Every so often you find an author who deserves a following.  Tom Ang is an award-winning photographer, host of Britain’s A Digital Picture of Britain and has been published in numerous best-selling books and magazines.  Tom Ang is such an author.

How to Photograph Absolutely Everything by Tom Ang is a book that will appeal to both beginners and experienced photographers.  I have given this book to several friends as gifts and each has thoroughly enjoyed it.  It is organized in eight chapters:

1. Elements of Photography
2. People
3. Landscapes & Nature
4. Animals
5. Architecture
6. Events
7. Artistic Expression
8. Other Applications (what to do with all those photos)

Each chapter is inspirational with gorgeous photos and suggestions on how to handle the subject and location.  It really is a how-to book.  He also makes it very clear that you can get great results with both a point-n-shoot as well as a dSLR.

For the advanced photographer, he wrote Digital Photography Master Class.  This book takes everything to the next level.  Again, filled with beautiful photos clearing depicting each lession.  The book is detailed enough to be a photography text book, but it is much more entertaining.  The book is organized into 20 chapter tutorials:

Mastering your camera

1. Key camera controls
2. Exposure control
3. Tonality and contrast
4. Obtaining the best image
5. Obtaining ideal color

Developing your skills

1. Mastering composition
2. Perfecting your timing
3. Using available light
4. Portable sunlight

Digital Darkroom

1. Perfecting the image
2. Manipulating the image
3. Advanced manipulation

Advancing your Photography

1. Travel photography
2. Portrait photography
3. Documentary photography
4. Landscape and nature photography
5. Sports photography
6. Architecture photography
7. Wildlife photography
8. Fine art photography

These books are now available in soft-covers, but hard cover editions should still be available.  As I said earlier, they make great gifts for true photographers at heart.