Craft and Vision

Sometimes it is the little surprises in life that make for a joyful day.

Yesterday morning I opened my email and found an offer from Craft and Vision - 50% off (almost) everything!  If you are not familiar with Craft and Vision, it is an online source of stunning photography ebooks at incredibly affordable prices (typically $5.00 per PDF).  David DuChemin is the founder and author of several of the available ebooks, as well as conventional books such as Within the Frame:  The Journey of Photographic Vision and Photographically Speaking:  A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images.  I felt as though Christmas had arrived a few months early, and I immediately went online to create my wish list.

I have downloaded a couple of these ebooks in the past and find the process to be user-friendly and quite efficient.  Typically I save the PDF on my computer, as well as upload it into my Dropbox account.  This allows me to read the book on my other electronic devices using reader apps such as iBooks, Kindle, or Nook.  Each ebook is clearly written with plenty of photographs to illustrate the lesson. The image resolution on the iPad is vivid and quite helpful for a visual learner like myself.

While I have not quite adopted electronic devices as a substitute for reading novels, I think it is the perfect delivery system for reading photography books.  I like the fact that I have an entire library at my fingertips which could be read and savored slowly or which could be skimmed quickly simply by looking at the pictures.

For a twenty dollar bill I downloaded several ebooks that I plan to read in the car this weekend as we drive nine hours to Nashville.   Hopefully when I return I will be inspired to practice photography once again.

For those who might be interested, here is the list of books I chose to buy:

• Sharp Shooter:  Proven Techniques for Sharper Photographs (36 pages)
• Up Close:  A Guide to Macro and Up Close Photography (88 spreads)
• Eye Phone:  Making Stronger Photographs with your Camera Phone (45 pages)
• Forget Mugshots:  10 Steps to Better Portraits (35 spreads)
• Close to Home:  Finding Great Photographs in Your Own Backyard (37 spreads)
• Ten More:  10 More Ways to Improve Your Craft (I already owned Ten)
• Vision is Better:  Free the Mind. Free the Camera (3 ebook series -- over 300 pages)