Pixiq

Creative Landscape Photography, a new eBook from Camera Labs, uses scenery that inspired Lords of the Rings to teach you how to get better landscape photos. Go virtually there through these 86 pages... and once done you'll be able to create your own landscape masterpieces on your home ground.

The birth of eBooks has opened photographers new opportunities that we're not viable in print days. The new Camera Labs eBook, Creative Landscape Photography, authored by Mike Langford and Jackie Ranken, is a paradigm of what can be achieved now that photographers would not be able to do before. Or had to battle a lot to get done. Most photography print books are, in terms of content, either generalist or covering a specific area, but few are made the same way this eBook: with specific situations explored, explained, the options revealed to you so you can apply them, either as they're presented or adjusted to your needs, to your own photography. It is very difficult to convince a regular editor - those making printed books - to do such a book. Something that does not follow the "rules" of making books is hardly accepted for fear that it will not sell. With eBooks, that have no costs of printing, it's easier to explore new paths, and that is what is happening now. I am glad it does because as an author I've experienced how troublesome it its to convince editors to do something out of the ordinary. With eBooks I can.

This way of presenting a book is not new, we've seen it more and more in the recent generation of photography eBooks. Instead of having generic info about a theme like landscape, photographers take you, through their images and explanations, to the places they know, sharing with you their knowledge through places they're familiar with. It's a very interesting way of putting things, from my point of view, even if the reader as no chance to travel halfway across the world to visit the places: sometimes through reading the eBook you'll almost think you're there. This, in part, is due to the way authors, some more than others, share their experience. And the lesson learned can be applied to your own landscapes, closer to home, after you've finished going through the eBook the first time. I write first time because I am sure you'll get back to it now and then, searching for inspiration or for just that bit of info you remember reading somewhere in one of the 30 "case-studies".

Before going ahead with some more info on the eBook let me present you the authors.

Mike Langford is a Canon EOS Master, a Master Photog. III and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography and a Fellow and Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography. He has been a photographer for 30 years and an International Awards judge for 20 years. He has been awarded Australian Geographic Photographer of the Year, Korean International Photographer of the Year, NSW AIPP Photographer of the Year, twice AIPP Landscape Photographer of the Year, AIPP Travel Photographer of the Year, and the NZIPP Photographer of the Year, NZIPP Corporate / Industrial Photographer of the Year and NZIPP Landscape Photographer of the Year. He is co-director of the Queenstown Centre for Creative Photography with his wife Jackie Ranken.

Jackie Ranken is a Canon EOS Master, a Master Photog. III of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography. She has been a professional Photographer for 30 years and an international awards judge for 10 years. She has been awarded AIPP Photographer of the Year, twice AIPP Landscape Photographer of the Year, runner up in the World Press awards for documentary Photography, NSW AIPP Photographer of the Year, the NZIPP Photographer of the Year, NZIPP Creative Photographer of the Year, NZIPP Illustrative Photographer of the Year and the NZIPP Landscape Photographer of the Year. She is co-director of the Queenstown Centre for Creative Photography with her husband Mike Langford.

I wanted to tell you the above so you understand you're in good company. I felt so reading through the eBook and I guess you'll feel the same once you get your copy and start to read it. And looking at the pictures, too.

In Creative Landscape Photography, Mike and Jackie use the stunning surroundings of Queenstown, New Zealand, to demonstrate both classic and contemporary approaches to capturing natural landscape images. But the eBook opens with a quick guide to familiarize yourself with the various shooting modes and settings on your camera before discussing the creative idea and translating it into the images you visualize. The focus throughout the book is achieving the desired effect entirely in-camera with little or no reliance on post-processing.

Next venture into some of the locations which inspired Lord of the Rings and Narnia's film makers, where Mike and Jackie reveal the ideas and inspiration behind 30 beautiful landscape photos and the technical settings to realize them. Each of these unique field stories all finish with their personal tips for different styles of landscape photography.

The eBook concludes with invaluable technical notes about composition, exposure and understanding histograms, depth-of-field, shooting and focusing modes, filters, in-camera processing and more. You'll also discover what equipment Mike and Jackie carry in their bags.

So, if you feel this is something that can take your photography further, buy this eBook. Creative Landscape Photography costs $9.97 USD, has 86 pages and is sold as a downloadable 33MB PDF which can be viewed on almost any computer, laptop or tablet, including the iPad.