Oh no, you just lost your camera! (Not really, but let’s pretend.)

But never fear: writer Andrew McDonald employs a clever trick to call home his wayward cameras.

In the event that he accidentally leaves it behind, Andrew created special picture-messages specifically to be found by anyone snooping through his camera’s memory.

Discovering a delicious mélange of jokes and guilt trips (and bribery) will prod all but the most heartless to hand your camera back over to you.

How to Summon Home a Misplaced Camera

p.s. For more inspiration, browse Andrew McDonald’s pictorial guide!
p.p.s. Thanks to reader Jay for the tip! Drop us a line anytime, y’all.

Let’s say you’re fleeing from Interpol (because you’re an internationally renowned jewel thief) but you simply can’t resist a little video chat. You must, of course, disguise your identity.

Apple’s Photo Booth and iChat have a ton of fun effects to stretch and distort your lovely face — but do you know about the secret bonus filters?

Finesse a few files and you’ll find nifty image-enhancers like ASCII art, neon color effects, and a kaleidoscope. Don’t forget the mustache.

Add more effects to Photo Booth and iChat

p.s. Fear not, Windows users; websites like Cameroid, Seenly, and software like Dr. Jekill are only too happy to give your head a strange new twist.

p.p.s. Extra! Extra! Our pals at Nikon sent us a big box of goodies! Here’s how to win a Nikon D3000 this week.

We hereby proclaim our allegiance to vertical. No more horizontal for us!

Vertical is clearly greater than horizontal.
Waterfalls > rivers.
Skyscrapers > urban sprawl.
And funicular railways beat garden-variety train tracks all to pieces.

Try making a few vertical panoramas and you’ll see we’re right. It’s just like taking normal panoramas, only you go up instead of across.

Vertorama Version One: Stack two horizontal photos on top of each other to make a single square one.

Why, you ask? Because you can get the foreground & background in focus at the same time. Ultra wide-angle + infinite depth of field? Don’t mind if we do!

Vertorama Version Two: Keep stacking photos until the panorama’s as tall as you want!

You’ll find it quite useful for photographing the vertical wonders of the world, like:

• trees
• buildings
• bridges
• monuments
• clouds
• stars
• canyons
• alleyways
• stairs
• Sultan Kösen

Vertoramas: 2 Horizontal Photos = 1 Vertical Panorama

p.s. We’ve teamed up with JPG for an all-out lightpainting challenge! Get your flashlights a-flyin’ and you could win a copy of our choice new book! Look, tips!

Photo credits: PK Koduri, backpackphotography, and Monica Arellano-Ongpin.

Extra photos for bloggers: 1, 2, 3

Of all the species of office supplies, none is more adaptable than the wily paperclip.

Over the millenia, paperclips have evolved to form chains, lamps, and, surprisingly, a house in Saskatchewan.

Now introducing the latest incarnation, the paperclip tripod!

A couple of strategic bends transforms the humble paperclip into a stand for your camera.

Scrounge a couple of clips from work and tuck them in your camera case.

Then when you need a quick shot of you and your best mate at the coffee shop, just whip one out, prop your camera on it and shoot.

The stand will hold a point-and-shoot horizontally or vertically with a little balancing.

Bending and paperclips: the solution to so many of life’s problems.

How to Turn a Paperclip into a Camera Stand
via Lifehacker

p.s. Hey you… wanna win a camera? ‘Cause we’re giving away 10 Kodak cameras this week to celebrate our new book! It’s like lotto, ya gotta be in it to win it!

Extra photos for bloggers: before, after

The mission: Take a great portrait in front of a distracting background.

The equipment: The crummiest point-and-shoot camera on the market.

Your task: Throw the background out of focus so you can emphasize the subject.

Mission Impossible? Hardly. Even with the simplest point and shoot, you can get the blurry background you crave. Here’s how:

1. Put the camera on the “portrait” setting.
2. Move the subject away from the background.
3. Back away. Far away. Farther. Keep going. OK, stop.
4. Zoom in on the subject and take the picture.

That’s it! Try it for impromptu street portraits, vacation photos, or any time you need a great picture in a lousy location.

Click on through for the fine details and more clever photo tips!

How to Blur a Distracting Background (Plus More Handy Tips!)

p.s. Say hello to our buddies over at Virb and get 15% off at the Photojojo Shop. We <3 their fantastic photography collection!

How much do you think it would cost to make a ring light for your camera?

$50 bucks? $25 smackeroos? Nah. $5.

All you need is a fistful of LED lights and a strip of velcro to wrap around your camera lens.

That’s just the beginning of what you can do with LEDs, the tiny titans of the lighting world.

Lightpainting, highlighting pinpoint details, macro photography… you name it!

At 50 cents each, buy ‘em by the bucketful and experiment to your heart’s content.

How to Light With LEDs

Photo credits: udijw

The glorious spring clamp: helper of hobbyists, buddy of builders, crony of carpenters.

And now, we have 3 ways to make it the most useful object a photographer can have!

1. Instant fill light — Use a clamp to hold a piece of mirror or white cardstock when photographing small items.

   Bouncing light off a card fills in shadows and instantly makes any shot better. (Ya hear that, Ebayers?)

2. Clip-anywhere camera mount — Spring clamps have holes just the right size for a 1/4-inch screw. Convenient, eh?

   Use a thumbscrew and your camera’s tripod mount to attach your camera to the clamp. Then clip it anywhere a regular tripod can’t reach!

   You can fancy it up by attaching a mini tripod head, or use an umbrella adapter to hold a flash unit.

3. Portable lighting stand — Need a bit more flexibility? Use a length of Loc-Line tubing to create a clamp mount with a flexible arm that holds a flash unit.

   Not in a DIY kind of mood? You can buy the new commercial version, but the price tag will probably put you in a DIY mood.

So much utilitarian goodness from one little clamp. How you gonna beat that, bucko?

How to Make a Clip-Anywhere Camera Mount

How to Make a Flexible Lighting Clamp

p.s. If you couldn’t get to our Guide to the Most Perfectest Panoramas on Monday, here’s the link. Sorry ’bout that!

Photo credits: Matthew G. Monroe, six million dollar dan

“The reason lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn’t there the second time.”
-Willie Tyler

All the more reason to get that perfect lightning photo the first time!

Here’s the lowdown on everything you need to take flabbergasting shots of this summer’s lightning storms: how to keep the camera still, how long to leave the shutter open, what to get in the shot.

Just remember to stay grounded and not be the tallest thing in the field, OK?

How to Photograph Lightning

p.p.s. This week only: Our Brit buds at Moo are giving Photojojo readers 25% off everything! Check out their spiffy biz cards, mini cards, post cards + more!

Photo credits: krunkwerke

After being separated from his owners, Bobbie the Wonder Dog walked 2,800 miles to get back home to them.

Cameras don’t do that.

If you lose your camera in some far-flung locale, it’ll need help from a good-hearted stranger to find its way home again.

Give it a leg up by attaching a dogtag with your name and address to your camera or neckstrap. Small metal or plastic ID tags only cost a few bucks, and you can get them made at any pet store.

It’s nice to depend on the kindness of strangers, but giving them a mailing address helps too.

Make a Dogtag For Your Camera

p.s. Are you following us on twitter? If not, you didn’t hear about this *charming* stop-motion video, the new most popular camera (you’ll be surprised), or get this iPhone photo tip. The cool kids follow @photojojo.

It’s road trip time! We’ve got some shiny new tips to add to our Road Trip Photography Guide:

1. Find weird stuff to take photos of — Roadside America: the ultimate resource for finding odd, obscure, & photogenic places.

   Create a map of your route before you get on the road and don’t miss a single photo op: Stonehenge(s)! Drive-thru trees! Space acorns! Fuh reals. Space acorns.

2. Plot your photos on a map — Making a photo map of your trip is like a photo album and diary rolled into one.

   Eye-Fi Explore cards and GPS trackers record where your photos were taken, or you can map them in Flickr. Pull up “Your Map” (under “Organize”), then drag & drop your pics into place.

3. Play with landmarks — Avoid boring landmark pictures by crushing them beneath your mighty feet.

   Get far enough away to make the monument look small enough to hold/prod/stomp on, pose a friend, and shoot. Godzilla’s got nothin’ on you, pal.

Have a peek at our Original Road Trip Photography Guide, then get out on the open road!

Photojojo’s Ultimate Guide to Road Trip Photography

p.s. We’re giving away an Eye-Fi Share Wireless Memory Card on Twitter … why?! Cause gosh ‘darn it, we like you. Follow or re-tweet @Photojojo before Monday to enter.

Photo credits: jasoneppink, dotbenjamin