Master Travel Photography With Your Smart Phone

Grammatical and spelling errors begin as early as the first page, which automatically makes me wary of the quality. I'm also not fond of the presumptuous nature of claiming even amateur photographers can afford professional equipment, though that's a minor point only mentioned once. (Additionally, it's hilarious that a book published in 2018 claims a 12MP camera on a $1000 smart phone is both ‘top quality' and ‘one of the smartest cameras in the world.' My Galaxy Note 3, made in 2013, has a 13MP camera and the “budget” ZenFone V, made in 2018, has a 23MP camera despite its price tag of only about $300.)

This book doesn't delve anywhere near to helping someone ‘master' smart phone photography, so don't expect it to live up to the title. In fact, many settings are given more of a textbook explanation than true tips on how to tune them. What useful tips do exist - and there are a significant few - get buried in rambling sentences full of enough filler you'd think this is someone's NaNoWriMo project. Several times, I found myself wanting to skim instead of read because the narrative was dragging like someone who takes two hours to tell a ten minute story. For these reasons, I've rated the book as just ‘okay.' It's not great, it's not going to teach you how to become a photography guru on your iPhone, but it may prove enlightening for those who have minimal knowledge when it comes to digital photography.

Just be careful with the advice to sell your travel photography on stock photo sites. This book makes the unnerving suggestion that you could sell a picture of a strange person sleeping in the airport. Sure, you could - if you want to risk legal trouble. Don't sell photos of models who haven't released permission for you to sell their likeness; it's not worth the risk. (Obviously, that's less of a case if they can't be identified because you see only the back of their head or part of their foot etc., but otherwise it's a little skeevy to profit off pictures of total strangers who didn't even consent to being photographed.)