P3D Re: Book recommendation for basic photography

[Brian Reynolds <reynolds@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dana Nibby wrote:
>
> I'm looking for book recommendations; need to acquaint myself with basic 
> photography concepts and skills. Thanks!
> 

I've managed to collect a stack of basic photography books over the
years.  First a bit of advice, most of these books are the same.  The
author's names change, and the example pictures are different, but
they are all saying the same thing.  There is no need to buy more than
one basic photography book.  I keep hoping to find a book with
something new/different, but it doesn't seem likely to happen.

I just finished Kodak's "The Joy of Photography".  This is a classic
and is probably one of the best basic books out there.  It starts off
with photographic concepts (composition, styles of photography, etc.)
and then goes into equipment.  Just about all the other books out
there concentrate on equipment.  Like just about all the books
currently out it focuses on modern auto-everything cameras.

"The New 35mm Photographer's Handbook" by Jullian Calder and John
Garrett is pretty typical of most of the basic books available.  It
concentrates on equipment and has short (a few pages) sections on
various styles (architecture, landscape, portrait) of photography.
John Hedgecoe and Peter Gowland have similar books.  They also have
books that concentrate on a specific style.

If you have an older manual camera Hove Photo Books (they may have
changed names to the Magic Lantern series when they changed importers
recently) has a series of user's guides for "Modern Classics".  I have
the "User's Guide to the Pentax K1000/P3n" and the Pentax Modern
Classics book (it covers everything after the screwmount cameras) and
they are both good books.

-- 
Brian Reynolds                  | "Humans explore the Universe with five
reynolds@xxxxxxxxx              |   senses and call the adventure science."
http://www.panix.com/~reynolds/ | - Edwin P. Hubble


------------------------------