PhotoWalkPro

Hey everyone, I just received word that my latest book, Nikon D3000 – From Snapshots to Great Shots is available for pre-order.  I expect to have the writing all wrapped up by the end of this month if all goes according to plan (maybe sooner if I get a few more snow days).  I don’t have an official shipping date but I would expect to see it on store shelves by around the beginning of April.  I’m also checking out the possibility of another book after that but I don’t want to announce anything just yet because you all know how things go in the camera market. Just when you decide on one thing, BANG, here comes another camera out of the gate. Read the rest of this entry »

Late last week I received a package from my friends at Nikon that will help me to usher in the next installment of the Snapshots to Great Shots series of camera/photography books from Peachpit Press.  That’s right, I am working on another Nikon book and this time the D3000 will be the focus of my efforts.  The D3000 was one of the top selling DSLR cameras this past Christmas and hopefully this book will provide the knowledge and guidance that new camera owners need to start improving their photography. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know if you saw the news from Amazon a few days ago but Christmas day saw the sales of Kindle books top regular books for the first time in history. Couple that with the fact the the Kindle was Amazon’s most gifted item ever, topping the 8 and 32GB iPod Touch, which came in 2nd and 3rd.  That’s right, the writing is defintely on the wall.  With electronic delivery of books now starting to eclipse printed versions, it won’t be long until your local Barnes & Noble is turned into just another strip mall vacancy.  In a blog post yesterday, Seth Godin wrote that “The typical American buys just one book a year for pleasure. Those people are meaningless to a bookstore. It’s the heavy users that matter, and now officially, as 2009 ends, they have abandoned the bookstore. It’s over.”

I don’t know about you but I find this to be kind of sad.  I don’t buy 200 books a year but I do probably buy about 15 to 20 and half the fun for me is browsing the aisles of my local bookseller, browsing through the unknown titles, looking for something that strikes my fancy.  It’s hard to imaging that in a few years, every book that I read will be viewed on some handheld type tablet.  Sure, it will be convenient but I really enjoy skimming the pages, bouncing from chapter to chapter, flipping back and forth, marking pages by bending back a corner, and sometimes writing notes in the margins.  Of course I’m sure that someone will figure out a way to do all of these things and more as the technology advances.  Rumor has it that Apple has been working on an eReader that will change the industry forever, with beautiful color touchscreens, Internet connectivity, and more.   And I’m sure we will browse for new titles in the iBook section of iTunes.

Here’s the real question though, what am I going to put on my coffee table, coffee?

While wandering around Barnes&Noble last night, I found a book by Rob Sheppard that I had not seen before called the New Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing.  The odd thing is that the book has been out since last year but this was the first time that I had seen it at the book store.  After flipping through the pages, I decided to add it to my shopping cart.  It was school spirit night at the store so I felt it was my duty to help out by making a purchase.  Anyway, I got a little time to start reading the book and even though I’m just a couple of chapters in, I have had a complete revelation about how I have been printing.  Basically I discovered that I have been doing things all wrong.  It’s not that I have been using wrong settings for my printer or anything like that.  No, my big problem is that I have been chasing great prints by trying to match my prints to my screen.  This has led to great frustration in the past in an effort to get a great looking print.

See, I realized that when I shoot, I have one of two purposes in mind, the computer screen and the print.  The problem is that I have been doing all of my processing so that everything looks great on the screen without much thought about the print.  Then when I would make a print, I would expect it to look just like it did on my monitor.  This is really an unrealistic goal, especially considering that they are two completely different visual medias.  Computer screens transmit light whereas a print reflects light so it is technically impossible to ever get a print that will completely match your monitor.  And yet I would spend a ton of time making my image look good on the screen and then make a print, expecting it to come out perfectly matched.  What I should be doing is making my basic image adjustments and then make a proof print. After the print is done, I should then use the proof to evaluate the printed image and then make corrections to the image based on what I see in the print, not on my monitor.  There are other reasons for doing this such as being able to see the image at the size that it will be viewed instead of the size that it is being displayed on the monitor.  This can make a huge difference when correcting the image.

I’ve just begun to dig into this book but I can already say that the first couple of chapters have already been worth the investment for me and my future prints.  My other realization is that the perfect print is probably never going to be the first one that rolls out of my Epson, but by working from the proof, I might actually get there faster.

A few weeks ago I received a copy of Ralph Clevenger’s book, Photographing Nature.  I finally got some time to sit down with it this past weekend and boy am I sorry I didn’t open it up sooner.  As a person who loves landscape photography, I was extremely impressed with the content, layout, and beautiful illustrations in this book.  Ralph brings a world of experience to this project with his knowledge as a former biologist and as an instructor at the Brooks Institute and guides the reader through the finer points of photographing every aspect of the great outdoors.

I really like the way that Ralph kicks things off with the first chapter.  It’s not really about photography as much as it is a statement on how to treat the environment that you are trying to capture.  It’s the age old message of “take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints”.  It not only covers the ethics of nature photography but also a look at some of the special tools that he uses to help get his shots without damaging the environment, like his plamp, which lets him carefully move and hold leaves or branches out of the way without damaging them.  It’s something that a lot of photographers don’t necessarily think about but probably should.

From there the book moves into a subject that is near and dear to my heart, camera gear.  Chapter 2 takes an in-depth look at what type of equipment it takes to take great nature shots, from cameras to lenses to all the little accessories that make photography easier and camera bags heavier.  You even get a look into some of the camera bags and gear that Ralph takes on his many different assignments.

Moving into the third chapter, we get a great lesson in light.  Because after all, there is nothing more important for making a photograph than great light.  And not just the natural light that rises and falls with the sun but also placing light into the scene using modifiers and flashes.  Yes, that’s right, using flashes.  I have to say that Ralph opened my eyes into the use of a flash for shooting all sorts of subjects, including landscapes and wildlife.  Something that I really hadn’t given much thought to before but I will now.

The rest of the book guides the reader through the process of photographing plants, flowers, insects, animals, landscapes, birds, and so much more.  There are also chapters dedicated to composition, preconception, shooting on the road, and even some thoughts on post-processing.  I also like the Q&A sections at the end of each chapter that answer many of the most common questions that would come up for each topic.  Each chapter also wraps up with a list of assignments to help you get started practicing the lessons and start moving yourself towards making better nature images.  This is a concept that I put into my books and I am glad to see Ralph include it in his.

The bottom line on this book is that if you want to be a better nature photographer, you won’t find a better resource than Photographing Nature.  I think George Lepp put it best in his forward, “Some folks are born teachers, and some born photographers, but the accomplished photographer who can also teach is a rare gift indeed. Such a man is Ralph Clevenger…”

You can find this book at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Peachpit.com.

I know, this is a bit self-promotional but I figure, what the heck.  The holidays are just around the corner and you or someone you know might be in the market for a new digital SLR camera.  Well, as luck would have it, I have written books for 3 of the most popular models around.  My latest offering, Canon T1i/500D: From Snapshots to Great Shots, was just released a couple of weeks ago and I am thrilled with the response that I have received from folks that have already purchased it.

I tried to take a different path when writing these books from others that I had seen on the market.  I didn’t want to just put out a re-hash of the owners manual, especially since you get one of those when you buy the camera.  Instead I concentrated on covering the camera features that would help the reader get the most from their camera, and hopefully learn some sound photographic principles and techniques along the way.

All three book are available from your favorite booksellers (Barnes&Noble, Borders, and Amazon).  If you like your books in downloadable fashion, check out the PDF versions available for purchase at Peachpit.  Believe it or not, there’s even a Kindle version available from Amazon.