This is a book about how to communicate your heart's passion photographically. It gets you thinking about what you want to share graphically, with whom you want to share it and why. Next it introduces you to the visual language that will best help you communicate this message to the prospective viewers of your images. Only then does it discuss the techniques in areas such as lighting, exposure and composition that will refine your visual grammar and vocabulary. Though equipment is not a major focus of the book as such, there are helpful suggestions as to which features of certain lenses and cameras will help you achieve your aim. The attractive, and often times powerful, photographs that accompany the text are annotated with camera model and basic settings that serve to illustrate this (a kind of `visual spelling bee'). There is also a downloadable bonus chapter (pdf format) where the author briefly introduces the equipment he was using and explains the rationale behind choosing it in the light of his own photographic vision. But, as I mentioned, that really isn't the heart of the author's message.

Many photography books spend a lot of time focusing on equipment and technique, some of them do so very well. Only a handful successfully link these to the photographer's vision and purpose. David duChemin's first book is one of these and as such I wholeheartedly recommend it.

This book has been great and a very informative. One of the best i have read in a very very long time, if your looking for some good ideas and techniques, or even to improve upon where your at now, then get this book!

Unlike a lot of other photography books, this doesn't just tell you how to improve your technique, it gets at why we take photos in the first place.

I really liked the author's vision for how and why to interact with your subjects, bring humans into your photos and make the process and the results engaging.

If you are looking for in-depth technical information, don't read this book. But if you want to be inspired and to gain greater insight into what photography is really all about (how to 'see' and visualise a composition), you will not be disappointed. Never mind that the subject matter is rather esoteric and not likely to be the focus of most of us; the lessons are in those all-important areas BEFORE we press the shutter: not least the often sensitive issue of how best to handle the human element. The author works in a genre where photographic riches abound, but the core elements of his experience and advice are pertinent to us all - even old bird and landscape snappers like me.

This was the first book I've read by David DuChemin, and I must say that it won't be the last (I can't wait to read VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography!). His beautiful photographs accompany practical information about the spirit of photographic vision. He has many great pointers, ranging from how to capture a person's soul in a photograph to what to take on a photography-based trip. Although this book isn't highly technical (look elsewhere for basics on apertures and etc.), it has a conversational quality about topics in photography that are often harder to convey and contribute to what makes photography art. One can perceive through reading this book that the author is a humanitarian and decent human being as well as being a photographer. Even though it covers some basic topics, I feel that it could be helpful for anyone from novice to experienced photographers, and I would highly recommend this book to help tailor your photographic vision. I'm sure I will refer back to this book often as I progress in photography.