Good book, bad book...

[SwissJon]

I picked up a couple of bargain books on landscape photography on Amazon not long ago for $1 each.. One of them was ok, but one of them should never have been published. "Tom Makies landscape photography secrets" contains some of the worst examples of sloppy lens work and over done PP.. I think I could have done better, and I've only been at this for 6 months.

As an example, we have a photograph of some sheep in a field at Dawn, only there's so much lens flare you can't see the sheep, and included in the foreground is an out of focus twig that could have been omitted simply by moving the camera left (which would have moved the sun behind the tree and reduced the flaring) we then, a couple of pages later, are treated to a shot with yet another superfluous stick ruining a shot, and on the very next page, there's a long exposure image that's been so over sharpened (obviously to deal with motion blur) that there's halos big enough for even the most saintly person.

Now none of these are problems themselves, but the cover proclaims 150 remarkable images, and that they are.. Remarkable that someone thought they were fit to print.

I know I only paid $1 for this, but I feel ripped off.

[candidrachel]

Ha! Wasn't one of your replies to a fellow member recently "you get what you pay for?"

[Jim Bryant]

I remember that remark........too funny. Put it on eBay and ask for $5.00.

[SwissJon]

Yeah. Only I seem to recall he paid sod all and was complaining about customer service.

Since I paid an infinite times more than him, I at least expect that when someone advertises themselves as a "leading landscape photographer" for them to actually be able to fill a book with pictures better than the ones I take..

I not really bothered about the book, I took it to the local charity shop, and since the other book I got for an additional $1 was actually an interesting read, $2 for a decent book ain't bad I was just giving this book bad press because it deserves it..

And yes.. I did get what I paid for.. Things don't usually end up in the bargain bin if they're any good.

[candidrachel]

I once bought a book called Digital Photography Step-by-Step for £1.99 it was really aimed at point and shoot cameras and it had nothing in the book that I could have found out on the 'net.

[BexJarratt]

I don't think it costs too much to get a short run of books printed, maybe he did it himself.

[RLucas]

Jon, you succesfully made laugh today!
I feel like I should send you a dollar as payment for it.
Thanks!