There are some books that when you hear about them, you just can’t wait till they come out. California is one of them. This beautifully put together and illustrated book is the kind that you put on top of the pile on your coffee table. The first thing you will notice is the great color on the cover, but when you open to the inside title page you will think that it doesn’t get any better than this.  Like many pages in this 10x11 inch hardback book, this image is from edge to edge and a full two-page spread. Panoramic images like you have seldom seen before. This first image is of the base area of giant redwood trees. Every section begins with one of these two-page spreads, plus others spread around throughout the rest of the book.

The images range from valleys to mountaintops, and include many of Art Wolfe’s animal shots, and close up details of nature.  There are 160 pages and probably as many images, (I didn’t count) and all of them are printed with a quality that you don’t see often enough. But then, the best of images should always be shown that way, and these are the best. California retails for just US$40. Published by Sasquatch Books, at:   http://www.sasquatchbooks.com          
I Rate it:  A++++ 
(Reviewed Feb. 2005)

Whoever first said that great things come in small packages sure knew what they were talking about, and California The Beautiful is proof positive of that. At just less than 7 inches square, this 160 page hard back book is packed full of the late Galen Rowell’s (1940-2002) best images of California’s mountain areas. One look at the cover will show you what the rest of the book is like. This is a book made for quiet-time reflections on life. The images are accompanied with the writings from such people as Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain, up to Maya Angelou. My only warning is, “Don’t buy this book as a gift for someone else, because they will never get it!”  Not after you have spent a couple of minutes looking through it yourself. Buying two or more wouldn’t be a problem as it retails for only US$16.95. It is published by Welcome Books and can be checked out at  www.welcomebooks.com      
I Rate it:  A+++ 
(Reviewed Feb. 2005)

California Wild, by Tim Palmer with the photos of Terry Donnelly, Mary Liz Austin, and Tim Palmer is another picture book with magnificent images from all over that state. This 11x12 inch hard back book is beautifully printed and it’s images are a great example of why I lived many years there, and why so many others go there to vacation. It is also filled with information on both the state and those images from it. That means it can also be used as a reference to find and photograph these locations yourself. This book has 144 pages, and even more beautiful pictures, and retails for only US$29.95. It is published by Voyageur Press and can be checked out at www.voyageurpress.com      
I Rate it: A+++ 
(Reviewed Jan. 2005)

This book is a lot of fun! It helps you use your digital camera in creative ways to capture unique images. It’s organized into different projects. A few of them have to do with creating traditional film effects like twin lens reflex or stereograph images. There are other projects such as portable flash accessories, digital cross processing, and model world (making landscape photographs look like photographs of a miniature model). Turning the pages to look through the many ideas gets the reader very excited about the unique, creative, and often funny possibilities of digital photography. The author, Chris Gatcum has compiled some outstanding suggestions for having fun with digital photography. It is a great book for getting any level of photographer excited about playing with their camera or their images.

Text: A
Layout: A+
Photography: A+
User: All Photographers
(Reviewed by EP November 2009)

The world of photography is past the dilemma of film versus digital. Now that the age of digital photography is a part of almost all professional photographers' mindset, the knowledge of a new set of skills is necessary. Instead of needing film and darkroom skills, photographers now need to know how to make the highest quality digital files. To accomplish this, all professional cameras and many consumer cameras come with a camera RAW setting. This book, from Amphoto, shows the reader how to use camera RAW in the camera, in their digital workflow, and in file conversion. The author includes the basics, like why camera RAW is the best choice and how to adjust the image controls to an image without damaging the file quality.  The author then goes beyond the basics by discussing white balance, noise control, and black and white conversions. The advanced tools that are suggested help to make creative and high quality images with vignetting, curves, automating camera RAW, and High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. All this is demonstrated with easy-to-read text, example images, and screen shots showing windows and settings in Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. This is an excellent resource for the digital photographer who wants to increase their quality of images.

Text: A
Layout: A
Photography: A
User: Intermediate Photographers
(Reviewed by EP November 2009)

Capture the Portrait: How to Create Great Digital Photos
By Jenni Bidner 

This book covers all the universal basics of portrait photography. There are certain concepts every photographer needs to take into account when photographing people no matter the purpose or personal style. Bidner covers the necessities of depth of field, flash, lighting, white balance, and composition using easy to read text and exemplar images. The images are used effectively in comparing techniques and choices, but also demonstrating problems and solutions. Bidner uses a variety of images to show the diversity of choice in common concepts like toddler and baby photography, or group portraits. This book is an excellent resource for the amateur photographer wanting to improve their people pictures for a variety of purposes including travel photography, documenting a wedding, creating family holiday cards or scrapbooking.

Text: A
Layout: A+
Photography: A
User: Beginning to Intermediate Photographers
(Reviewed by EP July 2008)

Night photography has always been one of the hardest subjects to shoot, mainly because you can never know what you will get until the film comes back. Capturing The NIGHT With Your Camera can help you out with that problem. No matter what the situation is you are shooting - fireworks, city streets, buildings, sports, or even portraits - this book covers it. Each image is fully captioned with all the technical information used to take it, and it doesn’t waste a lot of pages with lists of equipment needed. It’s a how-to book, and not a what-with one. There is also a very useful chart for what settings to use with what subjects. The book covers what you need to do in the field and not what is needed in the darkroom. It is also an AMPHOTO soft cover book, with 144 pages, and retails for US$24.95. It can be checked out at www.watsonguptill.com      
I Rate it:  A 
(Reviewed April 2005)

Carchitecture: Frames, Fenders, and Fins
By Fredric Winkowski and Frank D. Sullivan

The photographers of this book compare a gathering of classic cars to a walk in an art museum: “There is a century and more of history here, works of art on display. . . Whether it is the angle of an air scoop or the roar of the engine within that moves you, it is worth the effort to focus on the details, to look at them as their designers might.” This small, but thick book contains 500 color photographs of classic automobiles. The images range from close-ups of the fine details to shots including the entire car in a perfect landscape. This is a perfect addition to the collection of a car enthusiast or photographer who appreciates the colors, lines and shapes of automobiles.

Text: A
Layout: A
Photography: A+
User: All Photographers (and non-photographers)
(Reviewed June 2008 by EP)

This is a great picture book for every cat lover. All images were taken on the streets and rooftops of the Greek isles, and cover the days life of an island cat, or I should say, many cats. Asleep, on the prowl, at play, or just posing for a picture, every image says “that’s my cat.” Besides having great cat images, each picture also has the great colors that are common with photos of these Greek island villages, as their backgrounds. Soft cover with about 142 images on 152 , 8x8 inch pages, it retails for US$29.95. Published by Chronicle Books at www.chroniclebooks.com
I Rate it: A 
(Reviewed Aug. 2005)

This book covers the filming of major ice cave systems in Greenland, underwater caves in the Yucatan jungles, and other cave systems in the American east and southwest. The cover shot will give you just a small idea of the rest of the incredible images inside, and you will be amazed at how they were able to get a large IMAX camera into places that a person can hardly crawl through. If you get this book you will also want the film, which is available on DVD.

This hardback book is over 9x12 inches,  with 216 pages and retails for US$35.     
I rate it:  A++ 
(Reviewed May 2006)

Here is a photo essay of daily life in China as you have never seen it before. Photojournalists will love this book as they will have a collection of images rarely seen by any outsider, many taken by underground methods, and almost all of which the Chinese government would burn if found there. The work is both sensitive and shocking at times, but always moving. Images range from a young boy smoking a cigarette butt and men pushing a cart to market, to the aftermath of a car-jacking. A dish of rat meat is not something you will see in travel ads for China, but that is just one more way of life that these images show in graphic detail. Hardback with 140 B&W images on 6x9 inch pages, retails for US$24.95. Published by Chronicle Books at www.chroniclebooks.com
I Rate it: A 
(Reviewed Aug. 2005)

This soft cover book is about 8x10 inches, with 363 pages, retails for US$44.99 – and is distributed by Peach Pit Press at www.peachpit.com       
I Rate it:  A+(PF)
(Reviewed June 2007)

This introduction to photography guide book is created for teens by teens. The author is a seventeen-year-old and the photographs are images by teens from around the world. This concept of youth creating quality work is an inspiration for other young photographers. Now, more than ever, cameras are in the hands of young people with a variety of viewpoints and inspirations. This book can help young people understand the concepts and techniques of the field in order to accomplish their goals. A great book for any aspiring young photographer.

Text: A
Layout: A
Photography: A
User: Beginning Photographers
(Reviewed by EP June 2009)

The Complete Guide to Night & Lowlight Digital Photography
By Michael Freeman

More than a manual on selecting an adequate tripod, this book is a guide to understanding the potential value of low light situations in creating exceptional images. With the current capabilities offered to digital photographers and the right know-how, there are many tools available to create winning images. This book offers the knowledge and inspiration to repair and prevent potential problems with image quality, exposure, motion, and color. The extent of knowledge is evident with the variety of images used for examples, thorough text, and multiple solutions to the difficulties within this field of photography. An excellent resource for all experience levels of photographers.

Text: A+
Layout: A+
Photography: A
User: All Photographers
(Reviewed by EP July 2008)

The Complete Raw Workflow Guide: How to Get the Most From Your Raw Images in Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, Photoshop and Elements
by Philip Andrews

This How-to book, published by Focal Press, is an excellent resource for the intermediate photographer ready to delve into the raw workflow or the more advanced photographer wanting to fine-tune their raw imaging skills. The first section of the book is completely devoted to describing and explaining raw.  Andrews explains how to use the raw format in a variety of image editing programs and includes helpful diagrams showing the steps to follow and menus to find. Each page is full of a lot of information and images, which could be considered either an overwhelming or efficient layout. This is a good resource for any digital photographer.

Ratings:
Text: B
Layout: B
Photography: B
User: Intermediate to Advanced
(Reviewed by EP - Feb. 2008)

Colorado is a land of extremes and Art Wolfe is a master of capturing those extremes on film, and this book is clear evidence of that fact. Not only is this book filled with calendar quality images, but it is also rich with information on the subjects shown, which range from valley wildflowers to mountaintop, and from a tiny kestrel to a bull moose. It takes a LOT to impress me, and there are only a handful of photographers who do, and Art Wolfe is one of them. COLORADO will more than impress you with his work as well.

This hardback book is about 10x11 inch, with 160 pages and retails for only US$40.00.  Distributed by Sasquatch Books at  www.sasquatchbooks.com       
I Rate it:  A+++ 
(Reviewed Nov. 2005)

Color Confidence is a very good reference book for all of you digital imaging photographers. It is your complete guide to color management to acquire and maintain all of your color needs. You will learn how to calibrate and profile to color match all of your hardware, configure settings, evaluate images to make color adjustments, troubleshoot, and much more. The book is fully illustrated with before and after samples, and the software tool settings used. Maintaining correct and consistent color is one of the hardest jobs in digital imaging, but not with this easy to understand new book. This 8x10 inch soft cover book has 252 pages and retails for US$44.99. It is published by SYBEX and can be checked out at  www.sybex.com       
I Rate it: A++ 
(Reviewed March 2005)


   

Click on the above image to find out current pricing or to purchase this book from Amazon.com

This one is a very good book for anyone starting out in photography. It covers the basics of everything you will need to know to start taking great pictures. Experienced photographers will find it yet another how-to photo book, but even they will probably find a lot of reminders to use. It is richly illustrated with top quality images, comparisons, technical info, and a lot of “why” things are done the way they are to make good images. This 8.5 x 10.5 inch soft cover book has 300 illustrations on 192 pages, and retails for $24.95-US. If you want to learn photography quickly and easily, this is more than worth it.  Published by AMPHOTO. It and others can be checked out at wwww.watsonguptill.com       
I rate it: A+
(Reviewed Nov. 2004)

The Complete Guide To CLOSE-UP & MACRO Photography is not one more of those run-of-the-mill close-up books that come out every six months. This is one I will keep for a long time because it not only tells you how to shoot close-up images, but it also includes illustrations for each camera set-up used to crate them. Naturally there is a section for what equipment it takes to do this work, which covers all items from the standard macro lenses to the extra fancy pieces like lens reversing rings. This book will inform you of items only the advanced close-up photographers usually know about, which is why this one is a real keeper. At 8x11 inches, 160 soft cover pages, and retailing for US$24.95, it will be one of your best buys this year. It can be ordered at  www.fwpubs.com.      
I Rate it:  A++ 
(Reviewed March 2005)

The Complete Guide to Digital Photography, 4^th Ed.
By Michael Freeman

This is an all inclusive book about digital photography and is ideal for giving the beginner photographer, and the advanced photographer switching from film to digital, the information necessary to start taking quality digital images. The book is organized by different sections, including: digital cameras, computers, image editing tools, landscapes, people and more. Within each section there are subjects covered thorough text, captions and images. By having one topic on each two-page spread, the information is concise and visual in order to fit. This is not a concern, because there are so many subjects within each section. For example, the digital camera section includes pages on entry-level compacts, mid-range cameras, digital SLRs, accessories, and more. This layout makes it easy to find and understand exactly what the reader wants to know, like distortion filters, which is a two-page spread within the filters section.

RATING
Text: A
Layout: A++
Photography: A
User: All Photography Levels
(Reviewed April 2008 by EP)

Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography
By Ferrell McCollough

Some advanced photographers might remember the darkroom process of combining multiple negatives of different exposures, but of the same subject, to create an image with an amazing value range in both the dark and light areas of the image. This book covers that same goal, only with the use of modern digital photography equipment. It covers the process that the photographer takes at the scene and then the post production process using an image editing program for creating High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. The processes are illustrated with the multiple images used to create the final image and text that unfortunately includes too many typographical errors. Despite the downfall of having poor text editing, one of the most impressive aspects of this book is the featured artist portfolios at the end of the chapters. These photographers are masters of the HDR process and the book shows their remarkable images.

RATING
Text: B
Layout: A
Photography: A++
User: All Photography Levels
(Reviewed April 2008 by EP)

The Complete Guide to Professional Wedding Photography: Creating a More Profitable and Fulfilling Business
By Damien Lovegrove

This wedding photography book more than illustrates incredible images created by the well-known British+ photographer, Damien Lovegood. It details the many parts of a successful business: planning, photographic style and techniques, lighting, people skills, selling, marketing, business strategy, post-production, and presentation. This book provides the tips and how-to instructions for both the new and experienced photographer looking to create a prosperous business.

RATING
Text: A+
Layout: A+
Photography: A++
User: All Photography Levels
(Reviewed April 2008 by EP)