Good lord a book review!

Focus on Composing Photos by Peter Ensenberger.

In my job I get to look through all of the forthcoming publications
for each month and every month a startling number of new books on photography are published. As I work in a library many books are ordered for the county and I tend to borrow many of them for extra hints and tips. It is quite rare that I get excited by a new book, so many of them seem to be about editing photos rather than the actual photography itself.

I don't mind 'tweaking' my photos a little bit but I am far more interested in taking a good photo in the first place.

Focus on Composing Photos is a book that helps you take those good photos in the first place and it doesn't matter whether you are using a camera phone or a state of the art digital SLR - Ensenberger is just teaching you how to look at a scene to maximise the quality of the
original image.

The book is broken into chapters focusing on light, perspective, focal points, composition, leading lines and then rule breaking. The book is written in easy to follow language and each point it illustrated by one of the author's photos to highlight what he means. It isn't a technical guide telling you what lens/exposure/aperture to use it is a readable book teaching you how to look at scenes.

I have to confess that a lot of the book is set in an area I will be traveling to later in the year so I have a vested interest in the book but even without that the tips on how to look at a scene were great and I plan on using some of the tips given on my next outing with the camera.