Nature and Landscape Photography, by Martin Borg, O'Reilly Media

This post is not at all about a problem in SQLServer or compiling issues but a book review. Why ? Because is all about enjoyment. In “Nature and Landscape Photography” Martin Borg is presenting a very nice collection of tips for better photography in the outdoors.
Out of many photography books, I was attracted by this one because is written by a Swedish photographer. As nature photography is one of my hobbies, and considering I leave in Stockholm, I was expecting subjects, magical hours and type of landscape to be similar to what I encounter here around Stockholm, and I was not disappointed. This is an easy lecture of 71 short tips from Martin Borg, illustrated with his own pictures. A nice feature is the editor’s insertion of details about each photography. A beginner to intermediate amateur can really benefit from this tips. Many of them are indeed not new, but some are very interesting.
I would’ve probably preferred to have more technical details and more of compositional hints, as well as a little bit of the way the photographer reached to that composition or developed the idea that led to the image. But this is not a manual of photography, is just a collection of tips.
With this book Martin Borg manages to make you wish to go out in the nature and practice the tips (which I did, taking advantage of the nice autumn weather that we had during the first week-end after reading the book). Don’t be scared if you don’t own a Hasselblad camera like the author does, with a decent SLR and a stable tripod you can still reach good results.
For me, the book was useful for a couple of ideas that I probably read before but I was neglecting, some new hints (like breathing on lens, playing with fantasy vs. reality, revealing nature’s strength), as well as for triggering my interest for using neutral density filters.
All in one, the book is a useful and enjoyable reading. I already recommended it to a friend who’s starting with photography.