latest reports.