The Bite Shot Book Club

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” – Charlie Tremendous Jones

The formula for my growth as a photographer has been simple:

• Open a book about photography.
• Find myself confused and/or intrigued by a concept.
• Get out the camera and try making said concept happen until I figure it out, sometimes after much frustration.
• Add the new skill to my repertoire.

I’ve repeated that same process over and over again so that at the end of a year, I can look at my images and see the progress. Small, incremental wins over a year turn into an impressive portfolio!

And it’s always good to return back to the beginning. I love to re-read a book, bringing first-hand experience to the words on the page and understand them with new depth.  There’s no end to learning and exploration in photography.

This learning process is even more fun when experienced with friends. That’s why I want to invite you along for my Bite Shot Book Club (#biteshotbookclub).  I’ll be re-visiting some of my favorite photography books as well as picking up some new ones that have been highly recommended by colleagues. Each month we’ll focus on one book and in my weekly YouTube videos, I’ll show you how to apply key concepts from the book to food photography. Then, the final week of the month, I’ll go live on Facebook and we can have a discussion about the big a-ha moments and share images. Special invitations to participate in the live stream will be happening, so be sure to stay updated by getting on the Bite Shot Book Club list. This list also gets some extra little tips every week.

What are we reading?

I have the full schedule and titles below (*full disclosure, these are affiliate links).  Of course, if books aren’t in your budget, you can still follow along with the monthly videos and e-mail tips and I promise you’ll learn lots.  But, if you want to really dig in and master these concepts, here’s the lineup through May.

• January –Mastering Composition: The Definitive Guide for Photographers 
• February – Light Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting 
• March – Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition 
• April – What They Didn’t Teach You In Photo School: The secrets of the trade that will make you a success in the industry 

Here’s to incremental improvement, going back to basics and taking our photography to new heights in 2019.