Hello, I'm a fairly new knitter (or snake keeper) and want to improve my skills. Are there any books that you would recommend for me to read?
within just a few days, you would have dozens of responses recommending scores of books. I posted the above question on a photography forum, and in the last 2 1/2 months, I've received one, yes one, count em one book recommendation--and it took a month before someone posted that! I promptly went to Amazon.com and bought the book she recommended, and have not regretted it one moment!
The book was Understand Exposure by Bryan Peterson. This is an excellent book for anyone wanting to improve his photography skills. The information provided is invaluable, and Mr. Peterson's writing style is very easy to read. He does give some technical information, but does it in a way that the hobby photographer can understand. He writes as if he were standing beside you giving you tips and advice. He also includes exercises, so that you can put into practice what you have just learned.
The book is generously illustrated with examples of some of the photographer's own best work, and he describes each photograph, not just with the aperture and shutter speed settings, but also tells the reader what his thought processes were and what he was trying to achieve by taking the photo.
I've mentioned before how I hate doing all the fiddly stuff you have to do on the computer once you've taken your photos. How it comes out of the camera is how you get it. I think I found a kindred spirit in Mr. Peterson. Towards the end of the introduction, he says
Whether you shoot film or digital, we can all agree on one thing: there's always photo-imaging software to help us out when we blow it, right? Yes, but please make it your goal to use photo-imaging software only as your last resort! Do you really enjoy spending all of your leisure time at the computer correcting bad exposures? Learning how to make the correct exposure in-camera will save you lots of time, and who couldn't use more time?
Now, that is a man after my own heart.
