This book has been written to be a fun book to read and one that can be used as a continual source of valuable information for taking better photographs with a compact digital camera. If you enjoy photography and you have, or plan to have a compact digital camera, this book is for you. If you do not yet have a compact digital camera, this book can still be valuable to you because it will help you learn which camera features are likely to be important to you, thus enabling you to buy the right camera for your needs the first time.Not all that long ago, skilled professionals like woodworkers, jewelers, sculptors, and other creative or skilled professionals learned their trade by becoming an apprentice.As an apprentice, you learned the body of knowledge you needed for your profession by working right next to a master on real projects. If you were learning to be a furniture maker, you might first build a small, simple piece of furniture, and then build increasingly larger and more complex pieces until you knew what you needed to know to make just about any kind of furniture you wanted to make.Undoubtedly, being an apprentice and working with a master was a real luxury that isnot often available today. However, the notion of working with a master on specific projects is the basis of this book and others in this series. The premise is that you can effectively and quickly learn how to take great photos by following step-by-step techniques - just as you would do if you were working as an apprentice next to a master photographer.After you've successfully completed twenty or thirty techniques in this book, you'll beamazed at the "body of knowledge" you will have gained and how much better your photos will be.