February 2008 Non-Fiction and Biography Book Reviews
Welcome to our February 2008 non-fiction book and biography
reviews archive. Non-Fiction stimulates, entertains, and enlightens. We work hard to find
non-fiction books - biographies, science books, art books, etc. to review each month that we feel are
worth your time and your hard-earned dollars. We hope you'll enjoy this backissue of our February 2008
non-fiction book reviews.
Author David Tipling divides his attention equally between the artistic
and technical issues to teach you about wildlife photography in the
digital age. Having a solid foundation in the traditional camera era,
I have usually felt that the inexpensive point-and-shoot digitals that
I have relied on over the years have only begun to approach the quality
of the images I could produce with my trusty Canon A-1 or even my first
SLR, the classic Minolta SRR-101. But with prices for DSLRs falling
to within the reach of a broad audience of amateurs like me, its clear
that the current crop of consumer-level DSLRs can produce very high
quality images. Tipling's qualifications as a wildlife photographer are
enviable, and he brings his professional experience to bear in teaching
how to approach your subjects, and frame them in a pleasing manner. Then
he takes you through the technical issues of working with digital images
for both print and electronic reproduction. Naturally, he bases much of
his lessons on Adobe Photoshop. I was pleased to see him pay special
attention to the RAW image format that is popular among professionals for
reducing the artifacts produced by the software that digital cameras use
to enhance and compress images for storage on memory cards. On top of
all that, the pictures in the book are stunning. What a bargain!
Growing up in Minnesota, I enjoyed sledding and skating, but I never got into
skiing, and snowboarding was after my time. So I can't comment on the true
quality of the instructions given by author Cindy Kleh. What I can tell you is
that this book is obviously written by someone who knows the sport inside out.
Kleh begins with the basics of equipment and exercising drills to get you
in shape before you head for the slopes as well as warm-ups to do just before
the fun begins. There are lessons for beginners and those with intermediate
skills. Each section has lots of photographs and step-by-step illustrations
that make it easy to follow. Many sections have small quotes from famous
snowboarders who pass on their insights into learning the sport. I'm sure
that anyone who wants to learn about snowboarding will find this book well
worth reading.
Be sure to visit us again next month when we'll
review more entertaining and enlightening non-fiction books. Our
non-fiction book reviews are written by our Editor, Richard L. Trethewey.
Rainbo Electronic Reviews' non-fiction book reviews are published monthly. Back issues of our
reviews are available from the Rainbo Reviews Backissues Archive.
We're proud to announce that the reviews archive is now searchable by category so you can find great non-fiction books we've reviewed in the past.
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