Beyond Thirds

In the interest of full disclosure, I do make a small commission if you purchase your eBooks using the link on the bottom of this page. If you do chose to purchase this eBook, or any other from Craft & Vision, I would appreciate it if you enter the site using this link; doing so will keep reviews like this one coming to my blog.

No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I always am extremely excited to receive an email from Craft & Vision. Seeing those words in my inbox usually means one thing: A new eBook. Like most of people in the photo business, I live an extremely busy life. I get through as many regular books as I can, but it takes me quite a while. This is one of the reasons I love Craft & Vision: I can throw one of their eBooks on my iPad and get through it in a week in my free time. With those hours I spend in the eBook, I improve my technique immensely. I improve my knowledge. And, as is often most important for me: I’m creatively inspired.

Today I am very happy to announce the latest Craft & Vision eBook: “Beyond Thirds”. This eBook comes to us from photographer and author Andrew S. Gibson. Andrew also wrote “The Evocative Image”, one of my favorites from the Craft & Vision collection.
“Beyond Thirds” is a beautiful book. I’m a big fan of Andrew’s photos, and there are quite a few great ones here. Although this eBook is not as long as the last release from Craft & Vision, there is still way more than $5 worth of content here. Composition is very important in photography; I took a university course focused almost entirely just on this subject. That being said, it’s amazing how well composition is covered here. I’m not going to claim reading this is better than taking a university course, but the value for your dollar sure is.

Composition is key in photography; right up there with lighting in my opinion. If you are are the type of photographer, amateur or pro, who likes to get out and take pictures in the real world unaided by studio lighting then composition is extremely important. Composition is also very important in studio, but there you have other elements at play which can define your photograph. No matter what kind of photographer you are, composition often will be the make or break aspect of your work.

Andrew starts this book by talking about the rule of thirds, and he gives the best definition I’ve ever heard. There’s a clear definition and an example; just like everything he talks about in this eBook. He then talks about working beyond the rule of thirds, balance and stability, focal point, cropping your photos, use of subtlety, working a subject, and more. These are all things you should pay attention to. Whether you are looking for an introduction to composition, a refresher, or just some inspiration, you should get this eBook.

For the next five days, you can use the code BT4 to get “Beyond Thirds” for only $4. You can also use the code BT20 and get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF eBooks from Craft & Vision. These codes expire 11:59pm PST November 19th, 2011.

Click here to visit the product page for Beyond Thirds

Click here to visit the main page for Craft & Visions eBook collection.

In the future, if you want the heads up for when Craft & Vision releases a new eBook, plus links to my blog where you will have access to reviews and discount codes, follow me on Twitter.

Follow @NRWL

Making Light II

In the interest of full disclosure, I do make a small commission if you purchase your eBooks using the link on the bottom of this page. If you do chose to purchase this eBook, or any other from Craft & Vision, I would appreciate it if you enter the site using this link; doing so will keep reviews like this one coming to my blog.


When I was told that Piet Van Den Eynde was releasing a sequel to his fantastic eBook “Making Light”, I was extremely excited. This is one of the great things about eBooks; normally when you read something you love you have to wait months if not years for a sequel, but with the advent of digital publishing new and exciting content can be delivered much quicker to consumers like you and me. I’m going to make the same recommendation with this one as I did with the first; if your want to learn how to better your pictures through the use of off camera lighting, buy this book. At $4 (with discount code below) you simply are not going to get better bang for your dollar.

“Making Light II” is very similar to the first book in layout in terms of gear info as well as case studies. Once again, Piet Van Den Eynde creates an enjoyable learning experience. Most of the lighting gear he discusses is stuff I use almost every week; so I definitely agree with his choices. I’m especially a big fan of the Pocketwizard Control TL system he goes over, and I highly recommend the investment. That leads me to what some may see as the disadvantage of this book; it will make you want to start buying lighting gear. Lighting gear is a never ending, expensive, but extremely necessary addiction when it comes to the improving your photos. However, this book is a fantastic resource which points you in a good direction. And let’s be honest, for $4 it’ll more than pay for itself if it saves you from one wrong purchase.

The gear speak only represents part of this book; there are also the case studies I mentioned that give you great examples of various photographs lit by flash. These are great, and thats not it. Towards the end of the book there are four interviews with Dutch photographers. They provide great insight into different viewpoints on flash and come complete with examples. At almost 80 pages, all of this content will take you a while to through.

I’ll repeat what I said at the beginning of this post: buy this book. With the discount code MAKINGLIGHT4 you can get it for only $4 for the next 5 days. After that, the book is $5. Also in the next 5 days, use the code MAKINGLIGHT20 and get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF eBooks from Craft & Vision.

Here is the link to view and purchase books in Craft & Vision’s collection:
Click here to visit Craft And Vision.

Take your head out of your blog

After a day at sea off of Canada’s east coast, I was going to pass some time by writing a quick piece about the emptiness and lack of inspiration provided by a sea void of islands and boats. Just as I was about to start, I noticed clouds had moved in front of the quickly setting sun. I quickly grabbed my 7D and my 70-200 and snapped away.

(For some reason the image won't appear on the blog, so here is a link to it, I'll figure it out when I'm back home)

Sunset on the Ocean

The point of this is that sometimes you just have to look up and give your head a shake to get out of that creative rut. A great image is never far away.

-Nick Larson; written August 30th, 2011 somewhere off of Canada’s east coast

PS- I had a great new project planned, but Hurricane Irene blew my plans out the window. Now I’m going to be doing something smaller; more info to come soon.

Making Light

In the interest of full disclosure, I do make a small commission if you purchase your eBooks using the link on the bottom of this page. If you do chose to purchase this eBook, or any other from Craft & Vision, I would appreciate it if you enter the site using this link; doing so will keep reviews like this one coming to my blog.

Today, I am extremely excited to be reviewing the release of Craft & Vision’s latest eBook, “Making Light: An Introduction to Off-Camera Flash”. Before I talk about this release a little more in depth, let me just say this: if you want to learn a ton about off camera flash (at a ridiculously low price), then you probably should just skip down to the bottom of the page and follow the link. I highly recommend it; in fact I often tell friends of mine that the number one way they can improve their pictures is to take their f

lash off of their camera. Your pictures will usually be better if your flash is literally in any other place than on top of your camera. Of course many of my friends with design backgrounds say something along the lines of: “well isn’t that a design flaw?”. I’ll tell you the same thing I tell them: if you have a way to fix it, I’m sure either Canon or Nikon will give you a job very quickly. But until then, if you want the best possible pictures, take your flash off the camera.

“Making Light: An Introduction of Off-Camera Flash” was written by Piet Van den Eynde, who also authored a fantastic eBook called “The Power of Black & White: In Adobe Lightroom and Beyond”. To be honest, I’m not sure how to pronounce the man’s name, but I really like his work. His eBooks cover two very different subject areas, and it’s clear he knows a lot about both of them. I really respect that, as I think too many photographers narrow themselves into too small of a niche. I know I sure haven’t been able to get down to only one. Going back to “Making Light”, you will learn a lot from this 63 page eBook, especially if you are just beginning to explore the world of off-camera flash. Piet states that this book is the intro, there will be a more advanced sequel down the road. I am unbelievably excited to dive into the more advanced content. That being said, I definitely did learn from this eBook, and it was a fantastic review of fundamentals like the inverse square law. I wish that I had this book when I was learning off camera flash; the teaching is concise, well thought out, and the images are a joy to look at.

You can purchase this eBook right now at the link below, and if you make your purchase in the next 5 days, use the code LIGHT4 when you check out. This will give you the eBook for $4. You can’t beat value like that. Also, if you would like to stock up on more eBooks from Craft & Vision, use the code LIGHT20 and you will get 20% off your purchase of 5 or more eBooks. That means you will get 5 eBooks for $20. As $20 barely buys you a lens pen, I cannot recommend these books enough. They are a fantastic value for investing in your education.

Here is the link to go straight to the book:
Click here to view more details

And here is the link to see Craft & Vision’s entire book collection:
Click here to visit Craft And Vision.

New toy

http://500px.com/photo/1552925

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago using my 70-200 and my new Canon lens extender 2x III. So far I have been amazed with the image quality while using the extender. The extra reach has given new life to my wildlife photography, and at a fraction of the price of buying a dedicated 400mm lens. The caveat of the extender is that it makes my minimum aperture 5.6 instead of 2.8, however I have not found this to be a problem yet as I have only been out in great lighting conditions.

Hopefully I will be able to find time for more wildlife photography around Alberta in the next week and a half, then I am off to Boston and eastern Canada. I look forward to posting those photos as well as posting a yet to be announced massive project I am planning that will incorporate them.

More to come soon
Nick

Welcome

I've decided to start a blog in addition to my website (www.nick-larson.com) and Twitter account (NRWL). Among other things, I look forward to being able to say a little more than the 140 characters Twitter allows. For now I will mainly be posting about the world of photography and design. As part of this, I will review eBooks from "Craft and Vision". You can get in touch with me on Twitter or through my website; and I hope that you both enjoy my blog and find it useful in your own endeavours.

Nick Larson