CLICK AND DOUBLE CLICK: INTERNET HAS PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUMS AS WELL AS TIPS FOR SHUTTERBUGS

It's the holiday season and you know what that means. It's time to dig out the camera and take photographs of all those family gatherings.

My husband is a good photographer. For me, the camera holds a bit of mystery, especially when I develop the film. How did that happen?

The Internet offers lots of advice for amateur photographers. It's also a great place to showcase some of the world's best photographs.

www.kodak.com

If you want to learn more about taking great pictures, you can check out their advice on techniques, examples and tutorials. You can find out the Top 10 Techniques, Problem Picture Remedies and Picture Taking Tips for Any Situation. There's also several online tutorials on light, composition and basic darkroom techniques.

You can also learn more about using the right kind of film and speed for your photographs. You can also learn more about one-time-use cameras and digital images.

In the Kodak Picture Playground online, there are lots of fun activities you can do online with photographs from the Web or uploaded from your computer. You can send wonderful e-cards for free.

I'm intrigued by Kodak's push for photos on CDs, which is a great way to store lots of images. They also offer a free PhotoNet online account to more easily share images with family and friends.

If you want to learn more about the history of photography, visit the George Eastman House, the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. This site houses the International Museum of Photography and Film.

www.eastman.org

You can view a timeline of photography, a number of collections and exhibitions. You can also learn more about George Eastman.

Did you know photographic discoveries date back to the 1700s? The 1800s are filled with noteworthy dates of developments with cameras, lenses and shutters.

It was 1900 that the first mass-market camera, the Brownie, was introduced. The cost? A single dollar.

You can also take a panoramic tour of the Eastman House and its gardens by downloading the IPIX plug-in. You can also pose a question of the curator or archivist along the bottom of the main page.

If you're new to photography, you might want to visit Exposure, which offers tricks, hints and tips for photographers.

www.88.com/exposure

Scroll down to find the links. There's a crash course for exposure and photography, some "lo tek tips" to jazz up your pictures and an explanation of exposure theory. The crash course and tips are pretty basic and short. The more complex explanations come in the "Exposure" section.

You can also link off to some other photography sites and newsgroups in the "More Info" section.

I'm sure you'll agree that Bill Gates is a guy with vision. He is the founder of a rather unique Internet site that bills itself as the world's largest collection of fine art and photography. It's called Corbis.

www.corbis.com

There's no question the explosion of digital cameras is going to change the way we view and use photographs in the future. This site offers thousands of digital images for personal use for $3 each to create Web pages, decorate your desktop or use in school reports. You can also buy screensavers.

They also offer free exhibits and e-cards. The most popular photos for e-cards include puppies, flowers and landscapes. There are a number of categories available.

In the exhibits, you can choose from "Today in Pictures," "The 20th Century" or "Ansel Adams." You can look at the photos of the century by decade or through a highlight collection. You can share these images with your friends as free e-cards.

www.photographymuseum.com

If you want to look at more photographic masterpieces, visit the American Museum of Photography. They pay tribute to the photographic masterpieces unique images that set them apart from the billions of other camera images taken over the last 159 years.

There are three galleries of photo masterpieces. Some you're sure to remember. There's also a neat exhibit on informal portraits from the dawn of photography.

There are also online exhibits on architectural photography and the art of Carte de Visite. The latter are small album prints mounted on 2 1/2-by-4-inch cards, which were wildly popular. Read the brief history of the format, then take a look at some great old photos from the 1860s and 1870s.

www.fodors.com/focus

If you're not photographing people, you're probably taking photos of a trip. The travel experts, Fodor's, offers nearly 100 easy-to-follow tips that covers nearly every aspect of travel photography.

Categories include: Getting ready, the natural world, lighting, classic vacation shots, the elements, techniques, the man-made world, people and composition.

It's a great resource center, with photography examples from Kodak.

www.nationalgeographic.com

Of course, if you want to see the works of some of the best photographers in the world, take time to visit National Geographic online.

Their vivid photographs tell just as much of the story as the accompanying words. You can also click on photography on the front page, for access to a number of photo highlights and web links.

What's your favorite photography site? E-mail me at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.