Studios Books

This was a very thought provoking book on photographic lighting. Instead of giving you steps to follow, this book teaches you how to think for yourself about lighting. Armed with the basics and fundamentals, you can encounter a new situation and think critically yourself about how to properly light the subject.

The kindle version has the images scanned in, and they are about as good as you can expect the first generation kindle to display. The images are good enough that you can usually see the effects due to different lighting.

haven't finished the book yet but it's very intresting and full of useful information,some of the stuff that i alresdy knew but didn't how to apply to photography, so it was great to have such a book to put it words, learned alot from it.

I found this book to be extremely helpful in explaining the physical properties of light and how these properties interact on different surfaces. The book helped me develop a knowledge of light control and how to put that knowledge to work in my photography.

I have taken some courses about lighting in my country, I would like to say that I cannot understand very well what I had in the course without what this book's instruction.Every creative lighting skill should be started from here.

I bought this book on Strobist (aka David Hobby) recommendation (featured in his thousand-users-per-day site).
Ok, it's about lighting reflective, translucent and other difficult subjects. But everything is supposed to be done in a STUDIO setting. What does this have to do with the "strobist ideology" (using small remote flashes for photography)?
You do need an expensive array of studio gear to make the best out of the examples and diagrams presented (even a view camera is proposed in photographing reflective objects!). And I'm serious. How can you judge the reflection of a black label over a reflective cd case without modeling lights? With "chimping"? How can you light appropriately a varnished wooden box to show texture as demostrated in the book without flags, gobos and large softboxes? With straw grids?
But, let's be real here! Much of this book's publicity is owned to David Hobby and the "strobist" crowd. But if you consider yourself a "strobist" you can learn much more by reading the articles in the strobist site. Or buy a different book. Maybe the one DH is writing right now ;)

So of course it thrills my heart that my two nieces (2.5 and 5) like it too.

This book is really an early reader, it's not *intended* for children under that age, though of course it can function as a read-aloud for little-little ones. (Not always - my younger niece won't always sit through this one, it's a bit long!)

There are two running plots in the book, one about hats, and one about where the dogs are all ultimately going; these two plots meet marvelously at the end of the book. (For *months*, I couldn't go a day without having to re-enact "Do you like my hat? I do, I like that hat, what a party hat!" with the older niece!)

Most of the book, however, is caught up with just basic vocabulary words, mostly about dogs - "One dog going in, three dogs going out" or "The sun is up, the sun is yellow, the yellow sun is over the house".

This can be a little tedious, but I the kids don't seem to think so - even at their fidgiest, they want me to say every word.

This is my favorite book of all time. I can't recommend it highly enough. If the "dog party in the trees" doesn't make you weep with joy, I don't know what will. For the last forty years or so, I have been looking -- and I mean this literally, not figuratively -- for said party. That's a bit cracked, I know, but I just can't help myself.

I loved this book and read it all the time when I was little. I plan on buying it when I have kids. The pictures are colorful and fun. The words are easy to learn and each page seems to come alive with it's own story.

Can recite the whole book. I always buy this for baby showers!. It is a fun and happy book and I always loved reading it to children.

My grandson loves this book. He's only 18 months but loves to cuddle up w/this book.

This is a great book for kids, even young ones around 2.5 years old. It's an engaging story and my son loves the part where the man wakes up to find his hats gone, and looks up and sees all the monkeys wearing the hats! He asks me to read it everynight, and remembers the phrase "caps for sale."

I loved this book as a child and I love sharing it with my children.

Years ago, a unique peddler stood out from other salespeople because he carried all his goods on top of his head. He neatly stacked a bunch of gray, brown, blue, and red caps in a single pile and carefully balanced them on his head as he walked through town, calling "Caps! Caps for Sale! Fifty cents a cap!" But alas, on this particular day, no one purchases a cap. With no money to buy lunch, the peddler opts for a walk and a nap in the countryside instead. His troubles multiply when he wakes up to the sight of a group of playful monkeys in the treetop, each wearing one of his caps for sale. How will he get the caps back?

This classic story, reissued in a new hardcover edition, does not grow old with its humor, ingenuity, and charm. Underlying the story is an important set of economics concepts related to buyers and sellers in the goods market. If the demand for caps had been a little stronger, the peddler may have been able to avoid this whole predicament, but therein lies the book's merriment. Caps for Sale gets top marks for delivering a story with substantive content that children will enjoy and remember.

This is one of the few books I remember my elementary school librarian reading to us during my childhood. I loved the story of the multi colored caps balancing on the peddler's head as he walked through town yelling "caps for sale!" Then to find that as he napped, his caps disappeared. Looking around for them post-nap, he discovers a band of monkeys in the tree wearing them. He tries to get the caps back but each time he yells at the monkeys, they just ape his actions. Finally they throw the caps down and he continues on his way selling his multi-colored caps. I highly recommend this book for all children. My daughter is 2, almost 3, and she also LOVES this story. She finds the monkeys funny - especially how I imitate their actions.

This makes the top ten list out of all the great picture books we read to our kids when they were young. I never tired of reading it. So simple, symmetric, even musical. The story? How does the peddler get the monkeys to give back all the caps they've stolen from him and carried up into the tree? Okay, I'm the publisher of One Monkey Books, so call me biased. But try this one on your three or five or year old, and really get into singing, "Caps for sale! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" It's been around for ages already, and this book will still be there when your kids are having kids. Nutty to Meet You! Dr. Peanut Book #1

If your interested in the History of Guitar Bands, and how they evolved over the last forty five years, this is the book for you. It follows the Beatles through the years and shows how equipment company's over came large crowd
noise and forged the trial and error of the first real significant studio recordings.

this is very enjoyable book, with lot of information about the Beatles gear from the very beginning to end of the band. its must have book for every Beatles fun and every musician that admires the Fab four.
i really enjoyed this book.
the pictures are great and there are lot of rare photos and detailed photos of the instruments.
it can be very nice gift for any musician and Beatles fan.

This is a fabulous book. Not only does it give us an incite into their musical gear used but I found it an interesting way to learn about their personalities. I definatly recommend this book to any Beatle fan.

A big and fine research work.A dream for all musician,particular for all Fab lovers.
I hope amazon use more care for shipping the book.Not is the first time
I receive damaged book in corner.
The solution is make the package with more care.

I am both and enjoyed the book very much. It is long on details and has a lot of great pix. In fact it may even have been more than I expected.

Words are not enough to describe this beautifully written and illustrated book. You should experience the descriptive, poetic words and haunting drawings of a young boys rite of passage. All ages would enjoy the well told story. This is a must read!


Owl Moon

I used this book in my classroom as an example for my students to write thier own story. My 3rd and 4th graders loved the story and it worked great for the lesson I was teaching.

My grandaughter fell in love with this book from the library and Granpa had to buy it for her birthday. It is very well illustrated and well written, Granpa never tires of reading it to her, as she never tires of hearing it. In a market filled with children's books of dubious merit or worth, this is well worth it, to read, to buy, to have in the library of a young reader on her way to a lifetime of reading.

I ordered this book based on the reviews found on amazon. I was looking for a nature oriented book for my 2 year old son. This has become, by far, one of our favorite family bedtime stories. The illustrations are beautiful. The story is heart warming and real. My husband loves to read it as much as I do. This is a classic in our library and will remain so for many, many years.

I like Jane Yolen's work - the children do too (lol). But Owl Moon is probably the most poetic of her works that we have read. The word choice and imagery is wonderful; soft and soothing. You can hear the crunch of snow, and feel the biting cold.

Like the others I give it 5 stars, and would add that it makes for a good bed-time book.

Five Stars. Top notch Read-aloud. Artwork is nice, in darker shades than Yolen's other works. Perhaps not quite as nice in detail, but well suited to the story.

Like some of the other reviewers here, I grew up on the Trixie Belden books, and I also dreamed of being a member of the Bob-Whites! Being a horse-lover, too, the fact that they all rode horses was an added bonus.

I agree that Trixie and the gang were "real" characters: they teased each other, had spats, screwed up at times, and each had a distinct personality, yet all were extremely lovable. I especially always enjoyed the bantering b/t Trixie and her know-it-all brother, Mart. Yet for all the teasing you knew they really loved each other. I was an only child, and although I did have a close friend like Honey, I would've loved to have brothers like Trixie's Brian & Mart, and Honey's adopted brother, Jim.

I am so happy that Trixie and the gang are not considered too "old-fashioned" to appeal to a new generation. These books are truly ageless and timeless. I still have my original collection from when I was a kid (won't say my age, but that was many, many moons ago). I cherish them, will never part with them, and I STILL re-read them every so often, and STILL enjoy them immensely.

There were many Trixie Belden books after the original six by Julie Campbell, but IMO the ones by Julie Campbell are the best.

Thirteen-year-old Trixie Belden couldn't be more shocked to believe that she's stuck in boring old Sleepyside for the summer, while her two older brothers are away at camp. But then a millionaire moves into the mansion next door, and he has a daughter Trixie's age, named Honey Wheeler. Soon, the two girls have embarked on an adventure to see whether a ghost truly lives in the house nearby which Trixie has christened, the Miser's Mansion. But what they find is really no ghost at all, but rather a teenage boy named Jim, whose runaway from home, and is looking for his great-Uncle, who just happens to be Trixie's miser. Now the two girls and their new friend are searching for a so-called fortune within the walls of the Miser's Mansion, and having a not-so-boring summer after all.

I have been a fan of the NANCY DREW and BOBBSEY TWINS mysteries for years, so when I came across the TRIXIE BELDEN series in the store recently, I just knew that I had to try it out. Luckily, I am pleased to report, the series is as good as everyone said it would be. Trixie is an adorable character who is hardheaded, and brave, while sensitive and kind at the same time. Her vivacious personality brings the story to life, as do the quirky personalities of her friends, and the lovely black and white drawings contained within the book. Fans of NANCY DREW and the BOBBSEY TWINS will find themselves flocking to the new re-printing of the TRIXIE BELDEN books, and begging for more.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

This book is the best book I ever read! It is a wonderful book to start off the series of Trixie Belden.

This was my first time reading a Trixie Belden book and I enjoyed it immensely! In this book, Trixie meets a new friend, Honey, who moves in next door. While exploring an old mansion with Honey, they discover a runaway boy. He has runaway from his stepfather, who treats him cruelly.
These stories are cliffhangers! I love them and advise you to read them all, as I plan to do.

This story is one of my fave series because I love misterys so much. This book is about a girl and has nothing to do in the summer time in till she meats Hunny her best friend and thats the begining of the misterys! READ IT NOW!

This is the BIBLE for Cold Fusion. I have read a few too many compter books. This is the first one I finished and keeped around. The CD has codeing found in the samples in the book. Very easy reading for this type of book. It even teaches you some HTML. WOW.

This book was fantastic. Sure there are the few editing errors common with computer books. I knew NOTHING about Cold Fusion or database connectivity to the web before I got this and now I've written a dozen or so Cold Fusion applications for the UPS intranet. An EXCELLENT resource for beginners and professionals with a tag index for quick referencing. A chapter on SQL also for those who don't know it. It will teach you everything you need to know to get your application online and running. Great Great Great!

Forta's book is very interesting. I almost bought a book solely on SQL, but just bought this book because of its comprehensive SQL sections. As an Application Server Developer, I also have experience with ASP, and this makes ASP look extremely primitive. In fact, I used the concepts of Cold Fusion presented here to evaluate better solutions for projects in ASP. An example of this is the easy implementation of Dynamic SQL in Coldfusion. I then built a Dynamic SQL implementation. Thanks Mr. Forta for a great one. If you know ASP, this book will show you what you need to engineer within ASP to get it to compete with Cold Fusion. An awesome book!

I have very little programming experience and have this book to be very easy to use.

Forta takes you from the start of Cold Fusion and SQL. If you are new to programming and SQL, this is the book for you. I was writing data interface apps in a few hours. A great book overall. Worth the read. I still use it as a reference regularly! A must have for the Cold Fusion developer.

We have this at our cabin on the lake. It is a fun for visitors to look up their birthdays and their loved ones. A great coffee-table type book when you have company.

This book gives a detailed look into the personalities of each day of the year. A great book and interesting study of all the people you know.

This is the greatest book you will ever read or buy on Horoscopes and Astrology. All my friends wanted to borrow this and some aren't even big into horoscopes. It has been used and borrowed till it has fallen apart by myself and everyone I know.

It covers everything you can imagine from the stars, planets, Astrology, and contains every aspect of Horoscopes and Birthdays with a 2 page personality profile for every day of the year. We read these to eachother and it was funny how correct it was. It really goes into specifics and also lists your strengths and weaknesses, the name of the day you were born and the charactertistic that stands out about it, Famous people born on the day, health, love, tarot card, numbers and more.

Its a large book but it's easy to read and every page will keep you interested. It's fun to look up all your family n friends birthdays and see if it relates to the person. This isn't silly stuff like regular horoscope books, this is the real deal and this is about the best it gets when it comes to Astrology. Even a skeptic I know had fun with it. Highly Recommended.

When all my friends read this book they say "Oh my god! Thats me!" and try to ignore the stuff they don't want to hear - which is just as true most of the time. Shipment was prompt an all items were in good condition.

Absolutely delightful book - fun, entertaining, and guaranteed to surprise and delight readers with what can only be called an uncanny accuracy...WOW! Makes a beautiful gift...especially for those who simply enjoy life and refuse to get caught up in the age-old astrology debate. Read your own birthday and then decide! Lovely coffee table accessory...in fact, the book is too large to cart around. Enjoy!

This is the best book I have ever read. It is mainly about a half-naked boy who is a hero. The part I like the best is when the toilet and him fought. This is very cool book.

I love spending time with my grandson and this book is fun to read with him. I also love to hear my grandson laugh.He likes to read now and he takes the book to school for others to read.He likes all the Captain Underpants books.This is an excellent read...

Captain Underpants is a great epic novel series by Dav Pilkey.With his new book Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking toilets we discover his power against talking, eating, mad toilets. He uses cafeteria food and his underware.This book also has more flip-o-ramas than ever.The flip-o-ramas are filled with even more juicy underware fighting.Captain Underpants beats the talking toilets with underware and his extreme power.
George and Harold,the main characters,try to help Captain Underpants but just stir up more trouble.Captain Underpants not only has to worry about the evil talking toilets but also freeing George and Harold.Captain Underpants ended up winning the battle and freed George and Harold.Over all,Captain Underpants is an awesome fighter and awesome warrior.

My book review
What I'm writing for my book review is Captain Underpants. The reason why I'm writing Captain Underpants is because the book is funny and I want to share how the book was funny with the class.
In Dave Pikley's second adventurous book he talks about Captain Underpants and the attack of the talking toilets. Captain Underpants runs around in his underpants saving the world. I know, your wondering why he can't just do these things with his clothes on instead of doing it in his underpants. It was not his fault that he runs around like this.
The top-secret truth about captain underpants. There were two boys named Harold and George. In the book Harold and George are the narrators. Their principal (Mr. Krupp) was always mean to them. So Harold and George bought a hipno-ring that could hypnotize people. Here comes the funny part. Harold and George hypnotized Mr. Krupp! Then they turned him into Captain Underpants! Now whenever Captain Underpants hears a scream, he runs off and says "tralalaaaaaa!" Every time he does this Harold and George have to watch over him, then catch him.
The whole book is a comic book that Harold and George made to make fun of their principal. Harold and George are known around the whole school because of the pranks they pull. One time they put bubbles in the band instruments. Another time they glued everyone in the lower school to the auditorium seats, and another time they changed the words around on the school board to make it say come and see our hairy armpits.
Captain underpants is a funny book and I hope a lot of people read it.

By Jordan

My eight-year-old loves this book, and I think it's hilarious myself. If fighting vicious toilets using underwear and cafeteria food sounds funny to you, you'll love this book.

This book does teach a certain amount of contempt for adults and suspicion of cafeteria food to children. In that sense maybe it's emblematic of our society. I have found it necessary to sit down with my son and explain that all of this is FICTION, and has nothing to do with the real world. Did that have any effect? I don't know. I suppose it's worth it to have him reading.

After reading the stellar reviews I purchased this book for my 13 year old sister. All I can say is "Blah". This is some of the lamest young fantasy I have ever read, needless to say she never got this book. Falling prey to a host of storybook and fashion cliches Emily the spunky loveable red-head, Adriane the quiet and mysterious raven haired guide at the Raven's Wood Animal Preserve, and Kira the blonde valley girl princess tromp about in a terribly typical manner discovering magic from another world and befriending a host of magical animal companions. Perhaps I've been spoiled by J.K.Rowling, but Rachel/Shelly Roberts writes as though the young women reading these books are stupid. Upon reading "Circles In The Stream" I was a little surprised that it was considered appropriate reading for a 13 year old!

On a less negative note, if you have a little girl about 7-10 that enjoys reading- this will be right up her alley. Certainly not a classic novel but one that is a "safe" fantasy book that younger readers can handle with ease. For all you not so little girls out there try "Howl's Moving Castle"- a charming fantasy novel and love story- or if you prefer a series Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums are an excellent age-appropriate set of fantasy novels.

This book is the best I have read ever!
The book is mainly about, friendship,magic, and the love of Animals, for those parents out there if you want to know more about this book and the series, go to....

http://avalonclubhouse.piczo.com/

This book a no put down, something to treasure. Shelly Roberts has a true talent for book writing!

Highly recommanded to Magic lovers everywhere!

this book is awsome!! Right now I'm middle of reading trail by fire but anyways this is a must read! I love all the magic in the book and friendship. Every thing is so magical. If u lov magic well this is a book for u!!

this book is the best its nice and thick and super interesting i wish i had the auctal book i took it out of the libray if you cant decide to buy it or not buy it you wont be disaponted also another good seires isw w.i.t.c.h.

I loved it! Emily is this new girl in town and is lonely but doesn't mind as her mom is a vet so spends most of her time with animals. As she gets adjusted to the town one day this sick animal comes with these brutal green gashes that everybody thinks is pioson. Not just that but dogs are soon found dead by the wildlife perserve. Emily decides to explore until she finds a stone that later turns beautiful like in all differnet rainbow colours. She later meets a girl Adriane and becomes fast friends. They learn to except the magic that entered their lives and most of all they learn that magic is strongest when your friends are there to help, and not to mention a magical world with evil lurking everywhere.