Hydrangea

I took some photos of the hydrangea in my back yard last fall, and I’ve just rediscovered them.  I mean, I took them and didn’t think much of them then, but I took another look and decided to try out some editing techniques on them to see what I could come up with.  I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going for, something a little vintage-looking, I think.  I came across this I ♥ Faces Tutorial: In The Fairy Garden by Michelle Johnson and was inspired to try something similar.  I didn’t exactly follow the tutorial (although I plan to at some point), but I think the idea is pretty much the same. 

Hydrangea

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Hydrangea

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My Favorite Photography Books

These are the photography books on my bookshelf, and they’re pretty appropriate for someone like myself, I think.  I can’t say enough good things about the photography books that are available right now.  All I know is that I’ve learned so much from these books, and I find myself reading some of these over and over again!

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David Busch’s NIKON D60 Guilde to Digital SLR Photography by David Busch

Whatever camera you have, if someone like David Busch wrote a book about it, buy it!  The little black and white pamphlets that come with your camera are universally worthless.  I’ve unlocked many wonderful features, most of the time, very simple things, with this book.  For instance, I found an extremely useful list of tips from Amy Wenzel’s blog on toggling focus points when shooting.  This book showed my how to do it with my camera.  I just couldn’t figure it out on my own!  If you’re gonna spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a camera, $20-30 for a really good manual is a no-brainer.

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The Digital Photography Book (and Volume 2) by Scott Kelby

There are three volumes in this series, but I only have the first two.  The reason I like these books is that they’re full of really great tips, and they’re all short, simple, and straight to the point.  Plus, he’s got a sense of humor!

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The Photoshop Elements 7 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski

I wish I knew everything in this book.  Seriously, I use Photoshop Elements 7, and I’m always amazed at what I don’t know about it.  I really should go through this book page by page and try everything step by step, but I can’t help but flip through the pages just to see what’s next!  I feel like my editing and post-processing gets better and better because of resources like this.

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The Art of Children’s Portrait Photography by Tamara Lackey

Okay, I bought this book because of the beautiful child on the cover.  I think Tamara’s portrait photography is absolutely gorgeous.  This book gives some great tips on working with children, and it also gives some direction for those interested in pursuing a career in children’s portrait photography.  I read the entire book the day I got it in the mail, and I recently read it again. 

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Photographing Children Photo Workshop by Ginny Felch and Allison Tyler Jones

This book is full of beautiful photographs, technical details, and anything and everything you could possibly want to know about taking photographs of kids.  I can’t think of anything this book is missing, really.  Each chapter ends with an assignment, which gives some great ideas on how to put the techniques to good use.

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My Little Library