If your skies aren’t as blue as they could be, or your pictures of water looked washed out, you may need to learn a little about polarizing filters.

Again this is a good time to break out that manual on your camera. Many point and shoot cameras have a coating on the lens that automatically polarizes everything in your photos. However if your camera does not have this coating, you may need to purchase filters for the camera that will polarize light as it comes in through the lens. If you are using a 35mm SLR camera and you didn’t buy it as a package that cames with filters, you will need to purchase one of these filters.

Filters look like very thin lenses and screw onto the lens itself. There are two kinds of polarizing filters: a fixed polarizing and a circular polarizing filter. I recommend the circular polarizing filter, because it rotates and allows you to polarize different areas of the image. This comes in handy when shooting pictures of water, because the polarizing filter also knocks a lot of the glare off of reflective surfaces like water and glass. If you have auto focusing lenses on your camera, you may need to use a specific polarizing filter. So if you don’t have your camera’s manual, you might want to take it down to the camera store and see what kind of polarizing filter they recommend for your specific camera.

While you are purchasing filters for your lenses, you may want to pick up an inexpensive Ultra Violet filter as well. This filter helps remove haze from skies and landscapes, and can be used along with your polarizing filter. I also recommend that you purchase one of each of these filters for every lens you have for the camera if you have multiple lenses. The lenses may be different sizes where the filter screws onto it so you may have to do this anyway. It also saves you from having to add and remove filters every time you change lenses. The filters serve another purpose for helping protect your expensive camera lens.

Once you have the filters on your lenses, try a little experiment. This only works with cameras that allow you to focus through the lens instead of through a separate view finder. Take your camera outside and look at the horizon through it. If you are using a circular polarizing filter, turn the filter as you are looking through the lens. You should see the sky changing color. Polarizing filters only work at certain angles from the sun though, around a 45 degree angle. The closer you get to the sun or directly opposite of the sun, the less the polarizing filter will work. So if you aren’t seeing the change in sky color, try rotating your position to the sun.

As I mentioned before, polarizing filters also allow you to take the glare off of reflective surfaces. This helps you get better color in water scenes and can help a lot in reducing reflections off of glass or any reflective surface. You will find this filter very handy in situations like taking pictures of animals at zoos where you often have to take photographs through a glass viewing pane, or even when taking pictures of mountain streams, lakes, rivers cars and even the ocean.

The color difference is sometimes subtle and sometimes startling. As you get used to using a polarizing filter, you will begin to automatically check to see if the image looks better with just a turn of the filter. The polarizing filter and UV filter are both essential tools to add to your camera bag.

The best place to begin learning about photography is to learn something about the equipment you will be using. The most important piece of equipment you have in photography is your camera. Whether it is a high end 35 millimeter SLR, a point and shoot, or even a disposable from the drug store, learning what your camera’s limits and features is the first step to getting better pictures.

A 35 millimeter SLR (single lens reflex) camera comes to one’s mind when they think of newspaper photographers. Whether it is a Canon, Nikon, Pentax or Vivitar, the brand makes little difference for our purposes today. These cameras generally have removable and interchangeable lenses. Some are fully featured technically with auto focus and auto aperture and others are completely manual. These cameras have lens focusing, which allows you to see exactly what you are taking a picture of as well as allowing you to visually see your depth of field. SLR cameras are one of the most versatile in giving the user complete control over the different aspects of the resulting image. Some examples of SLR 35mm cameras are Canon EOS, Canon AE-1, Minolta Maxxum, and Nikon N series.

Point and shoot cameras are more common in households. They are generally less expensive than 35 mm SLR cameras, giving more people access to owning and using them. What distinguishes a point and shoot camera from a 35 mm SLR is a combination of a couple of features or the lack there of. Point and shoot cameras have lenses affixed to the camera body, meaning the lens is built in and not interchangeable. The camera’s shutter is incorporated into the lens whereas on 35 mm SLRs, the shutter is an internal part of the camera body.

Point and shoot cameras also separate the viewfinder from the lens. What this means to you is that when you look through the viewfinder you are not looking through the lens. This can sometimes cause a shift between the image you see in the view finder and the picture that is actually taken. This effect is known as the “parallax effect.” This is also how people end up taking pictures of their thumbs or fingers, because when you are looking through the viewfinder you won’t see your fingers in front of the lens.

Point and shoot cameras can have fixed focal lengths or can have zoom lenses. They can be either auto or fixed focus. What does all this mean to you? Fixed focal length cameras don’t allow you to zoom in on a subject, making close up pictures harder to achieve, especially if your subject is something small like a flower. Most point and shoot cameras have a minimum focus distance as well. Meaning you have to be five, ten or fifteen feet from the subject for it to be in focus. With the viewfinder separate from the lens you won’t be able to see if the image is in focus or not. The required distance is different on all makes and models of point and shoot cameras, so open up that manual that came with your camera and find out the minimum distance for focus before wasting your film trying to get close ups with a camera that just won’t allow it.

One bonus of fixed focus cameras is that of landscape photography. Generally when taking a photograph of a landscape scene, everything will be in focus, making for clear, sharp images. Your film and the lighting could affect this, but if you are set up correctly in those areas, you should get fabulous landscape shots.

At the eastern edge of New York’s Central Park, there stands one of the most imposing edifices in the entire city: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The grand white washed façade is brilliantly lit up as soon as darkness falls, and it may as well have been considered as one of the most revered places in the entire state of New York.

Every year, almost a million enthusiasts from around the globe flock to this site like a veritable shrine. Its main bulk of visitors are mostly youths, artists and scholars, particularly those seeking artistic inspiration or creative repose or intellectual indigestion.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art or more affectionately called as The Met, is actually several architectural structures divided into thematic sections, and is rightfully considered as one of the largest art galleries in the entire world. Although it cannot compare to the actual dimension of the Louvre Museum in France, the actual architectural structure of The Met covers more than 2 million square feet and is almost a quarter mile long. This museum houses some of the most prominent exemplars of art from known European artists like: Cezanne, Monet, Rembrandt and Van Gogh.

In Upper Manhattan, The Met has a separate branch which features medieval art only or art from the Middle Ages, particularly: Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque Art.

The main building itself has more than its impressive share of displays. As earlier stated, most of the displays are divided into themes. Aside from the Medieval art of the Upper Manhattan branch, there is a whole wing dedicated to classical antiquity, and another section for Ancient Egyptian arts. American and European masters share the same floor, but not the same section, with notable sculptures and paintings lining the walls and marking the halls. There is also a section dedicated only to Asian, Byzantine and even modern art.

Other sections include: American decorative arts; ancient near Eastern art; art dedicated to drawings and prints; Islamic art; arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas; Greek and Roman art; and the Robert Lehman Collection (which is a private collection donated to the museum by the man in 1969.) The Robert Lehman Collection, in particular, is one of the most visited sections of The Met, owing to the fact that the gallery holds works by: Boticelli, Domenico Veneziano, Dürer, El Greco, Goya and Rembrandt.

For those who are most inclined to read historical accounts of the art, The Met also houses the Thomas J. Watson Library. This is one of the most extensive libraries dedicated to art work and its masters. In the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas department, there is also the Robert Goldwater Library. Like everywhere else in the museum, these two public libraries also have their own specialized staff manning the tables and helping outside researches find reference materials.

It should be noted though that there are a lot more libraries within The Met, and some of them hold archival treasures not accessible to the public. The museum staff is generally given access, but outsiders need to ask for an appointment to visit these archives, and some approvals take as long as two weeks.

Finding an agent is the very first thing that you need to do when you are serious about becoming an actor, and this must be very simple. All you need to do is to have a portfolio of your good looking photos, a resume, envelopes, stamps, and a list of prospective agents.

So first, you need a portfolio of good looking photographs of your self. Simple portfolios with details like - taken where, date, event, etc will be fine and you don’t need to have a customized and expensive portfolio to submit to prospective agents. Select the best photographs you have. Make sure that the pictures look exactly like you, without any jewelry, not wearing a hat, and not wearing sunglasses. Simple pictures that have your personality shine through are fine.

A resume is another thing to prepare if your photos are ready. Make sure to write a simple resume. Agencies have a lot of applicants daily so if you have a long resume, they have no time to read it. Make sure your resume includes everything about your physical status, statistics like height, weight, age, color of hair, color of eyes, identification marks, age range, clothing size, shoe size, special skills, and talent.

When both resume and photographs are ready, then it is time for you to go your prospective agency and submit the requirements in person. No matter where you live, you must contact a Screen Actors Guild franchised agent first. You can get the details of these franchised agents by going to http://www.sag.org. This is to make sure that you are looking for a legitimate and reliable agent. There is a lot of scamming nowadays done by fake agents, so be very careful with this.

You may also send your application through mail. Most agents do not reply to emails form applicants so the best thing to contact them is through regular mail. Never even send an email with attachment. Companies do not open emails with attachment. Be sure to contact them through phone if possible. This is the most professional ways to apply for an actor career. Sending emails is done only by applicants who are not really serious and lack of guts and self confidence.

You must prepare a letter telling the agency that you are an aspiring actor seeking for a legit agent. After sending your letter that includes a resume and photos, wait and relax. Most agencies examine the applications and most probably you will get a response within 1 to 2 months. Most agencies respond to letters that have self-stamped address envelopes because they consider the sender a dedicated professional.

Do not call over and over again and pester an agency about your submission. They will never represent you if you become a regular caller. Just wait it out while working on your acting skills and preparing for an audition.

If an agency is interested in you, they will call or send a letter asking you for an audition. Make sure you are well-dressed during the audition and make sure you always have some extra things. Other agencies request applicants to do a certain role during interview so it is good to have extra clothes. Do your best on the audition and if you pass, then call it a lucky day.