Full Review: "John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography"

"What camera should I use?"

I was pleased to see the author's answer: "The one you have with you." Good man. I can learn something from him. He jokes that a frequent comment he hears is "'you must have a really good lens,' as if the lens went out all by itself and took pictures." There is very thorough information here on gear you might buy, of course, but most of the chapters will be helpful for getting the best results with just about any digital camera. The real practice of photography, Shaw insists - the art - is the "capture of optimal vision," by the photographer, not the equipment. He is a very good teacher of that art.

This is not a book for complete beginners (who would undoubtedly not want four whole pages devoted to focusing a lens, for example), but rather for people who have basic digital camera skills and want to raise their game. (Those four pages on lens focusing taught me more than any number of other texts.) There are chapters on gear, getting started, lenses, composition, close-ups, and the photographer at work, plus many dozen of Shaw's nature images.

He's been doing this a long time. Highly readable, in-depth, with a lot of advice that could only come from experience.

Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a review. The image above links to the book's Amazon page.

Full Review: Journaling with Questions - "Q&A a Day"

Here's an interesting idea, although you're going to have to write small. The book is called "Q&A a Day" and it is put out by the Potter Style imprint of Crown Publishing Group. Every day has a question associated with it. Each page has a single date with five spaces underneath (you fill in the year), so you answer the same question on the same day for five years. When I asked to review this book, I thought I'd get some huge coffee-table size thing, but it's tiny - about 4x6x1 inches - and hardcover, with gilt-edged pages. Very classy. It would fit in a purse if you so chose.

No matter how cute the book is, though, the important thing is the quality of the questions. Here are the first five: 

• January 1: What is your mission?
• January 2: Can people change?
• January 3: What are you reading right now?
• January 4: What was the best part of today?
• January 5: What was the last restaurant you went to?

Most of the questions are pretty good, thought-provoking without being grim, light without being stupid, and it will be interesting to see how answers change through several years, although I thought "What was the last fruit you ate?" kind of silly, and there's no where near enough space for "How do you want to be remembered?"

Still, this is a project I'd like to sink my teeth into. It's March 8 today. What was the last music I listened to?

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a review. The image above links to the book's Amazon page.