Guide sharpens photo expertise

LITTLE ROCK — National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography, Second Edition by Tim Fitzharris (Firefly Books, 2011), 192 pages, $24.95.

If what you’re looking for is inspiration, the latest incarnation of National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography is filled to bursting. Photographer Tim Fitzharris’ images are gorgeous, color saturated and calendar ready.

But the book is supposed to be a guide to shooting landscapes. And on this count it succeeds.

The smallish but hefty paperback is divided into five parts, each further split into relevant topics. This division makes it easy to find specific instruction and allows the reader to skip around.

Topics range from simple to complex. For example, in Part Two, Shooting Fundamentals, the two subdivided sections are “Exposure” and “Aperture and Shutter Speed.” Both are indeed fundamentals and are described so because they form the basis of photography. They especially form the foundation for high quality landscape photographs.

Part Four is split into 10 sections. Instructional topics range from shooting waterfalls to managing beautiful cloud photos.

All chapters and sections are jam packed with appropriate examples, and each is labeled with applicable technical data.

This is a book aimed at the serious amateur photographer, although an old pro could probably pick up some tips here and there.

This second edition adds 30 pages that take on the digital world, including Photoshop tips and trickier things like compositing images and expanding dynamic photo ranges.

Picking up the book would be worthwhile if all you did was look at the mass of incredible images, but the easy-to-digest instructions make it a valuable resource for people ready to step up their landscape photography game.