Books

Book	Comments
Photographing Animals in the Wild - Andy Rouse	A small book but informative book directed at common British wildlife, includes case studies for Badgers, Foxes, Deer and Urban Wildlife.
Landscape Within: Insights and Inspiration for Photographers - Joe Cornish, David Ward	Wonderful fine art landscape photographs and thoughtful test about the creative photographic process.
Macrophotography: Learning from a Master - Gilles Martin (Photographer), Ronan Loaec	Fantastic macro photographs with technique explained from the basics up to complex professional methods.
The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers - Scott Kelby	At last a Photoshop book that gives you practical techniques rather than dust cataloging the vast range of functionality of this programme.
Art of Bird Photography, The: The Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques - Arthur Morris	The classic book for the bird photographer. However location and species information is USA centric.
Real World Digital Photography - Tim Grey, Sean Duggan, Katrin Eismann	A very useful introduction to digital photography technique and technical aspects. Good for those new to photography and transitioning from film.
Digital Macro Photography - Ross Hoddinott	Nice book with lovely photographs. Initial sections are very basic but later sections have some useful information.
Learning to See Creatively - Bryan Peterson	A book about photography rather than exposure and equipment. Well worth reading.
Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern Europe - Bob Gibbons	Very handy reference work for ID insects with lots of colour plates.
Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland - Steve Brooks (Editor), Richard Lewington (Illustrator)	Very detailed reference work.
Butterflies and Moths of Britain and Europe - Helga Hofmann, Thomas Marktanner	Useful reference work. Pictures are mostly of upper wing surfaces, more pictures of under wings would be an aid to ID.
Wild Flowers - W. Lippert, D. Podleich	Useful reference work.
Reptiles and Amphibians of Britain and Europe - Nick Arnold, Denys Ovenden	Rather over academic approach limits usefulness. Illustrations only
Close-ups in Nature - John Shaw	A useful introductory text, although written for the film era much is still relevant for digital.
Field Guide to Mushrooms of Britain and Europe - Helmut Grunert	Useful reference work with good colour photos.
Complete British Animals - Paul Sterry	Very handy reference for UK mammals, reptiles and amphibians
Collins Complete British Insects - Michael Chinery	Very comprehensive but complete is probably a bit of a stretch. It has a good range of the more common moths and most usefully a good selection of butterfly and moth caterpillars which are normally missing from field guides. Highly recommended.
Complete British Wild Flowers - Paul Sterry	Quite complete although the organization does make it easy to find specimens without some taxonomy knowledge.
Mushrooms - Roger Phillips	A really excellent reference with colour photographs showing the mushrooms from above below and section through the mushroom and stalk. Has a handy thumbnail index to get you in the right area. Highly recommended.
Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe - Michael J. Roberts	Rather over academic approach limits usefulness but probably the best reference available. Other books I have found to be very poor.
Birds of Britain and Europe - Nicholas Hammond, Michael Everett	An excellent and easy to use reference for ID birds with colour plates of birds and a useful map insert of range for each species.
RSPB Complete Birds of Britain and Europe (Hardcover) - Rob Hume	Even better book. Where appropriate includes photos of male, female, juvenile, immature and in-flight and also summer vs winter plumage. Coverage map and residency calendar are provided in each case with a very helpful similar species section at the bottom with small shots of other species that the subject species may be confused with pointing out the diagnostic differences. First class book for ID.
EF Lens Work III - The Eyes of EOS - Canon	Lots of useful information about lenses, design tradeoffs, lens aberrations and the technical operation of key technology aspects such as image stabilization. Includes MTF charts for lenses and lenses plus teleconverters. Slightly dated as this edition (2nd) does not include any of the EF-S lenses. (8th Ed now available online)
Real World Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop CS2 - Bruce Fraser	Key reference book for multipass sharpening and noise reduction methods. Generally very good although Fraser is sometimes inconsistent in his recommendations for what he terms source sharpening (otherwise known as capture sharpening to correct for sampling aperture of digital capture) and what he terms Image Content sharpening, the latter being a sharpening tuned to the dominant detail frequency (personally I would consider this a form of creative sharpening); Fraser sometimes recommends doing both operations in one pass and other times separately. [Look at Workflow for links to the TRL PS action toolkits that use many of the methods in this book.] Some actions are available for download based on the book.
Modern Optical Engineering: The Design of Optical Systems - Warren J. Smith	Undergraduate text on optical engineering.
Simon King's Wildguide, BBC Books 1994 ISBN 0 563 36496 3	Now out of print but occasionally available from secondhand book stores or Ebay (Ebay tends to be better value). An excellent book for basic field craft. A general section starts with advice on clothing, equipment and general observation techniques. Then follows a section for many principle UK species or mammal and bird, each covering: General Remarks, Where and When, Track and Sign, Senses, Sounds, Observation and Photography. Excellent and specific advice from a world class naturalist.
Nick Baker's British Wildlife: A Month by Month Guide	An excellent guide suitable for both younger and older naturalists covering mammals, invertebrates, plants, birds and sea & shore life. Delivered in an easy readable style it still parts a wealth of useful information regarding the field observation of a wide range of UK species.

Magazines

Magazine	Comments
EOS Magazine	Canon centric but a good range of general photography articles.
Outdoor Photography	At last a magazine that focuses on something other than glamour and unlikely Photoshop post processing. Includes articles on landscape and wildlife and a very useful section each moth detailing destinations in the UK.

Last Updated 31/08/2009

All material is supplied as is and without warranty, use at your own risk.

All opinions stated are the authors own.

All quoted information remains the copyright of the respective authors.

Any trade marks mentioned are the property of their owners.

Contact: (anti spam remove underscores)

Note this email gets spammed a lot so if you want to get your message through please prefix "Holding Tank" in the title

f_ w_ a_ r_ e_ 9_ 0_ @_l_i_n_e_o_n_e_._n_e_t