This is an absolutely great book. Recommended on Amazon as I had purchased something G12 related in the past, I downloaded a sample chapter to the Kindle (a dangerous activity at the best of times) and I was hooked. From Snapshots to Great Shots takes the very prudent and useful tact of assuming you already have the manual and want to go beyond … but here’s the rub, it doesn’t just go advanced … it bridges the gaps from manual and adopts a very practical and hands-on approach to taking great pictures. It doesn’t assume you just want to know how to use the camera…it teaches you how to use it to take great pictures. This may seem rather obvious but the approach of all too many manuals is simply directed at explaining every feature as opposed to identifying a use and explaining in simple but applied terms how you accomplish it.
What does this mean in practice? Well, what hooked me was a quick introduction and then an introductory chapter that identifies the first 10 practical things that you can do to get up and running with your new G12. Make the right adjustments to settings, charge your battery and get shooting. The chapters each are provided with solid exercise following to get you using the things you learn. The book is all about good solid advice based on the author’s own experience. The section on how the triangle of ISO, aperture and shutter speed combine to produce the desired image is probably the clearest most understandable explanation that I have found in any photography manual and this sets the tone for the approach taken by the author.
Although advice by the author is to make sure you read the first four chapters in sequence and then be free to browse and jump about, I found the entire presentation so compelling and chockfull of advice I could immediately put to use that I just grabbed my G12 and started shooting and following along through the book.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is well written and for me absolutely perfectly positioned to give the advice needed to start using my G12 to its utmost. It is practical, fun and has given me a great new re-engagement with photography.