Stephen has been experimenting further with the technique, here he’s taken a photo of himself holding his shortlisted image and then done the same with that print, adjusting the depth of field.

It’s a nice effect. You can try out depth of field effects if your camera allows you to control focus and aperture (SLRs will, but you can check your manual). There’s a great explanation and tutorial here.

If you’ve got a photo editing software package like photoshop you can achieve effects like this by hand, but this site is quick and the results are great.

• 21 Ways to Shoot Better Photographs — mostly simple things to think about when composing your shot.
• Photoshop, Corel, Xara, Painter and PSP Tutorials —
  using your computer to tweak your photos can produce great results.
• Life in the Pyrénées, circa 1900 — A brilliant library of old photos.

Tim Caddick

One of the things Tim enjoys doing most is taking photos for Comic Relief, and Sport Relief too, you can see some of his most recent ones in this gallery.

We talked to Tim and he agreed to share some of his experience with people, helping those who’ve got more into taking photos because of The Big Picture or who would like to improve.

So, have you got any questions you’d like to ask? Maybe you’d like to know about what to look for when buying a new camera, or you’d like to know what a term like “exposure” really means, or perhaps when to use flash. You can ask Tim anything, anything polite(!), just comment here and he’ll try his best to answer your questions.

• Birmingham featured in the most photos, followed by the Black Country, then Stoke and Staffordshire.
• Stoke was home to the biggest single contributors, with one Big Picture supporter sending in 5,000 images
• The most photographed places in the Big Picture include Ironbridge and the Shropshire Hills.
• There are over twice as many cats than dogs in the Big Picture
• There are four times as many photos tagged ‘work’ than ‘home’
• The most photographed activities on the Big Picture include holidays and sport

We’ll keep looking and bring you more facts over the coming weeks.

Upload your photo to The Big Picture (you must tag the photo ‘madeinengland’), add a short description of what the scene means to you and the picture will be part of a gallery on our site.
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How to shoot “light trails” is a fun tutorial. Showing you how to capture movement, like this wonderful Big Picture example by Michael JH.

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In the centre of the exhibition room are Pogus’ cameras (shown left) and they aren’t expensive or flash — proving that if you’re a good enough photographer you can take great pictures with anything!

That Beautiful Thing by Pogus Caesar runs from 26 April to 12 July and shows images captured in the UK and abroad, offer a fascinating view of this artist’s varied photographic career of more than 20 years.

“A photogenic drawing of a leaf that is currently attributed to British photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839 may instead have been produced more than 30 years earlier by Thomas Wedgwood, according to photo historian Dr Larry J Schaaf. … Sotheby’s UK office has confirmed to Amateur Photographer that this story is not an April Fool.”

More info at D’log.

Image makers must live or work in the West Midlands area. Rhonda Wilson, Lorna Mary Webb, and Katherine Kliszat from Lighthouse will choose the winners of this year’s one-day free bursary places at the Festival. Eight places will be offered after a challenging process of evaluation.
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We saw some of Trav28’s photos of Birmingham on the The Big Picture and really liked them, but we then found his blog - where he has the stamina to post a photo each and every day.

We had a quick chat with Trav - also known as Chris - to find out how he keeps it up - and why!
Could you take a photo a day? Why not upload them to The Big Picture - tagging “photoaday” as you do - and we’ll be able to watch them unfold here.

Want to capture the glories of your city or town? Or perhaps make sure you take home the best view you’ve seen on your travels. Author and photographer Adam Juniper has put together some tips to help you take better photos of buildings and landscapes – you’ll be surprised just how much they will improve your photos.

Parties, holiday, or even weddings – many of the photos we take are of other people. Author and photographer Adam Juniper has put together 5 Top Tips to help you take better photos of people – with a few simple tricks you can start to shoot like a pro.