Hi LCC members,
You may be frustrated with learning how your camera works and setting the Aperture (AV), Shutter Speed (TV) or ISO and not sure what they do to an image. These were discused in previous posts here are the links in case you missed it.
Shutter Speed
Aperture
ISO
And the Holy Grail of Photography the Exposure Triangle
Here is a good ebook by Anderw S Gibson Mastering Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Using Digital Cameras covers the basics of using your camera. I have read myself, it is easy to understand without double speak and complicated terms.
Ok, your beyond the basics and have mastered your camera settings but your feeling like the well of creativity has run dry. I to get into a place where inspiration has gone on holiday. The best cure for that is to find some photography books with new techniques or simply have material your interested in learning.
Here are a few e-books I have recently discovered and recommend for expanding your photographic vision.
The Visual Imagination by David duChemin
Book Description
Ideas and Techniques for Creative Photographic Expression
Let your camera and your creativity out of the box! Our cameras do amazing things, but since the beginnings of this craft, we’ve leaned heavily towards illustrative and literal interpretations of the world around us. Freed from the need to be so literal, we can create photographs that are beautifully expressive.
The Visual Imagination, Ideas & Techniques for Creative Photographic Expression is about that expression. Whether you want to make abstract or impressionist photographs or just need a bit of a break, this eBook has been written to help you explore the possibilities of the camera when we allow ourselves to slip out from under the thumb of the rules and the constraining ideals of so-called technical perfection. It wasn’t that long ago that painters freed themselves from a similar constraint and gave us the gift of Impressionism and the subsequent movements.
DRAWING THE EYE by David duChemin
Creating Stronger Images Through Visual Mass
E-Book Description
Drawing The Eye is about understanding and using the ways in which the eye reads a photograph in order to create more powerful images, and it’ll change the way you look at your craft. Broken into 4 parts, Drawing The Eye looks at this concept of visual mass, or visual pull, in Concept, in Camera, in Post-processing, and then through Creative Exercises related to each of these sections.
Don’t let the egghead title fool you, this is not academia; it’s a real-world discussion about making images that are more powerful because they’re made with a fuller understanding of where the eye moves in an image, and how that understanding can change the way you shoot and process your images.
BOKEH: CREATING WITH SHALLOW DEPTHS EBOOK BY CHRISTOPHER O’DONNELL
E-Book Description
Bokeh: Creating with Shallow Depths is an eBook written to inspire photographers to think beyond the confines of a deep depth of field. It’s focused on guiding landscape photographers of all levels to widen their aperture and see the environment as light and shapes, and to create abstract, ethereal images that have a deeper meaning and interpretation.
By using a shallow depth of field and thin slices of focus, you can completely transform a landscape, manipulating an environment that usually can not be changed or controlled. You can create a complex or simple photograph by changing your depth, and this extensive guide can show you how.
These are just a few to get you started there are many, many more e-books out there and the prices range from $5 and up. Some e-book authors even include video tutorials in the e-books which are an added bonus.
-Steve
P.S.
Here are a couple images I shot yesterday using a 40mm prime lens set at f2.8, practicing the techniques that are discussed in:
BOKEH: CREATING WITH SHALLOW DEPTHS EBOOK BY CHRISTOPHER O’DONNELL
Lighthouse Camera Club 
