Travel Photography, Perfect Photos Every Time by David Schloss.

Travel Photography is a great new book for anyone and everyone who plans on making a major photo trip to any out of the normal places. It covers everything you need to know to plan a major photo trip to just about anywhere in the world. Starting with choosing the right rear to take along and what to leave behind, to how to pack it all, on to how to research and plan for each location, and includes all of the important info that travel guides all know, but most others do not. Proper research cannot only save you money, and time, but could even keep you out of jail in many countries. This book tells you what to look for and where to find it, such as safe areas to see, and the laws you will need to know when there. Since it is directed towards digital photographers, it also tells you what you need to consider for that when in foreign countries.

This soft cover book is about 6x9 inches, with 215 pages, retails for US-$24.99 – and is distributed by Peach Pit Press at www.peachpit.com    I Rate it:  A+

The Art of Outdoor Photography by Boyd Norton

This book is a great collection of techniques for advanced amateur and pro photographers. I wish the image that is on the title page would be on the cover so you could see here just how excellent the images are in this book. I am used to seeing better than average photography, but this book contains many images even better than that, and the rest of the book shows you how you too can make them. Unlike most photo how-to books that have more images than useful information, this one is just the opposite. Most pages are full of just information so get ready to learn a lot! There are also chapters that cover how to use your work after you have captured those great new images of your own.

This soft cover book is about 8x11 inches, with 192 pages, retails for US-$29.95 - and is published by Voyageur Press at www.voyageurpress.com    I Rate it:  A

Digital Photography Expert – Close-up Photography by Michael Freeman

This is a great new book for using a digital camera to do close-up work. This book covers just about every close-up subject you could think of, and does it with a ton of sample images to refer to. The illustrations also cover all kinds of lighting, props, and background set-ups to get the best shots, and about the only thing that isn’t captioned is the page numbers. This book is going on top of my pile, and will be used to get tons of photo ideas.

This soft cover book is about 8x9 inches, with 160 pages, retails for US-$27.95 – and is published by Lark Books and distributed by www.sterlingpub.com    I Rate it:  A++

Fine Art Nature Photography, Advanced Techniques and the Creative Process by Tony Sweet

This is a simple little picture book with many outstanding images of the natural world. It is a nice change from all of the “how-to everything” books that are being published as this one is more of a “How-I-did-it” book. It has one photo on the right page, and on the left page the camera tech info, and a nice paragraph of the location and shooting conditions of that shot. Even with this smaller than usual amount of information, you will still learn a lot that you can use in the field for your own work. Well worth every penny it costs!

This soft cover book is about 9x9 inches, with 108 pages, retails for US-$19.95 – and is published by StackPole Books at www.stackpolebooks.com    I Rate it:  A+

These are some of the best (almost pocket size) guide books you will find anywhere. The three here, People & Portraits, Travel, and Birds, are just part of a set of these guide books that are some of the best reference books you can get, and a great size to take along on all of your photo trips. Many of the chapter start out with a profile of one of the NG pros included, such as Jim Brandenburg, Jodi Cobb, and Sam Abell who have been regular NG photographers for years.

People & Portraits by Robert Caputo is a must-have book if you want to learn how the NG pros create the super people images they do, so you can do the same.

Travel by Robert Caputo is a great book for getting the same results as the people book above, but with travel images as your main subject.

Birds by Rulon E. Simmons is another great book for how NG photographers get the shots they do. The info is easy to understand and shows you just how you too can get the same results. These books are all richly illustrated and captioned, and full of beautiful images and the how-to info for each.

Each book is about 5x8.5 inches, with 160 pages, and they each retail for $21.95. If your camera store does not have the copy you want you can order them from the NG web site at www.nationalgeographic.com    I Rate all three:  A++

Capturing The NIGHT With Your Camera by John Carucci

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. 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.

This soft cover book is about 8x11 inches, with 144 pages, retails for US-$22.50 – and is published by AMPHOTO BOOKS at www.watsonguptill.com    I Rate it:  A

How To Photograph the Outdoors in Black & White by George Schaub

Here is a nice change from all of the usual “color everything” books that fill the bookshelves. It covers everything about making great images, but this time all for black & white. Although it is not in the title, this book is about landscape photography by the man who is also the editor of Shutterbug Magazine. It is also about the “old fashion” form of photography, meaning film and darkroom. Digital is nice but there is nothing like a great B&W print done by hand, and you will certainly see why in this great little book that will help you make your own.

This soft cover book is about 7x9 inches, with 122 pages, retails for US-$19.95 – and is published by StackPole Books at www.stackpolebooks.com    I Rate it:  A

Photoshop for Nature Photographers - A Workshop in a Book by Ellen Anon & Tim Grey

This is a new power packed book that covers EVERYTHING you need to know to capture and output the best nature images possible. It is written just for nature photographers, so everything in it is geared towards that end, and by everything I mean EVERYTHING. I don’t think there is a topic that deals with nature that this book does not cover. As a bonus it also comes with a CD of sample images that you can practice all of the richly illustrated, step-by-step lessons in the book. This one book is worth three of most other how-to books.

This soft cover book is about 8x10 inches, with 314 pages, retails for US-$49.99 - and is published by Sybex, an imprint of Wiley at www.sybex.com    I Rate it:  A++

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