I have had this book for over twenty years, and every time I decide to tidy my bookshelves and get rid of excess books I let my hand slide over this one, a brilliant three-dimensional publication by the late great John Hedgecoe and Ron Van Der Meer and I decide anew that I am not ready to part with it.
It is a brilliantly laid out book, with the clearest pictures and diagrams, explaining in detail the principles behind SLR photography. It has a hands -on approach, where there are sections of the book one can pull out and experiment and arrive at a more concrete understanding of the theories of photography.
For the first time ever, today, I even assembled the flash light stands and reflectors as suggested on one of the last pages of the book.
This is a book that is still relevant to those who want to learn the basics of photography. It is so clearly written and imaginatively designed around Hedgecoe's crisply clear photos that it would still be a worthy rival to many of the online video tutorials one can access so readily.
A quick google search this evening revealed its presence as a second hand book, but it seems a pity that this should be its status. There is a case to be made for reprinting this classic and bringing it into the digital age.