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Bad Babysitter by Jennifer L. Holm
Beyond Auto Mode by Jennifer Bebb
The Book Fair From the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler
Bookmarked For Death by Lorna Barrett
The Broken Lands by Kate Milford
Cadillac Couches by Sophie B. Watson
Cleopatra in Space: Secret of the Time Tablets by Mike Maihack
A Cookbook Conspiracy by Kate Carlisle
D4VE by Ryan Ferrier
Giant Days, Volume 5 by John Allison
Knight's Castle by Edward Eager
Knock About with the Fitzgerald-Trouts by Esta Spalding
The Locksmith issue 3 by Terrance Grace
Made for Each Other by Paul D. Storrie and Eldon Cowgur
Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett
Paper Girls, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
Pastoral Cities by James L. Machor
Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass
Poison Kiss by Ana Mardoll
Pumpkin Town! by Katie McKy
Puppy Love by Jennifer L. Holm
The Road Movie Book edited by Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark
Rosemary Remembered by Susan Wittig Albert
Roughneck by Jeff Lemire
Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
The Time Garden by Edward Eager
Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert
The Unbreakable Code by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Us Conductors by Sean Michaels
Volkswagen Blues by Jacques Poulin and translated by Sheila Fischman
Waiting by Kevin Henkes

Miscellaneous
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (August 07, 2017)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (August 14, 2017)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (August 28, 2017)
July 2017 Reading Sources
July 2017 Reading Summary

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Beyond Auto Mode: 08/28/17

Beyond Auto Mode  by Jennifer Bebb

Beyond Auto Mode by Jennifer Bebb is a photography how-to book aimed at newer dSLR cameras. I should be upfront with this review and say I don't actually own a dSLR; I own a mirrorless micro 4/3 — a type of digital camera that has a set of quirks unique to it's design.

None the less — except where a technique is technology dependent, most approaches to photography are interchangeable (albeit sometimes with some adjustments needed) across cameras. Bebb's book provides an easy to follow set of guidelines for any photographer who has the option to shoot manually but doesn't know where to start (or just needs a refresher course).

Every photograph is built from a triangle of settings: ISO (or film speed), aperture, and shutter speed. In a dSLR camera these three things can be completely controlled between photographs. On a mirrorless, two of the three can be controlled, with some control still given to the camera to make the user input settings work. Understanding how the three work together is important for understanding which of the three is safe to give over to the camera.

Beyond Auto Mode was one of three books I read before departing on a road trip to Wyoming to see the total eclipse. Of the three, Bebb's book was the most useful for me to understand the limitations of my camera and the extreme lighting situations created over the course of a total eclipse. You can see my results on Flickr.

Four stars

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