"John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography" - Review

[gbcmars]

"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 simply 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.