Within Chasing Reflections, Eli Reinholdtsen shows us a unique and skilled approach to reflections. The clever juxtapositions between the real and the reflected force you to look deeper at the image that you might normally and create unforgettable photographs. In this latest Print and Process book Reinholdtsen shares a selection of her recent shots and ways to scout, setup, and shoot complex reflections yourself. As with the other two Print and Process books, the first half is pure portfolio. The second part of the book includes descriptions on the techniques required to capture movement, timing, and contrast while dealing with the challenging constraints necessary for reflections to occur in the first place.

If you like inspirational portfolios and fancy photographing reflections then this is well worth the $5 price tag. As usual, if you order Chasing Reflections before the end of this month you can use the promotional codes REFLECT4 to get it for just $4, or REFLECT20 to get 20% off when you order 5 or more Craft & Vision books (check out my previous article for suggestions!). These codes will expire at 11:59pm PST August 1, 2010 (check your timezone here).

Finally, the Craft & Vision site has recent had a facelift and if you have an iPad you can also now download the publications as iPhone/iPad apps.

David duChemin is a well known photographer, best-selling author and teacher. You can find his personal blog over at pixelatedimage.com. About a year ago he self-published an eBook “TEN” which covered (unsurprisingly) ten ways to improve your craft without buying gear. This was a big success and followed by “TEN More”. We’re not talking about a few pages in PDF here. Both books were about 35 pages and nicely laid out with David’s own work illustrating the principles he was talking about (in his usual amusing, but applicable tone). Both were offered for just $5. Outstanding value in my opinion.

Following the success of these two eBooks the concept expanded with the creation of a dedicated site for these publications and Craft & Vision was born. There are now a dozen or so eBooks available on the site (I own about half of these), written by both David duChemin and a selection of other hand-picked authors, all available for just $5. Below is further information on some of the ones I own.

TEN & TEN More

These are the first two eBooks I bought and give you in total 20 tips on how to approach your subject and composing the shot. Each section also includes a creative exercise for you to try for yourself, putting into practice the concepts discussed.

Whilst many of the tips (changing perspective, paying attention to the light, try to shoot in manual, learn digital darkroom techniques) may be familiar to those who have been photographers for a while, new-comers to the field will find the information extremely useful. Even if you are a long-time photographer its always useful to be reminded of these things and I’m sure you’ll find a worthwhile nugget or two you can put into practice.

Below the Horizon

The second eBook I bought was written by Dave Delnea and focused on shooting during sunrise and sunset – or as Dave Delnea puts it “understanding light at the edges of the day”.

This is a superb 42 page book for those wanting to grasp the difference between sunset, civil twilight and nautical twilight and to decide the best moment to take your shots. Again the book is beautifully illustrated with images showing the differences in light and how waiting 30 minutes can drastically change your final image.  We all know that getting up early to catch that sunset, or staying out late to shoot at sunset is not always the most social of experiences but after reading this eBook I’m sure you’ll be inspired to begin experimenting with shots at these times of the day. Learning how to use the light (or lack of) and how it impacts your final shots is both addictive and worthwhile.

The Magic of Black and White 1 & 2

I’ve always been a fan of black and white photography and I’m guessing, like many, started shooting B&W on film and developing my own shots. In fact, go back a few posts in my blog and you can find an article I wrote on just this subject! So the next couple of purchases from Craft & Vision were the Magic of Black & White books by Andrew Gibson.

These two books approach B&W photography from slightly different angles. The first eBook is all about differences you need to bear in mind when taking the photograph. Things that might work in colour may not work in monochrome and if you’ve not shot much black and white you almost have to learn compositional techniques again, understanding how different colours will translate and look more at lines and texture. All this and more is covered in volume one.

The second is more about post processing techniques for B&W shots. Once you’ve got your photos (and rather strangely its best if you still shoot in colour) how best to use the digital darkroom tools at your disposal to convert the images to monochrome in order to get the most out of them.

Venice – Print & Process

My most recent purchase is a slight departure from the “how to” books above but being a huge fan of Venice I couldn’t resist! Instead its almost the eBook equivalent of a small gallery exhibition – a collection of images around a central theme. As David duChemin mentions in the introduction:

The Print & The Process Series was created as a means to show my work and the work of others, accompanied by a discussion of why and how the images were created.

The publication contains some great full-page images and finishes with a section talking about the approach to the project as a whole along with descriptions for each image explaining why they were taken/included.

Today, there’s a new book released – Vision in Motion, by Trevor Meier – which will be especially interesting to all you budding cinematographers. As more DSLRs include the ability to shoot high definition video content, this latest publication provides information and techniques on moving from capturing a moment in time (a photograph) to capturing change through video. Trevor, originally a photographer but who has now made the move into video, provides information on the sort of equipment to use, definitions of new language you may come across and techniques to help build your story and achieve your vision.

Visit the Craft and Vision site today and review the full collection of eBooks available.

They were mainly interested in “how to” books however one of the things that has helped me the most over the years is mixing with other photographers. Everyone has their own interests and as a result tends to build up knowledge and skills in a specific area. Its rare that when meeting up with a group of photographers I don’t leave with some new idea or skill to try. A great resource for bringing photographers together is of course Flickr. The massive variety of groups almost guarantees that whatever your focus or interest there will be a Flickr group already set up. Location based groups are also a good resource and if you’re lucky to have an active Flickr group in your local area (as I am with the Leeds group) there are plenty of opportunities to meet up and learn new skills.

But back to the request from my colleagues – beginners books. After a bit of a think I would recommend the following three publications for anyone just starting out.

Digital Photography Masterclass – Tom Ang

Amazon

I like this book because Tom Ang has a great way of explaining complicated subjects.

The book provides clear tutorials on technical elements from exposure to colour balance and genres from fine art to sports photography. In addition,  after learning a skill he sets you an assignment – a chance to go and put what you’ve just learned to good use. This is then followed by sample images he gathered from other regular photographers which he uses to illustrate how they approached the same assignment.
 
 
 

The Digital Photography Book(s) – Scott Kelby

Amazon

Another great book for beginners although this is a little thin and you’ll easily get through it in one reading. That said, there are three books in this series so you might want to look at the others too.

The beauty of this book is that each page is a single tip. Short, sweet and to the point. As a result, whilst the tips are great and there’s something for everyone, those familiar with their camera may be slightly disappointed by the lack of additional information. Still its a great book to start with if you want to learn about your cameras features and functions.
 
 

40 Digital Photography Techniques for Beginners – John Kim

Amazon

This book gets straight to the point and provides you with easy to follow and useful tutorials on how to get the best out of your camera and how to improve your skills.

The 40 techniques cover everything from how to compose good shots, play with light and shoot close-ups, to capturing motion, experimenting with filters, and more. If you have a compact camera which doesn’t provide much control over the shutter times, aperture, etc then some of the content may not be appropriate, however there are still great sections on framing your shot and making the most of available light to make the book worthwhile.
 
 

The book by David DuChemin called “Within the Frame” is about finding and expressing your photographic vision, specifically where people, places, and cultures are concerned. The book on its own is great and I can highly recommend it.

However I recently discovered that after producing the book David recorded a series of podcasts for peachpit press which you can also view online. In the podcasts he picks a one or two images submitted to the “Within the Frame” Flickr-group and provides a critique. The useful thing is these reviews are not so much technical as compositional – pointing out where a certain angle or crop might have worked better, and highlighting those elements within the shot that work well.

You can view all the podcasts (there’s 17 of them to date) by following the link below.

Peachpit: Within the Frame Podcasts

The author, Mikkel Aaland, uses a similar concept to the first book and one that I think works very well. For the initial book, he took a team of photographers to Iceland. This time he organized a group of top-notch photographers for a trek to Tasmania, the exotic island south of mainland Australia, where the only studio was Lightroom on a laptop. In the book, Aaland uses hands-on knowledge from the trip to demonstrate how Lightroom can help you create the best possible image under any conditions.

Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure

You can check out the book, or buy a copy, by clicking the blurb link on the right side of the homepage.

He mainly covers the library and develop module and for someone wanting to get to grips with Lightroom it could be a good read. All Joe asks in return is that drop him a note if you found it useful.

Lightroom Tips & Tricks eBook on Image Space

I’ve always liked the idea of doing things with your photos. When we used to have film and prints, your photos would be put in an album and hardly looked at. Now we have digital its even worse with all sorts of great shots languishing on your hard drive.

So following my recent trip to Jordan I decided to create my own little book about Jordan, using photos I had taken while over there. To do this I used the excellent and very easy Blurb. Download their software, format your book, and hey presto, you’re a published author!

For those that might want to buy my book (its very good – honest!) you can do so by visiting Blurb.

The background to the book is that twelve top-notch professionals took the latest version of Lightroom for an intense, hands-on test run in the real world: a 10-day photographic adventure in Iceland. The book itself doesn’t really go into their “adventure” too much so don’t let that put you off. Instead it covers every possible dialog, panel and setting within the program, showing you how to get the most out of each one. Along the way, shots from the Iceland trip are used to illustrate how the various options work.

The explanations are clear, concise and avoid technical jargon where possible, making it a great book for the beginner. That said there’s plenty in here for the more technical, experienced user too.

I’ve still not quite finished it yet but even now I can recommend it to anyone wanting to get more out of Adobe Lightroom.