Readers' best winter photos

Throughout the month of February, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston will play home to a film series called "Cinema and the City." The screenings will celebrate movies that are closely linked with the cities—all in the Americas—in which they are set: Vertigo in San Francisco, Do the Right Thing in New York, Chinatown in Los Angeles, City of God in Rio de Janeiro, Los Olvidados in Mexico City, All the President's Men in Washington, and The Friends of Eddie Coyle in Boston. Fittingly, the screenings will take place in the museum's brand new Art of the Americas wing. The $504 million, 121,307 square-foot project, which opened in late November 2010, is comprised of 53 galleries of art from North, Central, and South America. The film lineup got me thinking. Sure, destinations like New York and Los Angeles are widely represented on camera, but what about smaller towns and unsung cities? I grew up in Tampa, a place which has served as a backdrop to many films over the years. But two stick out for me that represent my hometown well: Edward Scissorhands and the upcoming Anna in the Tropics. Tim Burton's 1990 fantasy was filmed around the Tampa Bay area. Although the city is never mentioned by name, the movie captures perfectly the manicured lawns and pastel cookie-cutter homes of Tampa's suburban sprawl. On the other end of the spectrum is a movie that is still in the development stages: the upcoming feature film adaptation of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner for best drama, Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics. Set in Tampa's historic Ybor City neighborhood, the play tells the tale of a lector who reads classic novels (like Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina) to workers in a Cuban-American cigar factory in 1929. Poetic and romantic, it's a piece of literature that has hopefully stirred a few travelers to come check out Tampa as a tourist destination. I hope the just-announced film adaptation does the same. Which movie best represents your hometown? If a film has never been set where you live, which movie best captures the spirit of your town or state? See more from Budget Travel: Top 10 Beaches From the Movies Does a Disaster Movie Turn You On (Or Off) to a Destination?

One of Budget Travel's top tips for taking sharper vacation photos is to shoot during the "golden hour," around sunrise and sunset—when the wash of light that bathes scenery in a soft glow. But when you travel to a new location, you may not know the times for dawn and dusk. One tool to look up peak photography times is Golden Hour. This free app launched in October and is available via iTunes. If you prefer, you can find the same information on any laptop or mobile device with a Web connection at golden-hour.com. In addition to the golden hour, you may want to know when the "blue hour" is so-called because the sun hasn't yet come up but the sky is lightening up to a pleasant shade of blue, and already spectacular landscapes appear even more so. In this case, you'll want to fire up the free Twilight Calculator. And if you're choosing in advance from a couple of different vantage points for shooting, you may prefer SunCalc, a new site that overlays information about the Golden Hour with a view of the sun's trajectory, so that you can see what direction as well as what hour you should shoot from. TIP: You should also invest in a heavy, sturdy tripod for the low-light conditions. Feel free to share your own tips about travel photography in the comments. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL My Take: A half-dozen reader photos we've showcased in Budget Travel magazine 25 travel-inspiring photos from readers Readers' best sign photos

From the Italian town of Vernazza (above) to the beaches of California, here are 28 picturesque reasons to plan your next trip to the coast. See the slide show. RECENT READER SLIDE SHOWS Signs | Reflections | Skylines NOW IN SEARCH OF... We're collecting your photos of cherry blossoms. Upload them through myBudgetTravel, tag them, and check back in the coming weeks for a slide show of the best submissions.

It's time to get your hands dirty: In an upcoming Trip Coach column, we're digging into farmstay vacations. As always, we want to hear from you first so we can put together a story that'll address all of your questions and concerns. If you've ever had questions big or small regarding farmstays, farm visits, or agritourism operations of any kind, now's the time to ask. You might be wondering: What are the best resources for finding and evaluating farmstays? Do guests really have to do chores? What kind? How "hands-on" are the activities? What happens if I don't want to milk a cow? What kind of lodging can guests expect? Are certain farms better than others for families? Or couples? Or solo travelers? Are certain parts of the world more likely to have farms that welcome travelers? How much do farmstays cost? Is it cheaper if guests work in the fields or tend to the animals? Now's your turn. Fire away with any questions you have about farmstays, and we'll do our best to answer your most pressing concerns in an upcoming issue of Budget Travel. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: A Farmstay in St. Croix The Farm Stay: Perfect for Families with Young Kids Farm Tours Where You Can Pitch In