Own composition, use composition, and make composition your own in your photographs!

Of all the magical elixirs that make up a successful photograph, composition is perhaps the most fundamental, and at the same time the most elusive. What makes a composition good? It's hard to define exactly, but we instinctively recognize good composition when we see it. There is an undeniable emotional response when a composition resonates with and complements the subject matter of an image.

But traditional attempts to define good composition and to pass on rules for good compositional construction are often doomed to failure. The truth is, there are no hard and fast rules. Rules eliminate experimentation and spontaneity, which are crucial for creating compelling, dynamic, and exciting compositions. The best compositions contain an element of the unexpected. Expect the unexpected! is perhaps the only viable rule of composition. To create exciting compositions, you must have a willingness to embrace serendipity and change as part of your artistic practice. After all, composition is a process, not a result.

In Composition & Photography, photographer and bestselling author Harold Davis teaches you how to perceive patterns and abstractions and incorporate them into your image-making process. If one of the goals of photography is to show viewers things that are new, or things they haven't seen before, or things they have seen many times but need to see anew, then it's with the thoughtful and considered use of composition that you do that.

In this book, you'll learn how to reduce your subject matter to the fundamentals, and to show familiar subjects in unfamiliar, novel ways. Harold covers topics and themes such as:

▪ Lines and circles

▪ Rectangles

▪ Combinations

▪ Repetition

▪ Symmetry and asymmetry

▪ Abstraction

▪ Entering and exiting

▪ Vanishing points and perspective

▪ Emphasis

▪ Designing within a frame

▪ Creating order from chaos

Composition & Photography will help you find the tools and visual vocabulary to creatively design your photographs. Regardless of the genre and kind of photography you practice, you'll learn to create powerful compositions that incorporate structure and form into your work in ways that best support your images. Along the way, Harold shows and discusses his own work relating to each compositional element or theme he's exploring. And featured throughout the book are exercises about flexibility and process, designed to spur your creativity and help you begin an internal creative discussion.

My goal as a photography teacher and writer about photography is to inspire and to help you become the best and most creative photographer and image-maker that you can be.

―Harold Davis

Harold Davis is a force of nature―a man of astonishing eclectic skills and accomplishments.

―Rangefinder Magazine

Make great photos of flowers, gardens, landscapes and the beautiful world around us!

Gardens are everywhere, all around us. In this long-awaited guide to garden and flower photography, noted photographer and author Harold Davis tackles the subject of garden photography with an expansive brush. In this book, you'll find techniques ranging from photographing vast formal gardens to photographing flowers for transparency on a light box. You'll learn about closeup photography and how to become a better landscape photographer.

Whether you're photographing tiny flowers or grand landscapes, wandering outside in the garden or bringing the garden indoors, your photography will be enhanced using the many techniques in Creative Garden Photography. Garden photography includes a huge range of photographic styles and technical information that can be applied to almost any kind of photography. In this book, you will learn to use an incredible range of tools from one of the acknowledged modern masters of photography.

- Explore gardens, types of gardens, and how best to photograph them

- Learn about light, light direction and quality, and controlling light in your photography

- Work with your camera and tripod to achieve optimal focus

- Use creative exposures to make beautiful imagery

- Photograph flowers on a light box for transparency

- Learn techniques for creating impressionistic photos

- Master close-up focusing, depth of field, and focus stacking

- Explore complete exposure data and the story behind every photo

My goal as a photography teacher and writer about photography is to inspire and to help you become the best and most creative photographer and image-maker that you can be.
--Harold Davis

Harold Davis's ethereal floral arrangements have a purity and translucence that borders on the spiritual.
--Popular Photography Magazine

Harold Davis is a force of nature--a man of astonishing eclectic skills and accomplishments.
--Rangefinder Magazine

Harold Davis's Creative Photography series is a great way to start a photography library.
--PhotoFidelity

Learn to master the unique challenges of black and white photography, and create high-quality, beautiful images!

In this newly revised and expanded classic guide to black and white photography, renowned photographer Harold Davis breaks through the mystery of digital monochrome. Using more than 200 of his own stunning fully-captioned monochromatic images to illustrate, Davis walks you through the visual ideas that work well with black and white. He shares the technical approaches that you can use to create high-quality monochromatic photos.

With Creative Black & White you'll discover a deeper appreciation for what you can accomplish when taking portraits, landscapes, night photos, close-ups, and more. This book provides both inspiration and technical instruction. You may never photograph the world in quite the same way again! Learn to see and think in black and white:

- Convert RAW files to black and white

- Use color information to create black and white photos in Lightroom and Photoshop

- Create monochromatic images using multi-RAW processing and HDR

- Learn how to apply solarization, tinting, toning, and other special effects

- Complete exposure data and the story behind every photo

Find inspiration and instruction for your journey with black and white photography with Creative Black & White.

The Photographer's Black & White Handbook is your complete guide to making and processing stunning black and white photos in the digital era. You'll find inspiration, ideas, techniques, and tools to use in your black and white photography, along with a soup-to-nuts workflow to take you from black and white pre-visualization through capture and post-production. Along the way you will lean over Harold's shoulder as he travels to exciting photo destinations and creates stunning black and white imagery, explaining his creative and technical processes as he goes. This definitive guide includes: ? How to see in black and white ? Pre-visualization in digital photography ? Understanding black and white composition ? How to create your own black and white workflow ? Black and white in ACR, Lightroom, and Photoshop ? Using black and white plug-ins including Nik Silver Efex Pro and Topaz B&W Effects ? Extending tonal range with multi-RAW processing and monochromatic HDR ? Post-production techniques for working with dynamic range ? Creative black and white special effects ? Find out how to tone, tint, colorize, solarize, and simulate IR ? Work with LAB to create unique black and white effects ? Great tools for unleashing your photographic imagination ? Beautiful photographs by Harold Davis chosen to inspire and guide you

With this book, you'll learn how to take full advantage of Google AdWords and AdSense, the sophisticated online advertising tools used by thousands of large and small businesses. This new edition provides a substantially updated guide to advertising on the Web, including how it works in general, and how Google's advertising programs in particular help you make money.

You'll find everything you need to work with AdWords, which lets you generate text ads to accompany specific search term results, and AdSense, which automatically delivers precisely targeted text and image ads to your website. Google Advertising Tools focuses on best practices, with several case studies that demonstrate which approaches work well, which don't, and why. Google's ad programs can help any business with a web presence, and this guide explains precisely how to use them.

• Learn how to create effective campaign plans for your website
• Understand the PageRank algorithm, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Drive traffic to your website and make money as an advertising host
• Add AdSense code and Google search to your site
• Learn how content, search, and referral ads perform
• Create and edit AdWord campaigns
• Monitor AdWords activity and improve your campaign's performance

* For complete novices. * Fun trim size. * No special equipment or software needed beyond a web browser. * Teaches principles of good programming practice. * Lots of fun!

Coming from the perspective that true inspiration and great image making are at the core of any high-level photographic endeavour, Achieving Your Potential as a Digital Photographer presents an organized and cohesive plan for kickstarting creativity, and then taking the resulting work into the real world. The ideas presented have been formulated by Harold Davis over many years working as a creative artist and award-wining photographer, and in the celebrated workshops he has developed and led all around the world. These concepts are presented with accompanying exercises so that readers can put them into everyday practice as well as workbook pages bound into the book for note taking and journaling. This book will enrich your photographic practice whether the goal is simply to enrich your photography or to make money from your work.

Capture stunning macro floral images with this gorgeous guide by acclaimed photographer Harold Davis. You'll learn about different types of flowers, macro equipment basics, and the intricacies of shooting different floral varieties in the field and in the studio.

Harold also shows you techniques in the Photoshop darkroom that can be applied to flower photography to help you get the most out of your images.

Beautiful and authoritative, this guide to photographing flowers is a must-read for every photographer interested in flower photography. Photographing Flowers will also win a place in the hearts of those who simply love striking floral imagery.

Since the days of the first photographs, artists have used various techniques to extend the range of lights and darks in their photos. Photographic masters such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston spent countless hours burning and dodging their prints to create images with extended dynamic range.

With the advent of digital photography, new horizons in extending dynamic range are possible. HDR techniques now make it easy to extend the dynamic range of an image well beyond the capability of the human eye.

In Creating HDR Photos, bestselling author Harold Davis covers the complete HDR workflow, from choosing the subjects that work best for HDR through processing RAW files to unlock the dynamic power of HDR. You'll learn how to photograph multiple exposures and blend them into a single HDR image using various software programs. Best of all, you will find out how to control the style of your HDR images, from subtle to hyper-real, using a range of photographic and post-processing techniques.

Packed with stunning image examples, Creating HDR Photos brings this essential digital technique within every photographer's grasp.

Update: The Kindle version of Monochromatic HDR Photography: Shooting and Processing Black & White High Dynamic Range Photos currently available for sale has been corrected and updated to address formatting issues.

Monochromatic HDR Photography is the first book intended to show photographers how to work at the intersection of two up-and-coming trends that are at the forefront of the digital revolution: Black & White and High Dynamic Range imaging.

The book explains techniques for extending dynamic range, monochromatic conversion methods and best practices where the two technologies intersect. Since successful digital monochromatic image creation generally requires using the color information inherent in RAW exposures, most case studies will be presented in full color.

In addition, Monochromatic HDR Photography provides extensive coverage of the creative vision required to successfully create monochromatic HDR images and the workflow necessary to make art prints from this specialized image making technique.

Award-winning photography/design team Harold and Phyllis Davis are back with a brand new volume in their new Photoshop Darkroom series. Picking up where their best-selling first book left off, The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Advanced Digital Post-Processing will show you everything you need to know to take your digital imaging skills to the next level. Great photographers know that the best images begin well before the shutter clicks, and certainly well before Photoshop boots up. Harold takes a step back, and shares his helpful tips for capturing the most compelling images possible by keeping in mind what type of post-processing you'll do before you start shooting. You'll also find complete coverage of important topics such as compositing, working with layers, and HDR. Packed with tons of eye-popping images which have won Harold national acclaim, this is a fantastic resource for photographers who want to think outside the box and create truly stunning artwork.

With the introduction of Visual Basic .NET, VB is now a complete object-oriented language, letting programmers access the full power of the Windows platform while enabling them to build reliable and robust web solutions.

It doesn't matter if you're new to programming or just to VB.NET, Visual Basic .NET Programming gets you up and running with the new version and offers a comprehensive introduction to Windows and web application development. From language fundamentals to ADO.NET, XML, and Web Services, Harold Davis's thoughtful approach emphasizes meaningful tasks that tie in with VB.NET's principal strengths. For example, you'll learn to build a Web Service, implement XML support, and use object-oriented techniques--without getting mired in theory but also without sacrificing the understanding you need to apply your skills in new situations.

Much of the book is devoted to Windows application development, covering new ways to program standard elements, as well as emphasizing Visual Basic's new programming features. Want to build a desktop program with an oval interface? Want to create robust class libraries, components, and controls? Implement printing as a program feature? Start and stop a service? Every chapter provides solid examples that will help you learn the language and, more importantly, create effective applications with it.

Visual Basic's popularity is due to its dual nature: It's relatively easy for aspiring programmers to learn, yet powerful enough for professional application developers. Visual Basic 6: Visual QuickStart Guide, like VB itself, will appeal to both camps. It's so accessible that novices will be up and programming in no time, while more seasoned programmers will find it a helpful quick reference to important tasks.

Of the many VB books on the market, few address the beginner. Visual Basic 6: VQS assumes absolutely no programming experience, but instead relies on the time-tested Visual QuickStart teaching method. Screenshots, sample code, and concise, step-by-step instructions guide you through a carefully selected series of examples designed to get you programming right from chapter one. And once you've mastered the basics, you can use the clearly tabbed format to refer to topics you need to brush up on.

Capturing the fleeting, dynamic world contained within the tiniest of water droplets is one of the most challenging photographic endeavors. Like many things, the challenge is worth the effort - when done with skill, these images can become some of the most unique shots you've ever taken. In this gorgeous guide packed with creative insipration alongside technical expertise, award-winning photographer Harold Davis shows you how he creates his stunning water drop images. From challenges to working with constantly moving subjects and reflected light to basic info on which equipment works best, this book will help all macro-loving photographers turn their lens on water, water, everywhere.

The Photoshop Darkroom offers limitless possibilities for photographers looking for jaw-dropping results, using powerful and innovative creative post-processing techniques. If you want folks to ask How did you do that? then this is the book for you!

The images in The Photoshop Darkroom will inspire you and help you unleash your creative potential. You'll learn to view your own digital photography with new eyes.

Step-by-step directions show you real-world examples of how to achieve the results you want from your photography and post-processing.

Christmas Man is a love story. It is the story of Napper Darby and his passionate love for a woman, their family and Christmas. Napper's life spans nine wondrous decades from 1881 to the space age. Readers will be part of Christmas with Napper during his school days, in tough years of war and depression and into good times. We meet the people who share his life: a young teacher, a tough old trapper, his no-nonsense boss, his steadfast best friend and the woman he loved. All of them will tug at your heart and bring a smile to your face. Christmas Man is a celebration of Christmas and the love, family, adversity and triumph that makes it wonderful.

This authoritative yet easy-to-follow book shows both digital and film photography enthusiasts how to take postcard-perfect shots of one of the nation's most visually stunning areas. Whether you're a pro looking for new insights or a novice wanting to ensure your vacation looks as spectacular on film as it did with your own eyes, this book is invaluable.

Brother Harold Davis Lessons are taken from the original the King James Bible.

Capture stunning macro floral images with this gorgeous guide by acclaimed photographer Harold Davis. You'll learn about different types of flowers, macro equipment basics, and the intricacies of shooting different floral varieties in the field and in the studio.

Harold also shows you techniques in the Photoshop darkroom that can be applied to flower photography to help you get the most out of your images.

Beautiful and authoritative, this guide to photographing flowers is a must-read for every photographer interested in flower photography. Photographing Flowers will also win a place in the hearts of those who simply love striking floral imagery.