Canon® EOS 30D Digital Field Guide

Introduction

Welcome to the Canon EOS 30D Digital Field Guide. You may already know that you have one of the finest and most versatile digital cameras on the market. This book is designed to help you master using the camera and to help you get the best images possible from it. Ultimately, of course, the camera is simply a tool for expressing your creative vision—the means by which you capture the fleeting moment, whether it's the smile of a friend, a news event, or the joy of a bride and groom on their wedding day. It is your vision and understanding of life that are always the defining characteristics that set your images apart from the thousands of everyday images.

Much of this book deals with photographic subjects. As most art directors and photo representatives can tell you, there is an advantage in developing and mastering a photographic specialty. But remember that all of life is a photographic subject. In his book The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers, Cartier-Bresson said, "There is subject in all that takes place in the world, as well as in our personal universe. We cannot negate subject. It is everywhere. So we must be lucid toward what is going on in the world, and honest about what we feel ... In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotiv. We see and show the world around us, but it is an event itself which provokes the organic rhythm of forms."

I hope that this book is a rewarding journey ...