As Christmas rapidly nears, now is a good time to start dropping hints to your significant other about possible presents for yourself. (Subtle hints seem to work best) Winter bird photography can be a challenge and if you can't get out, you might as well read about it! There are many good photography books and reading about how the pros do it is a great way to expand your knowledge.

There are few books devoted exclusively to bird photography, but the most notable of these is by Arthur Morris. Arthur Morris is well published and leads photo tours around the world. He has two helpful "How to" books. The first is a small pocket guide called, "Bird Photography: Pure and Simple." It covers many areas of interest to the beginning bird photographer including equipment and technique. His second book called, "The Art of Bird Photography: The Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques" is an expanded version of the pocket guide. Both are excellent.

John Shaw is another excellent photographer who has published several books. His focus is on Nature photography in general, but his books are well written and he is very adept at explaining the technical and artistic challenges of photography. His book, "Nature Photographer's Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques", is a must have for any budding outdoor photographer. It is one of his earlier books and some of the equipment information is a bit dated, but it is still arguably the best nature photography "How to" book around.

Most of the birding magazines have little mention of photography but studying the photographs is a useful exercise in itself. "Birders World" has exceptional bird photographs. A subscription to this magazine would make a very nice Christmas gift.

"Outdoor Photographer" (OP) is a large circulation magazine and periodically has articles dealing with bird photography. It generally deals with all areas of nature photography and has many high profile professionals as regular contributors.

"Nature Photographer" is a bimonthly magazine that does not enjoy the circulation of OP, but is an excellent choice as well. It doesn't have the same "spit and polish" as other large circulation magazines, but that is one of its advantages. Some of the bigger circulation magazines spend a lot of time manipulating the photographs to get the effect they want. Nature Photographer magazine specifically disallows these types of images. The result is a more "down to earth" magazine.

Tim Fitzharris also has several excellent books. Tim Fizharris's eye level shots of waterfowl are simply outstanding. His book "The Audubon Society guide to Nature Photography" is very good.

Joe McDonald has published some useful books as well; "The complete guide to wildlife photography" is a good one.

Once you have a handle on the technical challenges of photography, it is helpful to learn more about the behavior of your subjects. This will increase your opportunities for photographs as much as the photography books. The Stokes "A guide to Bird Behavior", Volumes 1-3 are very good.

To summarize, you will find that no one book will answer all your questions, as no single identification guide is sufficient. While these books will cover some common ground, each author has their own tricks that are worth reading about. Next month we will discuss how to flash your subjects without getting arrested.

Copyright Scott Fairbairn and John Reaume