Reactions from the mainstream media went from surprise, to shock, to outrage when Amazon recently opened up the Kindle for shipping to a large list of countries, that did not include Canada. The Kindle is a “Wireless Reading Device” (commonly known as an eBook reader) that includes free global wireless coverage and doesn’t require a computer to access new content from the Kindle Store.

I personally don’t really understand what the hype is about this class of device. I much prefer reading my books in paper form, or to have all the other features of a mini computer that are built into my iPod Touch. But there are many people out there who rave about these things, and they love the convenience of having nearly instant access to hundreds of thousands of books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs on a device with a screen that “Reads like real paper without glare, even in bright sunlight”. I’d love to give one a try, if only to see what the hype is all about.

For any of my fellow Canadians that have been waiting to get their hands on one, your time is now. For only $259 US you can order one now and have it with plenty of time to spare before Christmas!

The Kindle Store: More Than 360,000 Books
At Amazon, we’ve always been obsessed with having every book ever printed, and we know that even the best book reader is useless without the books you want to read. We are fortunate that we have tens of millions of book customers at Amazon, and as a result, we know the books customers want to read and we prioritize getting those titles. Today, the Kindle Store has more than 360,000 books available, including 101 of 112 New York Times® Best Sellers, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Our vision for Kindle is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds.

I get asked for recommendations for photography books all the time.  I’ve read over 40 books on various aspects of photography in the last couple of years and I almost always have a good book to suggest (of course lately those books have typically been authored by Kelby or McNally).  A friend recently asked for a recommendation for a book about wildlife photography that he could pass on to someone planning a 5 week trip to Africa.

This is a topic with which I am extremely familiar as I shoot birds and wildlife it all the time.  But I quickly realized that this is one particular photography subject on which I had seen very few books, and for the most part those books that I have read have been entirely unremarkable.  Most of what I know on about making images of wildlife has either been self taught or been learned by applying lessons from other photographic topics to my wildlife photography.  Let’s face it, photography is photography and the basic rules of composition and exposure don’t change if you’re shooting a bride at a wedding or a bear in Alaska.  There may be other obvious similarities as well!

Yet I still wanted to be able to provide some ideas about some books to start with, so I went to Google and Amazon for some ideas.

I quickly found that the vast majority of “Wildlife Photography” books are about pictures of wildlife rather than about photography (a subtle but important distinction).  It immediately become clear to me that the search would have to be expanded to birds, nature, and/or travel photography (and in fact maybe travel photography would be a better subject for someone planning a 5 week long trip anyway…).  Using this expanded criteria I came up with three books to recommend, but they are older books and they may be tough to find new copies of.  Your local library may be your best bet if you want these books:

(NOTE – there may be some newer, better, and badder books available on the subject but I make a point of recommending only books that I have actually read…)

1. Moose Peterson’s Guide to Wildlife Photography: Conventional and Digital Techniques – Although it’s getting a little long in the tooth (it was published in 2003) the basic techniques presented haven’t changed in many years and this book is still very useful.  Unfortunately this book is very Nikon centric and some people find it difficult to get past that if they shoot a different brand of camera.  I can generally apply the same principles to any camera so it doesn’t really bother me.  Moose Peterson is widely considered to be the Dean of wildlife photography and his blog may be even more useful than this book.
2. The Art of Bird Photography: The Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques – Also published in 2003, and also somewhat dated, this book by Arthur Morris is the go-to book for anyone that wants to get into bird photography.  Again the principles can easily be applied to any other photographic subject and much of the information is timeless.  Artie (as he likes to be called) is widely considered to be the Dean of bird photography and he has a lot of information to share.  Although this book went out of print years ago, Morris recently aquired the publishing rights and reprinted it himself. It is now available from his online store at his Birds as Art website.  While you’re there consider checking out his blog and his email newsletter.  They both contain lots of extremely valuable information.
3. John Shaw’s Nature Photography Field Guide - Another oldie (from 2001), but it’s still a goodie.  This book has far less to do with wildlife photography and is much more about nature and landscape, but there is still good stuff.  And if you’re on a trip it’s not going to be all about animals anyway.  The major weakness here is the almost complete lack of information from the digital age.  It’s an easy read though and it has some really great stuff inside…

I’ve got a bonus pick for you that’s more about vision and creativity in photography than it is about any specific genre of photography, and it is definitely not a technical “how-to” kind of book.  It gets lumped into the Travel Photography category because that’s the author’s specialty, but it could easily be included in many other categories as well.

“Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision” by David duChemin

 I couldn’t include it in my original list because I haven’t finished reading it yet.  In fact I’ve only read the first couple of chapters, but it is shaping up to be an excellent read AND it’s getting more rave reviews from the photography community than pretty well any other book I’ve seen published.  This book is deifnitely worth checking out if you are planning a trip, or even if you want some help pushing your photography to the next level.

I finally got around to finishing “The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes” by Joe McNally and I wanted to share a few of my thoughts about it.

I’ve actually had this book for a long time now and I’ve been reading it gradually, one or two sections at a time. My life has been crazy busy and I simply didnt’ have enough time to sit down and read it straight through. But I wanted to (it’s that good)!

It’s not exactly a continuation of his first book, “The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world’s top shooters“, but it’s written in a very similar style. If you liked the first one you will definitely like this one as well.

The Moment it Clicks was more about the backstory behind each image while The Hot Shoe Diaries is about the thought process involved in creating each image. Where Moment present a single image on each two-page spread and included some descriptive text about the people involved or the location used, Hot Shoe is broken down into short chapters about different lighting techniques. Each technique is presented over 2-3 pages and usually uses 2-3 images showing how the scene looked before and after the lighting was completed. Sometimes there are a couple of different images from each shoot instead. For almost every technique McNally includes a lighting diagram (typically a rough sketch on a used napkin, see the Napkin Notebook) showing where each light and modifier were positioned relative to the subject and the photographer. This is essential information for anyone that really wants to understand how the image was created.

On the surface this book is a technical manual by a Nikon shooter using Nikon Speedlites. But it’s really so much more than that. It really is an attempt to show some of the thought processes required to make some of the iconic images that Joe has produced over the years. It’s about thinking through the requirements of the image rather than simply about the gear involved, and that makes it extremely powerful. Because thinking can be used over and over again no matter what gear is used.

The fact is that the Canon and Nikon lighting systems both have very similar capabilities. Some of the gear from the smaller manufacturers does too. As long as you can understand what techniques are involved, it really doesn’t matter what gear you have. It is a relatively trivial thing to translate “Speedlight with i-TTL and CLS” (Nikon) to “Speedlite and e-TTL” (Canon). And you can always use your old Vivitar flashes in manual mode to accomplish the same effect (maybe it won’t be quite so easy, but it works). You can head over to Lighting 101 by the Strobist to learn more about that.

Joe’s witty and slightly self-deprecating writing style is extremely easy to read (check out his blog if you don’t already read it), and he has this way of spinning some of the most amazing tidbits of life knowledge together into a web with his intended subject. It’s very easy to get lost in what you’re reading and to only truly coem to understand what you learned upon later reflection. Sometimes the best parts of this book aren’t even anything photographic; there are lots of life lessons and tidbits on how to work with people buried amongst Joe’s inner thoughts on how the world works.

I really loved The Moment it Clicks and I was very happy to discover that The Hot Shoe Diaries lived up to that promise. I highly recommend this book for anyone that wants to quickly make their photography better.