There are millions of photography books out there, and I often get asked if I recommend any books in particular for learning, study or inspiration. Personally I have really enjoyed the books that I have listed below, I think the most important book for an aspiring photographer is my top choice, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. The others are excellent too, so buy them all at the same time and read them all back to back, you’ll instantly be in a better position next time you are out with the camera practicing some of the ideas that these books will teach you.

Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera – Bryan Peterson
This is just a fundamental book that every photographer, no matter what level should read – really helps get a real world example of how to think about exposure and using different exposures makes such a a difference to your photographs, and how it changes your way of thinking. See more >

The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos – Michael Freeman
This book I really loved, it is more of a book to teach you how to think and be creative, rather than another book on technique, and is a book I really didn’t want to come to an end. Really inspiring and gets you to think about the photograph – and not about the camera. Covering age old creative vision ideas – to really try and get you in the zone. Can’t recommend this book enough, it really should be on the top reading list of all photographers, no matter what the level.See More >

Basics Photography: Lighting by David Prakel
If you have an interest in how to use external flash or lighting systems to improve your photographs, then this is the book for you. Documenting differing ways of approaching lighting a subject, tailored to each level of photographic knowledge – I think most people will get good use out of this great photography book. See more >

Black and White: The Definitive Guide for Serious Digital Photographers (Digital Photography Expert) – Michael Freeman
This book really does help you understand what is going on with a black and white photo, whether you are new to the process of converting colour to monochrome, or you are just looking for a book that will help perfect the final touches to your black and white images. I found this book really helpful, it’s well written and not out of reach for beginners. See More >

Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity Editorial Photography – Michael Grecco This book I quite enjoyed, somewhat over the top in places, but definitely one more for inspiration rather than technique, but still a great book I would recommend. Talking mostly about using external flashes and extra light to help your photography ‘pop’, I found it to be useful and well worth a read. I have referred back to this book a number of times, so it’s not just going to sit on the shelf and gather dust.
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Our awesome underwater wedding save the date cards – they came out way better than we expected! Thanks to my lady Siobhan for all her hard work hand making every single one. We hired a swimming pool for a couple of hours which was fortunately quite close to where we live, and borrowed the underwater help of Siobhan’s brother and his underwater camera kit. We used a Canon G10 and a underwater strobe for these pics, I dialled in the settings on the camera to how I wanted it to work, and handed the camera to Gords who took the shots until we got something we liked. We made Siobhan a ‘dress’ by using a 4 metre length of white satin, clipped together with pins and the help of our friend Louise, who helped Siobhan not drown in a mass of heavy satin. I went out and bought some cheap black trousers, shirt and tie – an odd feeling being in a pool fully dressed with a tie. I then processed the images in Lightroom, and got them printed by moo.com, and then Siobhan then blended brown ink onto the back of each and every one, until we got the desired effect. I think they turned out brilliantly, thanks Vaughn.

Three photographs of the view of the town of Lindos, situated on the South West coast of Rhodes island in Greece, taken a couple of weeks ago when we were at a excellent wedding in Lindos main town.

We had the opportunity to test out a new scuba diving rebreather courtesy of Poseidon UK and my local scuba diving centre in Norwich, Norfolk. This Poseidon Diving Systems MkVI Discovery rebreather is the first truly recreational closed circuit rebreathers, perfect for the professional underwater scuba diving photographer.

Without boring you with the details they allow you to spend a lot longer underwater, and you expel no bubbles whatsoever, thus giving you a massive advantage by allowing you to get much closer to the underwater world that you would normally get with a standard scuba diving setup. This was my first time on a closed circuit system like this, and it was pretty enjoyable – I can definitely see the advantages to this kind of system for underwater photography. I only tried this new Poseidon MkVI Discovery rebreather in a swimming pool – so apart from a few rogue plasters there was little life to be scared away… not an adequate test.. but maybe next time I’ll be using it properly.

It was an interesting feeling breathing through a rebreather, once I got my buoyancy sorted it was incredibly easy to use (within reason – it is a piece of mega tech!)
Getting my head around the fact the air is just going round and round and being injected and mixed, cleaned and pumped to make it fresh again was a weird feeling! They retail around £5000, with around £20 per scrubber replacement every 3hrs.. a mere snip! Found some cool scuba diving t shirts whilst looking for scuba kit though…

Loving this tattered old scooter moped thing (what’s the proper name?!) – well loved and used every day, sitting in the baking sunshine on the streets of the island of Rhodes, Greece. Taken on the 5Dmk2 with the 16-35mmL 2.8 Canon lens, still loving this lens – and have pretty much kept it on my camera since I bought it months and months ago…

I don’t know why, I just quite like the texture, colour and contrast in this photograph. This was taken in a side street in Lindos, Rhodes Island, Greece a couple of weeks ago.

Walking around the pretty whitewashed streets of Lindos both in the early morning and late evening when the sun was at it’s coolest and before the tourists got in the way. The fourth image down is my favourite in this selection, the contrast between the two sides and textures makes for an interesting image.

A beautiful view from the top of the Acropolis in Lindos, Rhodes. We got up there just after sunrise – the sea was incredibly flat and peaceful, and no tourists around at all. Wonderful.

Walked past these guys in the streets of Lindos, Rhodes a couple of weeks ago. They had come to a stand off, as the man in the disability scooter had his wheel caught on a step, and the guy in the car was refusing to reverse far enough. They were there long enough to attract a couple of ‘hands on hip’ staring men in the background.

In the pretty town of Lindos, on the South coast of Rhodes sits the little chapel at St Paul’s Bay, where we attended a great wedding a couple of weeks ago. Out for a stroll in the evening to take a few photographs of the bay, having been sheltering from the heat for most of the day – well, since laying in the sun a few hours earlier… The wedding went really well and was very enjoyable to be there, a pretty place to have your wedding. Thanks Kerry & Chris!

I’ll hopefully be putting some of my other images of Rhodes up in the next few days, I have a few more photographs I would like to add on my blog assuming I remember. It was a great 10 day little escape from the grey skies here in England, and miss the glorious Rhodes sunshine already!