I'm a big fan of books- I frequent the library and have large piles of books around at all times. Mostly, I go to the library and check things out, sometimes a book is stellar enough that I'm going to buy it and recommend it to other people.

I read books about photography, videography, and multitudes of books on editing. I also tend to read books that are well under my current level of expertise, as sometimes they remind me of things I've forgotten or I learn something completely new. This book by David Pogue, is so good I'm going to recommend it to everyone that's just starting out as a photographer (or even to my pro friends!).

At WordCamp, I met Brian Meagher, and while I was wandering around in the lobby, he showed me his cute new point and shoot camera. It was one of the ones with more buttons/settings than most people would buy, so, it offered Brian more options than he knew what to do with. This is normal.... the first thing someone does when they pick up a new camera is say, "How do all these buttons work? What does that mean?!"

Enter David Pogue.

I am a big fan of David Pogue. He is a columnist for the New York Times, and he's written The Missing Manual series of books, two of which I already own. He talks in normal English, points out stuff you'd never think of, and provides plenty of examples.

The book is written in four parts (five, if you count the appendix), and each part is broken down into chapters.

Part 1 is "The Camera." Pogue breaks down the types of cameras out there, calling them "small, medium, and large." Small are the dinky little cameras with no buttons, large are cameras like mine, described as "they scream "I'm a tourist" when they're hanging around your neck." Right there in Chapter Two, Pogue explains why one camera is better than the other: the sensor. He also explained how that same dumb sensor is what is making all the neato little colored speckles on your low-light photographs. I found that information to be really useful... and the part about how megapixels are a big fat lie? I laughed. Pogue is a genius.

Within Part 2: "The Shoot" he explains what the infamous "rule of thirds" is... but says it should really be called "The Rule Guideline of Thirds," and how sticking your subject smack in the middle of the frame is going to make you look like an amateur.

Chapter 6 was extremely interesting to me. It's called "How They Did That." Well, THAT'S useful! It has an example of the specialty shots you've seen: the frozen sports shot, the speeding vehicle, the star-trails shot, and more- and then he tells you the effect you need to do it, as well as pointing out that most cameras with enough option buttons (like the camera Brian has!) could do them. Many of them, unfortunately, need an SLR. To translate, an SLR is one of those big baddie cameras the pros use, like a Canon 20d and up (or even a Rebel), or a Nikon whatever (I don't know Nikon).... basically, a camera with a real mirror inside.

Part 3: "The Lab" I didn't find as useful, because I don't use Picasa (a PC program) nor iPhoto for my editing needs. Pogue didn't plug himself, but, he wrote a Missing Manual book on iPhoto too! Part 4: "The Audience" and Part 5: "Appendixes" (with lots of websites) I didn't really investigate other than skimming.

I highly, highly recommend this book. Pogue explains aperture in a way that actually makes sense, talks like a normal person, doesn't try to sell you stuff, and generally makes you crave to read more about something you finally understand. If you don't buy it (the photo links to Amazon), check it out from the library.

Happy snapping.