Capture the Magic: Train Your Eye, Improve Your Photographic Composition by Jack Dykinga is a new title from Rocky Nook. In this book, the author teaches the art of creating interesting, well-composed images. Examples of strong images are juxtaposed against flawed images, illustrating how to create a successful composition. Topics covered include light and shadow, lens choice, framing, negative space, and many more. Filled with 130 full-page colour photographs, the 188-page volume is available for $39.95.

Press Release

Capture the Magic: Train Your Eye, Improve Your Photographic Composition
 
Santa Barbara, CA—November 12, 2013        
 
In this book, author Jack Dykinga teaches the art of creating interesting, well-composed images. He provides solutions to the challenges that often get in the way of producing great photographs and he emphasizes the importance of training the eye to exclude the extraneous.
 
Examples of strong images are juxtaposed against flawed images, illustrating how to create a successful composition. Topics covered include light and shadow, lens choice, framing, negative space, and many more. The adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” certainly applies to Dykinga’s images; each one provides a powerful example of the concept being discussed.
 
Dykinga encourages us to look at photography as a way to communicate. As he says, “Photography is a marvelous language that crosses linguistic borders as a universal, powerful, and direct communication. As photographers, we see something we find interesting and simply want to share it.” Readers will learn new ways to create interesting and powerful compositions that communicate their intended messages.
 
Beautifully produced, and filled with 130 stunning, full-page color images, the book is sure to inspire, teach, and motivate photographers of all levels.
 
Don’t let those fleeting, magical moments slip by you. As Dykinga said, “Solve the problem… capture the magic.”

About the Authors

Jack Dykinga’s photographic style blends fine art photography and documentary photojournalism. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for Feature Photography, and is a regular contributor to  Arizona Highways and National Geographic magazines. He has published nine wilderness advocacy books, including Frog Mountain Blues, The Sonoran Desert, Stone Canyons of the Colorado Plateau, and Desert: The Mojave and Death Valley. He also authored and photographed Large Format Nature Photography, which is a guide to color landscape photography. Other books include a compellation of Dykinga’s best Arizona images titled ARIZONA, and IMAGES: Jack Dykinga’s Grand Canyon, which reflects his love for this fantastic location.
 
Dykinga’s fine art images have been displayed at the Center for Creative Photography, and the Museum of Northern Arizona. They were also featured along with the work of Ansel Adams in an  Arizona Highways retrospective at the Phoenix Art Museum. In April 2010, the International League of Conservation Photographers selected Jack’s image, Stone Canyon, as one of the 40 best Nature Photographs of all time. He also received the Outstanding Photographer of the Year Award from the Nature Photographers of North America in 2011. Jack was recently named by Outdoor Photography magazine as one of the 40 most influential nature photographers.
 
Jack has donated his talents to the International League of Conservation Photographers’ RAVEs (Rapid Assessment Visual Expeditions) in Mexico, Chile, Canada, and the U.S. At each RAVE, Jack joins teams of celebrated photographers from all over the world to highlight potential environmental degradation.
 
He and his wife, Margaret, live in Tucson, Arizona.

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