Over the last few years I came across zillions of family pictures. Some are good, some are excellent, but I’ve seen so many common mistakes that I decided to write this article, to provide you with some picture taking tips. Don’t treat them as state of the art knowledge, but rather some digital camera advice coming from a seasoned photographer. So you have planned your vacation for months.

You have everything set up in the back of your head, and now the big day has come. You have your bags packed up, left the front door key to Aunt Martha to water the flowers and feed the dog and programmed your navigation system to point the route to the destination and you’re set to go. Of course, you want to take many pictures, because this is going to be a vacation to remember! What now? Well, here we go…

The Canon 5d Mk2 comes with an optional BG-E6 battery grip which makes it easier to hold the camera. The battery grip can simultaneously accommodate six AA alkaline or rechargeable batteries and two Canon lithium batteries. The 5d Mk2 is also capable of shooting video clips and short movies.

However, user reviews say that the video mode doesn’t have customizable settings for ISO, iris, or shutter speed. The only setting you can tweak in video mode is the color temperature. Some users also complain that the LCD doesn’t display on-screen indicators to show the current camera settings.

Don’t always take posed pictures, it is not a studio shooting for the front page of a magazine. Candid shots of people in action can be such great memories. One of my dearest family photo is my wife falling off a hammock on a trip to the mountains: I managed to get her on the very moment she lost her balance and was hitting the ground.

The Canon 5d Mk2 shoots at 30 frames per second, and not 29.97. The 0.03 difference in fps means you have to use a program (like Apple Cinema Tools) to change the header of each file before you can edit your footage to the normal 29.97 fps, 1080i or 1080p timeline. But if you’re only shooting videos for high-quality release on the web, the 30 fps shouldn’t be a problem.

When picking a bag, you need to consider exactly what you will need to put in it. You do not want to get an extremely large bag if you are only using it for one SLR camera. Be sure to pick something that suits your needs!