Book ~ "100 Ways to Take Better Nature & Wildlife Photographs" (2009) Guy Edwardes

From Goodreads ~ This guide is suitable for all levels of photographers. "100 Ways to Take Better Nature and Wildlife Photographs" features 100 practical and inspiring tips on every aspect of the genre.Guy Edwardes' breath-taking pictures accompany his easy-to-follow advice on a wide range of subjects from capturing the actions of large mammals to snapping wild birds and flowers in the garden. 

 With tips on everything from technique to composition, coping with extreme field conditions to Photoshop software manipulation, this is an invaluable guide for anyone with a passion for photography of the natural world.

I have three cameras ... a Canon point-and-shoot that is usually in my purse, a Nikon D5100 DSLR along with some lenses, and a Nikon CoolPix (that's in between the two). Needless to say, I take a lot of pictures.  I'm still an amateur and like reading photography books to see what professionals take pictures of and how they do it.

The content of book includes:

• Nature and wildlife:  photography basics - keep a diary (to remember locations, conditions, angles, etc.), recording action and behaviour, legal issues, etc.
• Technical considerations - understanding the histogram, depth of field, lenses, etc.
• Fieldcraft - researching locations, setting up feeding stations, working from hides, etc.
• Composition - the best focal length, natural patterns, controlling the background, etc.
• Lighting - front, side, artificial, etc.
• Photographing birds and animals - in the nest, in flight, in your garden, etc.
• Photographing flora and fungi - with a telephoto lens, in wet weather, removing debris, etc.
• Close-ups in nature - using a macros lens, shooting abstracts, capturing a sharp image, etc.
• Photographing the seasons - autumn colour, cold climates, hot dry climates, etc.
• Digital cameras and post-production  - RAW vs jpeg, finetuning, etc.

For every one of the 100 tips, there is an intro about it, a picture, a description of how the picture was set-up, where the picture was taken and the specs of the picture (the type of camera, aperture, shutter speed, tripod/beanbag, etc.), which I found helpful.  Here is a sample of one of the tips:

The pictures are inspiring ... the author obviously knows what he is doing and enjoys doing it.

I enjoyed this book ... though there is a lot of information, I found that I understand most of it.