One of my favorite photographers has a fantastic mission: he wants to support the passion for photography that many people have and wants to educate people in how to maintain and communicate their vision. With that in mind he has created an online company called “Craft and Vision” where he writes and produces eBooks dedicated to helping people express their vision through the photographic medium.
David duChemin has written several books through the traditional medium of printed material and has written numerous eBooks taking advantage of the new medium of digital media, especially the iPad. Each month Craft and Vision releases at least one, if not two, new eBooks and I have to say each has been wonderful. Filled with beautiful images, oriented for rich viewing interaction with computers and the iPad, filled with wonderfully instructive reading, the books are a joy to read and re-read.
On Thursday, June 24th Craft and Vision released an interesting new eBook addressing movie making entitled Vision in Motion: a Photographer’s Introduction to Digital Video by Trevor Meier. This ebook is a response to the recently available HD movie filming mode now made available on many DSLR cameras. It seems many people originally interested in still photography are now also interested in shooting video due of this new feature. While this appears to be a very good introductory ebook on the subject of video creation, I have to admit my interest was not held for long. This has more to do with my current general lack of interest in creating any videos other than those of my children exploring their environment. While I marvel at, and thoroughly enjoy good cinematography, I am also keenly aware of my limited skill and limited time, and therefore my limited ability, to create compelling video.
However, if the medium 
of video is compelling to you, this is probably a quick and quite inexpensive way to become exposed to some of the aspects of videography. With specific attention paid to vision, story, sequencing, technique, lighting and color control, and a review of basic equipment, Meir does a good job of providing a grounded introduction to video production. He is adept at describing the differences between aspects of videography and still photography as well as describing where the two mediums intersect. The book is also filled with beautiful images artfully depicting the current subject discussed and even contains a montage of still photographs illuminating the importance of sequencing in cinematography.
While Craft and Vision generally sell their eBooks for $5 a piece (a steal, if you ask me!!) this new release will be available for only $4 through Sunday June 27th using the coupon code Motion4 upon checkout. And if (like me) video isn’t your thing I can highly recommend the other eBooks available for purchase. You can receive 20% off these titles if you buy 5 or more and use the coupon code Motion20. I will make an effort to review some of the other titles in future posts as I am quite fond of them.