This hip primer proves that whether shooting with a film or digital camera, you don't need to invest in expensive photography equipmentor have an art school degree to take amazing photographs. Whether readers are tired of disappointing snapshots or have just picked up a camera for the first time, Hot Shots teaches with a friendly tone, picture-perfect advice, fun tricks, and easy-to-understand text. Author, lomographer, and Flickr.com guru Kevin Meredith has created a must-have handbook for any aspiring photographer.

    Her innovative ideas are now collected and elaborated on in this unique volume. Carla offers a year's worth of assignments, projects, ideas, and techniques that will introduce more creativity and nonsense into your art and life. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists offers readers a fun way to learn and gain expertise in drawing through experimentation and play. There is no right or wrong result, yet, the readers gain new skills and confidence, allowing them to take their work to a new level.

    Dana Fox, creator of Wonder Forest, is known for her unique and whimsical sense of style, and her popular watercolor workshops have introduced thousands to the joys of painting. In Watercolor With Me in the Forest, Dana provides light outlines of each project, and every page is printed on premium art paper, so you can focus on the watercolor techniques—wet-on-dry, wet-on-wet, painting fur and ink and wash. Even if you’ve never picked up a paintbrush before, Dana’s creative tricks will ensure that every piece of art is frame-worthy. Whether you’re looking to try a new style, learn the basics or find a new way to de-stress, this step-by- step guide makes it easier than ever to create stunning art.Check out Watercolor with Me in the Ocean for more great projects!

    Whether you’re photographing children, weddings, maternity and boudoir, or portraits of any kind, The Luminous Portrait will inspire you with Elizabeth’s personal approach and award-wining images, sharing the art to making flattering portraits that appear “lit from within.”

    At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently.  He didn’t learn them in school -- who does? -- rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources. In Fluent Forever Wyner reveals what he’s discovered.   The greatest challenge to learning a foreign language is the challenge of memory; there are just too many words and too many rules. For every new word we learn, we seem to forget two old ones, and as a result, fluency can seem out of reach. Fluent Forever tackles this challenge head-on. With empathy for the language-challenged and abundant humor, Wyner deconstructs the learning process, revealing how to build a foreign language in your mind from the ground up.  Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You'll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you'll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery, rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language.  And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you'll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. Soon, you'll gain the ability to learn grammar and more difficult abstract words--without the tedious drills and exercises of language classes and grammar books.  This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

    Card Captor Sakura. Magical Girl Rayearth. They’re magical girls, and they’re some of the biggest names in manga. Magical girls, ordinary schoolgirls given superpowers, are hugely popular in Japan and the United States. Now Christopher Hart shows fans everywhere how to draw these manga shoujo faves. Faces and body proportions, action poses, costumes, expressions, transformations, special effects—they’re all here, all in Hart’s distinctive step-by-step approach. So are magical fighting boys and everybody’s favorite, the cute, furry manga mascots. Hart demonstrates how to create funny mascots, magical boys, fighting teams, and supporting characters, plus how to design layouts. Magical girls show us that we all have special powers deep inside—now Manga Mania: Magical Girls and Friends let those special drawing powers reveal themselves at last!

    No longer do photographers have to be defensive because they prefer digital. Thanks to new technologies, digital cameras at all ends of the price spectrum can rival their film counterparts. If you have shifted from traditional to digital photography, and need to know what's different about shooting digital, this is the book for you. Now in its third edition, this bestseller has been fine-tuned and updated to provide you with the most current information on today's cameras that you'll find anywhere. Whether you're new to photography, or new to digital photography, you'll learn how to take the best possible shots. Even though your camera may pack an image sensor instead of film, taking good pictures still involves understanding apertures, shutter speeds, and metering techniques, as well as a few other issues that film shooters don't face. Fortunately, digital cameras also provide some unique tools to help you get the shot right the first time. Covering everything from the inner workings of your camera to the subtle intricacies of your image editing software, the book is divided into four sections. The first section provides a basic technical foundation that will prepare you for the rest of the book. It details the basics of how digital cameras work and gives you a quick photography primer. The second part explores everything you need to know to make an informed decision about which camera, computer, and software is right for you. In section three, you'll progress to the nitty gritty of shooting, including metering, choosing the right exposure, using histograms, flash photography, and much more. In the final section, you'll learn about digital editing and correction techniques, along with the various methods for outputting your images (print and electronic). If you're new to photography, you'll learn the basic theory that photographers have studied for decades, as well as the latest tools and techniques made possible by the shift to digital. If you're an experienced film photographer, you'll see how to translate the knowledge you already have into the digital realm. Features:* Includes completely revised and updated coverage* Provides new, detailed coverage of camera evaluation, including the latest technologies and affordable SLR cameras* Includes completely re-written explanations and examples of metering and exposure, including hands-on tutorials* Covers Photoshop CS and of Photoshop Elements 2.0* Includes many new tutorials on improved methods for correcting and enhancing photos, and addresses the most common types of corrections users want to make* Provides new and expanded coverage of the basic questions camera purchasers have, including how many pixels are needed, how to reduce red eye, shooting inside versus outside, etc. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTSTo work through the tutorials in the book, you will need Photoshop CS (a demo is included on the CD). WINDOWS: Intelr Pentiumr II or better; Microsoftr Windowsr 2000 with Service Pack 3, or Windows XP; 192MB of RAM (256MB recommended); 300MB of available drive space; Color monitor with 16- bit color card or better; CD-ROM drive. MACINTOSH: PowerPCr G3 or better; Mac OS X v. 10.2.4 or better; 192MB of RAM (256MB recommended); 350MB of available drive space; color monitor with 16- bit color support, or better; CD-ROM drive. Please check the individual demos for specifics

    Now in its twentieth edition, the MOONLIGHT CHRONICLES has brought Dan's creed of "truth, beauty, and really big sabbaticals from the convention of life" to thousands across the countryWith such a following, Dan figured it was time to collect his offbeat observations into book form in hopes of inspiring other would-be journal writers to take pen, camera, and brush in hand. As Dan is fond of noting "Seems there's tons of empty journal books, but not too many on how to fill 'em up!" In HOW TO MAKE A JOURNAL, Dan answers the call, teaching readers how to tap into those pent-up creative juices and collect their life experiences on paper.

    Whether you're an amateur or a seasoned pro, this book will expand your vision of the world and provide you with hundreds of ideas and tips designed to strengthen your ability to capture and create images that are intriguing, technically sound and aesthetically attractive.What's more, every image inside Photo Idea Index was created specifically for this book (no stock photos!) using modestly priced cameras and equipment that are readily available to those of us without mega-amounts of cash to spend. Photo Idea Index is truly a one-of-a kind resource for image-makers of today.

    Go for a swim with the mermaids and nymphs, go Nessie-spotting and dragon hunting and follow the fairies and unicorns on a walk through the forest. And there’s much more waiting for you at the end of the rainbow! Beginners as well as advanced crocheters can conjure up these adorable fantasy creatures with a flick of their hooks. All patterns are accompanied by easy-to-follow instructions as well as explanations of all stitches used, and are easily customizable, so it’s a small step to imagine your very own fantasy amigurumi!

    Its goal is to inspire photographers of all levels who wish to improve their work, as well as readers interested in deepening their understanding of the art of photography. Each book features the creative process and core thinking of a photographer told in their own words and through pictures of their choosing, and is introduced by a well-known student of the featured photographer. In this book, Todd Hido explores the genres of landscape, interior and nude photography, with emphasis on creating images from a personal perspective and with a sense of intimacy. Through words and photographs, he also offers insight into his own practice and discusses a wide range of creative issues, including mining one's own memory and experience as inspiration; using light, texture and detail for greater impact; exploring the narrative potential activated when sequencing images; and creating powerful stories with emotional weight and beauty.Todd Hido (born 1968) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based artist. He is well known for his photography of urban and suburban housing across the United States, and for his use of detail and luminous color. His previous books include House Hunting (2001), Outskirts (2002), Roaming (2004) and Between the Two (2007). He is a recipient of a Eureka Fellowship and a Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Visual Arts Award, and is represented by Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco. He is an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts.Gregory Halpern received a BA in history and literature from Harvard University and an MFA from California College of the Arts. His third book of photographs, entitled A, is a photographic ramble through the streets of the American Rust Belt. His other books include Omaha Sketchbook and Harvard Works Because We Do. He currently teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is the coeditor of The Photographer's Playbook (Aperture 2013).

    Captained by hirsute woodworker, actor, comedian, and writer Nick Offerman, the shop produces not only fine handcrafted furniture, but also fun stuff—kazoos, baseball bats, ukuleles, even mustache combs.Now Nick and his ragtag crew of champions want to share their experiences of working at the Woodshop, tell you all about their passion for the discipline of woodworking, and teach you how to make a handful of their most popular projects along the way. This book will take readers behind the scenes of the woodshop, both inspiring and teaching them to make their own projects and besotting them with the infectious spirit behind the shop and its complement of dusty wood-elves.In these pages you will find a variety of projects for every skill level, with personal, accessible instructions by the OWS woodworkers themselves; and, what’s more, this tutelage will be augmented by mouth-watering color photos (Nick calls it "wood porn"). You will also find writings by Nick, offering recipes for both comestibles and mirth, humorous essays, odes to his own woodworking heroes, insights into the ethos of woodworking in modern America, and other assorted tomfoolery.Whether you’ve been working in your own shop for years, or if holding this stack of compressed wood pulp is as close as you’ve ever come to milling lumber, or even if you just love Nick Offerman’s brand of bucolic yet worldly wisdom, you’ll find Good Clean Fun full of useful, illuminating, and entertaining information.

    Not only did he smuggle his pieces into four of New York City's major art museums, he's also "hung" his work at London's Tate Gallery and adorned Israel's West Bank barrier with satirical images. Banksy's identity remains unknown, but his work is unmistakable with prints selling for as much as $45,000.

    With her signature style, Cathy Zielske shares expert ideas on design, photography, journaling and typography in Clean and Simple Scrapbooking. From the back cover: 'Scrapbooking' and 'cool' belong in the same sentence, proclaims Cathy Zielske, author of Clean & Simple Scrapbooking. Known for her signature style, captivating photography and candid approach to journaling, Cathy has inspired a new breed of scrapbookers who want to preserve their memories simply, and with a classic, hip style. A graphic designer by trade, Cathy began scrapbooking as a way to give more context and meaning to the photographs she cherished. What she didn't realize initially was the powerful way in which scrapbooking allows us to examine and celebrate the very essence of what our lives are truly about. This ho

    More than a dozen categories include Alphabet, Asian Chic, Baby, Celebrations, Embellishments, Fruits & Veggies, Space, Trees, Flowers, Winged Wonders, and Woodland Creatures-and each section includes one motif stitched by the author. The motifs on the CD are in simple black lines, so readers can easily manipulate them using their own image-editing software, print them out, and transfer them onto their substrate of choice using the instructions in the book.PROJECTS INCLUDE:Wearables: Jewelry, pajama pants, hat and mittens o Home Décor: Fabric basket, decorative wall hangings, more o Gift Items: Keepsake gift bags