New Books

[bayhli]

From the discussions and recommendations of recent threads, I have just ordered these two photography books. This also followed some really good thought provoking discussions about getting back to learning photography and using my camera properly.

Thank you everyone for great titles and especially the inspiration to tackle some basics!

In case anyone else is interested in books, they are:

1. John Hedgecoes New Manual Of Photography - Hardcover

2. Shooting Digital: Pro Tips for Taking Great Pictures with Your Digital
Camera - Paperback

I stumbled across this one with great reviews on Amazon and ordered it as well:
3. 50 Fast Digital Camera Techniques, 2nd Edition - Paperback

The lot cost me $98.00 CDN and it looks like money well spent. There are really good deals for a couple of these on Ebay but they did not sell to Canada unfortunately.

Another book that looks good but delivery is really lengthy at the moment, is
"Close-up & Macro Photography" by Paul Harcourt Davies.

Would anyone have this book and be able to offer any comment on it?

Thanks again everyone!

[NMarti]

Pat,
Is the John Hedgecoe book update for digital? I have his first book at it is awesome in detail and information. It was put out years ago when I first started using film and I studied it from cover to cover.

[Pauline]

Yes, it is Nancy. It covers all the bases for both. I bought it last week, and love it. Lots to learn! :D

[NMarti]

Thanks Pauline. Just today I got the Complete Guide to Night and Low-Light Photography by Lee Frost and Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and am still trying to get throught the e-book on my Rebel while waiting for the Complete Field Guide for the Rebel XT... phew.... need to come up for air, get off here and start reading.:D

[Pauline]

I'm getting tired of reading! I feel like that's all I do lately!! Read and learn, read and learn. I've hardly had time for projects!! :(

[NMarti]

Yeah, I'm kinda on brain overload. With year-end here at work (I do the books for 4 separate companies plus serve as office manager for all 4) I will not have much project time. January is an awful month for me. :(

[Robyn]

I'm getting tired of reading! I feel like that's all I do lately!! Read and learn, read and learn. I've hardly had time for projects!! :(

As a beginner I'm afraid I've fallen into a trap. I'm that busy reading, learning, reading, learning, printing out info, looking at threads on this forum - that I hardly ever actually DO ANYTHING - and then when I do - I can't remember what I've read or where to find it. I think........time to just get stuck into it.........and then yell for help. I think I've got "the cart before the horse" so to speak.

[Pauline]

Yes Robyn if you read too much as a beginner, you just can't remember it all. I'm a step up from the beginner areas, so I remember 1/4 of what I read (well I might be exaggerating there) :D The best way really is to read, do, do again, move onto the next one. But when I need a break from the computer I will read ahead in my photoshop books, and then go back to the last page I worked on.

Today I spent a lot of time on www.lynda.com (http://www.lynda.com) For some reason I had never watched the free PSE tutorials on there!! I learned quite a few things on there today. You should check it out.

[Robyn]

Thank you Pauline for some timely advice.

[NMarti]

Robyn,
Here is what I have started doing because I have so many tutorials printed out and read good tips in books, etc... I have started a cross-reference index that says what I want to do on the left and the place the instructions are located (book, printed tut in a binder, website, etc) on the right. It has proven very helpful for now. I was away from home last weekend and it was impossible to remember where I found something without my index. :rolleyes:

Pauline - nice site and great advice - thanks!

[Bayla]

Hi Pat,

Snap!

I just bought the first two books on your list (the Mikkal Aaland one & the John Hedgecoe one) I bought them new from Ebay and saved a lot of money - I paid £20 including shipping for the two books instead of over £35 at Amazon. I'm not planning on buying any more for the moment, I've plenty of reading material to keep me going for ages!

Enjoy your books!

Bayla

[Wendy]

Nancy ...

I like that idea of cross referencing .. I often end up knowing which tutorial I need to look at but with no idea of where to look.

I did it in a small way with a lot of the magazines I had .. I went through and cut out interesting articles and tutorials, put them in a ring binder and then did an index at the front. It saved me lots of space as many of the magazines had pages and pages of adverts ...

I really like the PET magazine for that ... all the pages are filled with information and tutorials :)

Wendy

[bayhli]

Hi Bayla,

It was probably your suggestion I read that prompted me to look on Ebay...
I likely could have used a different seller to send to Canada, but in all honesty I didn't want to wait the 3-4 weeks to get them here. I'm anxious to get going and Chapters Online will get them to me in 3 days.

I'm like the rest of you and have far too much reading material going on but not getting at it. I do better to pick an objective and then just read what I need to as I go along.

Now that I have the main books I want, I'll watch Ebay for the rest of my wish list and wait for them.

Happy for you that you got such good prices and have more patience than I. Enjoy!!