Customer Reviews

PhotoSecrets San Diego: A Photographer's Guide

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I bought "PhotoSecrets San Diego" before a trip there, and I was very pleased with it. The book has entries for essentially every major and minor sight in the greater San Diego area.

As such, the book is a combination of a travel guide, and photographer's reference book. In addition to identifying sights, providing directions to them and discussing their history and background, it also offers excellent suggestions about how to capture the best vacation photos from each attraction. The entry for a location will often discuss the most photogenic features for that location, and include guidance about angles and lighting, best time of day, and technique.

For certain attractions, like the Zoo, the book points out the best "photo ops," provides information about admission and tours, and offers practical advice about how to best photograph the animals.

This is a solid reference book. It definitely helped me get the most out of my trip. My family also enjoyed using it as a guide for attractions, and it helped us plan our time more effectively. I'd recommend "PhotoSecrets San Diego" to any traveller, but particular to someone looking to get great vacation photos, or enjoy some amateur photography time during a trip to the area.

This is the review I wrote for the first edition, but it is still relevant for the updated second edition.

This book is fantastic! It offers a wealth of detailed suggestions of how to get great photographs all around San Diego. It is extremely detailed, down to the ideal time of day for each shot. I live in San Diego and I learned a lot and got dozens of great ideas. PhotoSecrets is also a photography tutorial. In numerous sidebars and sections it teaches about various topics sure to be of interest to those who would like to learn how to take better pictures, such as how best to photograph landscapes, at night, animals, through glass, sunsets, etc. On top of all this, by virtue of the huge number of pictorial examples, it serves as an excellent picture book of San Diego. And it also explains about the history of many San Diego landmarks. I highly recommend this book whether you live in San Diego or are visiting and want to take good pictures while you're here.

This is not really a 'how to' book although there are hints and helps about how to photograph areas in San Diego. It is a tourist guide of areas that are very photographable. This book is FULL of information you can use.

There are articles by different people who like to visit a specific area (say the San Diego Zoo) and some of their advice about when to go and what time to see which animals. The are maps and tidbits of history. There are many many pictures at different times of day and night so you can get an idea of some of the options that are available for photography. There are phone numbers, addresses, websites and costs and more - just about everything you might need to visit a specific location.

If you are an avid photographer this book would be worthwhile as a starting point. If you are just learning photography and visiting San Diego, this book would be a must in my book. IF you are just visiting San Diego and want to see some great scenery and learn about the area- this is a great travel book.

Well worth the money.
Enjoy

I recently spent a week in San Diego; it was my first visit to that city and I used this book extensively to plan my day trips around the place. Buy it if you're headed to San Diego.

Wonderful book for a first trip to San Diego. My husband is an excellent amateur photographer and always looks for places to take photos. We were going to San Deigo,CA for the first time. He got really excited about our trip to SD because of this book. Great as a guide book of what to do/see in San Diego and also for photo ideas. Beautiful city. Great buy.