Photography is an art I’ve enjoyed since childhood and have always been good at. I developed a great eye for composition before my age was in the double digits and rarely was I seen without a camera. Although I didn’t make photography my career choice, I’ve kept taking pictures and now in my forties have made it my second career.
When I began teaching basic photography classes at my local libraries, I read through several books to develop my class presentation. Most of the books I reviewed were far too wordy without showing how to set up the camera or the shot. Learning to use a camera does not require ten pages of confusing rhetoric to explain a two paragraph concept. I already knew the concepts and the over-explanations in some of these books confused me. The books told of the high price tag of the lighting equipment used but not how to set it up. So I decided that a book was needed that explains the basics of how a camera works and how to set up shots so that you get the shot you want - the way you want it, which is not always the way the camera wants to take it. I’ll tell you what settings you need to adjust, give you easy tips and tricks, and recommend some inexpensive tools you can use to make your pictures better. I show you not only the resulting photographs, but how and where the tools were used so you can duplicate the shots we take and set up your own shots.
I want you to quickly understand the concepts and learn the techniques without a lot of words to confuse you so you can go out and take some awesome photographs. Page count was never a concern to me, covering the concepts was. I’d rather have 50 very informative and useful pages than 300 pages of fluff. An average reader should be able to get through this book in about an hour and see an instant improvement in the pictures they take. You will not need to take out a loan for the tools I’ll show you. The most expensive tool I recommend is about $40, with most of them being far less than that, down to a few pennies or free.
