Slow a new ebook from Craft and Vision

We really like the Craft and Vision ebooks, incredibly cheap £3.25 ($5), for such useful and inspiring books, beautifully illustrated and absolutely hit the marks for people who are photographers, those interested in photography rather than just those who happen to own a camera. If you like taking pictures then all of the Craft & Vision books would add to your skill and vision.

Looking to explore the creative possibilities behind the slow end of the shutter dial? Looking for some new ideas, or want a primer on intentional camera motion, panning, long exposure techniques, and the equipment to help you make it happen? SLOW is an excellent place to begin.

Andrew S. Gibson’s SLOW is 64 spreads of teaching and inspiration on the techniques and aesthetics of using a slow shutter to create expressive images skillfully captured through exposure and movement. To complement his own work, Andrew also includes two case studies from photographers Doug Chinnery and Joel Tjintjelaar, which help to provide tangible insights on the subject of long-exposure photographyGet further details on this new book here

Other books in the series include these titles

This is an inspiring and beautiful eBook that teaches just about everything David’s learned about landscape photography while chasing the light across seven continents. As a landscape eBook for all levels, photographers will find the education and inspiration to make beautiful photographs of their own, no matter what adventure awaits them.

This massive eBook boasts 65 spreads (130 pages if you’re still counting the old way,) is broken down into sections on Gear, Composition, Light, Land, Water, Snow, and Detail Shots, and is accompanied by large, beautiful photographs, all with complete EXIF data, many of them previously unseen, from travels on all seven continents. There’s also Behind the Shot sections that discuss topics like exposure blending, maximizing sharpness, using ND and polarizer filters, and shooting in weather, like fog. Whether you’re new to landscape photography or looking to hone your craft this eBook will be a valuable and inexpensive addition to your library.

Portraits of Earth An Introduction to Landscape Photography David duChemin

Your camera phone is always with you, and whether you’re an amateur or vocational photographer, it only makes sense to know how to use it to your advantage. eyePhone: Making Stronger Photographs with your Camera Phone is a stunning 45-page PDF eBook, full of inspired insights, invaluable tips, creative considerations, and must-have resources to help you take your photography, and creative life, to the next level.

Whether you shoot and process hundred of images each month or you just take the casual snapshot, you’ll discover exciting ideas and concepts that are sure to turn your camera phone image gallery into a portfolio you’re proud of. This is a game-changer for photographers. It’s photography that fits in your pocket and the avid photographer will benefit from knowing how to wield its potential.

“Thanks to Al Smith I learned more about the camera on my iPhone in 10-minutes than I had in two years. My iPhone has made me a better photographer.” – David duChemin

eyePhone Making Stronger Photographs with your Camera Phone Al Smith

There are more than 30 excellent ebooks in this series and discounts available for multiple purchases might be the best £3.25 you ever spent on your photography, see the full series of ebooks here

Craft & Vision Quarterly Magazine

We, here over at OSP Towers, are great fans of the Craft and Vision series of ebooks so we are really excited about this new magazine (ezine?) In all the courses we teach we say that understanding your camera gear is key but as important is understanding how to see and we feel the Craft & Vision series is a great asset in this area.

Today we’re thrilled to announce PHOTOGRAPH, a digital quarterly magazine for creative photographers. We’ve been working hard for several months to create something exceptional: a gorgeous, ad-free, magazine full of great photographs from exceptional photographers, and articles from photographers and authors like Chris Orwig, John Paul Caponigro, Martin Bailey, and Piet Van den Eynde, photographers who understand that this is not only a technical pursuit but an artistic one and write as much from the heart as they do from their expertise. We’ve got columns about printing, composition, post-processing, inspiration, editing, and yes, even gear.
You can purchase Issue One of PHOTOGRAPH for USD $8 by clicking any image above, or by visiting Craft & Vision. As with everything we offer we aim to knock the content out of the ballpark and do so at exceptional value. So we’re offering a one-year subscription for $USD 24 – that’s four issues for the price of three. And because we’d rather you have a chance to do this risk free, you can buy Issue One for $8 and, for a limited time, buy the rest of the subscription ($16) once you’ve had a chance to read Issue One. We’ll send a short email to everyone who purchases Issue One, and you’ll have until the end of November 2012 to opt-in to the rest of the one-year subscription.

I really believe the best way to learn photography is to study exceptional photographs, and to listen to voices that not only know the craft, but practice the art of photography. I hope PHOTOGRAPH inspires you the way it has already inspired us.

If you would like to hear more about this magazine or sign up go here

Craft & Vision ebooks

You know I always say in class that if you don’t like your pictures don’t blame your camera. I meet so many people who would love to make better pictures and their route to doing so is to buy ever more expensive equipment. Don’t misunderstand me, I recognise that good equipment is important but one of my favourite photographers, Jane Buekett,  still only uses her Pentax K1000, that is not the digital Pentax, that is the the film one that is at least 30 years old. Actually that is not exactly true, the bit about Jane ‘only’ using her ancient film camera, I recently converted her to a bit of digital and now she carries a Canon G10 too. This is all beside the point, which is that on our courses we stress that the route to better photography is not through spending more money on cameras or lenses but by learning how to use them properly and how to improve your ‘eye’, your vision, your craft.

I have purchased many of the Craft & Vision ebooks because for me other peoples’ version of the things I do is valuable, another viewpoint, a different way of expressing is uplifting and re-affirming. It is for this reason I recommend you read Tom Dinnings Blog. One of the great things about the internet is the ability to engage with others who you may never meet but who share your version of being creative, your vision. That doesn’t mean they take the same pictures as you or that it is a mutual back slapping club but that you share attitudes and thought processes about how you make pictures. In class last night on our Intermediate Photography course a student, Sarah, explained that in German the term is distinctly to ‘make a photograph’ rather than the ‘take’ that we consider here in England. I definitely prefer the idea of making a photograph. What do you say wherever you are in the world, I would be very interested to hear, and does it infer a difference of approach?

Another photographer whose attitudes I concur with is the man behind Craft & Vision, David du Chemin, his work is completely different to mine, how I would enjoy his life for a short while, traveling almost continuously making images with the intention of making a difference. Go and have a look at his site, sign up to his blog.

So the Craft and Vision ebooks. As I said I have purchased a number, they cost almost nothing, are beautifully produced and interesting and informative.

Here is a link to their pages, go and have a look, save money on equipment, make better pictures