Review: Motorcycle Travel Photography E-Books
Products:
Motorcycle Travel Photography
Book One | The Foundation (41 pgs.)
Book Two | The Tools (49 pgs.)
By Anthony Kerr
www.motojournalism.com
We’ve all been there, right? Where you think you’ve taken the photo of a lifetime, framed it, lit it, composed it perfectly, only to discover later that, well, it isn’t?
Moto-blogger and professional photographer Anthony Kerr must have once had the same experience, because that’s one of the first questions he asks in the first volume of his Motorcycle Photography e-book series, aptly subtitled “The Foundation.”
Not overly techy (a good thing in our opinion), “The Foundation” offers easily digestible tips and information on the essentials of photo composition, layering a shot, background/foreground, shooting people vs. landscapes, and more—in other words, everything to help the novice shutterbug take better, higher-quality photos. Kerr uses comparison images to effectively show how simple changes in composition can affect a photograph, and encourages readers to shoot, shoot and shoot some more—the only way to get better is to use your camera. A lot.
The ideas and concepts, as well as the equipment, 
get a bit more complex in Volume 2, “The Tools.” In it, Kerr explains camera types (point and shoot vs. SLR), lens options, where to buy your photographic gear, and perhaps most important, how to pack it on your bike so it’s both easily accessible and well-protected.
We especially liked how the guide went through the main shooting modes (Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Auto/Programmed) and settings/functions (ISO, exposure, white balance, etc.), features that can be found and used on both point and shoot and SLR cameras. Kerr explains these knowledgably yet without getting too technical, and uses simple yet effective icons to illustrate f-stop and lens angle on example photos. Another key tip from this volume? Back up your images, and carry plenty of memory cards. After all, he says, you can always fix your camera, or replace it if need be, but you’ll never be able to get that same great shot again.
Kerr also includes a printable “Cheat Sheet” with a bullet-point recap of each book’s main topics and instruction, which we’ll keep handy in our tankbag for when we get inspired (or just need a simple reminder).
Both Motorcycle Travel Photography e-books are well designed and aesthetically pleasing, and each one packs a ton of information into 40-plus pages. They’re excellent resources geared toward the hobby and/or novice photographer, but we’d recommend them to anyone looking for new and interesting ways to approach photography.
And as the author advises, don’t be afraid to take a bad photo (we all do). Just get out there and snap away, and pretty soon, you’ll start seeing a lot fewer throwaways, and a lot more keepers.
Downloadable via www.motojournalism.com for $10 (Book One: The Foundation) and $15 (Book Two: The Tools).