Best Beginner Book is Back

Have a friend or relative who loves to snap pictures but hasn't gotten very good at it yet, or who's just starting out? Here's the book for them.

We recommended Nick Kelsh's How To Photograph Your Life (based on a tip from reader Adam McAnaney) back when the 2003 title was on life support—it was available only on "Amazon Marketplace" (i.e., used) and looked like it was on its way out of print. Happily, it seems to have found a new lease on life. It's available again.

Nick's approach is simple and very accessible: he takes a series of ordinary family picture situations, shows what an average "bad snapshot" would look like (we'll all recognize these), then gives some basic principles for how to do it better (in plain, simple, easy-to-follow language). Then he shows his result. In every case it's obvious what he did and how it helped—there's no question his "after" pictures are much stronger and more pleasing.

Putting his basic principles into practice would help any snapshooter or rank beginner get better in a hurry. Nothing bad about that. We all have to start somewhere.

___________________

Mike (Thanks again to Adam)

Comments

[Dennis]

I agree - this book and "How to Photography Your Baby" are great how-to books for the average "person with a camera" who doesn't want to learn photography in order to take good pictures.

[Thiago Silva]

Also, for a more theoretical, less "recipe book" approach, no book is better than "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. If your beginner friend just got an SLR, this is the book to get him.